WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 So I want you to picture a specific moment. Maybe 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:07.040 it's from college or maybe it was just last week 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:11.000 at work. You have this massive test or a presentation, 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.119 right? Or some certification exam. Oh, yeah. 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:16.160 The high stakes moment. Right. And you go into 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.640 full blown crisis mode. I mean, you lock yourself 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:20.739 in a room. You make the flashcards. You're highlighting 00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:24.210 the textbook until the entire page is just you 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:26.250 know, neon yellow. The whole page. The whole 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:29.269 page. You memorize all the definitions, you walk 00:00:29.269 --> 00:00:32.070 in, take the test, and boom, you crush it. You 00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:34.109 get the A, you get the certification, and you 00:00:34.109 --> 00:00:35.890 just feel like the smartest person in the room. 00:00:36.049 --> 00:00:39.789 And it is a really great feeling for about 24 00:00:39.789 --> 00:00:42.450 hours. Exactly. Because you fast forward two 00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:45.130 weeks, and someone asks you a basic question 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:47.549 about that topic at a dinner party, or a problem 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:49.729 pops up at work that requires that exact knowledge 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:52.500 you just tested on. And what happens? It's just 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:56.280 gone. It's gone. Blank slate. Or maybe you remember 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:58.240 the specific definition, but you have absolutely 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:00.939 no idea how to actually use it to solve the problem 00:01:00.939 --> 00:01:03.359 in front of you. Wow. Yeah, that's the exam amnesia 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.060 phenomenon. I mean, we've all been there. It's 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:07.859 that really frustrating realization that you 00:01:07.859 --> 00:01:09.659 didn't actually learn the material. You just 00:01:09.659 --> 00:01:12.319 sort of rented it for the afternoon. Rented it. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:15.180 I love that. Well, today we're doing a deep dive 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:17.719 into why that happens. We aren't just complaining 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.659 about bad memory here. We're looking at the actual 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:24.040 mechanics of why some learning sticks and really 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:26.680 transforms us and why other learning just completely 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:29.980 evaporates. We're unpacking this concept called 00:01:29.980 --> 00:01:33.299 inert learning or inert knowledge. And inert 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:36.200 is just such a perfect word for it, really. It 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:37.640 implies something that's just sitting there. 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:40.769 Dead weight. It's taking up space but doing absolutely 00:01:40.769 --> 00:01:42.930 nothing. It really is. And to help us navigate 00:01:42.930 --> 00:01:44.969 this today, we're looking at a really compelling 00:01:44.969 --> 00:01:47.950 piece from a blog called HackScience .Education. 00:01:48.390 --> 00:01:51.150 It's a post titled When Learning is Inert, written 00:01:51.150 --> 00:01:54.689 by Gary Ackerman, published on July 4th, 2024. 00:01:55.069 --> 00:01:57.290 Yeah, and it's a great post. But what's really 00:01:57.290 --> 00:01:58.969 interesting is that we're also time traveling 00:01:58.969 --> 00:02:01.579 a bit with this one. Yeah, we are. Because Ackerman 00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:04.000 built his entire argument on the work of Alfred 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.400 North Whitehead. And Whitehead was this British 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:10.139 mathematician and philosopher who was writing 00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:14.039 about this exact problem way back in the 1950s. 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.039 Right. Specifically, his 1957 work, The Aims 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:19.780 of Education, and other essays. And what's really 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:21.419 striking to me is that even though Whitehead 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:25.159 was writing nearly 70 years ago, his critique 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:29.460 of how we learn or how we fail to learn feels 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:30.840 like it could have been written this morning. 