This equation could be memorised. But with layering, you’re more likely to remember it seventeen years from now
Does the brain learn through memorisation?
Most people would think so.
And those people would be partially wrong.
Of course, you don’t have to believe me.
Because we’re going to do a simple test of memory.
So you studied for your examinations in school right?
And you had a hated-subject, but you also had a favourite subject.
Now let’s take your favourite subject (whatever it was).
And let’s give you that exam paper to write once more.
You know what happens next, don’t you?
Your memory is going to fail you. Yet, if you step back into your memory, you’ll sure as heck remember a picnic. Or a day at the zoo. Or some incident. And what’s amazing is that you’ll remember it with a decent amount of detail.
So what’s really happening here? Is it that school was too boring, and the zoo was more exciting?
Or is there something else at play?
There is something else, and it’s called layering.
Layering works in um, layers.
Like a movie it rolls out in your brain, enabling you to build one layer over another.
And memory forms the crucial role of remembering what you learned yesterday, and the day before, and the year before. But without layering; without that movie running in our heads, the memory is just a bunch of bits and bytes. It has little intrinsic value.
And a combination of memory and layering is what causes talent.
So as a child, you learn how to write the letter A.
Then you remember it.
Then you layer the letter A with an object. e.g. apple, or aromatheraphy (just kidding!)
The association is the factor of learning. And develops a talent for writing the letter A.
By itself, the letter A has no value. But with memory and layering, that letter enables you to create words, sentences and a lot more.
The brain depends heavily on memory.
But without layering, that memory becomes useless.
As useless as the information you learned in school, and promptly forgot after the exam.
So where does this take us when we’re developing a talent?
Talent requires layering.
So if you’re learning a skill, you have to learn a bit about drawing.
Then a bit about physics. Then a bit about woodworking. Then a bit about badminton.
And relate it back to your memory of drawing.
It’s when you put all these layers together, that you start to become an outstanding artist.
Or an outstanding singer.
Or an outstanding whatever.
Memory has its role. But layering, ah now that’s quite something else!
Watch this video: It’s quite fascinating…and very well made! (You’ll need to be reading this post online to see the video).
How much is 3 + 3?
You know the answer already, don’t you?
That answer is embedded in your brain through a factor of repetition.
Time and time again, you were called on to remember random numbers.
Then you had to add them up, multiply them and eventually they formed a memory.
Your brain has a storage point for all these bits and pieces.
And talent works on memory. But depends far more on layering.
So if you were to listen to Clay Shirky on collaboration (see video below), you’d learn about collaboration in groups.
If you were to listen to Clay Shirky a second time, you’ll learn something quite different about collaboration in groups.
If you were to listen to Clay Shirky four or five times, you’ll learn something quite different every single time.
How do I know this?
Because I went for a walk to the beautiful Milford beach, near my home.
And during that one hour walk, I listened to the same audio five times over.
Each time my brain remembered something from the previous hearing, and layered a new learning over it.
The more I listened, the more I learned.
It wasn’t just repetition.
It was literally a bunch of new ideas that were popping in my brain with every repetition.
In effect, I was layering.
Then I took that layering, and added some more information.
I listened to Deborah Gordon and how ants use collaboration (see video below)
Then I spoke to my wife, Renuka about how collaboration could be used on our websites.
Then I brought up the concept of collaboration in a client call.
With every layer, my understanding of collaboration increased in leaps and bounds.
I now understood collaboration like never before.
What my brain is doing, is creating a whole bunch of amazing links.
Links that help me learn.
And get more talented in the understanding of collaboration.
Compare this with 3 + 3.
No matter how many ways you look at it, it’s still 6.
Which brings us back to the question of superiority. Which is more important? Layering or repetition?
Without a doubt, layering is what helps us become talented.
Memory merely helps us remember those layers.
Memory isn’t superior than layering. And neither is layering superior to memory.
Both are needed to learn and sustain a skill.
But if you really want to become a genius at something you can’t depend solely on memory.
Memory by itself is just a bunch of 3 + 3 situations.
Layering is what causes genius.
More on this later…now that I’m back thanks to a nudge from Stew Walton
For now, watch these fascinating videos on collaboration.
If you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer.
