And what a change it was! This crotch rocket was 410 pounds and 6 gears of pure fury!
And how did I learn how to ride and operate a manual transmission? YouTube of course! 🤣 (disclaimer: not a recommended course of action)
To this day, there’s one thing that remains in my mind regarding manual transmissions. Before you can shift into a higher gear, you have to disengage the throttle a bit with your right hand, then squeeze the clutch with your left before kicking the shift pedal downwards. To put it simply, you might say that you have to first slow down in order to go faster. It’s not immediately intuitive.
And this idea permeates many other areas as well. Take sleep for example. I used to think that staying up late was the best way to maximize productivity and get more done. But it turns out that being well rested has a far higher return then the extra hour or two burning the midnight oil.
I believe great questions share this characteristic. When I was a student, I used to get frustrated with other students when they asked a question about something that I had already grasped. I thought it was slowing down my learning.
But now when others ask questions, I welcome the opportunity to deepen my own understanding. And, more often than not, after the question-answer exchange, I have learned something that would have otherwise gone unlearned.
Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster. And sometimes it’s better to truly understand a thing, as opposed to the anecdotal version of it.
Stay curious!
-Jeremy & Jake