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:33.740 It really does. So the mission for today's deep 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:36.979 dive is simple, but it's kind of heavy. We want 00:02:36.979 --> 00:02:39.080 to figure out if the way we've been taught to 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:41.080 learn is actually broken. We're going to look 00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:43.159 at the difference between just transferring information 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:45.259 and actually sharpening the mind. Which is a 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:47.639 huge distinction. Huge. And hopefully we can 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:49.780 figure out how to stop renting knowledge and 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:52.460 actually buy it for good. To do that, though, 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:54.780 I think we have to start with a baseline definition. 00:02:55.849 --> 00:02:57.770 I know definitions can be a little dry, but this 00:02:57.770 --> 00:03:00.550 one is really crucial for the whole topic. If 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:02.650 I asked you to just define learning right now, 00:03:02.669 --> 00:03:05.169 what would you say? I mean, intuitively, I'd 00:03:05.169 --> 00:03:08.169 probably say learning is acquiring new information. 00:03:08.889 --> 00:03:10.789 Like, I didn't know the capital of Nebraska. 00:03:11.009 --> 00:03:13.050 I read it in a book, and now I know it, so I've 00:03:13.050 --> 00:03:15.430 learned. Right. And see, that is exactly where 00:03:15.430 --> 00:03:18.289 most of us start. But Ackerman and Whitehead 00:03:18.289 --> 00:03:21.210 both argue that that definition is way too shallow. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.659 Ackerman actually defines learning biologically 00:03:24.659 --> 00:03:27.419 first. Biologically. Yeah, as a physical change 00:03:27.419 --> 00:03:30.460 in the brain. He labels it cognition. So it's 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:32.740 not just filing a report away in some mental 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.819 cabinet. It's literally remodeling the office. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:38.199 Remodeling the office. OK, I like that. So it's 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:40.539 about building capability, not just increasing 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:43.500 storage space. Exactly. It's capability. And 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:46.360 Ackerman gives us this very specific detailed 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.379 checklist of capabilities in the piece. And the 00:03:49.379 --> 00:03:51.560 argument is that if you can't do these things 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:53.580 you haven't actually learned. OK, let's walk 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:55.139 through that list. What's the first one? Well, 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:56.580 the first one is the one you just mentioned, 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:59.819 remembering information. OK, so memory is part 00:03:59.819 --> 00:04:02.340 of the equation. Oh, absolutely. It's the basement 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:04.560 level, though. It's the foundation. You obviously 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:07.319 have to remember the facts. But if you stop there, 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:10.479 you haven't truly learned. The next step up on 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.240 his list is performing actions. Performing actions. 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.740 So. If I know the vocabulary words for saw and 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:18.620 hammer, that doesn't mean I've learned carpentry. 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:20.600 I have to actually be able to drive the nail. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.120 Precisely. Yeah. You have to do something with 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.639 it. But then the list gets a little more abstract, 00:04:26.019 --> 00:04:28.040 which is where it gets interesting. The next 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:31.839 sign of cognition, of real learning, is recognizing 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.079 patterns. Recognizing patterns. Can you give 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.879 me an example of that? What does pattern recognition 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.720 look like in the real world? Sure. Think about 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.379 a seasoned mechanic. listening to a car engine. 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:45.259 To you or me, an engine running just sounds like 00:04:45.259 --> 00:04:47.839 noise, a bunch of rattling. But to the mechanic, 00:04:48.139 --> 00:04:51.120 they hear a subtle clicking sound and they immediately 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.519 map it to a specific piston issue. They can do 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:56.319 that because they recognize the auditory pattern. 00:04:57.019 --> 00:04:59.860 They aren't in there reciting a textbook definition 00:04:59.860 --> 00:05:01.839 of an internal combustion engine in their head. 