Unlearning 101: Unlearning 101 Episodes

Unlearning 101 Episodes

February 10, 2010

A Flip of the Coin Doesn't Alway Look Random

Question: If you flip a coin 14 times which is more likely to occur: 1) The coin land on "heads" 14 straight times (HHHHHHHHHHHHHH); or 2) this random outcome: TTHTHHHTTHTHTT?

The answer is that the odds of each occurring are precisely same -- 1 in 16,384. And, yet, to most people the first outcome is viewed far differently and is, often, seen as a matter of extraordinary skill.

To demonstrate the point, consider one of the more statistically improbable outcomes of the last 14 Super Bowl's -- the team from the National Football Conference (NFC) has won the coin toss 14 straight times.

Now, the NFC team has not always called "Heads." In fact, the NFC team only gets to call the coin toss every other year. Therefore, the NFC has only had direct control of its destiny 7 times. And when it does call the flip, the NFC has been just as likely to call "heads" as "tails."

And, yet, the NFC has defied the odds by being on the winning side of the coin toss 14 consecutive times with this random outcome: HTHHTTTHHTHHTT.

My point is that this outcome is no more likely than 14 straight "heads," 14 straight "tails;" or 16,381 other permutations. The NFC's streak is, to be sure, a matter of extraordinary good fortune but it is important to remember that the odds of the NFC team winning the coin toss for a fifteenth straight time next year is only -- 50%.

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July 08, 2009

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.

Unlearning 101: Lesson #10 -- Change Your Worldview

Train Your Mind to See Different Points of View

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June 17, 2009

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!