Belief Makers

The other night we sat talking over dinner with our friends Randy and Jenny. Iris spends time in the playroom almost every day with their son Quinn. Iris remarked that just the other day, Quinn had spontaneously shouted, "Aimee, A-I-M-E-E!"

Randy and Jenny were amazed as Quinn doesn't spell nor could they recall how or when he would have learned to spell Aimee.

So what changed?

Jaycees Can't Sing
As we considered what had transpired with Quinn, I recalled having worked with a group of Jaycees in Glen Ellyn, Illinois when I was about 22. As a fundraiser, the Jaycees had decided to produce a musical written by Jaycees and performed by Jaycees. I was hired as the music director.

I sat at the piano one night facing four young business men whose main performance involved a quartet with four-part harmony. Each of them had sheet music in front of them which they had practiced and learned. So, we jumped right into the song.

As we began rehearsing, it was immediately clear that the harmonies weren't all they were intended to be. We started, stopped, started, stopped and then finally I decided it might be best to practice the song first in unison. "Hey guys, let's take it once through with everyone singing the melody."

So, we launched into a rousing chorus of the song singing just the basic melody and... well, what they sang wasn't exactly the melody. In fact, it wasn't exactly any melody.

From all I could discern, every one of these guys was tone-deaf. As I paused the song, pondering how to proceed, out of the corner of my eye at the edge of the Glenbard West, high school stage, I could see the musical's director bent over laughing. Turns out, he knew full well that none of the guys in front of me could 'carry a tune in a bucket' and our current exercise was meant as a bit of a practical joke (on me).

Joke's on Me
I suddenly felt inspired to teach these guys who can't sing, to sing. We tried taking one line at a time over and over. We tried simply humming the song without the lyrics. We tried pretty much anything that I could think of, but still nothing that was sung in any way represented the tune: not for want of trying.

Finally, I pointed to the man directly in front of me and said, "I'm going to play a note on the piano. When I play the note, I'd like you to listen to it and then to hum the same note. Everyone else, I want you to listen to what I play and then listen to what he sings."

I played a G below middle C and waited. The man hummed an Eb just below. I played the G again and waited. The man hummed a Bb just above. I played the G a third time and... E. Then I stopped, scanned the group catching each man's eyes and asked, "OK, I want you to think about this. Is what I played, what he hummed?"

I could almost hear the gears turning as each man pondered the question, eyes glancing back and forth. Finally, one man looked me in the eye, a big 'ahh hah!' spreading across his face, and said, "No!"

One by one, we proceeded with the exercise until each of the guys could here when a hummed note was the same pitch as that being played and when it wasn't. Turned out that none of the guys had ever associated pitch with music. They'd always considered music to be words and rhythm. About an hour later, everyone of them could sing the song, some of them actually singing harmony. They'd simply never connected the dots.

Under-connected Brains
As I learn more about the neurological basis for autism, a common thread is that of brain synchronization. Different parts of our brains are responsible for different activities. When we undertake complex tasks, multiple regions of our brains work together to accomplish them. To do this effectively requires connectivity and timing.

For people with autism, it appears that the timing and coordination of certain parts of the brain doesn't work or doesn't work well. This makes processing of some complex tasks impossible or difficult.

Imagine racing down an entrance ramp onto a highway of fast moving traffic. Let's say that drivers on the ramp pay attention only to other drivers on the ramp, and those on the highway only to others on the highway. Both the ramp and the highway work fine, but when you bring them together, the merging of traffic doesn't work. Not only that, but because the merging doesn't work, both the highway and the ramp stop working as traffic begins to pile up at point of intersection. To work effectively, activity on the ramp and on the highway must be coordinated an synchronized.

Similarly, people with neurological challenges that limit or preclude the synchronization and coordination of various regions of the brain have difficulties with complex tasks. Each processing center works fine. However, crudely speaking, when you bring together multiple centers, the merging of information doesn't work and the resulting pile up causes each independent region to overload.

It appears that the solution to this is simple (albeit perhaps not always easy to implement). The key is to conduct activities that help to improve the coordination of the various parts of the brain. Since the individual parts of the brain are working just fine, once the connections are established, amazing things happen including apparently miraculous strides in learning.

Connecting the Dots
I've often used the illustration:
Oftentimes, when teaching others new skills and capabilities, we use repetition. If someone is slow to 'get it', we repeat and repeat and repeat until they either understand or we determine that they aren't going to understand.

However, if a person simply isn't making the connection between two or more critical elements, you can repeat until we have an efficient and effective public health care plan, and they still won't 'get it'. Repetition without connection doesn't work.

What is likely more useful is to ferret out the places where the connections are not being made, and then to work on connecting the dots.

OK, so that's the simple part. The trickier part is figuring out what connections are missing and how to build the bridges. Depending on the situation, there may be formal evaluations that can help you with that. In other cases, it might be as simple as dialoguing with someone until you find the missing bridge. If you're coaching someone, it may involve simply dropping what's not working and starting to pay close attention to where the connection breaks down. Once you find it, work on bridging the disconnected pieces.

The cool thing is that once the connection is made, all sorts of wonderful things happen and progress can seem miraculous.

If you've struggled all your life with math, it could be that your cognitive abilities are just fine, there are just a few things that don't quite connect yet. If you're a slave to the sheet music never having been able to 'play by ear', it could be that there are just a couple of connections that need to be made and you'll be playing anything you hear. In many cases, there may be a solitary, basic connection or association that's simply missing. Track it down, bridge the connection and voila!

Happy connecting!

Teflon

Labels: all blogs, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

Have you ever read the book, Surely, You're Joking Mr. Feynman?, Adventures of a Curious Character? It's a wonderful book written by Richard P. Feynman, a Nobel prize winning physicist who, among other things, worked on the Manhattan project (the world war two project that gave us the atomic bomb.)

I love the book because Feynman is so clear and unabashed in looking at how he and others operate. In one instance, he talks about participating as a pallbearer in the funeral of a "friend" he couldn't remember having known only to find out that he hadn't known him. Feynman had been mistaken for someone else and asked to participate in the "friend's" funeral. Not wanting to admit that he couldn't place the person who had died, he simply traveled to the funeral and participated.