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:05.860 They're matching live, real -world data to a 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:08.360 pattern that they deeply understand. That is 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:10.379 what real learning looks like. That makes total 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:12.279 sense. It's almost like seeing the Matrix code. 00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:14.610 In a way, yeah. you're seeing the underlying 00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:16.970 structure. And that actually leads perfectly 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:20.430 into Ackerman's next capability, which is appreciating 00:05:20.430 --> 00:05:22.870 observations. Appreciating observations. That 00:05:22.870 --> 00:05:25.990 feels like a weird one to include in a scientific 00:05:25.990 --> 00:05:28.129 definition of learning. It is often overlooked, 00:05:28.149 --> 00:05:31.430 but it's vital. When you've truly learned a subject, 00:05:31.889 --> 00:05:33.629 you start to notice things that other people 00:05:33.629 --> 00:05:36.649 just ignore. You appreciate the nuance of the 00:05:36.649 --> 00:05:38.889 thing. Oh, I see. Like how a graphic designer 00:05:38.889 --> 00:05:40.949 can walk down the street and get visibly annoyed 00:05:40.949 --> 00:05:43.470 by the kerning on a random restaurant sign while 00:05:43.470 --> 00:05:45.509 I just look at it and see a sign that says pizza. 00:05:46.089 --> 00:05:48.509 That is the perfect example. Their brain has 00:05:48.509 --> 00:05:52.490 physically changed, remember, cognition to process 00:05:52.490 --> 00:05:54.509 visual information differently than yours does. 00:05:55.029 --> 00:05:58.290 They literally cannot unsee the bad spacing between 00:05:58.290 --> 00:06:01.129 the letters. Wow, okay. That's how you know they've 00:06:01.129 --> 00:06:02.990 learned design. They appreciate the observation. 00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:08.449 And then Ackerman lists asking questions. Wait, 00:06:08.810 --> 00:06:10.990 asking questions? Isn't asking questions what 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:13.089 you do when you haven't learned something yet? 00:06:13.490 --> 00:06:16.129 It's actually quite the opposite. Complete ignorance 00:06:16.129 --> 00:06:17.810 is usually silent because you don't even know 00:06:17.810 --> 00:06:19.569 what you don't know. Oh, right. You don't even 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.089 know where to begin. Exactly. True learning gives 00:06:22.089 --> 00:06:24.829 you the framework to ask intelligent, probing 00:06:24.829 --> 00:06:27.269 questions. You have to know at least a little 00:06:27.269 --> 00:06:30.069 bit about astrophysics to ask a meaningful question 00:06:30.069 --> 00:06:32.779 about how a black hole works. If you know absolutely 00:06:32.779 --> 00:06:35.439 nothing, you just sort of stare up at the stars. 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:37.800 That is a really good point. The better I get 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:40.519 at any hobby or skill, the more hyper -specific 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.100 my questions become. Right. And finally, the 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:45.600 list culminates with interacting with ideas, 00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:49.139 tools, and people, meaning you can actually engage 00:06:49.139 --> 00:06:52.360 with the concept dynamically. You can manipulate 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:55.100 it, talk about it, use it with others. OK. Plus, 00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:57.420 there's this overarching wrapper around all of 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.600 these capabilities that Ackerman mentions. It's 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.959 called metacognition. Metacognition, that's thinking 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:06.660 about thinking, right? Yes. It's becoming aware 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:10.120 of and evaluating your own capabilities. So saying 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:13.019 to yourself, I know that I'm weak in this specific 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:16.300 area, or I know I have the skills to handle this 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:19.300 new problem, that self -evaluation is also a 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:21.589 core component of learning. So just to recap 00:07:21.589 --> 00:07:24.589 this, learning is this massive multi -step process. 00:07:24.990 --> 00:07:28.509 It's memory, yes, but it's also action, patterns, 00:07:28.829 --> 00:07:31.129 noticing nuance, asking questions, interaction, 00:07:31.529 --> 00:07:33.730 and self -awareness. It is a very tall order. 00:07:33.889 --> 00:07:35.970 It's a full transformation of the brain. But, 00:07:36.069 --> 00:07:38.529 and I think here is the giant pivot for our deep 00:07:38.529 --> 00:07:40.709 dive today, that is not how most of our schooling 00:07:40.709 --> 00:07:43.129 was set up. No, it is not. Enter what the source 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:46.629 material describes as the standard model of education. 