LEARN, DON'T STUDY by Pramath Raj Sinha
This is an
insightful book written by Mr. pramath Raj Sinha. He is also known as an
institution builder because of his track record of setting up ISB, Ashoka University
and currently Harappa Online Learning.
In this book
he picks up questions like What it takes to be successful in today's working
world (4IR), the possibilities of changing careers multiple times, the gap
between academic institutions and the industry and new guides and framework for
embarking on professional journey.
To address
these broad questions, he shares his life experiences from the world
of industry (business) and education. He also shares insights collected from
interviewing successful professionals from different walks of life (journalism,
education, research, corporate, media, entrepreneurship etc) in the process of writing this book.
USP of this
book - all the interviews conducted for this book where with professionals who
have a direct connection to India, whether through birth, family, or education.
“So much of what has been written about career development comes from the West,
I wanted to present an approach that was uniquely Indian.” – the author.
I have written this blog it in first person's voice, and taing the exact verbatim (in most places) to retain the narrative style of the book, i.e., the author is speaking directly to his audience (readers).
Chapter 1 - You Can Do Anything
Most of
us don’t know and that’s okay
Most of us
during our lives transition from adolescence to adulthood are unsure of what we
want to do in our life? We might have an inkling about what we like and dislike
or about the things we are good at and not so good at, but we lack life
experiences to translate these feelings into a clear vocational path.
Often many
of us draw conclusion that there must be something wrong within us if we don't
know exactly what we want to do with our lives. There is also a sense of fear
of being left behind to our peers who seem to have it all figured out.
Sadly this
fear psychosis is reinforced by the ecosystem around us parents, educators, peers
etc.
Through the
interviews the author presents scenarios where there were people who discovered
what they want to do at a young age but there were also many who discovered
it tinkering along their way and many also ended up pursuing multiple careers in
their lifetime.
Don’t be
overly concerned with money
The author
mentions one of the primary obstacle to building a passion based career is
obsessing about how much money you will make. If money is your topmost
criterion for determining what you want to do with your life, it can often
stand in the way of a deeper, more fulfilling and more successful career.
In India in
particular the culturally conditioned fear of lack of adequate income, can lead
young people to become overly anxious about their financial stability often at
the expense off their long-term happiness.
In the early
stages of career, the most important thing is to gain experience to discover
one's passion and strength to learn and develop new skill sets and to build a
strong foundation for success in the long run. Money should be a symptom of a
well-rounded and successful career.
Anything
is possible, with a twist
The three
core principles:
It's possible to make a career out of doing something you love.
Your passion is usually something you develop.
You can have multiple loves and multiple careers.
These core
principles helps you to think about yourself and your career in a more broader
dynamic context, liberates you from the fixed mindset and makes you an explorer
seeking to discover your passions and aptitudes as you move forward on your
life’s journey.
You can
do something you love
For many of
us who are fortunate enough to get good education, the world is filled with
more possibilities than ever before The definition of passion based career
has significantly expanded and evolved to include a wide variety of options.
The author
points out everyone he interviewed for this book has built at least one Career out of doing something they love. It is truly possible to do what you love if
you are committed and dedicated to make it happen.
Your
passion is usually something you develop
In a 2018
article for the Psychological Science Journal, authors Paul O’Keefe, Carol
Dweck and Gregory Walton suggest that there are two general approaches to
building a passion-based career:
Finding your passion, or
Developing your passion
The first approach represents 'fixed mindset' i.e. each one of us have a unique passion that we are meant to represent.
The second
approach represents ‘growth mindset’ i.e.
viewing your passion or passions, as something you develop and
cultivate.
There
research points out the growth mindset approach of developing passion is more
rewarding. Reason being, it opens up more possibilities and opportunities in
one’s life.
So it is
crucial to realize that you may not necessarily be able to know your passion
without some experimentation. Passion is something you cultivate overtime.
