Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

All You Have Is What You Can Recall?

All You Have Is What You Can Recall?

Isn’t this true?

I think I know all this, all this stuff.

I mean, I do. But can I recall it?

The fact is that I have forgotten more economics than you have probably ever known.

But I hesitate here.

There is something between the lines that you know – that I know – even when you can not recall it.

It’s a knowledge of what you have forgotten or an understanding of where you would go to look for it again.

At any given moment, you only think you know what you know. But what you really know is what you can recall.

-Maria Konnikova, Mastermind

They Unfortunately Don’t Give Adults A Magic Toolbox

They Unfortunately Don’t Give Adults A Magic Toolbox

When you grow up there is, sadly, no magic toolbox that is bestowed on you.

As a child, you hope that everything becomes easy and clear and understandable one day.

But that is never exactly how it works, is it?

We mostly try our best to figure it out as we go, stumbling and falling with every other step.

We just have to hold down jobs while we do it…

Most of us have no idea what we are doing, if you want to know the truth.

It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools—friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty—and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds, they’re enough.

-Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies

Sterling Terrell