For those who haven't bloomed yet
In a society he says is focused on early success, David Brooks claims late bloomers still have a place
At our local YMCA, there’s a book and magazine exchange. You can drop off things you’ve read and pick up those that look interesting to you.
My wife picked up the July 26 edition of ‘The Week.’
After reading it, she recommended a piece of by David Brooks, an adaptation of an article he wrote for ‘The Atlantic.’
It’s called ‘The secrets of late bloomers.’ Late-bloomers, he says, seem to share several charcteristics.
1. Intrinsic motivation. Those who “bloom” early, according to Brooks, are people who are incentivized by existing systems: schools, businesses, and so on, to achieve. Later bloomers are motivated internally.
2. Early screw-ups. He describes late-bloomers with a phrase invented by William Deresiewicz: “they are bad at being ‘excellent sheep’..”
3. Diversive curiosity. They don’t specialize at younger ages. They try different things, learning along the way, until what they’re about emerges.
4. The ability to self-teach. “Late bloomers,” Brooks says, “don’t find their calling until they are too old for traditional education systems.”
5. The mind of the explorer.
6. Wisdom.
This last category is suspect to me. (The only one that is.)
I doubt that we generate anything like wisdom apart from what God reveals to us. Wise living is contrary to our nature.
Shrewdness, on the other hand, is something that one can acquire in the world. In itself, shrewdness is morally neutral.
I’ve seen some stupid and bad people who were nonetheless shrewd, onto the ways of the world, always out to shaft their neighbor, and successful. These are the folks who represent the wisdom of the world.
But when wisdom comes from God, it’s a good thing.
Even with that caveat, I recommend Brooks’s article though…if you can find it at a library or in YMCA book and magazine exchange near you.
[Paul Cezanne, Julia Child, and Morgan Freeman are all among the late-bloomers mentioned by Brooks in his article.]