No Physics in Brazil
At one point, Feynman traveled to Brazil as part of a US State Department sponsored exchange program in which American scientists spent a year abroad teaching in foreign universities. Feynman had wanted to learn Samba, so he thought it was a great idea.

As he read the physics textbook and interacted with the students, it became clear that the students were learning physics by memorizing it. When he asked questions as they had been phrased in the text book, the students would answer quickly and correctly. For example, were he to ask, "What is Brewster's Angle?", the students could respond correctly with something like "Brewster's Angle is the angle at which light reflected from a medium with an index of refraction is completely polarized."

However, if he were to ask the same question in terms of it's application or generically, they would be completely stumped. As the class that Feynman was teaching was the university's most advanced course in electricity and magnetism, and as the students had already taken many other classes, and as most of the students would themselves become teachers, Feynman became quite concerned about the future of physics in Brazil. What happens when the physics teachers themselves don't understand physics?

As Feynman pursued his concerns, he discovered that he was too late. At the end of the academic year, he was asked by the students to give a talk about his experiences teaching in Brazil. To a crowded lecture hall that included students, professors, government officials and even the author of the physics text, Feynman announced, "The main purpose of my talk is to demonstrate to you that no science is being taught in Brazil!"

I'll let you read the book to get the details, but quickly paraphrased, Feynman determined that the root cause for this phenomenon could be traced to the motivation for learning physics. The government and academic institutions had invested heavily in physics education because "civilized countries" have strong programs in physics and because they wanted to be second to none in education. The students were motivated by getting degrees and prestigious positions. No one was motivated by the utility of science, or its contribution to the improvement of the human condition, etc.

Two of a Kind
Yesterday morning, I was talking to Mark K and my dad, Lee, both of whom had come to our place for Thanksgiving. As we talked, I began noticing remarkable similarities between Mark and Lee.

Both Mark and Lee are quite intelligent by traditional standards, Mark with a degree from University of Michigan and Lee, MIT. Both Mark and Lee struggle with "addictions", Mark with food, and Lee with alcohol. Both associate their lapses in sobriety with episodes of depression. Both, attribute their depression to boredom (yes, boredom). Both, look outside themselves for solutions. Both answer question about themselves with references to what others have said or written. Both, thankfully, seem not to tire (or at least not quickly tire) of my questions and my "annoying" ability to structure concepts in real time and then argue them.

At one point, Lee stopped me to triumphantly explain that the American Medical Association (AMA) considers alcoholism to be a disease. I had been talking about our ability to address challenges like addiction, etc. through changes to our belief systems and how changing our beliefs changes our minds (physically and figuratively). Lee decided that I was full of crap and that he could prove it by his AMA reference.

For me, Lee's statement felt like a stack of unexpected Christmas presents. It was so wrong in so many ways and so telling about how Lee thinks that I simply didn't know where to start. I thought about how doctors nowadays are actually starting to recognize how artificial the mind/body distinction is and how any AMA reference to something other than that must be outdated. I thought about asking, "What do you mean by 'disease'?"... or, "Why do you believe it simply because it showed up in an AMA article?"... or, "OK, let's say it's a disease, so what?"

And then it occurred to me. Lee is an electrical engineer and a mathematician. He's a scientist who learned empirical methods. He likes to solve problems and spent his career doing so. I can remember him telling me as a kid that doctors have terrible diagnostic skills because they are taught through memorization. They learn names for things, they read articles on things and studies have shown that they tend to be able to diagnose only those maladies that they've either seen before or read about. If it's something truly new or something that is presented in a really different way, they're usually stumped.

With his AMA reference, Lee had switched sides! He was now in the learn-by-memorizing camp! So, with so many potential questions, I asked him about when he'd changed his opinion on the analytic and diagnostic skills of doctors. He replied, "We're done! I don't want to talk about this any more!"

A Memorization Pandemic
This morning, as I thought about Mark and Lee and their seemingly endless struggles with food and alcohol, it occurred to me that it might all go back to what Feynman wrote about physics in Brazil. Mark and Lee have each participated in three to four times as many programs at the Option Institute as either Iris or I have. Mark and Lee have both benefited significantly from those programs. Yet, in many instances, Mark and Lee don't seem to understand the underlying concepts and principles.

When I say, "Don't understand", I'm not saying that I disagree with their interpretation of the concepts; I'm saying that Mark and Lee can't explain what they themselves interpret the concepts to mean or how they apply.

Then it occurred to me that Mark and Lee may represent a pervasive challenge, not just in regard to the Option Philosophy, but generally. Could it be that any number of institutions have become completely bereft of understanding? Consider the US Congress or any number of failed financial institutions or the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or the AMA or the NEA (National Educational Association). When I read or hear different things said by representatives of these and other organizations, I often think to myself, "Hmmm... they don't seem to understand what they're talking about! What they're saying feels like a cut-and-paste job based on articles and reports written by others. There are gaps in their logic."

Feynman eventually concluded that no one in Brazil actually understood physics writing, "I knew the system was bad, but 100 percent--it was terrible!"

Could it be that we're experiencing this elsewhere?

Do You Understand?
I believe that there is a pervasive trend towards cut-and-paste thinking. Wikis. Sound bytes. Platitudes. Mottoes. Bumper stickers. Pop songs. So and so says... You name it.

I also believe that simply accepting cut-and-paste opinions, or adopting them as our own, dramatically limits us and how we address challenges.

Have you found yourself "stuck" in a particular challenge despite all that you've learned about the Option Philosophy? It could be that you simply don't have an understanding of it.

The easiest way to tell is to find someone who is real stickler for clarity and specificity and explain the concepts to them. If you both walk away feeling satisfied, then you probably have an understanding of what you believe. If not, well...

Have you been making decisions in your life simply because of what you've read or heard the "experts" say? When provided an expert opinion on a challenge (financial, medical, automotive, educational), do you simply go with what you've been told assuming that it's above your head, or do you go for understanding?

What about your kids? Do the people who are teaching them understand what they're teaching, or did they read a book about it last summer? Are your kids learning through memorization?

If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend Mr. Feynman's book. It's a quick read. It's entertaining. It can really change how you think!

