I remember taking a test to fill out all the capitals of the U.S. You probably had to do that a while ago too. But to be quite honest, I must have done something wrong, because I forgot. And now when I’m in a situation where I need to know the capital of a state, I’m not really sure what to do.

Oh that’s right, Google it.

Wait, why did I take that test again?

Being Present

I don’t remember the last time I’ve taken notes for an important class. Not for the past 4-5 years at least. Maybe in History, I’d note down some relevant ideas that might be useful for essays or a test, but I’m honestly not sure if I even really looked at them after class. 

When something is a scarce resource, it’s predictably more valuable. Even things with little value, like gold. 

And one can only imagine the value of a scarce resource with intrinsic value. And information is one of the most valuable things you can get. Learning used to be about absorbing information, because the information was a luxury. Just the access to the knowledge was in it of itself a great feat. It opened many doors of opportunity.

But now there is no gate. The access is everywhere. Our knowledge is in the palm of our hands, and oftentimes faster than finding it in our own head. In fact, one could question whether there is too much information than we know what to do with.

So why do I need to know the capitals of the U.S. again? Our objectives in learning still have to make the shift in education. To go from scarcity to abundance.

The problem with a scarce mindset is it assumes only the information is valuable. So we straw at it. That’s why we take notes. Because we assume we’ll forget later. And we don’t want to miss out on all this information. So best we have a reliable copy of it.

Except nobody needs a reliable copy. It’s everywhere. What are you getting out of taking notes? The studies show that it’s an ineffective learning tool. It’s a way to tell your mind to shut off and monotonously copy. And I’ll tell you what you lose by doing it: presence in learning.

Presence is what allows us to draw connections. Presence is what allows us to see the bigger picture. Presence is what ignites curious thoughts and interesting questions. Presence is needed if we want to learn effectively.

And the only way to gain presence is by replacing our scarcity mindset to one of abundance. Because you’re no longer worried about jotting down all the capitals of the states, but why they’re relevant and what’s important about them.

Exploring The Playground

Neil DeGrasse Tyson makes his own comments on learning by asking us what we would do if we were eating with Einstein. No one would have lunch with Einstein to ask what college they should attend.

They would ask him how he thought. How did he view the world. How did he sort through all the complexity of the universe and its laws.

The opportunity for someone to be the next Picasso or Einstein isn’t in the amount of information they have. It’s in the skill of using information in meaningful ways. Because there’s so much information out there, that it can sometimes come up as a question of what to do with it. How to parse it. And what it all means.

I recall each day in my math class always observing most of my peers jotting down line by line all the proofs and numbers my teacher was putting on the board. But the ones who were really curious weren’t doing that. They were exploring. They’d wonder what’s the next step. They’d wonder why we did what we did. They’d wonder what different ways we could’ve gone and failed or succeeded.

They understood that the information was just a tool. They could get it at any point. But it was more important to practice using the tool in meaningful ways. (And they’d end up doing better anyways).

That doesn’t mean don’t memorize any information. You have to know your ABC’s. It means memorize only what’s strictly important and relevant, while learning something more useful: deciphering complexity.

Information is no longer a bargaining chip. Everyone has it. The real skill is if you know how to discern what information is relevant and see the right connections to make. That requires being present. That requires you exploring the playground of knowledge. And it means you adopting an abundance mindset to information and knowing how to parse it in today’s age.