Wise Apollonian types like our doctor friend may indeed be able to get there by staying on the sidelines and doing lots of reading, but thicker or less mature types may need to get their fingers burned a bit in the process. I, for example, have found it difficult to learn lasting lessons without having a dog in the fight, without feeling in my viscera the greed, the fear, etc.
Otherwise known as the "stick your hand in the fire to see if it really does burn" approach? Or, in your case perhaps, stick in in three or four times just to make sure it was a genuine experience? There is no question that such direct learning experiences are capable of making strong impressions, but I would hope that we humans had, on the whole, or at least at the best, had progressed somewhat beyond the methods of paper training a puppy.
To be sure, one could wait forever to develop a philosophy and miss years of growth (and losses) in the meantime, but there is quite a difference between diving in recklessly ... and what sensible person wouldn't recognize that options and margin are high risk, and thus reckless unless one knew very well what one was doing ... and picking a guiding light or two, following it, and gradually learning to internalize that light. |
