What I Have Learned

Fuller reflects on a lifetime of disciplined, progressive learning — likening it to muscle development through day-by-day lifting of progressively heavier weights — in a contribution written partly in verse.

Core structure

• How Little I Know
• Chapter 1 — Preface
• Chapter 2 — How Little I Know

Main ideas

• I recall that thirty-eight years ago I invented a routine somewhat similar to muscle development accomplished through a day-by-day lifting of progressively heavier weights
• The idea for the "What I Have Learned" series came from four short lines in The Practical Cogitator, edited by Charles Curtis and Ferris Greenslet

Why it matters

The series was sparked by four lines from Charles Beard, written in response to George Counts's question about how long it would take to tell all he had learned from a lifetime's study of history. The Practical Cogitator, first published in 1945 and reissued in 1962, is described as one of the most compact and satisfying intellectual feasts of the post-World War II years — and the frame for Fuller's own reflection on what he has learned.

See Also

• Norman Cousins — editor of the anthology series

Sources

• what_i_have_learned/ — book project directory (repo-local source tree)
• what_i_have_learned/index.md — book project index
• what_i_have_learned/what_i_have_learned.md — full text