After a hiatus of over two years, I had a client session with a guy and we essentially picked up where we had left off. It is interesting after such a long time, because it is obvious he doesn't speak English as often now, but toward the end of the session he was getting back into the groove through muscle memory. This isn't technically an English lesson of course, it just happens to be in English, but with my background as a language trainer, I double up and add some value to what I offer.
We get to talk about a lot of things generally, and today we were talking about school and how his daughter is struggling to keep up with physics, because she doesn't understand what she is actually doing. This is common in todays lessons it seems, where instead of giving truly practical and visual examples of what is happening, they are taught just to get the answer. This has various problems of course, because the answers aren't always as clear in life and adjustments are often required, but with a lack of understanding, those adjustments can't be made.
This led into a discussion about how job applicants are using AI to generate their CVs and cover letters, and then companies are using AI to filter them, because there are so many applications. This means that AI is judging AI on who is suitable to shortlist for the position, weeding out the majority of people who actually wrote their own CV. However, what they are finding is that the quality of applicant that makes it to the interview is lower than expected.
No surprise.
Well over a decade ago when a few of my female friends were online dating, they would often complain about the "quality" of their dates. They would be surprised at how different the person would be between the time they spent chatting prior, and an actual date. The intelligent, witty, thoughtful person they had come to know, was replaced by someone boring and inattentive. And to me at least, it was pretty clear why, as online the person had the time to reply, so they could think longer, search for a funny meme, or even research a topic a little before speaking. Face-to-face though, it was just them, and unsupported by the internet, they had little to offer the conversation.
These three circumstances are connected, because the more we rely on "the answer is enough" the less we actually learn about the process to get the answer. And just like in life, it is the journey that is important, not the destination. A lot of people are foregoing the experience of the journey because they can jump straight to the destination, without considering that the journey is where they are able to accumulate a lot of value.
For example yesterday, I wrote a post about "love" and looked at the hormones associated with different phases of the experience. Some hormones are only generated in the later stages of love relationships, and those are helpful for social connection and community building. However, it is possible to never get that far, meaning those evolutionary hormones aren't created, and ultimately, it is going to affect us when we are taking part of the journey, but then jumping to the "answer". Long-term relationships aren't required to have sex and children, but what are we missing when we have sex and children and a complete absence of the long-term hormones?
Whether it comes from just getting the answer, or if we are picking and choosing the bits we like so we don't experience the whole journey, the problem is that there are lessons that go unlearned. We seem to believe that we can learn the lessons from a book, by searching for the acute answer when required, but the fact is that knowledge doesn't mean we have the skill, let alone the ability to insert that into an flowing application.
We are handicapping ourselves.
The journey matters, whether we are learning math and physics, performing the tasks of a job role, or looking to find a romantic partner. The journey is our personality and resource pool we can draw upon to solve the problems we face, and while better answers might be available at our fingertips for many issues, a lot of the time it is impractical to search for them, because they are required on-the-fly and in the moment. Not only this, most of the time when we need a lot of personal skills, we don't even know we are lacking them, so even if we had the chance to search for answers prior to needing them, we wouldn't.
I have heard many stories about kids who have the memory required to do well at school, but have no idea what they are actually doing. Many stories of interviewees who were "brilliant on paper" but couldn't explain anything of value in real-time. And many stories of tragic dares where the gap between expectation based on past internet-supported performance and reality based on real-world conditions, is very wide. Everyone seems to have the answers, until they actually have to make it happen.
If you are boring, get a life.
Live the whole journey, not the final answer.
As the end of the journey for us all is the same.
Taraz
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What you describe is one of the many reasons why I take people as they are. I take applicants as they are, try to find out about them as much as possible, about their character. We almost don't have any requirements, but they have to have the right attitude and values, so they can integrate in the team and learn the skills that they're lacking.
When I started, I looked for candidates who already knew, who had skills, but realized very quickly that being able to make tables with Excel is not building a whole page to calculate several different values that are important to business. Being able to speak English does not mean they're capable enough to sell the bread, that they can learn and more than anything apply the right words at the right time. A lot of that comes down to attitude. Some comes down to the right type of intelligence. There's a place for every kind of intelligence, and there's work for everyone - I see it as my job as owner to place them right. To get the right people into the right position so they can excel and based on that be happy.
A lot of small businesses here aren't advertising positions openly because the volume of application is far too high to sort through. The problem with the AI support is that people can apply to much more with less effort, and they are.
But as you say, it is about the right person for the role, and that requires meeting the people and getting a feel for them. The challenge is (for many positions) is that they are not meeting the right people for the role, they are getting the best applications.
Absolutely. We didn't post anything on Facebook, just hung a few flyers at strategic places that are frequented by our target-workers, and asked some people to let us know if someone was looking. It's basically the same as marketing - you don't want a lot of requests without intent to buy, but get to the right people.
Neat insight into the world as it is becoming today. Education isn’t as much about learning things as it is learning to learn and developing the brain through the reps. If those reps become the focus, then the thing can actually be missing.
Maybe it is the physics difficulty! I know ot confused me in the complex math more than it did the conceptual premise but that didn’t make me much of a physicist.
