The Beginners Mindset
A lesson in Recess from Tom Vanderbilt…
Why do so many of us stop learning new skills as adults? Are we afraid to be bad at something? Have we forgotten the sheer pleasure of beginning from the ground up?
Inspired by his young daughter’s insatiable curiosity and stymied by his own rut of mid-career competence, Tom Vanderbilt embarks on a yearlong quest of learning. He tackles five main skills (and picks up a few more along the way), choosing them for their difficulty to master and their distinct lack of marketability. The end result is a journey that includes rapturous experiences, fascinating discoveries and a book called Beginners. I’m fortunate to call Tom a friend as we share a passion for cycling and I met him through inGamba.
Beginners is an awesome read and I’ve enjoyed my copy immensely and it’s definitely part of core curriculum at Advanced Recess so grab a copy when you have a chance. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts on how Tom approaches play:
What do you do for play?
I ride bikes, play soccer, swim, surf, play chess, juggle, sing in a choir and in online karaoke, draw, play board games, video games — it's a pretty major part of my life!
Are you able to make a living through your version of play?
I am fortunate enough to have a job that, while it may not be most highly compensated, has a high share of moments that force me to remind myself that I'm working; e.g., doing a pioneering mountain bike expedition to a remote Mayan city in the wilds of northern Guatemala, riding bikes with my friends at inGamba in Italy or Portugal, doing open-water swim weeks. I like to think of this as 'serious play,' in that while I definitely have fun, I take the assignments seriously in terms of research, preparation, interviewing, and writing.
When you think of your ideal day spent playing, what is it?
Start the morning with several strong cups of coffee and a big pile of random magazines, which for me is intellectual play (anything from The Surfer's Journal to The Hedgehog Review to Weird N.J.). Then a bike ride down some gravel road I'd never been down before. An afternoon knocking around some museum, then a trip to a vastly unpromising looking restaurant in some strip-mall that turns out to have amazing cooking from a lesser-known Chinese province. Then home to play FIFA or Fortnite with my daughter, or a board game like Wingspan.
Our motto is Pursue a Life of Play. In your own words, what does this mean to you? How do you live it?
To me it means never losing that childlike spirit of openness and adventurousness, what Zen Buddhists call 'beginner's mind.' Humans are one of the few species where adults actually play — play being a way to safely 'rehearse' life's larger struggles.
