High Cognitive Minds

If you're an average person, millions before you have already figured out most of what you need to know to get through life. How to behave, what to think, what to believe, what to buy. All you have to do is pay attention, follow their example, and you're home free. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. But some don't have such an easy time of it. They go through life not quite being able to figure out why things are done this way and not that way. Or why some things aren't to be talked about, and certainly not questioned.

They take a close look at what we call common sense and find it lacking—in logic, in depth, in consistency. They see that the world runs mostly on common sense, and that it doesn't run very well. But it doesn't take very long to realize that nobody appreciates someone poking and prying into their reality, especially if the result is serious questions about that reality. If you haven't realized that by the second or third grade, then you might just as well learn to go along and get along. The wheel has already been invented; just get with the program.

One of the things that "common sense" dictates is how we are supposed to learn. You study the same text over and over until it nestles comfortably in your memory. That's how school learning is structured, and if you're a contextual learner, you're screwed. This is something I've written about before, and it was nicely illustrated in a recent blog post by Steve Olson. Steve said "I learn subjects in detail through long focused obsessive immersion. I find something captivating, and I immerse myself in it obsessively until I either burnout or reach a level of knowledge and ability that satisfies my desire." A bit later, he says "My brain turns off when I am not self-directed. It‘s that simple."

Of course it isn't that simple. Like it or not, there were things he had to learn, and somehow or other he find to find a way to motivate himself.  What society wanted wasn't necessarily what he wanted, but if you're going to succeed in life, you have to do what's necessary. And what's a better motivator than fear? The fear of failure, the fear of losing whatever you possess, including your self-respect. The catch is that when Steve realized this, and decided to free himself of that fear, he lost his motivation, and now he's working his way through that.

There was no one to tell him that non-linear, contextual learning was perfectly legitimate, or that he possessed powerful tools that should have been developed rather than discarded in favor of fear. Even so, they gave him an edge that he made good use of.

"Most of my adult life I have been a negative thinker. In meetings if someone asked, “what’s the worst case scenario”, everyone would look at me. My boss frequently said, “I didn’t ask you what could possibly go wrong. I asked what is likely to go wrong.

"My negativity helped me succeed, because seeing hidden problems and vulnerabilities that others overlooked is a precious IT skill."

Being able to see "hidden problems and vulnerabilities" requires insight and the capacity for analysis, not exactly what I would call negative qualities. Those are just a few of many innate cognitive tools that need to be recognized and developed. But schools aren't interested in identifying those tools or in helping students learn to use them, so they often lie idle and rust away. Businesses, for the most part, want innovation without having to deal with innovative minds. The preferred tools are a shovel, a sledgehammer, and a screwdriver. Shove those sharp-edged cognitive blades in a box in the garage and forget about them.