You can
have multiple loves and multiple careers
The author
drawing from his personal experience mentions that none of us are limited to
just one passion or one career in our lives. As human beings we are much more
complex than we often realize. You can have different passions and build
different careers out of them in your lifetime.
Chapter 2 - It All Starts with
Self-Discovery
An
ongoing process of self discovery
Self
discovery, is a crucial element in building one's career. All the interviewees
cited this ability to understand who they were, what they were good at and what
they wanted to do with their lives as foundational to their meaningful success.
Self
discovery is something you never stop undergoing. It's an ever evolving
process.
You Can't
force it
Usually Self
discovery is an organic process that moves according to its own pace.
The author
sites example of the popular Myers Briggs test which is used to generate personalized psychological profile and the list of careers best suited for the
individual. He points out several criticisms of such psychometric assessments
as they depend heavily on reductionist approach.
Human beings
are not so simple or binary. None of us are only defined by one thing. After
all we are not robots, our personalities are not scripts or algorithms. hence the
process of self-discovery can't be robotic. It requires patience, trial and error most of the times. One has to go through real life experiences,
experimentation and internship in various vocations to truly discover
themselves. Such organic elaborate process does need time and patience.
Resisting
the pressure
The Indian
education system which is one of the most competitive in the world puts extreme amount of pressure on the children to make their choice of specialization at an young age and then to stick on that trajectory. Unfortunately,
this leads to premature conformity.
One of the
compelling reason for the author to write this book is to make young people and
their parents understand that it's OK if you don't know what you want to do
right up front. He wants to alleviate this pressure from within and outside, so
that people can discover their passions and their strengths more
organically.
Discovering
what you’re good (and not so good) at
All the
interviewees in this book mentioned that they needed real world experiences to
really test themselves and discover their passions, strength, and weaknesses. Unfortunately,
our traditional educational journey are usually focused on grade,
marks and ranks.
The key to self-discovery
is real world experience. You just can't do it in a vacuum. You must test
yourself to discover yourself. You need to get your hands dirty in the real
working world to figure out what aspects of who you are might be valuable to
the development of your career.
Self-Discovery
is a lifelong journey
The author
mentions one of his key takeaways from all the interviews was there is no one
common path for self-discovery. Self-discovery is unique for each person. For
some the clarity of what one wants to do in life emerges at the very early age
and for many this becomes a lifelong journey of introspection, trial and
error, coupled with perpetual growth. This is the beauty of self-discovery it's a never ending process. You will keep discovering things about yourself as long
as you continue to be engaged in the process of inquiry.
Chapter 3 Balancing Breadth and Depth
The author
refers to David Epstein 's book Range: Why Generalist Triumph In a Specialized
World, has been one of the most thought provoking book he has read in the recent few
years.
David
Epstein challenges the notion of specializing as early as possible to thrive in
one's vocation. He put forth research that that argues the case that those who
succeed in the long run are those who developed a wide range of skills and
experiences early in their lives which they can apply to the rest of their
career.
However, our
current education system runs contrary to delaying specialization, hence it
becomes a herculean task for students to go in another direction.
The author
categorically mentions he nor any the interviewees are against specialization. However,
specialization should not come at the expense of learning a broad range of
skills. The key is to find that balance of breadth and depth of variety and
focus.
Choosing
your educational path
The author
provides a general guideline and perspectives from his and the interviewees
life experiences:
You don't have to know (yet) - If a student is unclear of the choice of subjects, it's okay. They need not stress too much on it.
The institution matters more than your major - If a student is unclear on the branch/major, then it may be a good idea to pick up the school (reputation) over the branch. A reputed school can open many doors in future.
Liberal Arts style education generally serves you best in the long run - Liberal Arts curriculum covers four general sectors: the arts, humanities, social and physical sciences. The objective of liberal arts is to cultivate an ability to think critically across disciplines and to see the interconnects between them.
