… and Relearning.

“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.” - Mark Twain

Photo courtesy of WisDoc

What did you learn when you went to school? What usually happens to us when we go there?

Here’s what:

We get placed within a restrictive learning environment, one in which we get told what, when and how to learn. If you’re lucky enough to be living in a free democratic country, then at least you grow up getting taught democratized knowledge.

Democratized knowledge is the curriculum approved by the state to be taught in public schools.

In a democracy, the resulting curriculum is much more representative of the peoples’ wishes for what constitutes “truth.” (This doesn’t mean everyone ends up happy with it of course. In some parts of the United States for example, the debate on whether to teach evolution or creationism is still raging.)

On the other hand, in non-democratic countries, “truth” is what the unelected guy sitting on the throne wishes it to be. Sometimes when it’s really bad, you can’t even call the process education anymore. Indoctrination would be a better word actually.

I know this might be starting to sound like a political article but it isn’t. It’s about the independent pursuit of knowledge as we simultaneously unlearn and relearn things along the way.

Passive Like Empty Vessels

Too often around the world, students get treated like passive recipients, something which must be changed.

Thing is, whatever we learned in school as kids isn’t necessarily “knowledge” because it isn’t necessarily “true”. Moreover, we’re not given enough freedom of thought and choice to reach our own conclusions.

Thanks to the internet, things are changing.

Self-Initiative and Independent Pursuit

The internet has opened up the gates to a world of infinite knowledge where anyone can read about anything and everything. It’s not a biased state-designed curriculum. It’s open, it’s diverse and it’s free.

Leverage it.

One should independently pursue the journey for what he or she considers to be the “truth.” Ultimately, it’s about questioning, thinking and stimulating one’s own mind.

It’s about unlearning and relearning.

“The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.” - Antisthenes

I’ve unlearned a number of things growing up. That includes my wrong perception of “others” and stuff related to religion.

What have you unlearned growing up?

Hi everyone. I’m guessing some of you have noticed my shorter posts and slower pace of updates lately. I apologize for that. Thing is, I’m about to graduate from university and I’ve been awfully busy lately. However by early June, I’ll be enjoying the start of my holidays so until then expect short and infrequent posts.

Just letting you know.

Please stick around and don’t go away. If you haven’t subscribed to my RSS feed yet, go ahead. I have much in valuable stock for you.

Cheers! :)

Many, if not most of my close friends study medicine. And many, if not most loathed it when they started. Lately, the majority of them have begun to like it. Now, while they enjoy learning new cool stuff within their formal educational framework, they’ve also been raving about how much more they love watching House, MD.

Picture Courtesy of Oscar J. Baeza

In case you don’t know, House MD is a TV show about a bunch of doctors (the main character being Dr. House himself) who try to solve mysterious medical cases they’re confronted with.

Gregory House, M.D., is a maverick medical genius, who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Most episodes start with a cold open somewhere outside the hospital, showing the events leading to the onset of symptoms for that episode’s main patient. The episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the patient’s illness.

It’s a very entertaining series. Even I myself like watching it although I’m not into medicine.

This got me thinking.

Why do I and countless other non-medical people like the show? Sure, Dr. House is hilarious but still, what’s so captivating about the episodes?

Puzzles.

Puzzles are fun. Given, the highly inquisitive nature of the human mind, it’s no surprise that we’re intrigued by them. Of course when the puzzles are dry and very complex, they can seize to become enjoyable but if the format they come in is entertaining, then it’s all good.

TV shows with fun puzzles are a form of edutainment, and there are surely tons of TV shows on this planet about many subjects. There are forensic detective series like CSI, a show about the power of mathematics called Numb3rs and others about law like Law and Order.

The list goes on.

With so many available series about numerous subjects, finding an edutaining one we can be entertained by and learn from shouldn’t be difficult. The DVD section at Amazon should be a good place to start searching.

Remember, this doesn’t even begin to include documentaries, edutaining shows on Discovery Channel and reality TV series like Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. ;)

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In my article ‘The 3 “Secret” Reasons for Exploring What All Learners Desire‘, I said the following:

What Is Knowledge?

There is no easy, simple answer to this one. In fact there is no agreed-upon definition of knowledge. Truth is, I don’t believe there will ever be one. There could be such a definition… but only if we lived in a Utopian World.

That’s the slight irony of the situation – the desire we learners have to acquire something we can’t accurately define.

Picture Courtesy of Voss

Striving to understand the nature of knowledge is a beneficial thing which helps us become better learners. Let’s have a look at some quotes I like from great minds who shed light on the answer we seek with their profound wisdom. I can relate to what each of them say on a significant level.

1. A library may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged. In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. —Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th-century German philosopher

Growing up, I held many opinions that I slowly but surely realized weren’t mine. I don’t even remember how they managed to get into my head. During debates and arguments, I found that I couldn’t defend them well and that’s when it hit me hard.

I couldn’t defend them because I didn’t think much about what I accepted and believed to be true. I never contemplated it. Over the past two years, thanks to the free flow of information online, I discarded a lot of ideas and relearned even more. I find that what I know now has much more value to me than what I regarded as the “truth” previously. It’s because of thinking and coming to one’s own conclusions.

