Volume 6 · The Unfinished Syllabus · Essay 154
Magic Minimization Formula
Magic Minimization Formula is the kind of technique that looks too simple to respect and too useful to ignore.
Try it for a fortnight before judging it. Most methods die in the court of first impressions, which is the least competent court there is.
It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.
Watch a master carpenter teach an apprentice. He does not lecture; he lets the boy hold the wrong end of the saw until the wood itself becomes the teacher.
Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. Keep it like a good key: accessible, unlabelled, and used often.