There are many parallels between educational institutions and the typical gym. Most gyms carry machines in addition to free weights, that are designed to isolate specific muscle groups. These machines are widely use because, compared with free weights, they minimize the use of technique required to operate them, they minimize liability and cases of serious injuries for the gym owners, minimize the need for large staff, and ironically, minimize the exertion required to move heavy shit.
People definitely get results from using machines. But how much of the results are aesthetic and how much are functional? In this particular case, our goal is fitness, which is tied to athletic performance. And athletic performance is aided by, but not 100% derived from, the lifting of weights.
Education is handled in the same manner. The incentives are to teach in such a manner as to undermine the complexities of learning, and to streamline the process as to serve the most pupils as possible per staff member per year. Institutionalized education is also isolated into specific groups, with generally no effort to merge ideas that might hold true across multiple disciplines.
In the end, people do get results from this manner of education. But how much of the results are aesthetic and how much are functional? Aesthetic knowledge is rote memorization of facts, use of jargon, etc. What is functional knowledge? Let’s call it mental performance. Mental performance is aided by, but not 100% derived from, the studying of topics in isolated disciplines. So how can we improved our mental performance?
Crossfit is a growing methodology in strength conditioning. It promotes functional fitness, which is defined over ten fitness domains: “cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.” Workout routines are “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements.” They adopt movements from olympic weight lifting, gymnastics, rowing and a slew of other fitness activities. It is truly a multi-disciplinary approach, developed by first rethinking the definition of generalized fitness. The advantage from this approach comes not from a specialized set of work-out routines, but a generalized set of ideas, which can borrow endlessly from the realm of many different performance sports.
Mental performance can be culled in the same manner. What is functional mental performance? At the heart, it is problem solving. How do we develop good problem solving abilities? What are the important disciplines we should borrow ideas from? Who are and who have been, some of the greatest problem solvers in history? This is another topic I hope to explore with this blog – to feature notable problem solvers, who’ve contributed to or pragmatically adopted from disciplines outside their expertise. I hope that by studying some of these figures, we can establish a generalized set of ideas for developing strong mental performance. And like the development of Crossfit, having a generalized set of ideas about problem solving will allow us to borrow from many different disciplines in a way that enhances our cognition.
Sami! I’m digging your writing, man. Glad you’re doing this.
Thought of the day – more snazz/bold draws readers. I’ve been experimenting with this, and it seems like the internet was eroded the attention span of most people, so they need bold or sub-heads or something to break things up to keep reading. It’s easy for people like you and me to overlook this since we read old fashioned books and even financial reports sometimes (the horror!), but we’re like .001% of the population or something. Of course, it’s a pretty exciting .001% of the population if you can reach folks like us, but I think some of the rest of humanity is pretty good too, and they like bold
Second thought of the day – write like you’re writing to someone you like and careful about. Like, more casual, or more aggressive, or swear a little. Admittedly, this is something that took me a long time to develop, as I was writing in “neutral generic tone” for no-one-in-particular for a long time, but I’m starting to clear that up a little bit. We’re entertainers first, and informers second. If we want to inform, we should be writing white papers for thousands of dollars
I loved this paragraph -
> What is functional mental performance? At the heart, it is problem solving. How do we develop good problem solving abilities? What are the important disciplines we should borrow ideas from? Who are and who have been, some of the greatest problem solvers in history? This is another topic I hope to explore with this blog – to feature notable problem solvers, who’ve contributed to or pragmatically adopted from disciplines outside their expertise. I hope that by studying some of these figures, we can establish a generalized set of ideas for developing strong mental performance. And like the development of Crossfit, having a generalized set of ideas about problem solving will allow us to borrow from many different disciplines in a way that enhances our cognition.
Problemsolving is life, I live and breathe for it. Very exciting for your blog, I’m a daily reader now. Well, maybe every other day if I get swamped
Cheers and very glad you’re writing, I’m damn near 100% sure this is going to be one of the best blogs on the internet at this time next year.
Make that “care about” not “careful about” – damn me and my sloppy typing. Best wishes again, and very excited for your insights.
Thanks for the kind words Sebastian!
Definitely agree about the tone thing. As I post more, I should find a flow that is more natural and quicker to type up. I’m pretty excited about the direction I’m planning to take this in. I’m already happy to have logs of what thoughts I’ve put together so far. I’m sure in a month, 6 months, and 1 year, seeing the evolution in my writing and thinking will be exciting.