Holistic learning: Learning anything from everything

Before we move further along the innerpreneur path, it is of the essence to introduce the concept of holistic learning.

This approach to learning is derived from the general concept that all phenomena are bound to a set of physical and mathematical rules and behaviours, thus allowing to extrapolate and infer concepts from one domain to another. 

Putting it shortly, it’s the idea that anything you learn is somehow applicable somewhere else sometimes apparently unrelated.

Examples of this line of thought abound in History. These include insights into Brownian movement that Einstein got by looking carefully at the behaviour of a stirred cup of coffee and the ability of Charles Munger, Warren Buffets right arm (and some claim that is left as well), to predict market behaviours using some dozens of models derived from psychology, biology and physics. Those more technically inclined will also know how you can model electric flow using water flow, how you can define the overall control behaviour of any physical systems using almost the same basic mathematical tools, how new computers fail in pretty much the same fashion as new cars or new human beings (think burn-in).

This concept is of the essence because, if taken seriously, it allows you to speed up your learning exponentially. I have learned most of what I needed to know about the timing to market from surfing (go to soon, the wave crashes on you; go to late, you lost the wave; start paddling like a madman just when the wave starts pulling you; replace “wave” with “market”). Most of what I have used to handle business attacks I have learned from Aikido (use your opponent’s aggressiveness against himself, be a mirror, don’t be or give when where the most force is applied). Most of what I know of customer retention I know from being one.

Beautiful in theory, but how to do it in practice?

Be mindful. Be conscious. Pay attention. Whenever you encounter and deal with a new situation and adapt to it (i.e., you learn), try to realise how to abstract the new concept you just acquired from the specific situation you faced. Understand the concepts why what you did worked. Try to find other situations that are somewhat similar. Think and experiment to see if the concept still applies to that different context.

Life is an amazing school. Pay attention to its lessons.