If you can read and write, you can change the world

My friend Simon Day shared a story with me some time ago. I think it is brilliant and have been meaning to share it in a blog post. 

He wrote it in a post himself. This is the story he shared: 

I remember reading a story when I was younger about a woman who insisted that she never had a chance. She said this to Dr. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), distinguished naturalist, after one of his lectures in London. In response to her complaint, he asked her what she did. When she explained that all she did was chop potatoes and onions whilst running a boarding house with her sister, the account runs as follows: 

“Madam, where do you sit during these interesting but homely duties?” 

“On the bottom step of the kitchen stairs.” 

“Where do your feet rest?” 

“On the glazed brick.” 

“What is glazed brick?” 

“I don’t know, sir.” 

“How long have you been sitting there?” 

“Fifteen years.” 

“Madam, here is my personal card,” said Dr. Agassiz. “Would you kindly write me a letter concerning the nature of a glazed brick?” 

The woman took him seriously. After painstaking research at libraries, museums and brickyards, she wrote thirty-six pages on the subject of glazed brick and tile. 

Back came the letter from Dr. Agassiz: “Dear Madam, this is the best article I have ever seen on the subject. If you will kindly change the three words marked with asterisks, I will have it published and pay you for it.” 

A short time later there came a letter that brought $250 along with a simple note:  

“What was under those bricks?” She had learned the value of time and answered with a single word: “Ants.”  

He wrote back and said, “Tell me about the ants.” 

After wide reading, microscopic work and deep study, the woman wrote Dr. Agassiz 360 pages on the subject. He published the book and sent her the money, and she went to visit all the lands of her dreams on the proceeds of her work. 

 

Another perspective  

The lady in the story had a certain mindset, a certain perspective of her life. She believed she had never had a chance. Never had an opportunity. She was destined to work at the boarding house for the rest of her life. That was her problem, she was trapped at this boarding house. She couldn’t see a solution. She couldn’t see a way out. 

Perhaps Dr Agassiz presented her with a solution to her problem. In the form of a challenge, an opportunity, a chance. To spend her time doing something else. A project. 

The lady would not have taken this challenge on herself. Who would choose to write a letter about glazed bricks? For me, it’s not the most interesting of subjects. 

Perhaps her conversation with Dr Agassiz was a cry for help. Realising that she was stuck and couldn’t get out. She realised that if she kept doing the same things she always did, she would get the same results. She would get to the end of her life still chopping onions and potatoes at the bottom of the kitchen steps.  

If you can’t find the solution to a problem yourself, perhaps you need someone else to help you. To provide a different perspective. To provide some guidance. 

It is more than likely you already have the solution to the problem yourself. You just need someone else to point it out.

Learning and teaching 

The lady also became a student. She spent her spare time at museums, libraries and brickyards. She learned all she could. 

She visited museums to learn about the history of the glazed brick. What were the first types of bricks? What were they used for? What period in history did this happen? 

She visited brickyards to look at current bricks. What did they feel like? What did they look like? How were they made? She talked to staff at the brickyard to understand the different types of brick and their uses. Perhaps the different shaped bricks depend on different purposes. 

She could go to libraries and read books on bricks. She could learn how the bricks are made. The different buildings or structures that are made from them. The different conditions the brick may have to withstand. Hot or cold. Wet or dry. Do they sit on top of a structure and provide shelter or sit at the base of a structure and provide stability. 

The lady could learn an almost infinite amount about glazed bricks. After she had learned what she could, she then needed to write a letter. She needed to become a teacher. She needed to filter, and think, and understand what she had consumed. She then needed to teach to Dr Agassiz. This can be the more difficult part. To put into words what you understand about a subject. To think about different ways of explaining what you know. To pull out the most important parts and possibly discard the rest. 

When it came to ants, however, she became a much more obsessive student. This time writing ten times the amount of material. Gaining probably more than ten times the knowledge. Sharing a much bigger, more complex subject, in her letter. 

Her knowledge became her value. People then wanted her to travel to share what she knew. She became an obsessive student. She then became a renowned teacher. 

Reading and writing  

If you boil it down to its basics, the lady began to read and to write. She may have visited museums, brickyards and performed laboratory work. But reading between the lines, she spent a lot of time in the library. Reading books. 

Consuming new information. Reading multiple books to get different perspectives on the same subject. Finding mention of an area not covered in the current book and looking for another book to delve deeper. Reading one book then moving to the books it references. One book may reference ten, twenty, thirty or even two hundred other books. 

You have to write notes. Build a framework, a structure around the knowledge you are collecting. Categorise it. Then you start making connections. How one price of information connections to another, like pieces of a jigsaw. 

This framework of understanding then creates a framework around which you can write. Your categories provide the chapters. The connections between the categories provide the transitions between the chapters.  

You use terminology fitting for the subject. Certain words describe certain things, especially when talking about a subject scientifically. There will be new ideas and concepts that may need explaining or defining. Examples and comparisons will help the reader understand. 

Ultimately 360 pages is a lot to write. It requires dedication and perseverance. 360 pages of quality scientific information are even harder to write. In publishing 360 pages there would be many re-writes. Perhaps she wrote 720, 1080, 1800 or even 3600 pages to get to that final 360 pages. 

But through that writing, her work could be sent all around the world. It will be in print for the rest of time. Work that she can be proud of. Work, that when read by the right audience, is respected. So much that they will ask her to travel to share what else she knows.  

Takeaways 

Solutions to your problems, you already have, they are laying at your feet. You just haven’t realised it yet. Sometimes you can’t see it for yourself and you need help from others. They may provide you with guidance, with a challenge or with an opportunity. Sometimes that is all you need. A helping hand from someone else. 

To solve your problems you need to become the student and the teacher. You need to become an obsessive student. To read, learn and observe as much as you can. Find information from different sources. Speak to knowledgeable experts. Do some of the practical stuff. To show what you know, you need to teach it. To teach it, you must know it inside out. Teaching a subject is the ultimate test of understanding a subject. 

Finally though, if you can read, and, if you can write, then you can change the world. Equally, if you want to change the world, start by reading and then follow it up with writing. If you publish your words, then they are there for the world to see. They will still be there long after you are gone. Nowadays, your words can go all around the world. Via the internet, they can reach people you would never be able to reach otherwise. 

If you can read and write, you can change the world. 

Footnotes 

Simon Day’s original blog post: 

https://simonispublicspeaking.com/2019/03/18/bricks-ants-and-excuses/