Get Smart
Judge not a man’s words, but their outcomes.
Smart Noting is the deliberate practice of repeating the simple steps that make one smart.
But getting smart is a hard sell. The first step to getting smart is admitting that you are stupid. Despite the prevalence of shaming self-talk scrambling around most people’s heads these days, the average Joe doesn’t want to admit that he is not smart. It’s too painful. The mirror of honest stupid is too real. He’d rather talk a big talk about what he likes and what he wants than face down any shortcomings. As a result, he is compelled to stay exactly where he is, floating along under the control of others, always filled with good intentions but never certain where the time has gone, a pawn in a greater man’s game, surrendered to all the wrong things in life.
“Pity the fool,” a wise man once said.
It is a fact that Smart Noting will make you smart. It can’t not succeed. The rules and behaviors of Smart Noting are rooted in the design of the universe, built in by an Almighty God, like DNA and gravity, hidden right in plain sight but still unseen unless looked for in just the right way.
It is, perhaps for this reason, very much at odds with our upside-down, unnatural, pop-whiz bang-gizmo, “More apps, more power!”, digital-industrial, electric-technical, revolutionary times. Smart means slowing down. Smart is paying heed. Smart directs attention to what has your attention, even if that means sacrificing your opinion.
Sometimes, when you go looking for truth, you find it, but the experience isn’t as pleasant as you’d imagined it would be. Yet the smart money knows that what you imagine isn’t nearly as valuable as what is real.
In some ways, Smart Noting is a rejection of the modern world altogether. It is an embracing of the mindset that things which have endured will endure further still. It is a claiming of an ancient heritage. It is remembering the old ways. But at the same time, the smart money knows that even the best of pens can still be improved. And why not? What could be wrong with doing it better? More so, why not you be the one to better it?
Most people would never consider building their own, personal fusion reactor in the garage. Sadly, this is not because it is illegal. (I have no about that.) Nor is it because it would be impossible for the average man to achieve usch a thing. It is because the average man assumes from the start that such a thing cannot be done by him. It is not that others are stopping him from doing it. He assumes that he is not smart enough.
This is stupid.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no advantage to overestimating your smart. That is also a very foolish thing to do. Those who think too highly of their smart are never as smart as they think. I hope you can deduce how risky that is. But it’s one thing to know that you don’t know how to do something. It’s another thing to believe that you cannot learn. Don’t believe that. Don’t be that stupid.
Smart Noting is the practice of habituating a reliable, satisfying, customizable framework for enjoying the spirit of your life. It is a toolbox and build kit that when consistently put into use sharpens and updates the inner life of your humanity. Smart Noting is a journey, but like all adventures it will require a certain willingness to take a step off the beaten trail. Smart Noting works best when you are unafraid follow less and innovate more. When you don’t know, take a guess. Write it down. You’ll get it right, or maybe really wrong. But you’ll read about it one way or another. Then you’ll write it again and fix up the parts that matter. After that, you’ll start from the beginning again, and keep mining until you’re certain that you’ve found what you’re looking for. Then, if you’re anything like me, you’ll now be curious enough to go back and try it out again.
Smart isn’t the kind of thing you check off a list. There will be no end to it. Further up and further in. More of now and less of maybe-later. That’s a good habit. That’s a set of goal that makes all the other goals into better ones. That’s a way of living that real life will never let go out of style.
New knowledge is always built on old knowledge. Where you’re coming from has a lot to do with where you’re going. Understanding doesn’t grow on trees. You must mine for it.
The place to do that is in your heart, not because you can trust everything you dig up there, but because that is only place your soul is really able to dig. How much gold you find has a lot to do with how much gold you put there. Putting it there is done by seeing it. Seeing it is what you do three-times over every time you write it down and read it again.
There is nothing truly new. There is only that which we don’t know yet, which is often also what we’ve forgotten. The path to such remembering is built of noting distinctions, tracking discoveries and using the power of symbolism to engrave into your organic memory that which means the most. It won’t always give you the result that you expect. But sure as stacking the deck, if you want to surefire know tomorrow what you already know today, you do the smart thing: you write it down.
To be continued…