MindSwitch Mondays Issue #9: Seth Godin on Learning, Education, and MindSwitch
What if learning and living were seamlessly interwoven?
Hi friends,
Today’s edition is a special one!
I was in a webinar with Seth Godin, also a TUFTS alumn, author of The Purple Cow, The Practice: Shipping The Creative Work, and creator of ALT MBA.
Every word he said was full of wisdom!
Every point made was so articulate and clear, it just made me admire him not only as a writer but as a thinker as well! (These usually go hand in hand!)
Education, Entertainment, and Learning
I used to think of education and learning as being hand in hand. Learning happened in education, and yes, teachers entertained students.
But, no!
In reality, learning does not always happen in education.
Here’s how Seth puts it, “count me in for learning, not so much for education”
Education is what you learn in school, all the papers you write, and the lessons you never remember.
Entertainment is watching a high-quality video pretending that you will be able to do what the video “teaches.”
And then there’s Learning.
Learning is all “the things we learned not things we were educated into.” They are the things we know, that make us the person we are. For example, how to make a cake, ride a bicycle, or hold a conversation with someone.
We learned these things by living, not by being tested on them.
We had “aha” moments because someone in our life set the conditions (knowing or not), so we could learn these.
How often do we focus on how we want things to happen, rather than creating the conditions for what we want to happen?
We tend to steal the “aha” moments in learning by lecturing, boxing in answers, or focusing the learning on our teaching. But real learning lies in creating the conditions for “aha” moments to happen.
It is in these “Aha” moments that students finish the synapses in their own heads and make learning their own.
Students need to be the authors of the story, the guide of the tour, the MasterChef of the restaurant, and the captains of the boat in order for real learning to happen.
The same is true in leadership.
Managing a course is not the same as leading a course.
When we think about managing a course we know exactly how it’s going to go, and people do it because we told them to.
But when we think about leading a course we can establish the conditions for what we want to happen, even if we are not sure about how it’s going to go.
How does this all apply to our community MindSwitch Education?
In Seth’s words, the word Mindswitch is “a fascinating one!”
During Disco’s webinar, Seth Godin opened a time for questions.
My question was: What’s your biggest advice to help people move toward a mindswitch?
Here’s how Seth put it: “Changing someone’s mind is very hard to do, but creating the conditions where they can change their own mind is the magic of all this.”
This right here is what helped me refine what I seek for this community: MindSwitching education to learning.
What I mean by this is I want to build a community that switches from thinking about education to thinking about learning.
Education is all the facts, all the knowledge, everything a paper and pencil can teach you. Education is bounded by a time and place to happen.
Learning can happen as we live. We can learn to create conditions so we can have daily “aha” moments that make edits to what we do, so who we become is the best version we can be.
What if learning and living were seamlessly interwoven?
3 Actionable Steps to set the right conditions for learning:
Connect with your interests. Find a topic of interest you want to learn about.
Make a goal list- stay focused on what you want to achieve. Learn about Warren Buffet’s method for doing this here.
Create Awareness. Start noticing your frequent questions, struggles, or mistakes. These are all potential learning opportunities.
I will continue to explore this idea and share what I have come up with.
Until next week. Thanks for reading!
Feel free to hit the reply button if you feel like connecting or want to share an exciting thought!
Stay safe, stay healthy! 😷
Alexandra
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