My latest book, #7, is in editing and soon production and for sale. No More Gold Stars, A new powerful way to get smarter. I write books in a way that I build critical thinking at the same time as you learn the content. That means people get smarter from reading my books not just from the content, but the also the process. There I begin an Intermezzo between each chapter to later books, that promote reflection and discernment. People repeatedly tell me it changed how they read a book forever. Great! That is the intention. Check out Indirect Work: A Regenerative Change Theory for Businesses, Institutions, and Humans, my sixth book which was an #1 Amazon Best Seller for 90 Days in Change Theory Category.
Why and how do I write that way? Trends show people are buying more books but reading less each year for 3 decades. But worse, you would hope that, as a whole, from each book, we are getting smarter. We expect our education system to improve human intelligence and innovation. Pew Research has been tracking this for 65 years. In the USA, IQ scores have been falling for five decades—we’ve been getting dumber since 1972.
At the same time, ideas for how to address critical issues like climate change, racism, economic inequity, and the future of work are uncreative, ineffective, and slow.
Many high-profile sources are sounding the alarm that there is something profoundly wrong with how we prepare our people to deal with the pressing issues of our time. These include such important institutions as major news outlets, the White House, and Pew Research. They all seem to agree that we have a problem, but the best practices that are offered as solutions are based on less intelligence, not more. How did this come about?
Let’s experiment with a self-assessment exercise. How do you read? Particularly, how do you react to words and new ideas you hear from others that you do not understand? Think of the last time you read or heard some ideas presented, that you could not understand at the outset. Ask yourself which of the following reactions you experienced with the new.
1. You labeled it as jargon and complained about the arrogance of the presenter. (You might be trapped in an image of being a good student and grokking ideas quickly. Or reacting when you don't. Fear and worrying is the other choice besides condemning the presenter. Maybe we are not smart enough? Rejecting listening is the final option as not worth exploring if you can’t instantly understand.)
2. You substituted some known words/ideas for those offered to create a match with what you already think and image to be true, therefore ignoring the new word/idea. It is hard to catch ourselves doing this. (We may have a flatland view of ideas as though they are similar ideas and no have precision in what is on offer). We miss the new by equating with our old ideas.
3. You engaged with some ideas that you had a ‘take on’, participated in interactions regarded the subject, and you were willing to feel lost part of the time. ( You likely are comfortable with being patient and figure things out as you go along vs worrying about getting things quickly.)
4. You are used to taking on learning overtime and deepen understand by pushing to see through different lens (understand the idea of layered learning and enjoy the journey of deepening understanding of Big Ideas overtime vs chapterized learning-set ideas presented, tested, and move to next chapter.
New fields and new experiences are held in a particular place in mind by descriptions that differentiate from the previous and familiar. New ideas and innovative are emerging from them, and mind shattering ideas, processes and products require new names (words) and language (descriptions and phrases.) It we want to develop and experience new learning, we need to adopt new language for a new idea or experience. If we are interested in understanding what I call “ideas that matter,” it takes a different mind and development process.
I often have people who ask me to give them everyday words for many words and phrases I use. So, I get to start with the first misunderstanding about language. There are no ‘everyday substitute words’ for the words in my technology or any world we have never experienced. We don’t have institutions that offer the need for these worlds because we have not touched that world. It is the same as if you are entering science lecture as a language teacher. The unfamiliar words are really ignored ideas and experiences that have never been experienced. We have to develop understanding through the experiences and unfamiliar ideas. For example, the idea of Being is related to an inner state that is at work in us based on what is going on in our mind and our interpretation and reactions to the interpretations. State of Being cannot be translated to a word like character which is a static idea not a dynamic of the process that ultimate forms character which can still being changing and is more moment to moment. But it can be developed and evolved. It takes experience to have it be valued. The new name is associated with the new experience. Without that deeper dive with applying and reflecting on the experience it is jargon we are waiting to have explained.
Next time you read or listen, watch for the 4 processes at work. How well are you making yourself smarter by climbing up the different levels. When do you get stuck? What subjects? Watch for No More Gold Stars, out this fall.
I really enjoy this article. I will to reread it, as always, and I appreciate that “there are no replacement words...” I used to try to replace words often and later realized I would always miss the understanding if I kept on doing that.