Unlearning 101

Two Words

Ying     Yang

Black     White

Up         Down

Right    Left

East    West

North    South

Open     Close

Right     Wrong

Learn    Unlearn

 

You Can Embrace Ambiguity: True or False?

In philosophy and logic there is something know as the liar's paradox. Consider the following statement:

"This statement is false."

If "This statement is false" is true, then it is false, which in turn would mean that it is actually true, but this would mean it is false ... and so on ad infinitum.

If "This statement is false" is false, then it is true, which in turn would mean it is actually false, but this would mean it is true ... and so on ad infinitum.

Sometimes the truth is both true and false at the same time -- just like the picture to the right. (Don't believe me? Try flipping it upside down.)

The Problem with the World: Me

 “The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.”

The above quote is from G.K. Chesterton, a British author and thinker, about whom I know very little. In my never-ending quest to unlearn, however, I keep stumbling upon his writings.

After reading the following story, I am now even more determined to learn about him: Chesterton was once asked by a London newspaper to join other authors and thinkers to address the weighty and important question of "what's wrong with the world." His response:

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours,

G.K. Chesterton 

It's not only a witty reply, it also reflects a great deal of humility and wisdom. In fact, I'd argue it is almost Zen-like in its simplicity and truthfulness. If all of us -- including myself -- would just stop trying to fix all the problems of the world and instead focus our efforts internally on improving ourselves, the world would be a better place.

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When Data and Decisions Collide: Unlearning Needs to Result

Fellow blogger and change agent, Seth Godin, has an excellent post today entitled "When data and decisions collide." In it, he recounts numerous examples of people ignoring data because it doesn't line up with their "hunches" -- or what people think they know but "just ain't so."

Godin is pessimistic about the time it will take most people to "get their arms around this avalanche of insight," but he is spot on in his assessment that those who do will have a huge advantage.

Of course, the first thing to do is to simply acknowledge that our hunches may be wrong. This simple, albeit difficult, act is the first step about the path of unlearning. As Godin points it can be the difference between getting into an accident while texting -- or not; saving $80 on a bottle of a wine; or even saving thousands of dollars on your kid's college education.

So there you have it, folks: Unlearning can save your life and save you money! I've got the data to prove it.

Unlearning Small Changes

Read the following sentence: A woman without her man is nothing. My guess is that if you're a woman it pissed you off because you read it in the following way: "A woman, without her man, is nothing". If, however, you made just a small change in punctuation it could be read this way: "A woman: without her, man is nothing."

My point is this: Sometimes a small change can have a huge impact. In the above case, the meaning was fundamentally altered.

Now consider the issue of organ donations. It is estimated that in America over 90,000 people are currently on waiting lists. Many of those individuals will, unfortunately, die on a waiting list due to a shortage of available organ donors.

It need not be this way. In Germany, only 12% of the population has agreed to donate an organ (in the event they die unexpectedly). In Austria, the percentage is a staggering 99%. The difference? In Germany, people must explicitly give their consent to donate an organ by opting in on a state-provided form. In Austria, people must explicitly opt out. In other words, in Austria, people are assumed to consent to organ donation but are free to opt out if they are uncomfortable with the idea.

In a perfect world, it shouldn't matter what wording the state puts on a form. If people want to donate an organ they are free to do so under either policy. Austria, though, has learned that a small change in language can lead to a huge change -- one which saves many lives.

If other states and countries want to do the same maybe they should start by unlearning their "opt in" clauses.

Cathy Davidson on Unlearning

Earlier today I came across a tweet from a person (@riverblindmusic) in New Zealand who said that my post the other day (To Unlearn Learn to Disenthrall) was keeping him (or her) awake as he wrote a new song based on the word. At the time, I thought it was just a cool example of how new social media is making random connections. But, after watching this insightful video (posted below) by Cathy Davidson, it got me thinking that my pleasure in the serendipitous connection is actually something much more profound.

