Logosity - The Learning Mindset
Introduction
Gaining knowledge is so deeply integral to the human experience, it would follow that the strategies for effective learning should be the fundamental core of every education. And yet, I constantly find myself talking to candidates in my work, or acquaintances in my life, who are not able to clearly articulate the principles and strategies they use to learn effectively. I also routinely find myself discussing ideas with people who claim to be open to new knowledge, and yet, fall into many of the common traps that stifle our ability to learn. This is not to say that these people cannot learn, but that their tools for learning are not as sharp or as powerful as they could be.
My goal with this article on The Ideal Learning Mindset (what I have named Logosity), is to clearly define what I believe constitutes the necessary and most powerful elements to effective learning. After laying out the three elements of Logosity, low ego, curiosity, and empathy, I will cover the most common pitfalls of learning and how logosity addresses these. My hope is that you come away from this article with a sharpened and powerful understanding of learning which will empower you to more effectively gain knowledge and solve problems in your own life.
What is Logosity?
Logosity, the Idea Learning Mindset, is comprised of three parts: Low Ego, Curiosity, and Empathy. In order to obtain new knowledge, you need to be able to humbly accept it from wherever it can be found, motivated to search it out even when it is not easy to do so, and extract it from even the most unlikely of sources. Many of the reasons behind the three elements of logosity are overlapping, but I will do my best to highlight what each element brings to our Ideal Learning Mindset.
Low Ego
Low ego is the most fundamental and necessary part of learning. When you accept you have a lot to learn, are not afraid to look ignorant in the pursuit of knowledge, and never assume yourself wiser than others, you enable yourself to acquire knowledge much more freely than someone inhibited by a large ego.
Knowing You Know Nothing
As you have undoubtedly heard many times before in some iteration or another, “a fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool” . This is that idea that the more you know, the more you realize how little you know. While it might seem paradoxical, this awareness of our relative ignorance frees us to learn more effectively. You don’t take your own knowledge as absolute and are therefore willing to listen and learn; To be open to new ideas and beliefs.
Fearless Ignorance
Once you have accepted that you and everyone else starts off from a place of ignorance, you realize there is no need to fear looking ignorant. We are all on a journey toward greater understanding and all have to start at the beginning each time we learn something new. While others might be hesitant to ask questions for fear of seeming ignorant or acknowledging that others know more than they do, someone with low ego has no fear of forgoing their pride in the pursuit of knowledge.
A short aside, I do wish to address the idea that “there is no such thing as a stupid question”. There are certainly bad questions, but these questions are not bad because they “should be obvious” or “they are too fundamental”, but because one did not take the time to think through the problem themselves before asking their question. A good question stems from a genuine need to understand coupled with a lack of ability to easily find that information quickly oneself.
Openness to Knowledge
The final key aspect of low ego is that it opens you up to learning from anyone, even unlikely sources. If you never expect the person who thinks differently from you to have any knowledge worth sharing, then you close yourself off to what might be one of the greatest sources of knowledge. We can learn most from the people who think differently than us as it is rare you will learn much from the people you already agree with.
Curiosity
One could argue that curiosity was key to human evolution as the ones among us who enjoyed learning were more likely to improve themselves and pass on those genes to their offspring. Curiosity drives us and gives us an appreciation for the knowledge we gain and the joy of learning.
Drive to Learn
Curiosity is necessary to an ideal learning mindset because even with an acceptance that we all know relatively little, we might not have a desire to expand that knowledge if we are complacently comfortable. We should always want to learn more so that we are keeping up with the times and are constantly improving. You need to have a passion to learn to drive you forward on your journey.
Appreciation of Knowledge
We have all experienced that “ah ha” moment when things click and we finally understand how the parts come together to form the whole. Or the “oh wow” moment when you discover a greater and more intriguing complexity to something you had previously given little thought to. This appreciation of knowledge and how satisfying learning and understanding can be is essential to our curiosity and drive you to new discoveries.
Empathy
Simply defined, empathy is the ability to understand and internalize the feelings of others. I consider this an essential element to effective learning because so often what gets in the way of our ability to find and correctly extract new knowledge and ideas is our ability to empathize with others. When you value other’s perspectives, seek to truly understand them, and build trust with them as someone who is curious and open, only then will you have access to the full range of perspectives and knowledge available.
Valuing Everyone’s Perspective
There is an important difference between being open to knowledge, as covered in low ego, and valuing the perspectives of others. We are often quick to dismiss the perspective of others we don’t understand or who think differently than us. With empathy, we understand that everyone believes what they believe because they believe they have good reasons to believe it. That is to say, no one thinks they are wrong; everyone thinks they are rational and logical about their decisions and beliefs.
