Posts Tagged ‘learning’

If you are reading this blog then I am sure you know how to tie your shoes. You’ve been doing it ever since you can remember. I too have been tying my shoes for many many years. The task is so basic that it involves no thinking at all. My hands go through the motions and then I am on my way. So you can imagine my surprise when I realized I was doing it wrong?

I used to constantly wonder why my shoes always came undone so easy. I would almost always tie a double-knot just to get them to stay in place. Well, it turns out that there are two basic ways to make a simple bow, and mine was wrong. I was wrapping the loop the wrong way.

But the point of the story is that we tend to make a lot of assumptions. We assume that we have been doing something forever so we must know best. If we have been doing it this long, then it can’t be wrong, right?

It is easy to get into the “this is the way I have always done it and I am not gonna change now” mentality. However, if we keep an open mind, then we might just learn something that makes our lives better (like not having to retie your shoes all the time.

For those who are interested in tying their shoes. I also came across this video.

We’re adults. We know everything right? The older we get, the smarter and wiser we get. Right? It is true that as we get older we gain knowledge and experience which usually helps us to make smarter and more informed decisions. However, past experience and previous knowledge can also limit our creativity and ideas, lead to pessimistic thoughts, and limit our ability to want learn new things. After all, we already know it all right.

In the below video, Adora Svitak, age 12 (who speaks better than many adult speakers I have heard), tells us why we should listen to kids and what they can teach us.