2. A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.—Kahlil Gibran, 20th-century Syrian-American mystic poet and painter

This holds solidly especially in entrepreneurship. You can have some of the greatest ideas in the world but they’re all useless if not acted upon or at least propagated.

3. All men by nature desire knowledge.—Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher

We are all born with an inquisitive nature. This is inherently part of who we are but the systems and environments we grow up in sometimes tend to kill that great intrinsic property we possess.

Further reading: 3 Steps to Revive Your Inner Child

4. All wish to know, but none want to pay the fee.—Juvenal, 1st-2nd-century Roman poet

Learning is fun but it can turn into a pain whenever we encounter things we find difficult to swallow. Many just choose to become apathetic but those who persevere and burst through the thick wall find a worthy reward on the other side.

5. Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.—Mark van Doren, 20th-century American poet

I’m not a father yet. Heck, I’m not even married, but I have read a few things about fatherhood. The information I consumed is safely stored in my brain but I can’t grasp its full meaning. I don’t have sufficient “skills” yet. The day I become a father, I will.

6. Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container. —Anonymous Saying

Knowledge is out there floating around the internet in infinite abundance. All it takes to find food for thought nowadays in this amazing Information Age we live in is a few clicks.

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A few months ago I was out with J, a friend studying medicine. We were chilling nearby a lake on a windy day. He seemed distracted and so I asked him “how is medical school, are you enjoying it?” He smiled, stared at the grass for a second, and replied “I don’t know man. I’m not really sure if this is what I want to be doing.”

Photo Courtesy of skampy

I knew that look, the one he had on his face and so I asked him again “dude, you didn’t answer my question, are you enjoying it?” His answer was a resounding “no” and then he added “but maybe I’ll eventually start to like it.”

I told J that he didn’t have to feel burdened by the thought of being stuck in medicine for the rest of his life. Many people graduate with one degree and end up doing something completely different and unrelated for a living later on. One great example of such a person is Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator. He’s someone who exemplifies the philosophy of passion-based learning.

J asked me how he can find out what he’s passionate about. I told him what I’m about to tell you.

Sometimes we do indeed end up liking what we study or do for a living and develop a passionate for it. At times however we deceive ourselves into liking what we don’t like. In psychology this is referred to as cognitive dissonance. Don’t fall into it!

It’s not easy finding purpose and passion just as it isn’t easy finding success. If it was easy, everybody would be happy and satisfied. It’s important to keep that in mind. The road to finding your passion is a bumpy one.

“Life’s a journey, not a destination” - Steven Tyler

There are many things one can do in one’s quest for passion. None of them will magically give you all the answers on the spot. It takes time and a lot of contemplation but once the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit together, the feeling is exhilarating.

One thing that helped me and which I wasn’t aware of at first was going to book stores. At the time, two years ago, I had an okay idea about what I liked and wanted to do but the big affirming clue was provided by my journeys to book stores.

I realized that every time I entered a bookstore without the intention of wanting to buy a specific book, I would wander around in the beginning looking for interesting stuff. Initially, I believed that this wandering was just random and aimless with no clear pattern but when I paid attention, there was indeed a pattern.

I would recall which books I curiously picked and discovered that I consistently gravitated towards certain book sections in the store. Those sections were my hint. The finding indicated that I was on the right path as it matched with what I knew I liked.

That was a start. It can be your start. From there, one needs to narrow down the big-macro interests and likes into things that are more specific. Having a very clear goal makes the planning aimed to achieve it easier.

Related:

• The Undeniably Massive Importance of Passion
• Finding a Purpose and Passion In Life: How and What?

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Imagine if you sat down for a conversation with a person who held the same exact views you did on any and every single topic. Gosh, that would be so boring and very non-beneficial for learning now wouldn’t it? Just visualize a blog post with 213 comments all saying something along the lines of “I agree”.

Not fun.

Picture Courtesy of T.SC

Disagreement is a wonderful thing - creative disagreement that is, the kind that’s not destructive but constructive and instructive. If anything it’s thought-provoking and very engaging as it exposes your mind to new and unique perspectives.

Looking to have intense brain orgasms? Read an eloquently-written book and consume information coming from a perspective you disagree with. To do it right and enjoy the process though, you’ll need to have an open mind and a laid-back attitude. Of course, if the information you consume is designed with a clear intend to offend, then it will be understandable if you get offended. However, if you’re easily provoked by something polite but contradictory to what you believe, it might be due to being highly defensive and sensitive.

It need not be like that. You don’t have to swallow everything. All you need to do is simply consider it or at least some parts of it. It won’t hurt.

Our initial reaction when faced by things we disagree with is usually resistance. Whenever you feel that resistance, take it as a sign of a learning opportunity. You can throw it away or grasp it. I choose the latter because often, one of the following happens:

• I become aware of a perspective I never even knew existed
• The perspective I already believe in gets strengthened
• I realize that some of the things I believed were flawed and hence I correct them
• I more accurately know what to expect when debating a disagreeing person
• My ability to defend the perspective I believe in improves
• My approach to received criticism becomes more positive and mature

What do you think? I hope you disagree with me.

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