You can't learn to swim from a book
You could try to learn to swim from a book
But the moment you hit the water
You’d realize
It didn’t prepare you.
You’d realize
The real learning had just begun.
Similarly
You can’t learn to
Ski
Sing
Juggle
Ride a bike
Or lead
From reading a book.
When an expert’s knowledge
Is distilled onto the pages of a book
The most useful information gets lost.
The muscle memory.
The pattern recognition.
The thousand hidden split-second calculations of know-how
That pull everything together.
These things are unshareable.
In a book
Or any other form of communication.
They only come from muddling through.
Trying and failing over and over.
Until something clicks.
And then something else clicks.
And then something else clicks.
Eventually you find yourself
In possession of valuable wisdom
That you too are unable to share.