Unlearning 101

Unlearning Porn

Posted below is a 4-minute TED video by Cindy Gallop discussing porn. The video has some explicit language and the topic, obviously, is not for everyone; but it does fit well within the topic of unlearning because as, Gallop states, "pornography has become the de facto sex education" for many young men. 

 I also like her quote that porn's effect on men requires "a certain amount of reeducation, rehabilitation and reorientation." In short, it requires some unlearning. 

Finally, Gallop's observation that the porn is "driven by men; funded by men; managed by men; directed at men; and targeted at men" means that there is a large perspective -- namely that of women -- which has heretofore been missing from the conversation. 

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An Unlearning Lesson From Yoda

Unlearning "Ten"

Check out the logo of the Big Ten Conference to the left. Do you notice anything? Do you see the number "11" embedded on both sides of the "T"? I never did and I live in Minnesota and am a big fan of the Big Ten conference (as evidenced by this recent post on Ohio State.) The logo was cleverly modified when Penn State joined the conference in 1990. In other words, it has taken me 19 years to "see" the "11."

As I said the other day, if you want to unlearn it helps to "see what isn't there." And, as this old clip from the cult classic movie, This is Spinal Tap, proves: 11 is like 10 -- only better.

Unlearning Hollywood

In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article entitled "Hollywood Hits the Books." The second paragraph of the article begins with this sentence, " Hollywood is racing to adopt novels, comics, and children's stories, as the ability of movie stars to draw audiences wanes."

I have added an emphasis on the final part of the sentence because it is conventional wisdom that movie stars are what "makes" a film. As is often the case with conventional wisdom, this "wisdom" is not  nearly persuasive as one might think. In other words, the ability of movie stars to draw audiences has never been as powerful as many people would like to believe.

In his outstanding 2007 book, "Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by the Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart," Ian Ayres profiles Epagogix, a company which uses a neural network to predict a movie's receipts based primarily on the characteristics of the script.

Amazingly, the system can more accurately predict the future success of movies better than veteran Hollywood executives. One of Epagogix's findings is that the influence of Hollywood stars "turns out to be a surprisingly small factor in terms of its overall weighting in the box office results."

Do you know what matters the most? The answer is: where the movie is set! (This matters because it can either drive the cost of producing a movie up or down.)

Alas, as Ayres writes, "Old habits, like the star system, die hard." He is absolutely right. But for those Hollywood executives and producers who can unlearn the "star system," the future might be considerably brighter.

(P.S. For an Unlearning 101 extra credit assignment look at the list of the 200 all-time best-grossing movies and review how many of the actors were stars at the time those films were released. Hint: Harrison Ford was not a star before the first Star Wars movie.)

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A Powerful Lesson in Unlearning

Perhaps it is because I, myself, attended a private boarding school that the scene posted below from Dead Poet's Society appeals to me, but I'd like to encourage any interested in the concept of unlearning to take four minutes and also watch it. The "unlearner," as Robin Williams' character so eloquently says, "Must constantly look at things in a different way;" "Strive to find his (or her) own voice;" and "Dare to strike out and find new ground."

As the second scene so aptly demonstrates unlearning isn't easy -- and it is isn't for everyone (notice the boys who stay in their chairs) -- but those people with the courage to "constantly look at things in a different way" will find that this skill is, in the end, its own reward.

Enjoy!

Unlearning the Past

Sometimes it is hard to forget how much change we have experienced in the recent past. To better help illustrate the point, I’d like to show you two photos. The top photo is from the 1991 hit movie, Pretty Woman. To demonstrate that Richard Gere’s character was a super successful businessman they showed him using a then state-of-the-art technology which was beyond the realm of the average person: the cellphone.

Fast forward to 2008. On the cover of this past Friday’s Wall Street Journal was a photo of an unemployment line in Spain. What was fascinating was that three of the people standing in line were using their cellphones. (Note: The photo to the right is not the photo that was published in the paper.)

My point is this: Technological progress has a way of taking yesterday’s elitist and expensive technology and converting it into a commodity-like necessity for the next generation.

In the next ten years what expensive technologies do you think will become inexpensive? Some of my predictions include: flexible solar cells; rapid prototype manufacturing machines, “Kindle"-like electronic books, and medical diagnostic technology.