Or if you ask a question that’s engineered to get the answer ‘NO’, then you get the answer ‘NO.’
And most of your education, my education, and everything we’ve learned is engineered around getting a negative answer.
But what if we changed the question?
What if your answer could simply not be negative?
What then?
So what if I changed the question to: Can you write the letters of the alphabet?
Your answer is: Sure, I can.
Well, then you can draw cartoons.
Your kids can draw cartoons.
Your grandma who’s ninety-seven years old can draw cartoons.
But where’s the proof?
Here’s the proof. And it’s affordable proof at just $11.99.
Yup, anyone can draw cartoons. 🙂
If you stop asking yourself stupid questions, you too can become ‘creative’ 🙂
Note:This book was created by my friend, Wayne Logue. Wayne was the first person I knew in New Zealand. He too was a cartoonist. And like all good internet stories, we ‘met’ on the internet, in a cartoon chat room. I didn’t know anyone in New Zealand, and Wayne picked me up from the airport, and made me very comfortable in an unknown land. I don’t know if Wayne gets a commission if you buy his book, but I sure hope he does.
Imagine you listen to a song that you haven’t heard for twenty years.
And you know the tune, but the lyrics seem all jumbled in your brain.
So you play the song once.
Then once again.
By the third time, you’ll remember every word of the lyrics you knew twenty years ago.
So what happened there?
The same thing that happened to me when I went to play badminton.
I hadn’t played for well over twenty years.
The first day back was pure torture.
Both on the court, and off the court.
I was gasping for breath. My head was throbbing. I barely stumbled back to my car. And slept for the rest of the day just catching up on my energy.
Three days later I went back to play.
And something weird happened.
While I was struggling to get the shuttlecock across the net the first day, I was able to get it across a whole lot better the second time. And then I went a third time. And a fourth time. And by the fifth trip to courts, I was able to play eight games. Unlike the first time where I was struggling to reach the shuttlecock, I had no problem at all–sometimes I even had time.
So what’s so interesting about this story?
Here’s what’s interesting.
The five visits to the court weren’t back to back visits.
They were over three weeks.
And in those three weeks, I hadn’t done anything spectacular to bring about this massive change in my body.
I wasn’t exercising more. Wasn’t training more. This incredible change was happening in my brain.
Like some song from long ago, it was remembering the ‘lyrics.’
And letting me improve my game in massive incremental steps.
So that within five visits to the court my brain was remembering moves, and had the capacity to handle energy from twenty years ago. The lights were all switching on.
Your body too responds to long-lost memories
In fact, it’s not even fair to call them long-lost.
They’re more like long-buried. And re-discovered.
Which means that if you’ve been told you can do something exceedingly well, your brain reaches into the long-lost memory. And compares data. And then it does something short of exceedingly well. And then with little practice, it improves in leaps and bounds.
But the brain works the other way too
It can bring up failure-data. And the body then refuses to co-operate. And just like you remember the words of the song, you start to remember the words of failure.
Which makes it imperative to understand how layering and memories are linked.
And how we can get rid of stupid memories with the concept of layering.
And suddenly become far more talented than we thought possible.
Next post: How layering is almost more powerful than memory itself 🙂
They all relate to one simple factor.
Your brain freezes.
It doesn’t have a memory of a fire-drill
So let’s start with the fire-drill, shall we?
The reason why you had a fire-drill in school or at an office, isn’t because the organisation likes making you run out of the building, and onto the street.
The biggest reason for fire-drills, is to know what to do in an emergency.
Because contrary to what you may believe, people don’t actually run helter-skelter in an emergency. They sit there, transfixed, as if in a bad dream.
And in your business, emergencies pop up like 800-pound gorillas
Suddenly you have to write a report. Or create a presentation. Or even worse, write an engaging article.
And your brain panics. It freezes. And it has no memory of any fire-drill.
The brain goes into panic mode. It scans memory bank after memory bank for a memory of success.
On the contrary, it finds failure after failure
Why does it run into failure? And how do we overcome this failure? Listen to this short 7 minute audio, and you’ll understand exactly what goes in the mind of a so-called ‘talented’ person. Why that person is able to walk right past that 800-pound assignment, while you can only watch in terror.
