This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Laurent Bossavit. Original Post: Wear the White Belt Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts) Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Laurent Bossavit Latest Posts From Incipient(thoughts)

No matter how adept you are with the guitar already, wearing the white belt here means you have agreed to set aside all knowledge and preconceptions and open your mind to learning as though for the first time. [...] Students here receive one belt and one belt only: the white belt. Those who put in the time, training, and effort will find their belt getting so soiled that eventually it turns black of its own accord.

A small quote from the excellent Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo. It's all I can do to refrain from quoting more, in fact I could quote nearly the whole book.

Ostensibly about playing guitar, Sudo's small but dense book conveys an approach to learning and life, permeated with much more pragmatism and down-to-earth feeling for the topic than the title suggests. It fits perfectly alongside George Leonard's Mastery as a reflection on what we gain from learning anything, be it guitar, martial arts, or programming. There's also a Web site.