Self-learning

What follows is a short story about, and an explanation of, my learning philosophy.

At the bottom are ten lessons I've drawn from my experiences as a student of learning, and as a teacher of students. 

In high school, like Mark Twain, I “never let my school interfere with my education.”

I was an average-at-best student–one of the “if he only applied himself” crowd. I much preferred to read the Physics of Star Trek or the Mismeasure of Man or some other book that I chose. 

Looking back, this was because:

1.) I learned differently than other students 

2.) and I lacked the confidence to ask questions. 

At home, I could look up a term I didn't know. But in class, you had to raise your hand. Scary! (I've since come a long way.)

At school one day, they handed out a sample college course catalog. Flipping through it, I saw I could take an Early American Literature, Quantum Physics, or Human Evolution class. But I had to get into college first!

This meant doing well on my SATs. I went to a couple test prep classes, but immediately knew they were not for me. It was just like my other classes–I sat there, passive.

So, instead, I bought some books and taught myself. Everything began to click. I realized I knew myself and my brain better than anyone else, so if I combined that knowledge with serious discipline, I could teach myself anything.

I later taught and tutored the SAT and LSAT for a large test prep company, and realized I wasn't the only one who learned differently. Mostly everyone learned differently. The test prep company geared themselves towards the 40% of students whose learning style they could predict, leaving 60% out to dry.

I left that company and began tutoring the SAT and LSAT (and later the Bar Exam) on my own. Many students were mindful of how they learned, but lacked the skills to apply it. I individualized their lesson plans, and over the course of a few weeks or months, they learned how to self-study. They saved a lot of money, and they learned valuable lessons before college, law school, or legal practice. 

Ten Lessons

Here are ten lessons I've acquired over the past few years exploring the diffusion of ideas and innovations. I will expound down the road. 

• The world knows a little bit about learning, but if we knew more, we could improve learning efficacy.

• People constantly learn from others across the street and across the world, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

• It is hard-wired in us, and when our learning objectives match our true selves, it is about as much fun as we can have.

• People innovate, but innovations are never truly original, and are always built upon evaluations of previous innovations.

• Because innovations must be created amidst uncertainty, successful innovation and diffusion is hard. Really hard. Even great ideas sometimes die through the fault of no one. 

• Each of us are stakeholders at some point, even when we do not know it. 

• One person learning something--or not learning something--can cause a ripple effect. Even a single Google search can change the world.

• The smallest of actions (and non-actions) accumulate, yielding dynamic change.

These last two are the most important, and form the basis of my life goals:  

• The greatest challenge is learning the right lesson, and then applying it correctly. This requires choosing the right source of learning, and then understanding the differences in context to apply the lesson correctly. This is difficult because lessons can be drawn from all over the place, and many are easily available, tempting us to take an easier path when a long path is needed.

• If we try really hard, and ask the right questions, we can improve our chances. 

I ask questions.

"Where's Binky?" I asked my mother.

She explained I was a big boy now, and big boys did not use binkies, so she put it somewhere because I would not need it anymore. But this did not answer my question. I asked about Binky's location, not its appropriateness! I asked where, she answered why and how. 

I never learned where Binky went, and I don't remember how my toddler brain processed this confusion. But I'd like to think it was the first time I realized there are always better questions to ask, and better answers to find.

I am currently asking questions about the following topics: 

• policy and organizational learning efficacy
• diffusion of policy ideas, experiences, knowledge, and best practices
• innovation, particularly related to alternative energy
• writing processes
• productivity, organization, and workflows
• paradigm shift from environmental to sustainability law and public policy
• why mitigating climate change requires learning efficacy, and why most are asking the wrong questions  
• the role of policy implementation, technological innovation, and public-private partnerships
• how the "laboratories of democracy" ideal could be realized by policymakers, utilities, and businesses if they started asking better questions