CROWDSOURCING 2.0 — How to Become A Better Learner

I was recently in Portland,OR with a group of young tech professionals who were attending the Pycon Conference. As someone who is as far-removed from the programming world as possible, I have been kindly told that this was a gathering of all Python users –from beginners to maestros — where they have an opportunity to share their experiences, latest and most innovative ways of implementing this programming language, and essentially, the best practices around doing more efficient and impactful work. The conference days were packed with talks and sessions led by the tech giants, emerging start-ups, and the most brilliant minds across the globe. This three day absorption of knowledge was followed by the Sprint Days where the attendees –regardless of their background, company affiliation and experience — were given the task of working on a project and cracking the assigned problem in small groups as a team. I was both impressed by the appetite everyone had to take in as much as possible, and more importantly, moved by their eagerness to give to the ones seeking knowledge.

Pycon was not the first large scale conference I have attended or heard of. It was simply one of the many that take place across the world like Forbes Women’s Summit, World Business Forum, Techcrunch, World Conference on Entrepreneurship etc. –each varying in their content and message but always fueled with the mission of sharing information and knowledge with a touch of inspiration. It did, however, prove to me that the way people seek knowledge and improve their skills has transformed from a single channel model into this notion of multi-dimensional and simultaneous absorption of everything; personal crowdsourcing.

As someone who was raised with a traditional understanding of learning and knowledge, I graduated from college two years ago with a dual degree in Economics and Psychology, and an unwavering belief that I had the answer to most things, at least at the entry level. My belief was soon challenged with the realization that most things I have learned were, in fact, things that I could not implement directly and that “learning on the job” was a thing. My initial panic was soothed after a period full of learning things pertaining to my job but that peaceful state did not last either. A year into my work life, I became deeply interested in all the cool and impactful things my peers were doing and found myself wanting to learn those as well. The moment I realized that there was more to learn and the speed of new information was far superior to the time I spent learning one thing on my “to-learn list”, I entered a whole new state of mind where I became comfortable with how much I did not know but also felt energized by the ease of learning anything I had the desire of learning. My traditional understanding of learning completely transformed and took the shape of Coursera, Youtube, TedTalks, my friends, my friends’ friends and people I happened to exchange a few sentences and will maybe never see.

Why is this important? Why are we having all these conferences, creating platforms where people can access and share knowledge? And…for all the youth professionals out there who are trying to find their way into the industries they are interested in, what is that mean in terms of the desired talent?

Last day of the conference, I was at dinner with a big group of people from a leading tech firm. At some point, people started talking about this notion of “teaching people on the job”. The question they had was whether it was more important to have the desired skill at the time of an interview or the aptitude to learn it and using that learning ability to excel beyond what that specific job required at the time. If everything is changing at a faster pace than we can foresee, are companies better off hiring individuals who have figured out their method of crowdsourcing and have mastered the art of learning and thus can do not only what they are hired to do but also what they may need to do a year from now? And if so, how can the young professionals demonstrate that they have that one skill that conquers it all? Learning.

Although I do not have the answer to this question at the moment, I know that we are moving towards a more fluid economy where what is most valued is our attempt to fulfill our potential or perhaps, challenge its boundaries. Our desire to expose ourselves to the changes that are happening around us and our curious mind is the biggest asset we can bring to the table. So, are there ways we can improve our ability to learn? Let’s explore together.

*Crowdsourcing 2.0 is the beginning of series of discussions focused on learning. Stay tuned for additional pieces with insights from professionals across industries.