00:07:47.019 --> 00:07:49.399 Which kind of sounds like the villain of our 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:51.579 story today. Villain might be a harsh word, but 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:53.759 it's certainly the antagonist to the kind of 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.560 deep learning we're talking about. The standard 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:58.259 model prioritizes one thing above almost everything 00:07:58.259 --> 00:08:00.839 else, efficiency. But efficiency makes sense 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:02.939 in context, doesn't it? I mean, schools have 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:04.939 a lot of kids, a lot of subjects to cover, and 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.720 very limited time. We do need to get the information 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:11.100 into their heads fast. And that is exactly the 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:14.319 logic behind it. The goal of the standard model 00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:16.819 is the efficient presentation of information. 00:08:17.540 --> 00:08:19.920 The teacher stands up and presents. The students 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:22.560 sit there and receive. And then how do we measure 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.339 if it actually worked? The test. Can the student 00:08:26.339 --> 00:08:28.839 reliably recall the information that was presented? 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.100 Can I repeat what you just told me? Right. And 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:32.960 if you can repeat it reliably, you get a good 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.539 score. And then the teacher feels successful 00:08:35.539 --> 00:08:38.100 because the class average is high. The parents 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:40.740 are thrilled because their kid got an A. The 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:43.659 school board is happy. It creates this very tight 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:46.399 closed loop of validation. But according to the 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:48.980 piece, this is a trap. Yeah, Ackerman points 00:08:48.980 --> 00:08:51.179 out that everyone feels successful within this 00:08:51.179 --> 00:08:53.720 model. That's exactly why it persists. But there's 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:56.379 a major catch. This feeling of success is often 00:08:56.379 --> 00:08:58.500 contained entirely within the school environment. 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:01.179 Ah. You're winning the game of school, essentially. 00:09:01.309 --> 00:09:04.389 But you aren't actually acquiring those cognitive 00:09:04.389 --> 00:09:07.110 capabilities we just listed out. You aren't learning 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:09.750 how to perform actions or recognize patterns 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:12.730 in the wild. So we're essentially mass producing 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:15.370 students who are incredibly good at being students, 00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:17.529 but maybe not so good at being thinkers out in 00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:19.350 the world. We are producing students who are 00:09:19.350 --> 00:09:22.649 filled to the brim with inert ideas. Let's talk 00:09:22.649 --> 00:09:25.090 about that term because Alfred North Whitehead 00:09:25.090 --> 00:09:28.350 coined this back in the 50s inert ideas It sounds 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:30.769 like a chemistry term like a noble gas that just 00:09:30.769 --> 00:09:32.669 doesn't react with anything else in the universe 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:35.730 That is exactly the metaphor he was going for 00:09:35.730 --> 00:09:39.149 Whitehead defined inert ideas as and I want to 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:40.590 make sure I get this quote right because it's 00:09:40.590 --> 00:09:42.669 really the corrects of the whole thing He said 00:09:42.669 --> 00:09:44.690 they are ideas that are merely received into 00:09:44.690 --> 00:09:48.190 the mind without being utilized or tested, or 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:50.970 thrown into fresh combinations. Thrown into fresh 00:09:50.970 --> 00:09:52.929 combinations? Yeah. I really love that phrasing. 00:09:53.070 --> 00:09:55.490 It sounds dynamic, almost violent. You have to 00:09:55.490 --> 00:09:57.370 really wrestle with the idea. It's the difference 00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:00.470 between collecting a static book of stamps and 00:10:00.470 --> 00:10:03.169 having a giant box of Legos. OK. Unpack that. 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.649 Well, in the standard model, we hand students 00:10:05.649 --> 00:10:08.210 facts like they're rare stamps. You say, here 00:10:08.210 --> 00:10:10.629 is a fact. Put it carefully in your mental album. 