How do adults learn?
Since the dawn of the internet, technology startups have changed how we live. We go online to consume news, work, play, trade, date, school, etc. All the things half a generation ago could only be done physically. To achieve such a phenomenal behavioural change, startups rely on a feedback loop. They build a product, take it to market, get feedback on how users use it or not, improve the product, and take it back to the market.
This process of learning from feedback is how companies develop successful products and is also how adults learn best.?
Why do we repeat mistakes?
When we don’t take the time to draw the correct lessons from our experiences, we miss out on an effective feedback loop. Instead of improving on poor choices, we are bound to repeat the same mistake.
The same problem will be presented to us in various forms until we have learned the lesson.
Similar to an autopsy carried on a body (cadaver) to learn the cause of death, we should seek to learn why we succeeded or failed at anything. Ray Dalio says of reflecting on his experiences "... and they would give me principles to deal with similar problems in the future". When you deeply process your experiences, you make sense of and extract meaning from them to orient yourself for current or future action.
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How to reflect
When we have a negative or positive experience, the value is not in remembering what happened. But in interpreting correctly what it means.?
- Instead of "I made a mistake" also ask "Why did I make this mistake?"
- Instead of only "I did this well" also ask "how did I do it correctly?"
Set out time for reflection. Bedtime, waketime, or immediately after an experience is a good time. For example, after dealing with a financial or relationship problem, you contemplate
- What did I learn (lesson)
- Why will I use the lesson
- How will I use this lesson in future
The above reflection strategy is an excellent way to make past lessons easier to recall when next in a similar situation.