Last week I attended the Sydney edition of the Blockchain workshops convened by COALA. 400 mostly nerdish types from all over the world.

I was in heaven. In many areas, right out of my depth. Some of the people are so friggin smart when it comes to code and the language of technology. A language that I barely speak.

Yet that is exactly the point.

If we do not constantly place ourselves in environments where we are the novice…the beginner…then we are in the grips of age and decay…of stuck opinions and a shrinking world. It matters not if you are 20 or 60.

How easy is it to hang out with those who totally live in your Universe? To stay safe. To be the smart one. Superior. Across it?

The practice of cultivating environments of extreme learning is the elixir to agelessness. The moment we stop is the moment we surrender to our withering.

To stay young, to stay connected, to stay alive…we must stay pushing our own edges…we must insist on being the student, the novice…we must, as the saying goes from the great man Buckminster Fuller, Dare to be Naive.