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:14.509 Keep it pristine. Don't crinkle it. Right, and 00:10:14.509 --> 00:10:16.730 don't mix it with the other stamps. Keep the 00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:18.909 history stamps in the history binder and the 00:10:18.909 --> 00:10:21.750 math stamps in the math binder. Exactly. But 00:10:21.750 --> 00:10:24.649 Whitehead is saying that real learning, non -inert 00:10:24.649 --> 00:10:27.549 learning, is like playing with Legos. You get 00:10:27.549 --> 00:10:29.929 a brick, but the whole point of getting that 00:10:29.929 --> 00:10:32.789 brick is to click it onto another brick. And 00:10:32.789 --> 00:10:34.610 maybe that second brick is from a completely 00:10:34.610 --> 00:10:36.850 different set. To build something entirely new. 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:39.559 Right. That is what he means by throwing it into 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:41.779 fresh combinations. So if I just memorize the 00:10:41.779 --> 00:10:43.799 phrase, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:46.039 the cell, and I just hold onto it, that's a stamp. 00:10:46.139 --> 00:10:49.200 It's completely inert. Yes. It remains inert 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.059 unless you use that concept to, say, understand 00:10:53.059 --> 00:10:55.679 why you feel physically tired after a long run, 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:58.139 or unless you use it to ask a new question about 00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:00.740 metabolic diseases. If it just sits in your head 00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:03.769 waiting for a biology quiz on Tuesday, It's inert 00:11:03.769 --> 00:11:06.529 knowledge. That brings up this concept from the 00:11:06.529 --> 00:11:09.009 Ackerman piece of The Classroom Trap, this idea 00:11:09.009 --> 00:11:11.629 that inert knowledge is strictly context dependent. 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:14.029 Right. And this explains so much about our daily 00:11:14.029 --> 00:11:16.789 lives. This is exactly why you can ace a French 00:11:16.789 --> 00:11:19.529 vocabulary quiz in 10th grade, but then totally 00:11:19.529 --> 00:11:23.009 freeze up when a waiter in Paris asks you what 00:11:23.009 --> 00:11:25.490 you want to drink 10 years later. Because my 00:11:25.490 --> 00:11:28.490 brain has indexed that vocabulary under classroom 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:32.220 French quiz. Yep. It hasn't indexed it under 00:11:32.220 --> 00:11:36.059 real life communication survival. It's like having 00:11:36.059 --> 00:11:39.460 a key that only opens one very specific glowing 00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:41.879 door in a video game and then you try to use 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:44.019 that same key on your actual front door at your 00:11:44.019 --> 00:11:46.279 house and it just doesn't work. The context is 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:48.860 wrong. That is a perfect analogy. the knowledge 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:51.059 is entirely bound by the context where it was 00:11:51.059 --> 00:11:53.500 acquired. If you never take it out of that context, 00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:55.600 if you never test it in the real world or combine 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.559 it with other things, it remains completely inert. 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:00.899 Okay, I do want to push back for a second here 00:12:00.899 --> 00:12:03.100 because I can hear the teachers listening and 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:05.899 honestly even my own internal logic arguing against 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:08.379 this a bit. You have to walk before you can run, 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.600 right? The Ackerman piece calls this the teacher's 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:14.820 defense. The logic is we must teach information 00:12:14.820 --> 00:12:17.440 first. How can students use the information until 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:20.549 they know it? And it is a very logical, reasonable 00:12:20.549 --> 00:12:23.509 defense. You can't write a beautiful sonnet if 00:12:23.509 --> 00:12:25.450 you don't even know the alphabet. Yeah. You can't 00:12:25.450 --> 00:12:27.409 do advanced calculus if you don't know that 2 00:12:27.409 --> 00:12:30.149 plus 2 equals 4. Right. So the standard model 00:12:30.149 --> 00:12:33.470 logic is let's spend the first 12 or 16 years 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:35.830 of a person's life just gathering all the bricks. 00:12:35.909 --> 00:12:38.870 Let's build the inventory. And then later, maybe 00:12:38.870 --> 00:12:40.750 when they get to a career, they can start building 00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:43.789 the house. It seems like the responsible, orderly 00:12:43.789 --> 00:12:45.690 way to do it. You build the inventory first. 