The Art of Unlearning

AToffler_fullThe illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
–Alvin Toffler

No matter how many papers you buy from us, you’re going to have to learn the stuff that applies to your hoped-for career sometime. In the 21st century, that includes the ability to unlearn. Particularly in technical fields, stuff happens, and stuff unhappens. The pace of change of knowledge is speeding up all the time, and employers demand an ability to at least marginally keep up.

Which means that technical info, How (Your) Stuff Works, and programming languages and techniques are going to change, and change fast, and that is not going to stop during your career. Learn how to forget. The easiest way to do this is to deliberately replace old knowledge with new. Have short-term mantras – “There are no curly braces in Python” – and after a few hours, you will forget the idea that there ever could be curly braces in Python. Discard the mantra, and discard the obsolete no-longer-knowledege.

 


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