A study
published by Stanford University in collaboration with HSE university Moscow in Nature Human Behavior tracked 30,000 engineering students across India Russia
China and USA through their four years of undergraduate degree to monitor the
development of their critical thinking skills. The study found that Indian
engineering students (along with the Russians and Chinese) significantly lagged
their American counterparts when it came to critical thinking.
In an
article for the Higher Education Review, Mimi Roy, an associate professor at Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, explains why she believes Indian
students are falling behind. “The pedagogy at most techno institutions is not
thought provoking and relies mostly on route learning and exam-based lock step
methods.”
Diversifying
your education and experience
The author
mentions attending a liberal arts college isn't the right choice for everyone,
nor it is always an option. Some people from an early age are aware of their
specialized field of education while others might not be able to afford and
liberal arts education as most institutions tend to be more elite. It is
possible to gain many of the benefits of a liberal arts education even if you
don't attend a liberal arts college. Student can expose themselves by attending
diverse classes beyond their core subjects, by actively choosing diverse
opportunities on campus which will help them develop new and diverse skill-sets which will help them to build a wider network of peers and mentors. Such wider
exposure makes students well-rounded and they set themselves for success in
the long run.
Learning
how to specialize
One of the
interviewee Nikhil mentions, the point is that while you shouldn't be too
narrow in your approach, we should also avoid being too broad. We need to
strike a balance between the breadth and depth. David Epstein 's book range
also articulates this key principle: generalize early but specialize late.
Striking
your balance
The author
concludes the chapter by stating, give yourself the time and space to
experiment, pursue diverse opportunities, pursue different topics and interest.
Aim for balance not expedience. Don't be afraid to take a longer and more winding
path. It will benefit you in the long run.
Chapter 4 Focusing on the Right
Skills
Transferable
skills for a non-linear world
Outside of
technical skills, the author identifies five general categories of THRIVE SKILLS
(Harappa Education):
Communication
Collaboration
Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
Leadership
Technological
innovation and automation has put pressure on the workforce to evolve and adapt. Tasks that used to be performed by humans are now being taken over by
computers applications and machines. But there is one domain that remains
relatively immune to automations rapid advances: Soft skills or Social skills.
National
Bureau of Economic Research shows since 1980s, most of the job growth has been
within careers that require extensive social interaction. Jobs that include a
high degree of analytical and mathematical processing but relatively low
levels of social interaction have declined. Similarly, the higher paying jobs
tend to be those that require the most social skills. So, it’s crucial to
develop these soft/social skills as we venture forward into the brave new world
dominated by technology and machines.
Chapter 5 Picking Up (and connecting)
the Dots
The author
quotes Steve Jobs famous 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, “You
can't Connect the Dots looking forward you can Only Connect them looking
backwards. so, you must trust that the dots will somehow connect in your
future.”
The author builds
on this further by stating, “If you want to be able to connect the dots in your
own life, you have to be willing to pick them up first.” He mentions, the
willingness to pick up new experiences was a universal quality among everyone he interviewed in the process of writing this book. None of their career paths
were linear, they all galvanized diverse experiences and skills to create their
own unique story and career path.
Your life
is an experiment
Through
interviewee’s Paroma Roy Chowdhury story, the author showcases the importance
of willingness to take risks, try new things, to experiment, to follow one’s
instincts. Every opportunity is a working hypothesis, which helps to move on to
your next hypothesis and continue to learn and grow forever.
Overcoming
the fear of failure
Through Uday
Shankar's story the author tells us the importance of overcoming your fear of
failure which in turn helps to seize opportunities and act. He emphasizes once
you have made your decision, you need to do everything in your power not to
fail.
So, what’s
the best way to overcome fear of failure? Uday’s advice is not to take yourself
too seriously.
Another way
is to reframe what ‘failure’ means. Failure can be looked as an experiment,
there’s no right or wrong results, there’s only more data one can use to create
the next experiment. So, failure is not literally a failure, it’s an
opportunity to learn, grow and refine.
Finally, the
best way to overcome your fear of failure is to actually fail. You will find
that you recover from failure faster than you would have expected. You will go
on living and growing.
