Are You Learned, or Are You Learning?

Are you learned, or are you learning??

While there doesn't have to be a difference (in fact, there shouldn't be), too often there is, and the result, in my book, is what fuels DIGIBABBLE and all its associated BS.

Learned? You've found your niche. You own and use great technology. You talk about it (wax eloquent). You talk about constant change, but...in reality, it's the same change (pontificate). You are supremely confident in your beliefs and practices (smug) and project sureness (arrogance).

Or, are you:

Learning? A seeker? No, not the Quidditch kind (I need a Harry Potter reference every once in a while). You are a seeker of knowledge—of ideas and experiences. You are a hunter of new thinking, new skill sets, new truth, and new paradigms. You are a little uncomfortable—not as confident and OK with sharing (outside of therapy) your need to explore and experiment (humility).You are as adept at Tech as anyone (maybe even better), but you continue to question use cases and discount the pronouncements of "this will replace everything (open).

Why do so many still value the so-called Learned over the Learning??

Why are we scared of learning with each other and with our clients? What weaknesses do we think we are exposing? Why does the learning curve often make us feel vulnerable and less valuable? Limited? Flawed?

The Advertising/Marketing industry is notoriously paranoid (and often for good cause, I might add, but more on that in a future Imagine). Our Achilles Heel is often our need to show what we think is depth—a move which sometimes shows how little real profundity there is in our thinking, AKA a lack of Critical Thinking.?

Many profess being Learned…We are technologists. We are tech companies. Yet clients are actually looking for someone to make sense of it all and bring it back to people. You know my view of tech companies...MSFT, Intel, and Apple are real…Uber, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, and the rest use Tech well, but so do all their so-called non-tech competitors.?

Have I depressed you? Here is a thought to cheer you up:

“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” —Al Rogers

So much for the meek… Think about the dinosaurs. They were beautifully suited to deal with their world...and then, it didn't exist.

Learners are not the meek. They are the aggressive ones—the uncomfortable squirmers who need to know and know more, to try and try more, and to change profoundly.

Sometimes, they are labeled Dinosaurs by the "Learned" because they don't follow the new conventional wisdom, refuse to adhere to doctrine, and actually practice Critical Thinking.?

Be a learner. Make your clients learners with you, and your friends and family too. The journey is what makes for tight relationships; it's what creates great and brilliant outcomes.

Be profound because you confront profound change—because you question—not because you have the answers.?

There are no wrong questions (maybe a few), but there are wrong answers.?

Learning, by the way, doesn't mean chucking the past. (Heaven forbid! That's stupidity—plain and simple. It's the mantra of the Learned.) Learning means building on the past, using the past for leverage, and understanding the evolution of human behavior as it stays true to its DNA but adapts to new ways of doing things (tech).

Be profound! Learn and learn some more, then pass it on and learn some more. I urge you to go back over the past few years and look at all the well-documented times the bombastic statements of the Learned morphed into new bombast when they were proved wrong.

Think of Apple delivering your devices with minimal instruction beyond how to turn them on. Explore. Discover. And take a big bite!!!!?

So, are you learned, or are you learning? What’s your view? Comment below.