Real Learning Starts with These Three Words

No, they’re not “ya” “sure” and “okay”.

No one knows much of anything it turns out. At least, that’s what I’m finding as I travel and get older, much to the chagrin of my high school self. Sure, people have their ‘jobs’ or ‘specializations’, but that doesn’t mean much when someone from the outside with no formal training can beat you at your own expertise.

There are obvious exceptions, but they’re exceptions. But, there are very understandable reasons why no one knows much.

Google. Google is SkyNet. It is the all-knowing everything of most public knowledge. Wikipedia helps. Facebook lets you know stuff in a stalkery way. Technology is a boon as it helps us do much larger things in less time. I know I prefer to use my code editor once over having to go manually record data manually from miscellaneous sources or quickly access models built by other people or groups. But this convenience also serves as a crutch. Que será será.

Standards can matter. Here in the Philippines, most professors are in their early 20’s. Ya, weird. They think that you should be a professor before going out and getting real experience. Their PhD students even manage to get tenure before they ever even finish their dissertations! With standards like these, you’re going to get a lot of cocky kids that were taught by kids…and have the knowledge of kids.

Competition affects a lot. America is filled with migrants and their descendants who came to compete and try to make something of themselves. Syria and Sudan probably won’t be the envy of the world for another century or two. If you have a dictator, people, particularly the smart/successful/wealthy ones, run. When any location loses its strongest and most capable, its potential is significantly reduced. If you grow up in one of these locations that lost its potential competitors and teachers, you’ll exist with an inflated sense of your abilities and be too comfortable to actually be competitive on a world level.

But, despite these and other potential issues hampering the ability for people to learn, there are three words that will actually get you to start learning any subject. They’re necessary for any new beginning and as such shouldn’t be seen as weakness. If you can say them honestly, then you might be the next great something, eventually.

Say it with me now:

“I don’t know.”