Labels: all blogs, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

The other day, I was working in the garage with a friend building some new shelves to help us manage our rapidly deminimalizing lifestyle. When I build things, I tend to picture them in my mind and then construct them without drawing sketches etc.

My friend asked me where I'd learned to build like that. I realized it's something that I've always had in my life. My dad is a real "tools" guy. As far back as I can remember, I have always been involved in building this or fixing that, everything from putting up studs for walls to repairing clutches for washing machines to replacing brake shoes and brake lines in cars. It's just part of how I grew up.

My friend said, "so much for 'know one, accomplish all'."

I replied, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, with you, it's more like 'know everything, accomplish anything'."

This got me thinking.

Know Everything, Accomplish Anything
Many of you are probably familiar with the phrase "Know One, Accomplish All". It's essentially an admonition against dabbling. It implies that, by truly investing yourself in one discipline, you'll be able to do anything.

I've always liked the phrase. I know many people who always seem to be deeply invested in their passion of the moment. They flit from idea to idea, theory to theory, discipline to discipline, and so on. They run on inspiration, not perspiration.

In these cases, knowing 'one' would be way better than knowing 'none'.

However, I now realize that, if you're past the dabbling phase, the 'know one, accomplish all' approach can be severely limiting. If you're someone who has the wherewithal to invest yourself deeply in understanding a discipline, then there are many conceptual breakthroughs that you can only acheive when you're well grounded in multiple disciplines.

For example, I never really understood English grammar until I learned French. Within the single language, it was very difficult to discern the exceptions and the rules. English was simply too familiar. As I learned French, I picked up a new way of thinking about language, one that I might not have found learning only English. The French-based perspective improved my English.

When I worked in the research group at Bell Laboratories, my colleagues were all PhD's in electrical engineering, computer science and physics. I didn't have a PhD and my background was in music. Still, I did quite well in the organization receiving high ratings and promotions. My training in music gave me a different perspective and way of thinking about technology problems. This allowed me to achieve breakthroughs that wouldn't have come otherwise.

In short, I'm really starting to like the "know everything, accomplish anything" way of thinking.

Staying Young
I recently heard a news story about the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, Minnesota. This is an order of nuns who on average live well into their 90s and who seem to thrive to the very end of their lives.

About twenty years ago, researchers at the University of Minnesota began a study on the nuns who, in addition to their long lives seemed to have no incidence of Alzheimer's. The nuns not only participated in the study, but also agreed to donate their brains to the project (posthumously, that is).

The amazing part is that, when autopsied, many of the nuns' brains appeared to have the physiological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease. Yet, none of them showed any of the symptoms while alive. It turns out that the nuns stay active throughout their lives (one receptionist was 102), and that they are constantly learning new things and new disciplines. The thinking is that, by actively learning and putting into practice new ideas and disciplines, their brains are always building new pathways, including those that bypass the Alzheimer's.

I'm sure that my explanation above is not up-to-snuff from a medical perspective, but I find the concept intriguing. If we stay active and if we actively learn new things, we may actually increase our lifespans and avoid dementia.

What Do You Mean by 'Is'?
It just occurred to me that my use of the word "know" may not be specific enough. By 'know', I'm not talking about the Trivial Pursuitish, Jeopardiacal memorization of facts; I'm talking about a functional and applicable understanding of how things work. I don't believe that memorizing without understanding will get you there.

A Little Experiment
I'd like to invite you to join me in a little experiment. First, only do this if you've already got the "know one" part down, otherwise, well...

Anyway, if you've invested yourself in and become really accomplished in a specific discipline, pick another, seemingly incompatible discipline that you find appealing, but in which you have not invested. For example, if you're an painter, it might be time to take up bowling. If you're an accountant, it might be time to take up singing. If you're a classical piano player, it might be time to take up jazz. If you're a Catholic, it might be Protestantism or Judaism.

Over the next few months, invest yourself in learning and really understanding the new discipline. As you do so, don't do it from a critical perspective, but instead, do so from the perspective of naive initiate who loves the discipline and really, really, really wants to learn and practice it.

My hypothesis is that, after three months, you will not only have acquired an understanding of something new, but that you will also have developed far better understanding of what you already knew.

Have a great Friday!

Labels: all blogs, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

As a kid, I did terribly in school. I just never really understood what the teachers were saying. I had a hard time paying attention and the days seemed to drag on forever. I couldn't do math, I couldn't write well, and when it came to taking multiple selection tests, I could come up with reasons for any one of the answers being correct. I would actually do worse than random.

To compound matters a bit, I totally missed social cues, I was overweight, I was terrible at sports and my mom insisted on me having a crew cut. In fifth grade, I became the kid in class that everyone else had to beat up in order to be "cool".

Magic
Then something magical happened. One day at school, they brought all the fifth graders into the gym for a presentation by the music teacher. He had a huge array of band instruments that he and others demonstrated for us. One man picked up a tenor saxophone and played this amazing jazz solo.

I fell in love.

At the end of the presentation, they handed us forms that we could take to our parents if we wanted to begin taking band lessons at school. I took two, just to be safe.

A few weeks later, I received my brand new conn student-model tenor saxophone which I didn't put down until I could play something, anything. As I held the saxophone and blew through it, I imagined all the cool saxophone players I'd seen on TV or in the movies. I became them.

Finally a Win!
I don't know that it was genetics or environment or passion or vision or simply not being able to do anything else well, but as a fifth grader I got really, really good at playing saxophone. By the middle of the year, the band director arranged for me to go daily to the junior high to play with the eighth grade band where I became the "first chair" saxophone player.

One day after school, I was walking home with a friend and several of the boys from class walked up to us, surrounding us a looking for a fight. I got ready for my usual get-beat-up scenario in which I never actually fought back. I just kind of took it.

As the other boys went through the litany of taunts and pushes that always preceded the beating part, my friend said, "Hey, you know he's playing sax in the eighth grade band and he's first chair!"

Suddenly, everyone stopped! Magic again. One of the guys helped me off the ground. Another picked up my stuff. And yet another picked up my sax case and offered to carry it for me. We all proceeded to walk home.

I never got beat up again.

