The Weight of Unlearning

What is the abbreviation for “pounds”?

Did you say “lbs”? Congratulations, you are correct.

Now, where does the abbreviation come from?

It’s rather curious. None of the letters (l-b-s) appear in the word “pound.”

What should be more curious is why you have never inquired into the matter (provided that is you don’t know the answer).

It also begs the obvious question: What else do you “know” but have little understanding of where that knowledge came from?

P.S. I’m sure you’d like to know the answer of where the abbreviation came from but I’m not going to tell you. You need to research the answer yourself. Why? Because I once read a quotation that has always stuck with me: “The greatest scandal in education is this: Once you teach a person something, you deny that person the opportunity to discovery the answer themselves.”

Stay curious!

You Know the Answer

The student and the travel were about to part ways when the student asked, “As I continue my travels, who else should I listen to as I continue my journey? Who are the best teachers?”

The traveler thought about the question for a moment and replied, “It’s been my experience that the wisest counsel has always come from those teachers who preface their remarks by noting they’re aren’t going to tell you anything that you don’t already know yourself.”

Unlearning Lesson #20

Unlearning Lesson #20: Mix Up Your Mind

“The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above the water.” –Sigmund Freud

Question #20: According to the latest research, IQ accounts for what portion of career success?

e. 50 to 60 percent
f. 25 to 49 percent
g. 23 to 34 percent
h. 11 to 22 percent

The answer is between 4 and 10 percent. In other words, “none of the above.” This question comes compliments of Dan Pink who used it in his best-selling book, A Whole New Mind, to suggest the idea that confining oneself to the answers presented is “a symptom of excessive left-directed thinking.”

In order to unlearn, though, it is not enough to train yourself to use right brain-directed thinking—although this is helpful. A person or an organization must also intentionally mix-up their thinking in order to get a clearer picture of reality.

For example, did you know that if a person scores low on an IQ test they are likely to spend more time reading articles which refute the validity of the IQ test. The reason is because once an outcome has been determined and the experience can no longer be changed, people look for ways to change their view of the experience.

The same is true with the stocks we buy, the cars we purchase, and the schools we send our children. In each case, after the fact, people prefer finding information confirming—rather than refuting—their decision. This process might make them feel better but it is unlikely to lead to better decisions in the future.

What then is a person to do? One strategy is to mix-up your thinking. Specifically, look for information that contradicts your interpretation of the situation, consider the situation from multiple viewpoints, or actively solicit input from people with a different perspective.

Google and Proctor & Gamble are a good example. In the past, the companies swapped two dozen key employees. For its part, Google was interested in winning over a larger portion of P&G’s $9 billion annual advertising budget, while P&G was concerned only a small fraction of its advertisement budget was being spent online and it wanted to better understand the Internet’s potential.

The intentional mixing of the two cultures allowed each company the opportunity to see their business—as well as future opportunities—in a different and, perhaps, clearer light by forcing employees to challenge key assumptions about how they viewed the business environment. P&G, for example, wasn’t inviting influential bloggers to attend press conferences for the roll-out of new products, and Google didn’t fully appreciate how important colors were to building brand image.

Mixing up your mind need not always involve others. Sometimes it can be as simple as changing your mind-set. In an influential study, Ellen Langer studied 84 women who cleaned hotel rooms. One group of women heard a brief presentation explaining how their work qualified as good exercise. The other group did not. The two groups then continued on with their regular work routine. Surprisingly, the group that heard the presentation displayed more weight loss and experienced larger declines in blood pressure. In short, they became healthier by virtue of nothing more than a change of perspective. A related study using retired male executives yielded similar results.

Langer’s studies and the Google-P&G employee swap are tangible reminders that if you are serious about seeking new insights and achieving better results you don’t need a high IQ, all you need to do is “mix up your mind.”

Homework assignment #20: Locate a regular optometrist’s eye chart which begins with the largest letter on top. Test your vision. Make note of the last line you could read. Next, locate an eye chart that begins with the smallest print on top. Make note of the last line you can read. Did your results improve?

P.S. If you would like to read 38 additional “unlearning lessons,” consider picking up a copy of my new book, Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future. The eBook is now only $2.99!

Interested in some other free “unlearning” lessons? Check out these older posts:

Unlearning Lesson #19: Grow From Your Inexperiences

The Goal

“If I were to want one thing,” asked the student, “what should I want?”

“Not to want,” replied the traveler.

Making the Most of Your Ignorance

In a world of accelerating knowledge one of the more unfortunate side-effects is that our ignorance grows even faster than our knowledge. (This is because all that “you don’t know” is naturally growing faster than that small amount of new knowledge you can and are absorbing.)

This might seem like a depressing notion but it need not be.

Often what holds people back from trying new things and exploring new avenues isn’t a person’s ignorance, it is their knowledge.

People, especially experts and other “learned” folks, think they know the answer so they stop seeking new knowledge.

It is for this reason that so many inventors and innovators are young. They don’t know “what they don’t know” so they don’t let the “knowledge of how things are done” impede their perspective.

So what does this mean?

For one thing, it means we must challenge the idea that “not knowing” is a weakness and, instead, seek to embrace our ignorance as a potential strength.

Now, embracing and acknowledging one’s ignorance is not the same as remaining ignorant–which is a bad thing. Rather, to remain aware of one’s ignorance is a powerful tool for staying intellectually humble, curious and open-minded.

These traits, in turn, will make you more adaptable and, thus, more likely to survive–and thrive–in today’s constantly changing world.

So go ahead–unlearn–and start putting your growing ignorance to good work.

Interested in some other posts on unlearning and ignorance? Check these older articles:

Unlearn By Dispelling Old and New Knowledge
Ignorance Isn’t Bliss But It Could the Key to Wisdom

Study to Be Quiet

Isaac Walton’s motto was “Study to be quiet.”

It’s a wonderful saying and holds a great deal of wisdom. In this era of smartphones, email, Twitter, and 24-hour news, we all need some quiet time for reflection.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Being quiet is, surprisingly, hard. It requires work. It might even require “study” as Sir Isaac Walton suggests.

For college students, I’d suggest the idea of a “disorientation week“–a week where you unplug from all of your electronics.

For others, I’d suggest unlearning your daily routine and use it as an opportunity to find some time to “study to be quite.”

If you’re wondering what to do with this quiet time start by pondering this question: How can I change myself.

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A Healthy New Question

I speak frequently on the topic of unlearning to the healthcare industry. As a result, I’m always scanning the horizon for insights which seem to turn the “conventional wisdom” of healthcare on it’s head.

Recently, I came across this article describing how some healthcare innovators are asking new questions to determine the best treatment option for individual patients.

For example, when determining if a patient really needs knee surgery the healthcare provider would not only ask about (and test) the degree of rotation in the knee, they would also ask what sort of activities the patient likes to engages in and whether or not they enjoy playing with their grandkids. A patient who is more active or enjoys time with their grandkids might be a better candidate for surgery than someone who is less active.

This might seem an obvious choice but consider the case of someone who has a serious skin disorder. Various treatments have different side effects. Some people are self-conscious about these side-effects, whereas others are not. The best treatment, therefore, depends not just on technical issues but on an individual’s personality.

The bottom-line is that asking new questions can lead to new insights which can challenge old ways of thinking and doing.

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