Courage is asking “can you show me how?” to someone younger than you who’s better at it.

The sting is the age order rather than the asking. We quietly expect competence to track years, so being taught by somebody younger feels like a drop in rank, and that feeling arrives before any thought does. Skill does not keep track of birthdays. The fourteen year old who has spent two thousand hours on something knows more about it than you do, and that is just arithmetic.

Name one person younger than you who is better at something you want. Ask them to show you, in those words, and then actually do what they say.