Special Treatment
By eighth grade, I still wasn't doing well in academics, but I was doing great with music. I also started to do well with things that weren't taught traditionally. Whenever I listened to someone teach or read something in a book, I always managed to come up with at least three or four ways to interpret it. So, I was never sure what they meant.

However, when I could learn by doing, by practicing, I could discover for myself what worked and what didn't. Although my science grades were poor, I ended up winning a first place in the state science fair with a binary computer that my dad helped me to build from discarded telephone relays. Hands-on worked.

In high school, several teachers created special classes just for me. For example, Mr. Greenberg, who was running a film making class (using super-eight film cameras), created a film scoring class just for me. He let me compose and record film scores for the movies that people made in the film class.
The Mr. Ganzman created a music theory class for me. I started writing more and more music. By fifteen, I could sit with a sheet of music paper in front of me and write down all the parts for the orchestration simply hearing them in my head. (It's funny, I still can't read music, but whatever I hear I can write).

I still had problems with focus and distraction, so I would sit in the living room on the floor, my feet stretched out under the coffee table with both the TV and the radio on. It seemed that the more cacophonous the environment, the easier it was for me to concentrate.

One evening, as I sat in the living room writing the score for a musical I was working on, my dad walked in. Seeing the TV on, hearing the radio and seeing no text books, he said, "Hey, it's a school night. Why aren't you doing anything?"

He sent me to my room to do homework. I learned to work on music when my dad wasn't around.

What Works for You?
Today, I still have difficulty focusing in environments designed to provide limited distraction. I do well in loud and crowded coffee shops, or on subway cars, or with the TV and radio blaring. I also still have a difficult time learning in typical classroom settings or from textbooks. But, when I approach new topics as I do music, with passion, awareness and practice, I can learn anything.

I do what works for me.

Have you or your kids had similar experiences? Perhaps it's an inability to pay attention or stay focused? Perhaps you suspect your child of being "really smart", yet he or she doesn't do well in school? Maybe they seem to spend all their time on things that don't matter?

I believe that each of us has the ability to do well when we find the model that works for us. The clues are often hidden in the things we gravitate to or the places where we feel most comfortable. When our comfort zone and our optimal approach are outside the norm, the response is typically to try to get us to conform.

Perhaps that's the wrong answer. Perhaps the answer is to deeply explore what works and then expand on it.

Happy Tuesday!

Labels: all blogs, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

"No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try."

-- Yoda, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

I've been debating whether or not to call this blog, There is No Try or Are You European, Part Two.

A few weeks ago, Iris and I had the most wonderful weekend with friends and family. We saw a great performance by Melody Gardot, a blues/jazz singer from Philadelphia with and amazing story and a monster band.

The next day, Iris and I were talking about the concert and about my opinions regarding Iris' capacity to sing as well as Melody. I had determined that the Iris' could sing as well as Melody if she simply decided to; Iris had a different opinion.

Pragmatic Truth
As we conversed, it became clear that Iris was thinking about my comments as being true or not true. I was thinking about them being useful or not useful. (By the way, it took me a while to figure this out.)

I guess that I tend to think about truth from a practical perspective, (i.e., does it work or not) when others tend to think about truth from a factual perspective (i.e., is it true or not).

Truth as Cause, Not Effect
Okay, most of us grew up with the notion of truth being a statement that accurately represents facts. Others might associate truth with belief more than facts; someone is being truthful when they say things that they believe are factual (whether or not their perceptions are accurate.)

Whether you define truth as factual or honest, I'd like to introduce the idea of truth being causal.

1. What we believe is true causes us to filter information so that we see only evidence that supports what we believe.
   
2. What we believe is true causes us to effect (bring into existence) facts that reflect our beliefs.

You see examples of item one every day. For example, in the US, we're having a great debate over national health care. The people who want a public health insurance plan all see evidence that not only supports it, but mandates it. The people who don't want a public plan see evidence of it being the end of democracy. Almost everyone has almost no data (relative to the volumes of data that are available). Yet, most of us feel strongly that our beliefs are well founded and true.

For item two, we simply need to look at ourselves. In particular, consider the number of things in your life that you have believed you could not do. Include all the "I think I can" beliefs masquerading as "I can" beliefs.

You know... I can't write well... I just don't get computers... I tried skiing and it was a disaster... I'll never be able to do advanced math... I just don't know how to relate to people...

Now, how many of those beliefs have you successfully challenged by doing the very thing you believed you couldn't do?

Of those cases (excluding the ones where someone simply took you by the hand and dragged you through the process), how often did the accomplishment precede the belief change and how often did belief change precede the accomplishment?

My guess is that, there are many things in your life that you've believed you can't do that you don't do. In fact, the truth of the can't may be so strong that you don't even consider the option any more.

Pragmatic Optimism
As I typed Pragmatic Optimism, it occurred to me that I have many friends who would consider the phrase to be an oxymoron and the phrase Pragmatic Pessimism to be redundant. Nonetheless, I would say that:
From a dictionary perspective: optimism is a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome, i.e., a filter that allows through the positive evidence. Since we're filtering anyway, why not filter out the negative?
But How?
Before getting to how to become optimistic, let me quickly address why not. Although there are many reasons to be pessimistic (or realistic), it boils down to either fear of disappointment or the belief that pessimism causes us to work harder.

Get over it!

Now, if you'd like to become more optimistic, I've come up with some steps that you can take. If you're steadfastly a lost cause, then you still might want to take these steps with your children and then let them drag you out of your loser, pessimistic existence after they become optimistic dynamos.

Step 1: Laugh and let go! Don't take everything so seriously. We tend to invest our pessimistic energy in areas of our life that we've considered important or that we take seriously. So, it's time to have some fun with it and laugh.

Step 2: Place yourself on a pessimism-free diet for one week. This works best if you advertise it and ask everyone around you to call you on anything that you do or say that even hints at pessimism. Importantly, when they do call you on it, you're not allowed to argue or explain. Just take it in.

Step 3: Pick something that you really want to do, but can't, and decide that you can do it. Suspend disbelief. We're not talking about I think I can here; we're talking about I can.

