In Brisbane we now have a regular entrepreneurs’ networking event called The Hive, based on a successful predecessor in Melbourne. Whether the association is intentional or not, the title of the event resonates with Seth Godin’s viral marketing metaphors, which also include Purple Cows and the mystical, driven Sneezers. Sneezers hang out at hives, where the latest purple cows are discussed over drinks at bar prices. It’s a potent cocktail - entrepreneurs (mostly but not all young), compelling metaphors and of course a few drinks at bar prices. This isn’t the first time Godin has been mentioned in this blog, not necessarily because his strategies are effective but certainly because his imagery is.
When you are involved in a pleasurable social learning experience, your brain is stimulated by a series of natural chemicals - dopamine, adrenalin and endorphins - often associated with the high experienced using drugs such as cocaine. Human beings have an organic electro-chemical reward system geared to learning, evolved from the days when the smarter guys and gals were the ones who ended up passing down their genes (and way before unpleasurable experiences such as schools, where the reward for learning is usually not even remotely related to a ‘high’). And it’s a high that keeps on keeping on, without a hangover, as learning progresses and the rewards of learning being apparent. We experience the ‘firing of dopaminergic neurons’ as a pleasure/reward, which increases the motivation for more of the same. Learn > reward > high > more learning > more reward > higher.
For more highs, check out Flaherty, A.W, (2005). “Frontotemporal and dopaminergic control of idea generation and creative drive”. Journal of Comparative Neurology 493 (1): 147–153
It’s sometimes said amongst crusty old cynics that youth is wasted on the young, meaning, we assume, that the benefits of youthfulness - health, energy, optimism, idealism - are something that the crusty old cynics themselves can more sensibly deal with and deploy. They’re wrong. Youth is a time for not knowing what you don’t know. Like KaosPilot trainee Michael Nybrandt, who in 2001 didn’t know you can’t just knock on the door of the Dalai Lama and ask him if you can help start up the first Tibetan National Football Association. As it happens, he got the green light (he didn’t know that he wouldn’t) and the team has been a source of pride to the world’s Tibetans and their supporters, and a thorn in China’s side, ever since. And don’t forget the world’s oldest child, the Dalai Lama himself, a source of constant inspiration and good humour who refuses to ‘know’ that the battle to save the culture of his country is without hope.
Youth is not wasted on the young; cynicism is superfluous in the old.
This year, 2009, I’m teaching a class at QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty on ‘Business and Corporate Development in Creative Industries’ and an online course called ‘Knowledge Transfer and Research Commercialisation’ for e-Grad School Australia. In each case, I estimate about 25% of the contact time, and a similar quantum of preparation time (not to mention 100% of the time spent grading papers and so forth) is dedicated to assessment and evaluation. Leaving aside the obvious inefficiencies, I can’t help but recall Ken Robinson’s critique of a failure-adverse culture in his whimsical TED talk. If we don’t allow (let alone encourage) ‘brave failure’, how can we be surprised when we fail to generate true innovation?
Slow education, an application of the international ’slow’ movement, is a kind of ecological literacy. It’s about connecting to knowledge and to the learning process in a way that is unforced and follows the natural rhythm of an individual’s and a community’s exploration and growth. It is driven by curiousity and the deep need to live a meaningful life. These ideas were turning over (slowly) in my head as I observed the Do Well speakers and the ways in which their audience reflected on their contributions, then fed back into conversations on the floor, and private interactions following the speakers. Edgeware is definitely a slow learning system.
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