Want to be a better learner Learn from a baby

[Music]

hello everyone

so let me start by sharing a small story

about my one year old son zain so let me

call zayn on the camera

so zayn is an active learner and he will

be

one year old in a few days time so he

absolutely loves learning

he if we give him books he looks at it

very intently

one of his favorite pastimes is

listening to bedtime stories

so he can get cranky throughout the day

and he would demand

that whenever he is about to sleep he

would get hold of his mom

or me and make us tell him stories

so whenever we are telling him stories

he would nod along so for example

if i tell him a story about lion

he would listen to it very very

carefully and

he would demand you know what kind of

noise does lion make

so the point that i’m trying to make is

that zane learns through observation

and that is how all the babies learn

so there are a few key takeaways that i

would like to share with you

as to how babies learn and how adults

can learn from babies

and improve their learning outcomes so

this is what my talk is going to be

about

now since i have handed over zayn to his

mom let me continue with this talk

so essentially there are three things

that i have observed by

analyzing and learning through zane’s

journey so first and foremost is that

zane learns through

observation so right behind this door

there is a garden

in that garden every morning my wife i

and zayn

go out we roam around and zayn gets very

excited

by looking at flowers and his brain

functions in a way that

every time he sees a colorful things his

first intent is to go and eat it

right so this is something that we have

taught zayn and we have tried to help

him understand

the things that are supposed to be eaten

versus not to do this

we take him to the dining table we show

him different type of food

and we eat from his plate so that way he

gets an understanding

of things that are supposed to be eaten

versus not so he is learning through

pure observation

the second way zayn is learning is

through a positive

learning ecosystem for example my wife i

zane’s grandparents we spend a lot of

time effort and energy

in terms of creating a positive learning

environment for him

for example my wife and i use an app

called as duolingo

and we are trying to teach zayn spanish

why are that up so whenever we get a

chance we make zayn learn through that

app

so this is so we are trying to foster a

positive learning ecosystem for him

and third and finally i believe that

zayn learns a lot of things through

intuition

to give an example here so zane recently

started learning on how to get down from

his bed

so this is a very dangerous activity and

we get very scared

but he has figured out a way by showing

trust in him that he i can get

down from the width so he just has a

very funny way he just

turns around he figures out where to put

his leg and he just gets down so we

consider it to be a fairly dangerous

activity

but zane by showing trust on himself and

trusting his intuition

is able to learn how to get down now the

reason why i’m sharing these three

specific points with you is that i

believe

that this is how adults should learn as

well

now this curious intent driven mindset

goes for a toss the moment we reach the

schooling system

what happens here is that we are sold or

rather our parents are sold on the idea

of holistic learning

and we are told what rather our parents

are told that if you send your kid to a

school

it will not just be intellectual

development it will also be social

development

so for example your kid will engage with

teachers

he or she will engage with their peers

and it will be a holistic learning

opportunity for them

now this is partially true but i don’t

completely believe in this hypothesis

what ends up happening in the school

system in reality

is that it becomes an instruction style

of learning

that you go to a class you sit in a

class you absorb the lecture that is

being given and we end up spending

eighty ninety percent of the time just

doing just this

now many of you might give me a counter

argument you might say that

yaksat what might happen is that many of

us do get the opportunity to be on stage

interact with our peers so on and so

forth and that might be true

but this is not the general trend

majority of us do not end up facing the

stage

majority of us do not end up learning

practical things like personal finance

networking

or engaging with people from different

communities so on and so forth

so the point i am trying to make is that

in the schooling system

there is a very clear intent outcome

mismatch

what it means is that the intent of the

schooling system is

holistic personality development but the

outcome becomes

a mad race for getting marks so our

entire brain focuses on just getting

more and more marks

as a result we miss out on learning

several practical skills

for example as i was saying that we

might not learn a lot about personal

finance which is

an everyday thing that we need to engage

with we might not learn about networking

right we end up taking networking

classes post college in fact

