Curiosity, learning and change as a muscle that needs to be exercised

And just as a muscle needs movement before atrophy so does our mind and brain. Sure, feel free to start going to the gym at your 40, 50 or even at your 60’s. It’s not impossible but it will be harder. Being curious is a mindset and provides de initial impetus to affect change. Learning news ways of thinking and doing which catapult change. The more you change and expand your mind, the easier it becomes and flexibility becomes the norm.

How many times have you changed your mind despite the fallacy of sunk cost, based the fear of making a drastic decision or u-turn because of invest time and money which frequently can’t be recovered anyway.

And so the mantra becomes:

That was 10 me ago’s, because I’m willing and able to change over time.

Diego Moore

The physical molecules in our body die and change every day and once 10 years have lapsed all molecules have been replaced. So from a biological point of view we’re not who we were 10 years ago. Why should we continue to also think the same as 10 selves ago?

But how?

Here is a framework for learning. A hierarchy that helps as absorbe new information and change better which can be summed with another mantra:

 

You finally know if you have mastered a concept if you can explain it to your grandmother

Diego Moore

The learning pyramid approximates our ability to retain information:
RetentionMethodType
5%LecturesPassive
10%ReadingPassive
20%Audo-VisualPassive
30%DemonstrationPassive
50%Discussion GroupsParticipatory
75%Practice by DoingParticipatory
90%Teaching OthersParticipatory

Sadly much of what we know is merely repetition or a rep in gym speak. Our muscle has learnt a pattern and so we repeat without questioning. It’s frequently only when we’re put in a new context where we have to teach outside the bounds of repetition to someone who does not have the full context that we get to question our understanding of what we know vs. what we were just repeating like a parrot 🦜

How we do things around here

  • Leaders eat last
  • Managing upwards
  • Search-driven development
  • Building on the shoulders of giants

Further Examples

The rule of 3rds - mentors, peers and mentoring

The importance of having mentors, peers, and mentees at different stages of life. It encourages a balanced approach to relationships, valuing wisdom from mentors, support from peers, and the opportunity to mentor others.

Open Communication and Asynchronous Collaboration by default

Open communication is vital for collaboration, with praise given publicly and correction privately. Respecting people’s time and space means considering the purpose of communication and using asynchronous methods like documentation and prototypes as a priority before requesting expensive synchronous meetings.