How We Learn

There are many ways to learn.

We make a guess based on a hunch or intuition. We take some action to test our hypothesis. The results tell us whether or not we guessed correctly. We learn whether or not what we believed was true or whether it was false. Either way, we learn.

Sometimes instead of taking an educated guess, we just go ahead and take some action with absolutely no idea whether or not what we are doing is right or if it will work. We throw something at the wall and see if anything sticks. Something happens, and sometimes that something is nothing. If we’re smart enough to pay attention, we make some observations about what happened (or didn’t), and we learn from this experience.

Often something happens and we just happen to be there when it does. We recognize that something happened and we learn from that observation without having to experience it for ourselves.

This is where insights come from. Sometimes we have enough experience and situational knowledge to come up with a theory and test it. Sometimes we just need to throw something against the wall. And sometimes we pay close enough attention to what is going on around us to notice some novelty.

This is how we learn.

Questions

What hypothesis should you be testing right now?

What kind of result should you try to get by taking different actions even when you have no idea what to expect?

What have you observed in the last 14 days that gave you some new idea or insight you can use?