00:12:45.809 --> 00:12:49.460 It does seem that way. But Whitehead absolutely 00:12:49.460 --> 00:12:53.159 dismantles this idea. He argues that this inventory 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.080 approach fundamentally misunderstands how the 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.120 human mind actually works. How so? He says in 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.279 the text, and this is a powerful philosophical 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.519 counter argument, he says, the mind is never 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:07.700 passive. You cannot postpone its life until you 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:10.000 have sharpened it. You cannot postpone its life 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.100 until you have sharpened it. Wow, that is quite 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:15.220 a quote. Think about what the inventory approach 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:18.379 actually assumes about a student. It assumes 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:20.720 your mind is just a bucket. It assumes it just 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.220 sits there, completely passive and empty, waiting 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.980 for the teacher to pour the knowledge in. And 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:28.679 only once the bucket is completely full, then 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:31.139 you're allowed to go do stuff. But kids aren't 00:13:31.139 --> 00:13:32.639 buckets. I mean, if you ever met a six -year 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:34.840 -old, their minds are just buzzing constantly. 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:38.340 They never stop. Exactly. The human mind is an 00:13:38.340 --> 00:13:41.980 active, living, breathing process. It is constantly 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.200 seeking out patterns, it's making weird connections, 00:13:44.299 --> 00:13:47.200 it's trying to solve puzzles. If you force that 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.039 active mind to be passive, if you tell a student, 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:52.159 stop thinking about how this connects to your 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:55.399 life, just memorize this list of dates, you aren't 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:57.379 preparing the mind for the future. You're actually 00:13:57.379 --> 00:13:59.759 dulling it. So Whitehead is saying that you don't 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:01.860 learn the alphabet and then years later write 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:04.769 a story. You learn the alphabet by trying to 00:14:04.769 --> 00:14:06.750 write the story. Or at the very least, the two 00:14:06.750 --> 00:14:08.690 processes have to be deeply intertwined from 00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:11.590 day one. Ackerman puts it very bluntly in his 00:14:11.590 --> 00:14:14.950 post. He says, passive minds do not learn. Passive 00:14:14.950 --> 00:14:17.929 minds do not learn. Right. If the student's just 00:14:17.929 --> 00:14:20.570 acting as a receiver, no actual cognition is 00:14:20.570 --> 00:14:22.570 happening. There is no physical change in the 00:14:22.570 --> 00:14:25.450 brain. They are merely recording data on a surface 00:14:25.450 --> 00:14:28.399 level. which is why it vanishes a week after 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.379 the test. This explains so much about why I forget 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:33.399 things as an adult, too. It's not just about 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:35.419 school kids. It applies to everything. If I'm 00:14:35.419 --> 00:14:37.159 reading a heavy business book and I'm nodding 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:39.360 along thinking, wow, this is super smart stuff, 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:41.600 but I'm not actually wrestling with the concepts 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.029 or applying them to my own work. then you're 00:14:44.029 --> 00:14:46.649 being passive or just receiving. So how do we 00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:49.649 actually fix this? Because obviously, we can't 00:14:49.649 --> 00:14:52.490 all go back to kindergarten and redo our entire 00:14:52.490 --> 00:14:54.669 education. Most of the people listening to this 00:14:54.669 --> 00:14:57.029 deep dive right now are adults. We're trying 00:14:57.029 --> 00:14:59.570 to learn a new software program for work, or 00:14:59.570 --> 00:15:01.230 we're trying to pick up a second language, or 00:15:01.230 --> 00:15:03.950 we're just reading nonfiction for fun. How do 00:15:03.950 --> 00:15:07.509 we, practically speaking, stop hoarding these 00:15:07.509 --> 00:15:10.350 inert ideas? Well, the short answer is that you 00:15:10.350 --> 00:15:12.850 have to become the architect of your own fresh 00:15:12.850 --> 00:15:15.929 combinations. You have to artificially create 00:15:15.929 --> 00:15:19.049 the friction that the standard model tries to 00:15:19.049 --> 00:15:21.389 remove. Give me a concrete example of that. Let's 00:15:21.389 --> 00:15:24.549 say I'm reading a book about, I don't know, negotiation 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:27.490 tactics. OK, negotiation tactics. The standard 00:15:27.490 --> 00:15:31.690 model approach to that book is to read the chapter, 00:15:32.289 --> 00:15:34.629 highlight all the key terms in yellow, and maybe 00:15:34.629 --> 00:15:36.750 tell a friend at lunch, hey, I read a really 00:15:36.750 --> 00:15:39.240 good book on negotiation. And the result is? 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:42.360 You'll forget 90 % of it in a week. Guilty. I 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.679 have a whole shelf of those books. We all do. 