Quote of the Day: Charles F. Kettering on Aging & Wisdom

We often believe the world is stubborn, people say they want change, but they really don’t. Yet Charles F. Kettering offers a more hopeful truth: our resistance isn’t to “new,” it’s to uncertainty. “People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.” That sting is also an invitation: if we can name the pattern, we can outgrow it.

Most of us don’t reject innovation because we’re closed-minded. We reject it because it asks us to relearn, to risk looking foolish, to trade competence for curiosity. So we buy “new” that feels familiar: a refreshed logo instead of a better culture, a new app that preserves old habits, a bold strategy that doesn’t threaten old incentives. Comfort dresses up as progress.

The practical move is to separate “novelty” from “change.” Novelty is cosmetic. Change is behavioral. If you want better work, relationships, or health, ask: What’s the smallest new behavior I’ve been avoiding because it would make me a beginner again? That question turns vague ambition into a clear next step, and it builds courage without waiting for confidence to arrive first.

Kettering earned the right to challenge our timid relationship with the unfamiliar. As the inventor of the electric starter and a longtime engineering leader who became a vice president at General Motors, he repeatedly made the “impossible” feel normal, by shipping real solutions, not just ideas.

Today, choose one “too-different” improvement and run a 30-minute experiment: test the workflow, draft the hard email, try the training, have the honest conversation. Keep one note afterward: what got better when you stopped insisting the new resemble the old. May your growth be brave, and your next step be real.