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