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:47.500 But the active mind approach, the whitehead approach, 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:50.419 is to stop reading immediately after a new concept 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:53.980 is introduced and test it. Test it how? Well, 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.299 maybe you don't have a high -stakes hostage situation 00:15:56.299 --> 00:15:59.049 handy to test it on. But you probably have a 00:15:59.049 --> 00:16:01.490 toddler or a spouse or a barista at the coffee 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:03.950 shop. Negotiating with a toddler is honestly 00:16:03.950 --> 00:16:06.429 probably harder than a hostage situation. It 00:16:06.429 --> 00:16:09.049 probably is. But the point is, you have to try 00:16:09.049 --> 00:16:12.909 to apply the framework immediately, today. Or, 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:15.549 if you literally can't act on it right then, 00:16:15.970 --> 00:16:18.230 you do a rigorous thought experiment. You ask 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:20.490 yourself, how would this specific tactic have 00:16:20.490 --> 00:16:22.870 changed the outcome of that client meeting I 00:16:22.870 --> 00:16:25.700 completely blew last month? I see. You force 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:28.720 the new idea to collide with your existing reality. 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:31.419 Yes, you're remixing it. You're taking the negotiation 00:16:31.419 --> 00:16:33.820 stamp out of the album and you're actively trying 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:37.240 to stick it onto the poddler Lego brick to see 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.559 what happens. And here is the kicker with that, 00:16:39.620 --> 00:16:42.100 though. You have to do this before you actually 00:16:42.100 --> 00:16:46.259 feel ready. That is the scary part. We all love 00:16:46.259 --> 00:16:48.919 feeling ready. We love the comfort of saying. 00:16:49.129 --> 00:16:51.629 I have studied enough. I've read all the books. 00:16:51.889 --> 00:16:54.669 Now I am prepared to act. But according to this, 00:16:54.769 --> 00:16:57.230 that feeling of readiness is kind of a lie. That's 00:16:57.230 --> 00:16:59.590 just the standard model whispering in your ear. 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.389 It tells you that competence has to precede action. 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:06.410 Exactly. But Whitehead argues that action precedes 00:17:06.410 --> 00:17:09.329 competence, or rather that the struggle of taking 00:17:09.329 --> 00:17:11.849 action is the very thing that creates the competence 00:17:11.849 --> 00:17:14.170 in the first place. That really flips the script 00:17:14.170 --> 00:17:16.289 on imposter syndrome a bit, doesn't it? It really 00:17:16.289 --> 00:17:18.529 does. If you feel like you don't entirely know 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.200 what you're doing and you're just struggling 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:22.519 to make these new pieces fit together in real 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:25.180 time, that's not a sign of failure. That's literally 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:28.559 the sound of learning happening. Precisely. Confusion 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.359 is not the enemy here. Confusion is the sweat 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:34.259 of the mind. Ooh, confusion is the sweat of the 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:36.440 mind. I like that. If you aren't feeling confused 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:38.500 occasionally, you are probably just reviewing 00:17:38.500 --> 00:17:41.380 things you already know. Passive minds are very 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:43.539 comfortable. Active minds are usually a little 00:17:43.539 --> 00:17:46.130 bit messy. So... If we look back at that checklist 00:17:46.130 --> 00:17:48.950 from the beginning of the discussion, recognizing 00:17:48.950 --> 00:17:51.769 patterns, asking questions, interacting with 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:54.950 tools, those are all highly active verbs. They 00:17:54.950 --> 00:17:57.529 are. You can't passively recognize a pattern. 00:17:57.609 --> 00:17:59.829 You have to be actively hunting for it. You have 00:17:59.829 --> 00:18:01.809 to be deeply engaged. Yeah. And I think this 00:18:01.809 --> 00:18:03.690 is probably the most important takeaway for anyone 00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:06.769 listening today who feels stuck in their own 00:18:06.769 --> 00:18:09.730 progress. If you feel like you are studying really 00:18:09.730 --> 00:18:12.349 hard, but you're just not getting anywhere, You 00:18:12.349 --> 00:18:16.089 need to stop studying. Stop receiving. Stop highlighting 00:18:16.089 --> 00:18:19.190 the textbook. Please stop highlighting. Highlighting 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:21.869 is the ultimate inert activity. It feels like 00:18:21.869 --> 00:18:24.349 you're doing work, but usually you're just painting 00:18:24.349 --> 00:18:27.470 a page yellow. Instead, close the book and try 00:18:27.470 --> 00:18:29.890 to explain the concept out loud to an imaginary 00:18:29.890 --> 00:18:32.509 12 -year -old. Or write out an argument against 00:18:32.509 --> 00:18:35.210 the chapter you just read. Exactly. Throw the 00:18:35.210 --> 00:18:37.890 information into a fresh combination. Make the 00:18:37.890 --> 00:18:40.609 idea fight for its life in your brain. Because 00:18:40.609 --> 00:18:43.190 if it survives that fight, it's yours forever. 