The Art of Learning

Time and again we have seen men and women with a fixed mindset fail at tasks, merely because of a lack of trying. Having a fixed mindset disables people to try and be better, the basic thought goes – “we are what we were”. This is simply untrue; the story of Billy Beane narrates the same. Being natural at a sport, a function, is only the starting point, but is doomed to fail if not worked upon.

Talent unused is talent misused. I have seen employees rise from nominal ranks to senior positions, and vice versa. ‘Self-development’ & ‘goal-setting’ are the two most important things when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder. In today’s world, where people start coding from a young age, to be pertinent in any organization continuous learning and development are needed. Failing to do so would be existential.

Python, Data Science, and ML/AI were all buzzwords a decade ago, but have become a reality, and learning about the same seems inevitable. Crypto, is another such field. The world around us is evolving day in and day out and keeping abreast of innovation is what is needed.

One such story is of Billy Beane, a baseball player. Billy was of the understanding that abilities are fixed in a person, as people with fixed mindsets often do. These people are afraid of trying or learning new things as they fail initially while trying out these things. A new programmer fails the first time, an experienced programmer fails each time. A code never compiles the first time. It is persistence and determination that makes a person motivated enough to learn. And it is because of this practice and repetition that a person masters the craft.

Furthermore, in today’s world, everyone expects the performance of the highest order. As an ex-Amazonian, I have firsthand witnessed what is expected out of people in Fortune companies. The ability to perform work at an elite level comes from focus and repetition itself. The starting point makes no difference if someone is unwilling to work.

Using the concept of growth, I was able to learn and master skills that put me on a pedestal of working with elite engineers at elite organizations. Success and money stay if a person works on continuous self-development. As Warren Buffet once said that he reads hundreds of papers of annual reports to invest, Shahrukh khan owns over 5000 books that he read even in his washroom at times.

A famous graph that depicts the learning curve of a human being is the Dunning-Kruger graph

As Einstein once said – “it’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”.

The next step towards building a brighter future is having a group with a similar mindset. You are what you think. Having group thinking that doesn’t align with your ideas may have negative effects on your goals. Disparate aspirations within a closed group may cause distraction and alienation from the target. Whereas having a similar-minded group increases the overall ability to grow in career and life.?