we don’t end up learning creative

writing or critical thinking

so these are some of the key everyday

skills that we miss out on

and the worst part is that we get

habitual to instruction based learning

so as we reach the university level we

become so habitual

in terms of taking courses that we start

telling ourselves that hey

if i don’t get a course on stock market

or if i don’t get a course on video

editing

i will not be able to learn that skill

now this could not be further away from

the truth

you can pick up literally any skill as

long as you have that belief system in

you

the way a small baby like zayn has the

important thing

is to preserve that now let me take you

through why

having that child like curiosity is

extremely

quintessential in today’s day and age so

let me

talk about two trends one macro and one

micro that is happening currently as we

speak

so the macro trend being so we are

transitioning from a phase

where we used to learn things actively

to a phase

where we are now being forced to learn

passively so let me explain that a

little bit

for example earlier let us say five

seven years ago

what used to happen was that if we

require any data or any piece of

information

we would go on google and deliberately

search for those things for example it

could be that if i need more information

on

how to exercise well then i’ll go on

google and type that out

that hey tell me google how to do a 20

minute hit exercise

now what has started happening is that

there is a lot of passive learning that

is coming into the picture

when we scroll through our feed be it

through linkedin b

through instagram read through twitter

we end up

consuming a lot of information that we

did not even in the first place

intended to consume now if you are not

curious and careful we can get into that

endless loop

of watching youtube videos that we all

are guilty of

so this is the macro trend that is

happening and this trend is only going

to accelerate

going forward now let me talk about the

micro trend

that is going to impact our careers now

if you look at the job market

few years ago it was a brand driven

market

if you are from a great mba program or

if you are from a great undergraduate or

graduate program

your brand really mattered a lot why

because no one knew how to network

no one knew how to create a portfolio of

their profile online

no one had digital resumes so on and so

forth everyone was at a level playing

field

and your brand of your college really

impacted your career outcomes going

forward

now this trend is changing i am not

saying that your brand is not going to

matter

of course it will matter if you are from

an iit or if you are from a harvard

of course it puts you ahead in the race

but at the same time

one needs to start focusing on the

skills not because

this is a good thing to do or this is

something that will foster your personal

growth

you need to focus on the skills because

many of the people in the job market

have started doing that

they are showing that childlike

curiosity and that baby like intuition

and belief

to learn things and getting ahead in

terms of their skill development

now to succeed as an adult in this

changing learning environment

you need to create your own positive

learning ecosystem

so let me share a few tips with you and

then i’ll close out this talk so here

are three specific tips that i would

leave you with

so first and foremost you should make

your learning

passive and intuitive so all of us use

social media like quora linkedin

instagram so on and so forth so we

should go

and follow 10 good influencers on these

platforms

so this will filter out a lot of junk

that we keep receiving

and it will automatically enhance our

career outcomes going

forward it improves our passive way of

learning so this is one

the second point that you should create

a positive learning ecosystem for you

so as you might be aware that you know

when we go in college or when of nbr in

school we

really enjoy the concept of study groups

we have these late night study sessions

and late night parties so to say

and we learn a lot from our classmates

so try to form these

active learning groups and ecosystems or

micro ecosystems wherever you can

right be it in terms of solving cases or

be it in terms of gmat prep

be it in terms of doing moods so on and

so forth

third and final point that like babies

you should not

fear execution right so you should

execute wherever you get a chance

without worrying too much that how it

would impact you

for example if you have learnt a skill

make sure that you participate in a moot

get if you get an opportunity to teach

somewhere go do it there is no harm

if you get to participate on a project

or internship do it

do as many practical learning exercises

as you can

so this would make your learning outcome

holistic

with these steps i am confident that you

will find great career success in your

life

and i wish you the best and i hope that

all of us

never lose out the childlike curiosity

that all of us are born with thank you

so much for giving me this opportunity

to present my thoughts