YouTube hosts a wonderful gem in which Stephen Colbert* interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium and in the same class as Carl Sagan when it comes to explaining complex science topics to a general audience. The result is a smart, funny, and very entertaining discussion.
They cover a variety of topics but I especially love Tyson’s assessment of our academic system.
Our academic system rewards people who know a lot of stuff, and generally we call those people “smart”. But at the end of the day, who do you want, the person who can figure stuff out that they’ve never seen before, or the person who can rattle off a bunch of facts? At the end of the day, I want the person who can figure stuff out.
During the audience questions, someone asks about how he would improve the scientific literacy of American society. His answer includes the advice that parents need to allow and encourage their children to experiment and explore the world around them, even if it does get a little messy at times.
In the schools, I don’t have a problem with the fact memorizing, but don’t equate that with what it is to be wise or what it is to be smart. Smart should be some combination of facts, yes, but also what is your lens on the world? How do you figure things out? You promote that by stimulating curiosity. Â I don’t see enough stimulating curiosity in this world.
The whole thing (from January 2010) is well worth an hour or so of your time. Watch.
The business magazine Forbes recently posted a rather odd piece called How to Be More Interesting. Created by Jessica Hagy, the illustrator and writer behind the always inventive blog Indexed, the mix of humor and far-from-traditional advice just seems very out of place from such a conventional source.
However, I was also struck by how much of Jessica’s advice could be applied to being a better learner, and teacher.
1. Go exploring. Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where are all the boring people hang out.
2. Share what you discover. And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.
3. Do something. Anything.Â Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.
7. Give it a shot. Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.
So, does being a better learner make a person more interesting? I suppose it’s possible.
Anyway, go enjoy the whole thing, especially Jessica’s Indexed cards that accompany each item.
A little later than in past years, here’s the holiday-type music now in heavy rotation on all the iDevices. A little more traditional, maybe just slightly mellower, than inpastyears but still with enough oddities to keep things interesting. And, as always, totally and completely Glee-free.