The Learning Curve.
As Neurosurgeons, we have to constantly keep abreast with newer emerging modalities and techniques. Technology has really made huge strides in our domain and obsolescence has become the rule. What I observed and trained whilst doing my residency in neurosurgery has largely been replaced by newer concepts, skills, devices and equipments. It's truly humbling to note that there are so many developments, innovations that have forced a paradigm shift. Any new skill, that has to be acquired, has a characteristic learning curve. It's a graphic representation of the quantum of knowledge, skill, and competence plotted on the scale of time.
A philosophical approach to this learning curve is this graph that I really believe in.
We begin with
I don't know what I don't know.
That's the first big hurdle. The ignorance of my ignorance. Learning is made possible only after I overcome this major hurdle. It's only when I look around, observe, read and share with an open mind, that I take the first step. To know that I don't know.
Then I begin the arduous task of gleaning through a host of sources. I reach out in every possible way and the endeavor only serves to wade into the deeper waters of one of the shores, of this vast limitless ocean of knowledge. These efforts slowly lead me to a very interesting phase.
"I think I know, but still don't know what I don't know."
This phase is truly disconcerting. I have just scratched the surface, have a very perfunctory understanding, but am still unaware of what I don't know. I'm perilously placed on this huge edifice, not knowing where my next foothold lies. Totally tentative. I have to plan the next step with a bit of intuition and a touch of epiphany.
Thereafter comes a stage of certainty. This certainty is about the precise knowledge of what I don't know, but need to know.
This eases my mind a bit. I now at least know the path that needs to be followed. This phase gradually helps me get an insight into the philosophy of the subject. A conceptual alignment of sorts. I start marveling at the new ideas, approaches and facets as my mind discovers and grasps. And then I embark on the last stage of this journey.
To know that I know just a bit, to know that what I don't know will also increase as what I know increases. And all I can do is try to narrow the chasm between the two.
The climb gets steeper, but so does my determination. And of course, the joy of having picked up a few grains of sand on these unending shores of knowledge.
And as I establish an equilibrium between my ignorance and knowledge, I can't help realising, that this graph is applicable not just to learning a new domain, but also to knowing and understanding a person. Every individual is a dynamic entity, the sum total of multitudes of experiences, situations and circumstances. I can never really know a person completely. One changing and evolving entity can never totally comprehend another equally changing and mutating entity. But then the greatest truth loomed large over me. Do I really know myself? Can the entity that is attempting to know another, truly know itself? That perhaps is the greatest realization.
As Neurosurgeons, we have to constantly keep abreast with newer emerging modalities and techniques. Technology has really made huge strides in our domain and obsolescence has become the rule. What I observed and trained whilst doing my residency in neurosurgery has largely been replaced by newer concepts, skills, devices and equipments. It's truly humbling to note that there are so many developments, innovations that have forced a paradigm shift. Any new skill, that has to be acquired, has a characteristic learning curve. It's a graphic representation of the quantum of knowledge, skill, and competence plotted on the scale of time.
A philosophical approach to this learning curve is this graph that I really believe in.
We begin with
I don't know what I don't know.
That's the first big hurdle. The ignorance of my ignorance. Learning is made possible only after I overcome this major hurdle. It's only when I look around, observe, read and share with an open mind, that I take the first step. To know that I don't know.
Then I begin the arduous task of gleaning through a host of sources. I reach out in every possible way and the endeavor only serves to wade into the deeper waters of one of the shores, of this vast limitless ocean of knowledge. These efforts slowly lead me to a very interesting phase.
"I think I know, but still don't know what I don't know."
This phase is truly disconcerting. I have just scratched the surface, have a very perfunctory understanding, but am still unaware of what I don't know. I'm perilously placed on this huge edifice, not knowing where my next foothold lies. Totally tentative. I have to plan the next step with a bit of intuition and a touch of epiphany.
Thereafter comes a stage of certainty. This certainty is about the precise knowledge of what I don't know, but need to know.
This eases my mind a bit. I now at least know the path that needs to be followed. This phase gradually helps me get an insight into the philosophy of the subject. A conceptual alignment of sorts. I start marveling at the new ideas, approaches and facets as my mind discovers and grasps. And then I embark on the last stage of this journey.
To know that I know just a bit, to know that what I don't know will also increase as what I know increases. And all I can do is try to narrow the chasm between the two.
The climb gets steeper, but so does my determination. And of course, the joy of having picked up a few grains of sand on these unending shores of knowledge.
And as I establish an equilibrium between my ignorance and knowledge, I can't help realising, that this graph is applicable not just to learning a new domain, but also to knowing and understanding a person. Every individual is a dynamic entity, the sum total of multitudes of experiences, situations and circumstances. I can never really know a person completely. One changing and evolving entity can never totally comprehend another equally changing and mutating entity. But then the greatest truth loomed large over me. Do I really know myself? Can the entity that is attempting to know another, truly know itself? That perhaps is the greatest realization.
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