So instead of thinking of the people you don’t understand or who think differently than you as have opinions and viewpoints that are wrong, it is better to seek to understand their reasoning. Even if they are indeed wrong, you might learn where they went wrong and learn from their mistake. Or even better, you might learn that it is you who are wrong and correct your own misunderstanding! Simply put, if you always think you have the right perspective, and don’t value the perspectives of others, you will never understand when you are actually wrong.
Understanding Others
So when we approach learning from others, it should be our goal to understand their ideas and beliefs without judgment. We need to step outside our own beliefs and try to empathize with the way they see the world. Often, you will find that while you might have reached different conclusions than others, the fundamental ideas behind those decisions are very similar and it is only small differences in thought that lead to those conclusions. By trying to understand and dig deeper, we can really understand each other’s reasoning, and grow in our own understanding because of it.
Building Trust
People will not share their honest opinions, experiences, and ideas with you if they do not trust that you will respect them. Being empathetic means you genuinely seek to understand, not judge, and others will open up to this approach much more readily. Curiosity also plays a role in this idea as others will trust you if you seem genuinely curious in them and their ideas.
Why “Logosity”?
Why make up a new word? Why not just be happy with calling it the ideal learning mindset and be done with it?
Well, that’s a good question. I would say that coining my own term stems from a desire to set logosity apart from previous approaches to learning in order to forge a unique connotation.
For example, I often hear people who say “I am open minded”, but when I ask them if there is any information that would change their mind about one of their deeply held beliefs, they answer “no”. In this way, there are many people who believe they are equipped with the right tools for learning, but, because of their own lack of low ego, curiosity, and empathy, they fail to see their limitations.
By creating a new word, completely free of any existing connotation, I can forge a unique and distinct understanding of what it means to have logosity. In order to understand why logosity is, one would have to understand the elements of low ego, curiosity, and empathy. And this would set the word apart from someone else’s definition or preconceived notion of an ideal learning mindset.
I also think that something as fundamentally important as the ideal learning mindset should have its own word. It is a concept worthy of a unique moniker. And I have a bit of a foolish hope that at the very least, this idea can spark greater discussion about what truly is the ideal learning mindset.
Common Problems in Learning
It is hard to fully explain the purpose of a hammer without an understanding of the concept of a nail. As such, it is difficult to see the real value of logosity without understanding the common problems encountered in learning. Here I will cover what I believe to be the biggest hindrances to learning and how logosity can address these.
Dunning Kruger Effect
One of the most interesting discoveries about learning is the unexpected relationship between confidence and knowledge. One might assume that confidence grows proportionately with knowledge, but unfortunately, this is not the case. As you can see, studies have shown that we typically peak in confidence extremely early when learning.
This strikes me as the underlying phenomenon behind the saying that foolish people often think they know everything. With a small amount of knowledge, we are prone to falsely assume that we already have a complete and robust framework of understanding.
An important point to note is that many who occupy that peak of low knowledge/high confidence will not progress further on. Someone at the false peak of confidence will have trouble learning more, as new knowledge will often reveal how little they actually know. Many will actually limit their exposure to new knowledge so they can stay blissfully confident in their limited understanding.
This is where logosity can be leveraged to get us off that peak. Low ego and curiosity are key here. If we temper that high degree of confidence with the low ago approach to assuming we actually know very little, we are much more likely to have our confidence align with our actual knowledge. If we are fearless about learning where we are wrong, we won’t be discouraged as we learn more. And by staying curious, we are more likely to forge ahead despite the allure of thinking we know enough already.
You can learn more about The Dunning Kruger Effect from one of my favorite learning YouTube channels: Sprouts!
Ego Attachment to Ideas
One of the biggest issues with discussing ideas is the degree to which we are emotionally and egotistically attached to our own ideas and beliefs. Often, we associate ourselves with the ideas that we hold. And so when someone debates the validity of that idea, it can often make us feel like we are getting personally attacked. This makes discussing ideas very difficult as people are very protective of their ego and confidence in their knowledge.
One of the first things that I would recommend is to make sure that you always try to disassociate an idea and from your ego. When you think of the ideas you have, think of them as no more connected to you than a tool. A tool might work for a little while, but as soon as you realize that tool is broken, has defects, or there is a better tool, you should have no hesitation to throw that tool away and adopt a better one.
When you talk to others about their ideas, try to frame the discussion in a way that makes it clear that idea is separate from them. Here, empathy is a powerful tool. You can relate to the alluring parts of the idea and tell them you understand why they see that idea as having merit. Dale Carnegie talks about this idea: don’t hesitate to agree with someone so you can dig deeper.
