This Life, Do Something Incredible!

My son recently got a document from his school that lists the subjects he has to choose from for his GCSE exams. We were discussing his options and I asked him what are his parameters for choosing a subject? Right off the bat he said, “My interest in the subject and how good I am in it.”

I agreed but suggested that he also consider a third parameter to guide his subject selection decision. This third parameter stretches out in time.

In the short-term there is the question of what degree would he like to pursue at University? Then, being pragmatic, he should work backwards to figure out what subjects he must definitely choose to remain eligible for pursuing that degree

(Options are emerging that permit students to ‘hack their degree’ to get the necessary knowledge, disciplinary skills and certification without going to a University thus avoiding the huge burden of a student loan, but more on this in another post)

Choice of a degree should foremost be guided by his interest in a discipline but he should also have a medium-term perspective of the discipline itself, to get a sense of what opportunities pursuit of that discipline will unfold in the coming decades. To appreciate how current possibilities of a discipline will get impacted (or should I say disrupted) over the next couple of decades current trend of automation, computerisation, Artificial Intelligence etc need to be extrapolated.

The document provided by my son’s school had an indicative list of University degrees in different disciplines. We looked at each degree and I gave him a feel of possible professions these degrees could lead to. I cautioned him that given the rate of change not only will some of these professions become obsolete, many new avenues will open up that will be, to quote Sir Arthur Eddington, “Stranger than we can imagine”.

The long-term perspective of the third decision parameter is, ‘do something remarkable with your life, to the best of your abilities’. Go beyond ‘learning just to earn’. Don't become unduly hung up on social success. Instead think of a complex problem that vexes our world today that you would love to solve. This complex problem could be one in outer space (like finding life on another planet), on planet Earth (environment, ecology or a socio-economic issue), or specific to us humans (consciousness, wellbeing and joyful living).

Author Jim Collins postulates companies go from ‘Good to Great’ (in a book with the same title) when they find the sweet spot at the intersection of three circles, “What they are passionate about?" "What can they be the best in the world at?" "What drives their economic engine?” In other words, great companies figure out how they can make money by doing something they are passionate about and good at. What applies to companies holds true for individuals too. 

My son, in making his subject choice, has already figured out the ‘passionate about’ and ‘good at’ part. When I tell him ‘don't learn only to earn’ I am not at all suggesting that he should not make money. I am simply saying that this should be one minor goal of his life pursuit.

Whether he chooses employment or entrepreneurship ‘making money’ part can get addressed by having a pulse of how trends will play out in the coming decades and influence ‘value creation’ possibilities. To paraphrase a famous quote, to make money you need to ‘have a sense of where the puck is going to be, not where it has been’.

But far more importantly I hope he puts the three circles of ‘passion’, ‘good at’ and ‘make money’ inside a bigger circle of ‘strive to do something incredible with his life, to the best of his potential’ and derives the three inner circles from this larger pursuit.

Over the years as my son figures out what his ‘incredible’ is, as my best wishes I can quote to him the lines from an Indian scripture my father had quoted to me when I was his age, ‘Uthishtatha Jagratha Prapya Varaan Nibodhatha’ – Arise, Awake and Stop Not till the Goal is Achieved.

Diversity in Thinking – Comparative Advantage in a VUCA Future

“Who won World War II?  i. Goodies  ii. Baddies”  

Taken from a cartoon, this line nicely sums up how multiple-choice questions in standardised examinations are dumbing down education. We have become besotted with how students perform in examinations. Such exam-centric education unduly emphasises learning the content of a discipline, usually by rote, and students often lack a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts or episteme of a discipline and the underlying thinking framework.
 

In the 20th century stockpiling knowledge in the form of a University degree did almost guarantee lifelong employment but now, when we are in an era where abundant knowledge is easily and cheaply accessible, having a head full of knowledge is no longer a comparative advantage. Admission into a good college on the basis of high marks and the University degree that follows may lead to the first job but mugging up just the content of a discipline does not secure a bright future for students. Moreover, intelligent machines are now taking over cognitive tasks that could earlier be performed only by a human brain and for future employment today’s students will have to compete not only with fellow humans but also with intelligent machines.

Employment and entrepreneurial prospects are significantly brighter for students who learn how to create ‘value’ for a large number of fellow denizens of planet Earth and can deliver this ‘value’ successfully to the market as a product or service. This ‘value’ could be material – designing a more efficient way to tap solar energy, or it could be physical – becoming a Yoga trainer, or it could be social – inventing a service like Facebook or Uber, or it could be psychological – offering ways of living a joyful life to multitudes.

 What complicates the problem of value creation is that students will need to make this happen in a future that is VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. 

Education needs to prepare students to thrive in a VUCA environment by instilling in them the ability to wonder, which in turn leads to development of a fertile imagination. Education also needs to develop a laser sharp intellect with deep perception as intellect and perception are needed to abstract new patterns by connecting the knowledge dots in novel ways. Ability to deal with complexity is another essential quality for flourishing in a VUCA future. This includes ability to use intelligent machines to churn data to garner insights from information and have the ability to take judicious decisions to solve complex problems. 

To achieve these objectives of cultivating an insatiable curiosity, fertile imagination, sharp intellect, deep perception and ability to solve complex problems, education has to go much beyond its current infatuation with exams and in addition to knowing the content of a discipline school and University education should also cultivate ‘disciplinary skills’ – i.e. mode/framework of thinking, threshold concepts, vocabulary... – elements that need to be mastered to gain deep expertise in that discipline. 

