Fail

You are taught from a very young age that failing is not an option. That you must not get anything wrong and if you do so you are a failure.

This is bullshit.

At school, if you get something wrong, you are shouted at. If you fail your GCSE’s your life is over. If you fail your A levels, well forget university and doing well, because you have failed. Not academically minded? Well tough. Don’t want to go to university? Well you are just failing yourself now aren’t you?

Also bullshit. All of it.

The human brain is a very simple machine at its core. It is a reactive survival mechanism that constantly evolves and learns from its surroundings.

It learns by failing.

Let’s repeat that.

It learns by failing.

You only learn by getting things wrong. Why else would the brain bother to learn? If you can already do something there is no need to adapt.

Once more:

If you can already do something there is no need to adapt.

Adaptation to new stimulus IS learning at its very core. And the brain simply does not do it unless it needs to.

Failure and repetition. That’s all there is.

I will get to repetition next time. For now I will leave you with this:

If you aren’t failing most of the time, you simply aren’t learning.

J.F.D.I.