Step 4: Craft Little Wins. This may be the important part. Break down the thing that you want to accomplish into small enough chunks where you can start accomplishing some of it. Don't take on all of calculus at once; just do some basic arithmetic and work it until you're good at it. If you want to learn piano, before you dive into theory and scales and exercises, learn to play a couple of chords so that you can accompany yourself on a song or two.

As you do this, you build evidence to support you optimism.

Have an enjoyable optimistic Tuesday!

Labels: all blogs, business, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

A Practical Guide To Studentship: Part IV
Are you someone who's never been able to do math? Perhaps you've been told that you're tone-deaf and can't carry a tune in a bucket? Do reading and writing come to you with difficulty? Do legal documents scare you?

Regardless of what your learning challenges have been, I'm here to tell you that there is absolutely nothing that you cannot learn how to do.

Step One: Abandon Disbelief
For those of you who responded with a smirk or a sense of doubt to my use of the phrase absolutely nothing, thinking "Hey, I can't learn to golf like Tiger Woods!" or "I could never learn to play guitar like Jimmi Hendrix", we have step one. An important prerequisite for great studentship is believing that you can accomplish what you set out to accomplish, even if you don't feel that way.

This abandonment of disbelief doesn't require a dialogue or counseling session; it doesn't have to be permanent. Basically, just set aside your doubts for a while. Try on the belief that you can do what you want to do. It's like trying on a pair of shoes. Just do it!

Step Two: Learn Slowly
When trying to learn something that we believe we can't learn, we make the experience less than enjoyable. This causes us to rush through exercises, assignments and readings. We get into the mode of trying to get them done, not trying to learn from them.

When we rush we incorporate inaccuracies into our learning. What we learn is wrong.

For example, the key to playing blazing fast guitar solos is to practice really, really slowly with a metronome. Importantly, you never want to play faster than you can play clearly and accurately.

When you play faster than you can play without making mistakes, you actually learn the mistakes, not the notes you want to play. Your so-called muscle memory acquires the mistakes and and can recall them. If you find yourself making the same mistake over and over, it's because you've taught yourself the mistake.

This is the case for anything that you learn, what goes in is what get's learned.

So, if you want to get more from your reading, read slowly. Pause and ask yourself what you read. If you can't recall or are unsure of what you've read, read it again. You'll be able to get through even the most complicated text.

If you want to learn math, do the problems slowly. Check your work and see where you made mistakes. If you did make mistakes, do the problem again. Make sure that what goes into your memory is the process of solving the problem, not making mistakes.

Most importantly, never conclude a learning session immediately after making a mistake. Always end on a solid run of the exercise.

Step Three: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
It's nearly impossible not to learn something if you do it lots and lots and lots of times. In fact, what we often call talent could easily be summed up in terms of the number of repetitions required to acquire a new skill: the fewer the repetitions, the greater the talent.

Imagine two blocks of walnut. One has rough edges and a course texture; the other is relatively smooth and the edges square. Either block of wood could become a beautiful walnut cube, but one may require more planning and sanding than the other.

This is the case for any skill that we want to acquire. Some of us are the rough block and others the smooth block. The difference has no implication to our potential. It's just a matter of how much work it will take.

People often ask me how I'm able to do all I do with the piano and I always go back to spending eight hours a day practicing when I was music school. It's not so much talent as repetition.

Right Brained People Can Do Math
As a kid, I could never do math. I was totally right-brained as it were.

When I found myself in a position where it was learn calculus or never get ahead at work, I thought I was done for. Out of desperation, I started treating math like playing piano. Rather than memorizing or reading and reading and reading, I simply started practicing calculus problems. I bought five calculus books that came with the answers to all the exercises in the back of the book.

I spent hours practicing math, even repeating problems I'd already done.

I ended up getting the only A on the final exam. Ever since then, math has been easy.

Step Four: Pay Attention
When Iris and I talked about repetition, she recalled working in the tulip fields as a kid and getting paid based on the number of crates of bulbs she could process in a day. She remembers starting out with just a single crate and working her way up to twenty. Through years of repetitive work, she got better and better.

I said, "Yup, repetition really works."

But then Iris pointed out that there were many adults who had been doing the work for decades and still processed only ten or twelve crates per day. There were also families of migrant workers who would come in and process twice as many crates as Iris. They seemed totally dialed in to what they were doing.

As we talked about it, we decided that repetition works best when you really pay attention and are aware of what you're doing. If you're playing scales, be aware of how your fingers move from key to key. Are they tense or relaxed, is there a flow in motion or is it stilted?

If you're reading a book, how does your body feel? Are you really present or are you distracted? What are the words really saying?

A Second Set of Eyes
Sometimes, you can boost your awareness by having someone watch you and provide feedback. For example, as Iris has been learning to sing and to play drums, I often sit and listen to her, paying attention to her pitch, where she's placing her voice, whether she's ahead of or behind the beat and so on. Since Iris is just starting out, it's helpful to have someone else paying attention with her.

As we've been doing this, Iris has been picking up on these elements of awareness and starting hear them all herself. She records herself singing, and then plays it back listening with the same awareness. The process has improved her skills amazingly.

You Absolutely, Positively Can Learn Anything!
I totally believe that if you:

1. Abandon Disbelief


2. Acquire new knowledge and skills slowly and accurately


3. Practice, practice, practice (slowly and accurately), and;


4. Pay attention as you do so,

you'll amaze yourself with what you are able to accomplish.

One more thing: if you do the above, you'll never have to memorize anything.

So, what are you going to learn?

Have a great weekend!

Labels: all blogs, business, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

One of the things about me that some people seem to respond negatively to (sometimes with great hostility) is that I actively have no principles. For me, the beginning of principle is the end of thinking. We take a belief, we somehow canonize it and make it more than true; the belief takes on properties of being God-ordained or absolutely true. We call the belief a principle.

To be clear, I'm not talking about scientific principles or underlying chemical elements that form a substance. I'm talking about moral or ethical standards and judgments. I believe that these serve not only to end thinking, but are the basis for breakdown of relationships, strife and even war. So, I try to live a life that is as unprincipled as possible.

Words Help Us Avoiding Thinking
As we grow and acquire language, we begin to see and think less and less. Consider the automobile. Although automobiles vary in size, shape, color and sound, we still manage to call everything from a VW Beetle to a Lincoln Continental, car. If we we look at various cars and think about them, enumerable differences emerge. We could even look at two identical orange Beetles and spend all day identifying how they differ. Yet, whether talking about a Toyota Corolla or a Porsche Carrera GT we simply say, "go get in the car".

