It’s usually obvious when you’re talking to somebody a level above you, because they see lots of things instantly when those things take considerable work for you to figure out. These are good people to learn from, because they remember what it’s like to struggle in the place where you’re struggling, but the things they do still make sense from your perspective (you just couldn’t do them yourself). Talking to somebody two or more levels above you is a different story. They’re barely speaking the same language, and it’s almost impossible to imagine that you could ever know what they know. You can still learn from them, if you don’t get discouraged, but the things they want to teach you seem really philosophical, and you don’t think they’ll help you–but for some reason, they do. Somebody three levels above is actually speaking a different language. They probably seem less impressive to you than the person two levels above, because most of what they’re thinking about is completely invisible to you. From where you are, it is not possible to imagine what they think about, or why. You might think you can, but this is only because they know how to tell entertaining stories. Any one of these stories probably contains enough wisdom to get you halfway to your next level if you put in enough time thinking about it. Getting organized can bring us all to the next level in our lives. Daniel J. Levitin
About This Quote

A system can be a simple tool for helping you be more efficient and productive. A system is a way of organizing or classifying things so that they can be better understood. In the case of a book, the system is the classification of the contents. In a business, it is the way of organizing business activities so that they can be accomplished most effectively. In the case of a life, a system is a way of dividing every aspect of our existence into essential and nonessential parts.

The essential parts are those that we need (food and water) and those that we don’t (rest and relaxation). When we understand how to organize our lives in this way, we will find that we can reach higher levels in all areas of our lives. In order to reach higher levels in life , we must master our patterns (which are common human behaviors) and replace them with new patterns (which are more effective).

Source: The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight In The Age Of Information Overload

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