00:18:43.730 --> 00:18:46.869 If it was really received? it's just gonna fade 00:18:46.869 --> 00:18:49.049 away by next week. It's fascinating because this 00:18:49.049 --> 00:18:50.910 whole discussion really makes me look at the 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.190 concept of being smart entirely differently. 00:18:53.809 --> 00:18:55.890 We usually think the smart people are just the 00:18:55.890 --> 00:18:58.109 ones with the biggest library of facts stored 00:18:58.109 --> 00:19:00.230 in their heads. Right, the jeopardy version of 00:19:00.230 --> 00:19:02.569 intelligence. Exactly. And, you know, that has 00:19:02.569 --> 00:19:05.950 its place. But in a world where Google exists 00:19:05.950 --> 00:19:09.529 in everyone's pocket, just holding on to inert 00:19:09.529 --> 00:19:12.970 facts is less valuable than it has ever been 00:19:12.970 --> 00:19:16.559 in human history. The truly valuable skill now 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:19.480 is the processing. The processing? It's the ability 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:22.420 to take a random fact, a new tool, and a complex 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:24.420 problem and weave all three of them together 00:19:24.420 --> 00:19:26.960 to build a novel solution. It really is the difference 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.099 between a high drive and a processor. The hard 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:31.799 drive just sits there holding data, but the processor 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.640 is the thing actually doing the work. And Whitehead 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.299 basically wants us all to be high -speed processors, 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:40.980 not just dusty storage closets. Okay, so bring 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.299 this all in for a landing. We've established 00:19:43.299 --> 00:19:46.440 that learning isn't just storage. It is a physical 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:49.839 change in the brain involving a whole suite of 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:52.960 active capabilities. Correct. We know the standard 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.200 model of education focuses on efficiency, which 00:19:56.200 --> 00:19:59.299 traps us in this loop of just hoarding inert 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:02.720 knowledge that works on a test but fails in reality. 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.440 Yes. And we know the solution is to get active, 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:09.539 to utilize, to test, and to combine our ideas. 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:12.309 Passive minds do not learn. If you remember absolutely 00:20:12.309 --> 00:20:14.529 nothing else from our deep dive today, remember 00:20:14.529 --> 00:20:16.890 that. So here is my challenge to everyone listening. 00:20:17.190 --> 00:20:18.690 And frankly, I'm going to try to do this myself 00:20:18.690 --> 00:20:20.450 this week, too. Think about that one project 00:20:20.450 --> 00:20:22.289 you've been procrastinating on. We all have at 00:20:22.289 --> 00:20:24.269 least one. Right. The one where you keep telling 00:20:24.269 --> 00:20:25.630 yourself, oh, I just need to do a little more 00:20:25.630 --> 00:20:28.750 research first, or I need to take just one more 00:20:28.750 --> 00:20:30.809 online tutorial before I actually start building 00:20:30.809 --> 00:20:34.390 the thing. I want you to ask yourself, are you 00:20:34.390 --> 00:20:38.339 actually preparing? Or are you just hoarding 00:20:38.339 --> 00:20:41.299 inert ideas because staying in the receiving 00:20:41.299 --> 00:20:44.859 mode feels safe? That is the big question. And 00:20:44.859 --> 00:20:46.700 based on Whitehead's assertion that you cannot 00:20:46.700 --> 00:20:49.140 postpone the mind's life until you have sharpened 00:20:49.140 --> 00:20:51.259 it, I'll leave you with this final thought to 00:20:51.259 --> 00:20:53.759 mull over. Let's hear it. If you stopped waiting 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:55.700 until you felt like you knew enough to start, 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:58.460 If you just started utilizing the little bit 00:20:58.460 --> 00:21:00.819 of knowledge you actually do have today, how 00:21:00.819 --> 00:21:02.940 much faster would you actually learn the skill? 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:04.980 Start before you're ready. Break some things 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:07.519 along the way. Throw those ideas into fresh combinations. 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:09.599 And just see what happens. Thank you for taking 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.900 this deep dive with us today. Go out there and 00:21:11.900 --> 00:21:13.400 sharpen those minds. Thanks, everyone.