The word car provides great economy in communicating. We don't have to say, "go get the orange colored semi-circular shaped metallic object with four circular rubber objects supporting it".

We simply say, "go get the car".

Words and generalizations save time and thought making it possible to do more.

However, any time we use a word that can describe a broad set of objects or actions, we've in effect stereotyped those objects or actions, painting them with a broad brush if you will. We do so because we find the stereotyping useful.

When Words Go Awry
The problem with the wonderful economy of words is that we can get lazy in their use. We're all familiar with the bad use of stereo-typing, e.g., all men belong in the kitchen, all blonds are smarter than other people, all Finns are all blond, etc.

However, there are many instances where the use of stereotypes is more subtle. In these cases, the stereotypes have become so integrated into our thought processes that they've replaced thought.

The Power of a Word
Consider the word education which has become somewhat a moral imperative. We have programs with passionate names such as No Child Left Behind. Parents stress over whether or not their child will get into a good college and whether or not they'll be able to pay for it. It seems that no one even questions whether or not their child should go to college. It's just a matter of how to get them to the best one possible.

This evolution of the word education has become problematic at best.

First, what do we mean by education? From one perspective, everything we do with our children is part of their education: teaching them to tie their shoes... teaching them to cook... teaching them to change a tire... teaching them to play piano... taking them to church... reading with them... and so on.

Yet for many, education has evolved to almost exclusively meaning school and, in particular, college or university.

Second, education has been intimately linked to one's capacity to earn a living. If you don't get a good education, you won't be able to afford a house or a car or children, etc. This implication seems be accepted without question.

The Problem with Education
By allowing education to become synonymous with school, we often don't pursue the other, less formal avenues of education that are so useful to our kids such as teaching them to cook or change a tire or build a wall. They miss out.

Further, one can easily make a strong case that investing the money one would have paid for college can easily yield greater financial return than going to college, specially when you consider all the people who graduate from college and never find or pursue work in their field of study.

By allowing the word education to mean going to college in order to make a living, no one seems to question whether or not education is a good idea. It's not just a good idea, it's an imperative.

As a result, hundreds of thousands young people spend billions of dollars annually on formal educational programs that will never bring them to where they really want to go; money and time that might have been better invested or spent on educational activities that suited their desires and interests.

Why Loyalty is Stupid
So, what's all this got to do with loyalty. Loyalty is another word that has evolved from something that simply meant faithful to a person, ideal, custom, cause, or duty to a sort of incantation that obligates someone to choose a side in a conflict independent of information and thought.

In situations like this, even the idea of investigating the facts or asking thoughtful questions may be characterized as challenging and disloyal.

For example, lets say that you have two dear friends who are divorcing. Knowing your friends and their situation, you may have seen cases where either one was less than reasonable, more than demanding, less than charitable, unfair and/or unkind. You may have experienced arguments and fights that were the fault of either one, both or no one.

Still, what often happens when friends divorce is that you will be expected to choose sides, even when choosing sides is totally unnecessary. You may be someone who simply wants to take each event as it comes and evaluate it based on what you're seeing in the moment without bias. In which case, you might be accused of being disloyal by one or both friends. Rather than being viewed as someone who might provide a voice of reason you're viewed as a traitor.

Principles vs. Integrity
In the end, whenever we forfeit our ability to ask questions and analyze the answers, we forfeit our intellectual integrity. Whether the absence of questioning and thought is the result of wholesale acceptance of terminology and stereotypes or of buying into someone's vociferously voiced morals and principles, we surrender who we are in the process.

I invite you to identify the words in your life that serve as principles and then to explore what you really mean by them, whether or not you really buy into them, and if so, how they affect your integrity.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Labels: all blogs, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

In our first article in this series we defined studentship and how we measure it. In the second article, we talked about the importance creating a vision of who we want to become when embarking upon a new learning adventure. In this installment, we'll talk about finding a teacher or mentor.

What Type of Student Are You?
What makes a teacher great depends largely on your studentship and what you want to learn. The stronger your studentship, the more options you'll have. The best teacher may be a single teacher, a group of teachers, or perhaps no teacher at all.

For example, if you struggle with motivation and persistence, then you may require a teacher who is a strong motivator and task master. If you're self-motivated and persistent, then you can focus more exclusively on finding teachers with strong content and understanding.

Consider learning to diagnose and fix computers. On one end of the spectrum, you could sign up for a yearlong course that provides a classroom, materials, a lab and many other students with whom you can share and work. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the old junky computer that someone is ready to discard, a couple of books, and google. Either of these scenarios can provide an optimal learning experience depending on your level and quality of studentship. There's no right or wrong answer, it's just important to calibrate yourself in a meaningful and accurate way.

Studentship Assessment
In the following assessment the answers involve a scale of one to ten. Before answering each question, calibrate your answer by first identifying someone who exemplifies a true ten and someone who exemplifies a true one. Then, place yourself on that scale.

For example, when answering the question on resourcefulness, picture of the most self-reliant, independent, never-needs-help person you can think of and make them the ten. Then think of the person who is the most opposite and make them a one.

1. Do you learn better in a large group, small group or one-on-one (one-to-one being a ten)?
   
   
2. How self-motivated are you (ten being strongly self-motivated)?
   
   
3. How resourceful are you, that is, how good are you at finding resources, references, answers and tools without assistance (ten being the most resourceful) ?
   
   
4. Do you learn more from lectures and reading, or do you learn more from doing exercises and homework (one being exclusively from lectures and reading and ten being exclusively from exercises and homework)?
   
   
5. How quickly do you get frustrated when you can't find the answer to questions that impede your progress (ten being never getting frustrated and one being immediately frustrated)?
   
   
6. How open are you to new ideas and concepts (ten being completely open)?
   
   
7. How tightly do you hold on to who you are and your way of doing things (ten being completely unbound)?
   
   
8. Are you a hard worker (ten being the hardest worker you know)?

Scoring Your Assessment
Add up your scores from the six questions above.

