Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An insightful, joyful tour of the transformative powers of starting something new, no matter your age--from the bestselling author of Traffic and You May Also Like Noticing his daughter's insatiable curiosity about the world, Tom Vanderbilt asked himself why so many of us stop learning new skills as adults. Old dogs can't learn new tricks, or so the saying goes, but Vanderbilt wanted to fight the rut of mid-career competence and decided to embark upon a year of learning purely for the sake of learning.
Rapturously singing Spice Girls in an amateur choir, losing chess matches to kids still learning to tie their shoes, and dodging scorpions at a surf camp in Costa Rica, Vanderbilt weaves his own experience with comprehensive, insightful research, and finds that the circuitous path it takes to learn new skills takes us on an unexpected journey of self-discovery and fulfillment. Building on his personal insight from his year of learning dangerously with engaging and instructive studies, Vanderbilt shows how anyone can get better at beginning again--and, more importantly, why we should take those awkward first steps.
At its heart, Beginners inspires us to take small acts of reinvention, and rediscover the magic of learning.
Synopsis
"Vanderbilt elegantly and persuasively tackles one of the most pernicious of the lies we tells ourselves--that the pleasures of learning are reserved for the young." --Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Outliers 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, Tom Vanderbilt embarks on a yearlong quest of learning--purely for the sake of learning. Rapturously singing Spice Girls songs in an amateur choir, losing games of chess to eight-year-olds, and dodging scorpions at a surf camp in Costa Rica, Vanderbilt tackles five main skills but learns so much more. Along the way, he interviews dozens of experts about the fascinating psychology and science behind the benefits of becoming an adult beginner and shows how anyone can get better at beginning again--and, more important, why they should take those first awkward steps. Funny, uplifting, and delightfully informative, Beginners is about how small acts of reinvention, at any age, can make life seem magical.
Synopsis
An insightful, joyful tour of the transformative powers of starting something new, no matter your age
--from the bestselling author of
Traffic and
You May Also Like "Vanderbilt elegantly and persuasively tackles one of the most pernicious of the lies we tells ourselves--that the pleasures of learning are reserved for the young." --Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Outliers
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, Tom Vanderbilt embarks on a yearlong quest of learning--purely for the sake of learning. Rapturously singing Spice Girls songs in an amateur choir, losing games of chess to eight-year-olds, and dodging scorpions at a surf camp in Costa Rica, Vanderbilt tackles five main skills but learns so much more. Along the way, he interviews dozens of experts about the fascinating psychology and science behind the benefits of becoming an adult beginner and shows how anyone can get better at beginning again--and, more important, why they should take those first awkward steps. Funny, uplifting, and delightfully informative, Beginners is about how small acts of reinvention, at any age, can make life seem magical.