Why Your Brain Needs Struggle
Effortless performance is a terrible way to learn.
Most of the time, we think of learning as a relatively simple process. We realize we don’t know something we want to know, so we take a class, study a subject, do research, or watch a series of Youtube videos, and bam, we’re good. We believe we can go from ignorant to informed the way a room can go from dark to light with the flip of a switch.
As a society, we value this kind of effortless mastery. We see the athlete win the medal, the start-up makes it big on Wall Street, or the young investor who ends up with a fortune, and we want to get there the easy way. I coach clients who want the kind of body transformation seen on “the gram” but struggle when they find out how long it will take.
We want our kids to catch on quickly, too. We want them to be star players or join the most competitive team at younger and younger ages. When they don’t show an immediate talent for a sport, coaches may sit them out or pass them up for advancement. We switched dance studios when the instructor wouldn’t let my daughter compete because she couldn’t do the splits — at five years old.
Yet, neuroscientists are coming to understand learning is enhanced through something they call productive struggle. The process is effortful — not effortless. Challenges…
