(Dear Readers: Due to my extensive travel schedule, I will occasionally be sharing chapters from my latest book, Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future. I hope you enjoy this month’s second “unlearning” lesson: Don’t Climb the Highest Mountain. Lesson #1 is in the May Issue)
“In some sense our ability to open the future will depend not on how well we learn anymore but how well we are able to unlearn.”–Alan Kay
Question #2:
What is the world’s tallest mountain?
Did you say Mount Everest? You’re wrong. The answer is Mauna Kea and, as measured from its base to its summit, it is 33,465 feet high—or 4,436 feet taller than Mount Everest.
Mauna Kea’s distinguishing characteristic is that three-fourths of the mountain lies under water. Mount Everest remains the highest mountain as measured from sea level to summit, but Mauna Kea is the tallest as measured from the bottom its base to its top.
Both the question and the answer serve as a useful metaphor for the concept of unlearning, which I define as follows:
unlearn; v. [the act of unlearning; verbal n, to unlearn]
1. the act of releasing old knowledge.
2. to see the world not as one would like to see it, but as it really is.
3. to be un-uninformed.
4. to acquire wisdom either by replacing old information which has been supplanted by new knowledge or, alternatively, by relinquishing known falsehoods.
Unlearning is a critical skill, especially in today’s world of rapid and accelerating change. To understand why, consider this: scientific and technical knowledge is now doubling every seven years.
This may sound a tad astounding until one considers that there are now 6 billion-plus people populating the globe and 90 percent of the scientists ever to roam the planet are alive at this very moment. Moreover, these scientists and their growing legions of students are adding new knowledge in fields as varied as biotechnology, chemistry, genomics, material science, nanotechnology, neuroscience, robotics, quantum physics and numerous other fields at a prodigious rate.
GLOBAL FUTURIST
UNLEARNING lESSON #2:
Don't Klimb the Highest Mountain.
JACK ULDRICH
Jack Uldrich is an acclaimed global futurist, compelling keynote speaker and best-selling author. His past works include, The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business; Jump the Curve: 50 Strategies to Help You Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technology; Unlearning 101:101 Lessons in Thinking Inside-Out the Box, and, most recently, Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future. He is the founder and “Chief Unlearning Officer” of The School of Unlearning— an international consultancy designed to help organizations succeed tomorrow by unlearning today.
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