Doodle Card #316 – Learn Less, Create More

 

Learn less, create more.
より少なく学び、より多く創ろう。

 

By default, we all are programmed to learn too much.

Remember school exams. We tried to absorb knowledge as much as possible, but what we saw on the exam paper was only part of it. After we graduated, the knowledge became completely useless. But through those experiences, learning too much becomes our basic rule of conduct.

Learning itself is a good thing, but learning too much often paralyzes our thoughts. If we only focus on remembering something and don’t generate ideas, our idea muscle atrophies. Even worse, we often would not be aware of them—because learning something can also give us a feeling of satisfaction, even when we don’t use the knowledge we’ve just acquired.

Creating something is almost always the best way to learn something. Cook a meal. Make a presentation or speech. Form a local community. Start a business. Or anything from scratch.

At the beginning we might keep failing and make mistakes, but those experiences are invaluable. The more we create, the more we begin to know what to learn. At this point, we no longer seek any excessive information; we focus on acquiring knowledge that matter the most to the thing we are creating.

If you feel comfortable about being exposed to too much information all the time, it’s time to reprogram your code of conduct. Unlike computer programs, we all have the ability to do so ourselves.