As I think about this, I invite you to watch the six-minute video by Ms. Davidson. To tease you fellow unlearners here are two quotes taken from the interview:

"You're in a deep pool and you're not even close to touching the bottom."

"We must go through a huge, massive process of unlearning."

Do We Need to Unlearn the "Nature vs Nuture" Debate?

I understand the appeal of saying something is either black or white (and thus denying all the various shades of grey in between). Numerous debates occur everyday. For example, some people argue that  homosexuality is genetic in nature. Others claim it is a nurtured condition.

In spite of the efforts of supporters on both sides of the debate, the issue is not so clear cut. Neither are the hundreds of other such "nature vs nuture" debates.

In a new study being released today in Child Development Perspectives a team of researchers is calling for society to say "neither" to the debate. In short, they are saying that the world is far more complicated than many of us would like to acknowledge. But rather than gravitate toward "intellectually lazy" answers which tend to support one point of view over the other, or favoring "one-liners over 10-minute explanations," the authors suggest we should remain open to how various pieces of knowledge fit together.

In essense, the article and the study are really just a call for common sense but because common sense is a commodity which is often in short supply today -- even in academic and scientific circles -- it never hurts to stop and ask ourselves whether there is a new approach.

To this end, I'm in favor of unlearning the "nature vs nuture" debate and staying open to the idea that the real answer may be "neither."

To Unlearn Learn to Disenthrall

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

A good friend of mine, knowing of my passion for the concept of unlearning, recently forwarded this famous quote from Abraham Lincoln and suggested that what Lincoln was really advocating was "unlearning."

To a large degree, I believe this true, for exactly one month after uttering these famous words, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The word "disenthrall" means to "set free"  and, in his speech, Lincoln was in essence calling upon Congress and the American people to free their minds and free their thinking. By calling upon his fellow citizens to do so, Lincoln set this country on the path to a new and better future.

Of course, we still have a long way to go but if we hope to achieve a better future for our children and grandchildren it would behoove all of us to get down to the serious business of disenthralling ourselves from the "dogmas of the quiet past."

(P.S. As some readers may know, last year I ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in my home state of Minnesota. My initial ad, entitled "Reverse Your Thinking" tried to get at this idea. It is 2.5 minutes long and you have to watch the entire commercial to get the point but if you do I think you'll catch my drift and see that one way to unlearn is to reverse your thinking.)

Unlearn Your View of Colors ... and People

Take a look at the picture to the right. Do you see the green and the blue spirals? Amazingly, they are both the same color. (For a detailed explanation read this  article in Discover Magazine.)

This optical illusion, which shows how our mind uses neighboring colors to make inferences about other colors, is a wonderful metaphor for how many of us -- myself included -- often mistakenly make inferences about people based on associations rather than people's true characteristics.

For example, in a recent exercise, Joshua Bell, one of the world's greatest classical concert violinists, dressed in blue jeans and played in the tunnel of a Metro (i.e. subway) station in Washington, D.C. Not surprisingly, not a single person stopped to listen to him. That same evening, however, thousands of people were willing to spend hundreds of dollars to hear him play.

My point is that all too often we fail to see or appreciate true beauty -- or truth, if you will -- because we are blinded by our environment. It is something we will all need to unlearn if we wish to see the world not as we see it -- but as it really is.

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Unlearning the Need for Answers

Gregory Rodriguez recently had an excellent article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "The danger of not knowing how to inquire." In many ways, it is a positive review Andrea Batista Schlesinger's new book, "The Death of Why?" but, more broadly, the article questions American's penchant for action.

In part, this penchant for action is a product of our "desire for certainty [for] hard facts, quick answers." 

But what if there are no "hard answers"?

Batista- Schlesinger writes, "What we need to acknowledge, now more than ever, is that we do not know everything. We cannot know everything. Knowledge changes ... the future is a moving target, and the ground beneath us will never be still. The only thing we can count on to see us through an uncertain future is our ability to ask questions."

Batista Schlesinger is right. The world is moving beneath our feet; we do need to ask new questions; and we must all have a little more intellectual humility.

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