Take history for example. It is not about mugging up facts, which is what an exam-focused education inadvertently emphasises. History is a living interpretation of the past. It is about perspectives, for example victor vs vanquished and how both sides interpret past events. Thinking like a historian is about understanding the 'Arc of Inquiry' – formulating probing questions to understand the larger context, articulating a historical claim, finding evidence for and against the claim in the form of primary and secondary sources, evaluating these sources for their provenance (reliability, authenticity, bias, prejudice), corroborating the sources, drawing inference and presenting your argument cogently with evidence. 

Thinking like a Historian is also about learning from the wisdom of history. As Santayana put it, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” Knowing history should make one capable of taking informed action because history teaches you about choices people made in the past and the consequences of these choices. Studying history should lead to an appreciation of how seemingly insignificant acts can later lead to a domino effect. 

The causal nature of history is akin to science – choices and consequences in history and cause and effect in science. While there are similarities in the two disciplines the way a scientist thinks is also very different from the way a historian thinks. Unlike a historian who is dealing with human events of the past a scientist is mostly dealing with empirical phenomena. Science can be construed as man’s dialogue with nature where a scientist observes nature, formulates a hypothesis, conducts experiments and draws an inference about a natural phenomenon. A historian cannot conduct experiments and can only rely on primary and secondary sources to interpret past events. 

Learning different modes of thinking – thinking like a scientist, thinking like a historian, thinking like a writer, thinking like a mathematician, thinking like an artist and so forth, enhances a student’s ability to perceive the world in a more profound manner by looking at it through different lenses and this makes the student a deep, independent thinker. Disciplinary skills and an appreciation of how experts in different disciplines think also prepares a student to appreciate and understand cross-curriculum linkages – similarities and differences across disciplines. This in-turn develops the ability to connect the dots of knowledge in more creative and innovative ways, which yields fresh insights and facilitates finding novel solutions to complex problems, thus opening up the possibility for value creation. 

And, ability to create value is the new comparative advantage in a VUCA future.

Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits - workshops in rural schools in the Himalayas, Dec 2015

In Dec 2015 I was back again in the Himalayas to conduct Timeless Lifeskills workshops in small, rural schools. The theme of the workshops this visit was ‘Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits – Thinking Like a Scientist’.

The underlying objective of the workshop was to make students aware of how experts in different disciplines think. In other words focus of the workshops was on 'Modes of Thinking'. Figuring out how a scientist thinks (observation > hypothesis > experiments > inference) is different from the way say a historian thinks (claim > evidence > primary > secondary sources > provenance) enhances students' perspective and helps them become independent, deep thinkers.

Exam centric schooling focuses only on learning (some would say mugging up) content. The aim of these workshops was to not only learn content in a fun, hands-on way but also learn disciplinary skills. 

Over a two week period I interacted with 250+ students and over a dozen teachers from 10 rural schools. The first school I visited was Aarohi Bal Sansaar in village Satoli 30 km from Almora.

On day-1 students learnt the basics and tinkered with different electronic components like bulbs, motors, LEDs, buzzers and switches to understand concepts like conductors and insulators, polarity, parallel & series circuits, voltage and current etc.

We then moved to creating Electronic Art by embedding LEDs into paper circuits using copper tape and button cells.

This idea of Electronic Art made with copper tape, button cell and LEDs was inspired by MIT Media Lab's 'Paper Circuits' project - http://highlowtech.org/?p=2505

Another example of electronic art:

We used different types of material to create Electronic Art & Craft. Here we are using conducting dough made from ordinary flour (aata) mixed with salt. This project was inspired by University of St Thomas' 'Squishy Circuits' - http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

A Rangoli made from conducting play dough.

We then made simple Electronic Toys.

An attempt to make a Hovercraft.

We then made Scribbler Bots – simple machines that can draw. Inspiration for this came from San Fransisco Exploratorium's project - http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/scribbling-machines

A Scribbler Bot in action.

An example of Scribbler Bot art.

Can I make this balloon fly? Hmm, I have to make a hypothesis, conduct experiments, draw inferences and keep improving my design… I have to think like a scientist!

Students learnt about electricity and how they could use a simple DC motor as a generator. This project is inspired by Arvind Gupta's Toys from Trash initiative - http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/films.html 

After 4 days at Aarohi I visited Jeevanshala, a tiny school in village Maram, 80 km from village Satoli.

There I conducted workshop for class 4 and 5 students.

The theme was the same – tinkering with electronics, making paper circuits and flour-dough art - to learn to think like a scientist.

Ultimately it was all about imagination, creativity and collaboration – Timeless Lifeskills.

What I found most amazing was that the play dough we used was the same I had given to Jeevanshala three years back! Those who have very little truly understand the value of what they have!

After Jeevanshala I visited a government school in village Chanoli at the invitation of their extremely motivated and imaginative teacher, Kalyan Mankoti (in red check shirt), whom I had met last June during a workshop I had conducted for teachers in Almora.

I had a great time interacting with students from classes 6 to 8. I spent the night at Chanoli village and also got to meet some of the parents.

Class 8 girls building a Scribbler Bot.

My final visit was to the Science Centre run by Himwats, a Haldwani-based organization, founded by octogenarian Prof H.D. Bist. Himwats works with seven local government schools in Champawat, Himwats volunteers supplement and complement government school teachers.

Over 4 days I interacted with children from classes 5 to 8 from the seven schools Himwats supports.

With Himwats volunteer teachers and some students. 

I am thrilled to learn that Deepak (extreme left in greyish sweater), a volunteer at Himwats, is taking the Tinkering with Electronics workshop to other schools. He emailed me this photograph.

Here is a brilliant example of Electronic Art created by students under Deepak's guidance.

On the whole the two weeks I spent in the small rural schools in Himalayas was an exhilarating experience. I am very much looking forward to my next visit when I will shift gears and focus on another Mode of Thinking - Thinking Like a Historian!