I was talking about something like this in a much different context with a friend yesterday. It was more related to paths not taken and the opportunities missed. Being the contrarian in some topics for debate, I pointed out that the benefits of not taking a path can be ignored when a different path is taken when we focus on what could have been. I suggested that our path is what it is for better and worse.
Time spent failing in the wrong direction presents its lessons learned and wisdom we take with us that helps the rest of the way is a strong part of us.
It is all about the winding path and who we become along the way.
Since I was a kid I have not understood why they don't teach how to learn first. Basic school would be cut in half.
"This is where I ended up, so this is what I like! I wouldn't change a thing!"
(without knowing what the other path actually held)
I think it is also a bit like dealing with hardship - without knowing real hardship, small problems seem hard, and it is difficult to be grateful for just how good things are. Most people complain about their job, unless they have done some really terrible jobs in the past.
I remember in my high school physics class the teacher used an example of me driving my car into a bridge abutment. I doubt something like that would fly today. The teacher would probably be scolded for singling someone out in class and making them uncomfortable. Harassment or something stupid like that.
And you still remember the lesson! Pain is the best teacher :)
I really enjoy my internet self.. yup.. I often amuse myself with how witty and clever I can get.. :P
Shouting into the void, keeping your own score. billions of people think they are witty and clever in their own fantasy :)
😂yup.
@tipu curate 2
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Wow, this so educative,
the more we rely on "the answer is enough" the less we actually learn about the process to get the answer
This part really caught my attention, so that mentality of limiting more exploration indirectly reduces the chance to be more enlightened. Wow!.
Being brilliant on paper indeed can't guarantee smartness on reality especially facing challenges that needs exposure not academics performance. I really loved you writings I am getting enlightened more and more. @tarazkp @tarazkp
Focusing too much on just finding the answer can make us unready for actual challenges in life. I think it is important to appreciate the learning journey itself.
It's true. Experience is the really the best teacher.
When I'm going straight to the point, I think of sex. It's like premature ejaculation or intercourse that lasts too short. However, with adequate foreplay and massage, you can increase both the duration and quality of sex. The real issue here is awareness and mindfulness. The ability to make comparisons. Unfortunately, these aren't sufficient today.
In today's society, although many people are seen as talented on paper, there are few who solve problems with their skills and experience. Quick fixes only provide temporary relief, not long-term solutions. Even if we learn valuable lessons, it seems that we have not learned them properly, according to our behavior.
The dating scene could be complicated. And some of us have dating handicaps based on our history and physical appearance. For example after I divorced I spent ten years looking for my second wife. I tried online dating, which was before Tinder in 2006 that produced a couple short term relationships that were not successful. So I switched my strategy to the real world dating only. At the time I had my business as a photographer specializing in people photography: mostly fashion, portrait and my niche was producing images for high profile dating sites.
So my handicap was that I never really learned how to be a good date in terms of communication. My soft dating skills were really un-developed, because ladies would see a tall, dark and handsome dude and I wouldn't have to do anything else. That produced lots of dates and short term relationships, but I was not getting anyone who was compatible with me. I figured out why it was, it was my fault entirely as there were lots of ladies who were available and I would go for some of them and it required no effort on my part.
So eventually when I finally did meet my wife on the photoshoot for her corporate image pictures I knew she was the one, but I was totally un-prepared. At the shoot I did great, because it was a familiar situation for me and I was professional, confident and in my photographer persona. She liked me right away and accepted my invitation to a date at a restaurant. And that is when the trouble started, I was totally out of my element, communication from my side was terrible. I somehow gave her an impression that I wasn't interested and in general the date went so bad that it almost ended the relationship before it even started. All because I lacked soft skills, if that date was via messaging I would have time to think and wouldn't have blown it so much...
This is one of the reasons why I didn't do well in school (and also hated it, although as I've said previously I also don't have the correct brain/learning type for academia anyway). It didn't seem to have changed much some decades later when my daughter tried high school (one of many reasons we chose to homeschool).
This is not even on the teachers, most of them would be doing their absolute best, sometimes the kid's brain just isn't ready to accept what they're being shown.
Everyone seems to have the answers, until they actually have to make it happen.
This is a problem eldest is facing to the point where he's just waiting to get his accreditation and then waiting to see if the class that he's hopefully going to get once he gets it manages to get off the ground. Every now and again he gets so demoralised he just gives up job hunting, though he is now also looking at other TAFE courses (the one he had originally applied for kind of exploded around him, that level of admin difficulties was something to behold) and trying to figure out how to get things like forklift tickets and working at heights to try to make himself more interesting.
This was my vague recollection when blundering through school and definitely at uni and as a young adult where in the groups I was hanging out with WHAT DIDN'T YOU LEARN THAT AT SCHOOL was a very common catchcry over some very basic things (some of which were definitely taught at school if nothing else and some which probably should have been learned from primary caregivers but one of many topics of conversation at uni is how "this, that and the otther basic life skill should be taught in school" and I think I was the only one who asked when and where in the curriculum it should fit as a lot of the "missing" skills were life skills but the primary caregivers were working full time and either too tired/didn't bother or didn't know to do it when everone was home).
My kids also noted that with some of their friends who went to school.
In the handful of cases where I've actually watched this unfold it seems to be everyone and everything else's fault. In a couple of the cases it was very much a narcissistic thing but this does make the rest of the cases make a bit more sense.
I love it, its Very informative.