Low ego can also be applied here. By not worrying about the fact that we might believe something that is untrue, or a weak idea, we are much more likely to be able to let go of that idea in favor of a better one. And you can be certain that we all believe things that are untrue, so it is best we are comfortable with throwing away bad ideas for better ones.
Aversion to Mistakes
In the modern world, where so much is shared and then stored online, people are very adverse to being wrong or making mistakes. The internet can be pretty merciless about things that people have said years or even decades ago. It would make sense to me that with this high cost of being wrong, most people want to avoid mistakes as much as possible.
But this is far from an ideal environment for learning. In order to learn and progress we need to take risks and forge into unexplored territory. And by its nature, taking risks and learning new things inevitably come with misunderstanding and making mistakes. No one is perfect. If you aren’t willing to make mistakes, you will have to tread so slowly and carefully, this will severely hamper your ability to learn.
What people should really wish to avoid is not the mistake, but repeating the mistake. This means the important perspective you should have with mistakes is how to learn from them so you won’t make the same mistake again.
I would go so far as to say that people should learn to celebrate their mistakes! A mistake is often an opportunity to learn what you did wrong and improve. If we celebrated mistakes as the discovery of a chance for improvement, people would be less afraid to make mistakes and more excited about the opportunity to learn.
We can use all three aspects of logosity to overcome this aversion to mistakes. If you are low ego and aren’t afraid or ashamed about making mistakes, you will be much more likely to put yourself out there, try new things, and see if they work. Curiosity will help you drive forward. And empathy will help you empathize when others make mistakes and not shame them for those mistakes, but encourage them to learn.
Strawmanning
When engaging in a discussion with someone we disagree with, it is second nature to represent the opposing argument in the worst light. This makes sense as often our objective in a discussion is to win. But ideally, discussions are about seeing if you can expand your own understanding of the world through learning another person’s point of view. A collaboration, not a competition.
So instead of strawmanning another’s argument, we want to steelman it. We want to be able to express someone’s opinion in a way they are happy to agree with. Our goal is to create the best version of that argument so that when we test our understanding versus theirs, we are much more likely to learn if our understanding is strong or needs improvement. This is how scientists test their theories. They want the harshest scrutiny possible because if their idea is wrong, its weaknesses are more likely to be discovered, and if it passes, they can feel confident in its validity.
Being able to steelman another’s argument comes down to curiosity and empathy. You need to be curious about the other person’s opinion, and you need to be empathetic enough to understand it and draw it out of them.
Bubbles and Echo Chambers
We all understand to some degree that we are exposed to and consume media, information, and knowledge in a bubble. We are often surrounded by people of similar opinions, we consume the news that we think is the most trustworthy and usually aligns our own perspective, and we tend not to seek out information or people we disagree with.
This is a natural phenomenon. You are much more likely to build relationships with people with whom you have things in common with. You will typically gravitate to the news that tells stories through a similar perspective to your own.
It is important to point out that news companies are incentivized by profit to keep their reader base happy, entertained, and engaged (they are a business after all). Stories or perspectives a new company’s consumer base wouldn’t agree with are avoided, just like the people who you find weird and disagreeable aren’t people you would want to include in your social circle.
Social media is also incentivized to keep you in your bubble. News feeds want to show you the content you will engage with and it is against their interest to show you things outside what you find agreeable. The more you interact with the content you like, the more the news feed will show you more of the same.
But as I have mentioned, you might be surprised to hear that it is often the people who think differently than you who you have the most to learn from. As we talked about earlier with strawmanning vs steelmanning, you want to create the strongest version of opposing arguments such that you can strengthen (or in some cases see why you need to abandon) your understanding of things. If you never get outside your bubble, then it is rare you will run into someone who disagrees with you and can articulate their argument in its strongest form.
By being low ego and assuming that there is more to learn, even from the people who think differently, by being curious and searching for knowledge outside our bubbles, and by being empathetic and willing to really dig into the ideas of other people, we can use logosity to expand our knowledge base outside our bubble.
Conclusion
The aspects of logosity, low ego, curiosity, and empathy, have been essential to me in my journey to learn and grow. Many of the ideas I have shared here are by no means original or unique, but I find it is often the case that it is difficult to articulate the frameworks we use to determine how we act and make decisions. In this case, I think it is important to clearly define what constitutes a powerful mindset for learning. By laying out a clear set of principles for how one can learn, I hope this article on logosity empowers others to expand their knowledge and understanding more effectively. And by understanding the common pitfalls of learning, I hope this enables you to avoid those problems on your own journey.
As always, I am on my own journey of learning and would love to hear others feedback on my definition of the ideal learning mindset. There is always room for improvement, and I would love to leverage feedback to improve further articles and updates on my work. Cheers!