If your score was 60 or above, then you're probably ready to jump into a self-directed learning program where you avail yourself of many resources including practitioners, articles and books, and online classes and videos.

If your score was from 30 to 59, you may be ready for independent study, but want to find a coach or mentor who can help you structure your program and provide you feedback and guidance as you go.

If your score was below 30, then you'll likely want to start with a well structured more formal educational program such as those provided by community colleges or community adult education programs.

All of the above can work well and be quite effective. As you develop your studentship, you'll learn to rely less and less on formal structure and external resources, and more and more on your own skill set.

Finding a Teacher
In this series, we're focusing on the art of studentship itself, not learning a specific topic or skill.

For those of you who scored lower than 50, we'll address challenges such as working independently, becoming resourceful, gaining flexibility and staying motivated in upcoming installments.

If you scored 50 or greater, then the following is a set of tips on finding a great teacher or instructor who can help you work independently towards your goals.

Find Active Practitioners
There's an old axiom: those that can't, teach!

Oftentimes, the people who are best skilled at a task are not the best teachers of a task. They might not to be patient with novices or poor students. They can have little interest in providing motivation or guidance. They're quite interested, even obsessed by their area of skill and expertise. They want to share with others who are similarly motivated and have something to give back.

On the other hand, many teachers are more interested in teaching than doing. Oftentimes, the subject itself is only of marginal interest; they may not be particularly good at it. It's the process of teaching that they most enjoy.

The benefit of being a great student is that you can tap people who are amazing practitioners but have little interest in teaching. By showing up with a vision, passion, persistence, independence and resourcefulness, you can often coax great practitioners into sharing with you the things that make them great.

So, if you can ingest and digest input from a great practitioner (who may not be a great teacher), you'll be able to learn things that would never have been available to you otherwise.

Does the Teacher Actually Understand?
When I began working in technology, I encountered many concepts where I had never heard the words used to describe them, let alone understanding them. I would often ask people to explain them to me. Oftentimes, we would conclude that the concepts were simply to complex for me.

I shared this with my dad who himself had spent a career in technology. I said, "Dad, some of these concepts are so complex that even geniuses can't explain them to me."

My dad simply replied, "That's because they don't understand them."

Since then, I've decided that if I can't explain something, it's simply because I don't understand it. I've also used this as a metric by which I gauge the understanding of others.

As you interview potential mentors or teachers, ask them questions about their area of expertise. See how well they translate esoteric concepts into accessible language. If you find a lot of roadblocks, then you may want to move on to another candidate.

Hands On Experience
The only way to really learn something is through hands on experience. Whether you're looking into a formal group training program or one-on-one guidance, make sure that you have an opportunity to apply what you're learning while being instructed.

For example, a great axiom when teaching something on the computer is, if they ain't typing, they ain't learning. So, if someone were instructing you on the use of a new formula in an Excel spreadsheet or how to play a riff on the piano or how to bake a souffle, make sure that you're the one doing the work and they're the one doing the instruction. If the teacher doesn't want to work in this manner, then it's time to move on.

Discipline vs. Religion
Many teachers develop an almost religious perspective on what they teach demanding near exclusive devotion to the discipline. They may insist that it's impossible to really understand what they're teaching or to put it into practice while pursuing or adhering to other "competing" disciplines.

There is some merit to focus and deep-dive pursuit of a field of study or specific discipline. If you're someone who's bounced from idea to idea or pursuit to pursuit, then this type of approach might be quite useful to you.

On the other hand, there's much to be learned by comparing and contrasting different approaches and disciplines. You may discover breakthroughs that exist in none of them alone. You needn't avoid the religiously committed teachers; recognize that you'll likely pass them by if your studentship is solid.

Alphabet Soup
Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with hundreds and hundreds of people with advanced degrees, certifications and the like. I've concluded a several things.

First, bell curve distribution seems to apply to any population, even an elite population. The skills, capacity and understanding among a group of PhD's varies significantly.

Second, often times, the people with the credentials are not themselves the practitioners. Essentially, they're experts without experience.

Thirdly, many advanced education programs involve proving orthodoxy and compliance with a discipline. The burden of proving orthodoxy is that the process often drives out creativity and innovation.

When finding a teacher, set aside credentials and certifications. Instead, ask practical questions about their experience with and understanding of what you want to learn. You may find that the best teacher is the least credentialed one.

Conclusion
Step One: assess your level of studentship and learning style.

If you're someone who is resourceful, self-motivated, open to new ways of learning, and able to work independently then, it's time to find someone to work with you. If not, we'll address those challenges later.

Step Two: find yourself a great mentor or teacher with whom to work. Find a teacher who:

1. is an active and passionate practitioner of what you want to learn
2. really understands what they do as evidenced by their ability to explain it
   
3. is willing to provide you guidance through hands-on instruction
4. is open to other disciplines and ideas

Step Three: sell that great teacher on your great studentship.

Homework Assignment
With a strong vision of what you want to learn and who you want to become, and confidence that you have what it takes to be a great student, identify a set of people who would be great mentors or instructors. Using the attributes discussed in our survey, put together your pitch on why you would be a great student. Go make a connection.

Next Time
In our next installment, we'll being talking about motivation, independence, persistence, resourcefulness and flexibility.

Have a great Monday!

Labels: all blogs, business, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

In our last installment, we defined what we mean by studentship and how we are going to measure studentship. Also, we received an assignment to determine an area in which we would like to develop our studentship. Assuming you've determined that area, let's move on to the next step.


Building Vision
An essential skill of any great student is the ability to create, develop, refine and sustain vision. Why is this important? A clear and specific vision of what you want to learn and who you want to become enables you to chart the best course to where you're going, make decisions as to what's important and what's not, and sustain you when the going gets tough.

For example, if you want to become a great runner, having a strong vision of running with strength and agility across Colorado Rockies can help you when it's time to get on the treadmill at 6AM. A strong vision of millions of people reading, enjoying and discussing your book can help you to break through writer's block. Seeing yourself on stage, accompanying yourself on guitar in front of thousands of people, can help you get past the stage where your fingers simply won't do what you're asking them to do.

Making It Vivid
To make vision effective, it's important to make it vivid with clarity and specificity.

