Normalize Growth

Last week, I gave a guest lecture for a Product Management class at Stanford. As a coda, I exhorted them to aspire to a life of continuous learning. By way of example, I mentioned that, “80% of the stuff I just shared with you, I didn’t know 2 years ago.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

“Really?” One student muttered disbelievingly. “Whoa.”

Why the surprise? They mistakenly assumed that, while they’re certainly supposed to be learning, yet at some point, surely at some point — ostensibly, by the time you become a “successful teacher” like the guy standing in front of them — you don’t need to grow anymore.

What a shame that the assumption was that I had always known the things I was sharing with them. The corollary is, of course, that they could never really know them. You know, because they didn’t know them from birth, as I must have.

The logic is laughable as soon as you process the implications.

But here’s the thing: most people don’t. Most people don’t think about how much work goes into preparing for a talk, or to say it in reverse, how if they work hard in a particular direction, within a couple of years, they’ll be able to speak knowledgably about a subject!

I thought my main topic was creativity & innovation. But it was bigger that than that. The class session was an opportunity to make continuous learning — and thus continuous growth — the normal expected trajectory of life. But to really appreciate it, they had to see it even in me: different from what I was 2 years ago.

You know what they realized? They can be in a radically different place in 2 years, too!

Related: Practice What You Preach
Related: Legitimize Learning

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