Do you like apples?
My favorite movie of all time is Good Will Hunting. There’s a wonderful scene in the movie where the main character Will Hunting(played by Matt Damon) confronts a Harvard-mouth poser for reciting lines from historical literature to position himself better in the eyes of a young dame (Minnie Driver).
Will delivers a dynamite quote,
“See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years, you’re gonna start doing some thinking on your own, and you’re gonna come up with the fact there are two certainties in life. One, don’t do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a f—— education you could’ve gotten for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library.”
What can this possibly teach you?
To anyone reading this with a Harvard education, don’t think for a second I’m demeaning your hard work and investment. Instead, think about what Will is really saying in the quote above.
It’s really easy to buy a book, consume it, and agree with it’s every word. Genius! Just the kind of thinking that will solve our problems moving forward. Maybe you even memorize a few passages along the way.
No. Challenge the book. Learn to think critically and develop your own molded viewpoint of the world.
Read many books. Make many agreements and many disagreements.
ACTION ITEM: This is how you grow. New viewpoints, challenging opinions, and open thinking. Just don’t wait the 50 years to do some thinking of your own.
