The connection between cooking and learning law is not obvious, I admit. The reason I decided to link those two activities in one blog is that I like to cook and I like to learn and I believe in creating new associations between seemingly unrelated things. Forgive me, those of you who don’t cook, but at least you eat, right?
New combinations of ideas can be powerful … and delicious like strawberries dipped in the chocolate fondue. The skill of building associations may come handy at a test when you read a fact pattern that does not seem to fit anywhere and in legal practice later, when you need to come up with a creative argument. This is similar to an issue-spotting exercise. I challenge you to try it. Pick something you like to do when you don’t study, or something you are good at, and translate your experiences from that activity into studying law. You may encounter some surprising insights.
If you want to learn more about the power of random concept combinations, read The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures by Frans Johansson.
Here is a chocolate fondue recipe for dessert:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate broken into small pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons Coffee Liqueur or any other favorite liqueur
Heat cream in a pot and pour over* the chocolate. Add the liqueur. Transfer the mixture into the fondue pot over lowest possible flame. Arrange the dipping goodies, such as bananas, apples, cherries, pineapple, or the aforementioned strawberries around the fondue pot. Spear, dip, swirl and savor!
* Is “pour over” a legal term? It can be, as in “pour over will”:
A will that leaves estate assets to a trust established before the will-maker's death. A pour over will is a protection which is intended to guarantee that any assets which were not included in the trust become assets of the trust upon the party's death.
Comments