The Connection Between Craft, Numeracy and Unlearning
Edition #040
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
The Craft is the End
In this brilliant article, Scott Young writes about his view of success, as there are many wrong interpretations of this term called success. He writes, “For many, the goal of success is to be rich and respected. That’s why you work hard. For this person( the professor he mentions as a part of the conversation that triggered this thought about craft), the goal is to do the work they think is important. Doing the work is the end.”
The person who works on his craft does not seek the next promotion or designation or expects more money. They strive for something deeper. Scott has a profound thought here that will make you think about the work you do daily - “Craft is the Antidote to Status Seeking.”
He ends this article beautifully with this thought - “You may never be conventionally successful. You may never get the respect you feel you’re due or the rewards you deserve. But if you can focus on doing the work that matters to you, you’ll be inside the only ring that counts.”
John Allen Paulos on Numbers, Narratives, Numeracy
Mathematics always has been a challenging, intimidating subject for many, and people have a love-hate relationship with math and its various theorems and algorithms. Paul Allen Paulos has been working tirelessly over his entire life to make people feel mathematics as a subject more approachable and less intimidating. In this podcast, Sean Carroll talks to Paul about how to encourage people to like learning math, the role of stories in helping learn math better and what critical aspects of math one should learn which will be helpful in everyday life.
Learn to Unlearn
By Navi Radjou at TEDxIsereRiver
Learning to unlearn is pretty hard. It is true, especially if you know something has worked for you and you have found success, growth and money both personally and professionally. What are the critical facets of learning to unlearn:
The importance of understanding the ‘Context’ of what you learnt in the past does not hold good now, as the ‘Context’ has changed.
The need to adapt to the new reality and changing environment is critical.
There is a new and evolving approach to innovation and leadership that you need to understand and appreciate. This is required to help you unlearn old innovation models and leadership mindsets.
Just click and watch the above video.
The Connection between Craft, Numeracy and Unlearning
While reading, listening and watching some of the above principles and concepts, it was pretty vivid that there is an ‘inner ring’ of satisfaction or benchmark that one needs to aim for.
Craft takes years to build as it requires continuous practice, belief and commitment to keep at it over a long time. You don’t build craft with a quarter-on-quarter or yearly appraisal focus. Going through the body of work of Prof. John Allen Paulos, who is 77 now, his work spans over 4 -5 decades. You will realise he has sharpened his craft over many years by thinking, writing and contributing to his original thought of making mathematics approachable to people. Remember, he is no ordinary mathematician but believed in "combining disparate disciplines", such as the mathematical and philosophical basis of humor in Mathematics and Humor etc. It was amazing to know that in 2001 Paulos taught a course on quantitative literacy for journalists at the Columbia University School of Journalism. To do that, he may have unlearned many ways he had taught maths earlier and would have had to learn new ways to create awareness amongst journalists to improve their numerate literacy. Similarly, he talks about the role of narratives or stories in how they could help learn math. While the connections between Craft, Numeracy and Unlearning are not apparent, as you think deeply, some common principles come to the fore.
When you want to transform your profession into a craft, it requires inner motivation and drive without the focus on external rewards or success. Rewards or Success may come, but that is not the primary driver for the person pursuing to be a master of that craft. It’s a by-product of the work and effort that was put in. Also, it takes years of hard work and contributions to see an impact like Prof. John Allen Paulos. Also, to work on the craft, there is a need to learn new ways of experimenting in new areas ( like Mathematics and Humor) and create situations to unlearn and disrupt what you have become good at and learn new skills if you have stay relevant and valuable in your profession as a master crafts person.
Great Craftspersons connect the unconnected. And they pursue it for a lifetime as it acts as an antidote to those status-seeking markers like rewards, success and money. They are by-products of their hard work and effort.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
For the person pursuing a craft, the work is end. Craft is the antidote for status-seeking.
Use the power of narratives and stories to learn mathematics. It will make people less intimidated by mathematics and understand it better.
Unlearning starts with redrawing the context.