Andy Capaloff
April 30, 2020

How To Learn: Lessons From a Baby (Do What You Do, But Do It New)

How To Learn: Lessons From a Baby

As I watch my 2-year-old grandson sucking up information like a sponge, and now welcome a 2nd grandson into the family, it’s a good time to reflect on learning.

Of course, it’s timely for our world, also, as many of us will need to learn new ways of working.

And an all-new cohort is joining the digital world as the only way to keep in touch with loved ones.

What Can We Learn From Babies?

We know that they learn faster than we do. That’s obviously because they have an all-new world to take in, and plenty of space to store that knowledge. And when everything is new, everything just is what it is! Nothing is wrong if that’s how it works. So you learn whatever you see.

OK, it’s too late for us. Our brains sometimes feel as if they are bursting at the seams with information. But there is still space in there, I promise!

The trick is to try putting the new information in an empty place, rather than trying to add it into the space occupied by similar information.

What do I mean by that?

Learn Something Similar As If It Is New

When you learn something new, it’s all too easy to presume that you now know the one way that can be done. I always tell people going for their second job that they will learn new ways, and the temptation is to think the new ways are wrong. But as you move onwards and upwards, you learn more new ways to do the same things. And somehow, that makes it easier to learn something similar as if it’s new. You modularize your knowledge.

It’s something that comes with experience but that not everyone can intuit.

We do it all the time. We get new generation smartphones and deal with new software releases on a regular basis.

But applying that in the way we handle our business doesn’t always come naturally or easily.

Do What You Do, But Do It New

Sometimes, like now, we must keep the end goal in mind but just adapt what we do.

Social selling should be a natural. You’re selling via social media, without overtly selling. What could change? Honestly, less than your mind might be trying to tell you. It’s only the meeting and flesh pressing that are really different. And we seem to be adapting to that quite well, don’t you think?

What Do You Think?

Do you have any thoughts on learning and adapting that you’d like to share and discuss? Please comment.

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Featured image: My one-day old grandson Cameron, taken by my son, Sean

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Andy Capaloff

Andy Capaloff is the COO of Curatti. Prior to moving into the world of Content Marketing, Social Media Management and the day-to-day running of a Digital Marketing company, Andy spent over 3 decades in various aspects of IT. It is here that he honed his writing and technical skills, and his ability to ask uncommon questions.