Consider the skill set you want to acquire or develop. Now, picture yourself in full mastery of that skill set. What does it look like?

For example, if you want to become a musician, what does it look like when you succeed? Are you a singer or do you play an instrument? What instrument do you play? What type of music do you sing? What songs do you play? Where do you play? In coffee shops? In large arenas? What type of audiences come to hear you? Are you recording albums? Are you writing original music?

Play with it. Enjoy the process! Make your vision big, clear and specific.

Perhaps you want to be an Microsoft Excel wizard? Yes, you can create a vision for that! What does it look like to be an Excel wizard? Where and how do you use your skills? What kinds of applications are you supporting? Are you working for a large company or a small one? Are you a specialist called in on high priority projects? What does it feel like to be recognized as an expert? What are the benefits of your expertise? Who do you help? Can you see the smiles on their faces when you solve their problems?

Again, make it big, clear and specific.

Regardless of what it is that you want to learn, the key to vision is clarity, specificity and making it as big as possible. If you want to paint, then play it all the way out to the opening of your first exhibit. If you want to write, then play it out to the publication of your first article or book.

Identifying Your Heroes
A great way to make your vision more concrete is to identify people who represent what you want to become. Ideally, you want to pick someone whom you know and have access to. If there's no one like that around, then pick someone whom you can study beyond the actual skills you want to acquire: someone about whose life and personality you can learn.

Once you've identified someone on whom to model yourself, study them. If they're someone you know, ask them questions about what they do and how they do it. Ask them questions about what motivates them. Ask them questions about they're learning process and studentship. Ask them about the times they felt like quitting. What did they do? How did they break through?

If it's someone you don't have access to, then google them! Read books and articles about them. Study their work.

Bring to life the person or people who best represent who you want to become.

Homework
Your homework assignment is to create a vision for yourself based on what you want to accomplish. Create your vision in as big and as concrete a way as possible.

Play with it. Write it down. Refine it. Share it with friends. Throw the whole thing out and start again. Identify heroes and bring your vision to life. Most of all, delight in the process!

Next
In our next installment, we'll talk about translating vision into a practical action plan.

Labels: all blogs, business, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy

Over the past months, I've found myself in consulting or teaching positions across a variety of environments ranging from starting businesses to developing software to improvising music to writing marketing materials to editing movies. In each instance, someone has brought me a task with which they wanted help. Several people were working on starting their first businesses. Others were writing letters or resumes. Still others wanted to learn to play songs on guitar or piano without the need of chord sheets or sheet music.

I love working with people in situations like this, specially when they're prepared to work hard and learn.

This morning, it occurred to me that, as much as I enjoy any one of these disciplines, what I enjoy most is the process of learning itself. In some ways, the disciplines (e.g., language, business, music, technology, etc.) are just fuel for the learning process; it's learning and growth that I love. Although people might call me an accomplished musician or strong business person or computer wiz, I believe that what I am is an excellent student. Everything else is just a byproduct of studentship.

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd share thoughts on learning and studentship. If you find them useful, I'd love to hear about it; if you find them not useful, I'd love to hear about it as well.

What is Studentship
Before diving into how to become a good student, let's define what studentship means (to me).

For me, studentship refers to one's ability to acquire and put into practice new knowledge and skills.

Note: I didn't include acquisition of knowledge alone as that would refer to memorizing, not studentship. Also, the putting into practice part is essential; for me, a skill not made manifest in practice doesn't exist.

How Do We Measure Studentship?
Using this definition, the metrics of studentship are based on one's capacity to acquire and put into practice new knowledge and skills in a given period of time at a given level of quality. So, we have three factors:

1. The quantity or volume of skill and knowledge acquired (volume v);
2. The length of time required to acquire that knowledge and skill (unit of time t); and,
3. The quality with which the skills and knowledge can be practiced (quality q).

So we would measure studentship in terms of volume times quality all divided by time, or vq/t. Let's call the measurement a learning quotient.

For example, let's say that Iris has the ability to learn one new song (volume) at a level where she feels comfortable singing it in front of an audience (quality) per day (time). Then, the Iris Learning Quotient (ILQ) for songs would be: one audience-grade song per day.

What I like about this model is that it can be completely self-relative to the student. The model is completely based on Iris, what she wants to learn, her definition of quality and how quick she is.

One Wrinkle
To tune up this model a bit, we need to think of volume in terms of a percentage growth, not absolute growth. In the case of Iris' capacity to acquire new songs, we would think of the number of songs acquired per day compared to the number of songs she already knows. If Iris already knew 100 songs, then one new song would represent 1% growth (one divided by 100).

Why is this modification important? Moving from absolute growth to relative growth helps us to account for the things that we already know; it makes our learning metric discipline-independent. For example, as Iris learns songs, she develops her singing skills. As she becomes a better singer, she increases her capacity to add new songs to her repertoire.

Over time, Iris would depend less on her learning ability to acquire new songs, and more on her singing ability. As we measure learning, we don't want to confuse the acquisition of new skills with the use of existing skills. By making the volume relative to what we already are capable of doing, we help avoid this confusion.

Three Legged Stool
Okay, so we now have a definition of studentship:


We also have three metrics that we can combine to measure studentship:



Caveats...
There are a couple of things I'd like to point out.

First, in this article and the articles that follow, I won't be writing about things that are true. This is a practical guide to studentship; I'm simply writing things that I've seen work. If you're looking for truth, well...

Second, if not everything works for you, then, it might be because some of these ideas don't apply to your situation. Or, it might be that you haven't learned them yet.

Over the coming days, I'll talk about ways to put this model of studentship into effect in your life. I hope that many of you will enjoy and benefit from this series. I believe that you'll find that there are many things you believed depended on talent or native ability, that in fact, simply require good studentship.

Homework
To make this series more useful, I'd like to ask you to each select something in your life that you've always wanted to learn, but have decided was inaccessible to you simply because you didn't have the talent or the skill or the gift or whatever. Alternatively, there might be something you've been doing for a long time, but feel stuck in terms of your development.

In either case, we'll be using your personal quest to put into practice some of the things we'll be talking about through the series.

Have a great Tuesday!

Labels: all blogs, business, education, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy