Principles

When I started The Evening Project, I wanted it to be built on solid foundations. A foundation that would help me keep tethered, something that I could fall back on.
 
So I came up with a set of core values.
 
These core values reflect what I believe in, what I think about, what I write about and what I strive to achieve.
 

Passionate Curiosity

Einstein once said, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.”

In medical education, a major portion of student learning is devoted to understanding medical vocabulary and medical language, because identification is the first step of diagnosis.

Similarly, in our quest to become a diagnostician of the world and understand how things work and how to benefit from them, it is important to start with the vocabulary. 
 
This demands an exploration of the question WHY over the WHAT, a childlike eagerness to discover and engage, a fascination with the unknown and a passionate curiosity to learn.

Investment in Experiences

The American Educator Edgar Dale contributed a major part of his working life as a researcher to understand the impact of various audio-visual channels on learning and development.

At the end of his research, he expressed his Cone of Experience theory which emphasizes the importance of “Learning by Doing” through direct, purposeful experiences.

Our experiences are our ultimate moment of truths, the litmus test of our desires. An investment in experiences is devoid of sunk costs. They help us select what we love, but more importantly they help us eliminate what we hate.

Asking Questions

The questions we ask ourselves determine the course of our life.

What did I do today that took me closer to my goals? How am I better today then I was tomorrow?
 
Think of these questions as a compass guide to the ship of our life, anchors that keep it steady and on track.

Deliberate Living

Avicii, in his famous song The Nights, said “One day, you’ll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember.”

Deliberate living is about control. The intent to craft each day with a purpose. The stubbornness to reject easy routines and convenient habits. The desire to live a life on our own terms.

More Understanding over More Information

“Being informed is prerequisite to being enlightened. The point, however, is not to stop at being informed.

It is one thing to increase our store of information and another to improve our understanding. To be informed is to know simply that something is the case.

Real understanding happens when in addition to information, we strive to know why it is the case, what it’s connections are with other facts, in what respects it is same, in what respects it is different, and so forth.

In our journey of finding meaning, I often tread a path in the hope of discovering something new, but eventually I return to these core principles.

While the elemental ideas remain the same, they are enriched by new perspectives.