Intelligent
failure
Duke university’s
Sim Sitkin in his 1996 article Learning through failure: The strategy of small
losses for the Journal of Organizational Learning, coined the term intelligent
failure. He articulates Don't throw caution to the wind and recklessly
attempt to do big things. Rather, take up initiatives and challenges that you
have considered and prepared for, but that you understand might not work
perfectly.
How to
fail intelligently?
Be in an environment where experimentation is encouraged, and failure is accepted.
Challenge yourself by taking on difficult tasks where you will likely experience some degree of failure.
Adjust your mindset to see failure as a natural part of a creative life.
Make sure that you are not trying to fail. Rather you're doing your best to succeed, but ready to learn from any failure that might occur.
You don't have to feel like an Imposter
In the year 1978, a team of Psychologists Suzanne Imes, Pauline Rose Clance, first identified Imposter Syndrome as a pervasive phenomenon and attributed it primarily to women. In a 2011 article in the Journal of Behavioural Science, 70% of the people surveyed reported to have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their lives.
Imposter syndrome is a feeling of inadequacy, one feels they don't belong in this group of high achievers and they attribute their success to luck rather than their hard work and talent.
Since
imposter syndrome is subjective distortion of reality, one of the best way to
gain objectivity is to talk to someone i.e. approach a friend, colleague or
mentor and share what's going on in your mind. Maybe experiencing imposter
syndrome from time to time is a natural phenomenon and hence expect it, be
ready for them and find a way to overcome it.
Get as
much experience as you can
The author
emphasizes the importance of experience by stating you can have all the
education in the world, but it can't replace the value of real-world
experience. Experience helps us in our exploration and self-discovery. So
students are encouraged to participate in experiential learning programs,
volunteering work, taking up opportunities your
school and college such as hosting events etc.
Chapter 6 The Power of Mentorship
The author
through his life story and from the life stories of all the interviewees,
highlights mentorship as one of the most important ingredients in a successful
career. Mentors play an important role, not only in early professional and educational
decisions but also in many of the critical junctures of one's professional journey.
Mentors help to identify one's trends, refine their passions and push them
towards higher degree of excellence.
A trusted
voice outside of your family
The author
presents Indra Noogi’s story, which highlights how her mentor’s advice (voice)
was accepted with trust by her family.
A good
mentor’s primary interest is your future and betterment, without having any conflict
of interest. Mentor can often be more objective about you than your family can.
A mentor looks at you as a possibility i.e. who you will be in the future than
who you have been in the past.
Helping
You to Find and Connect the Dots
A mentor
being an objective observer of our career can help us to see the dots and
connect the dots. They play a huge role in our organic process of self-discovery,
by helping us discover our strengths and make sense of our experiences and
situations. A mentor also holds you to a higher standard, thereby
raising your level of thinking and performance. A mentor also helps in
modelling new pathways i.e., can open your mind to new opportunities you
weren’t aware of or didn’t think possible. Mentors can also be role models and
they can be a guide, friend, philosopher who gives you the confidence to make a
career move, a career transition and to overcome career challenges.
Chapter 7 Advice for Parents: Tapping
into the Secret Sauce
The author
highlights the rapid change in our society in just one generation. Parents
today are facing a unique generational conundrum, i.e., there is a disconnect
between our experience of growing up as a child and that of our children who
are growing up now.
Therefore,
parents should be cautious not to project their own life experiences onto their
children, because what worked for us won't necessarily work for our children.
The room
to experiment
The best
gift a parent can give to their child is room (time) to experiment. Help your
child in cultivating a dynamic growth mindset from a young age, which will be
critical to their long-term success.
They are
different from you
As digital
natives today's children have been shaped by a completely different world than
you had. As parents, we need to acknowledge and learn about these differences
in order for our guidance to be relevant and effective.
The Deloitte
2021 millennial and Gen Z survey found that among young people in India,
personal beliefs (ethics based work) are more influential over the kinds of
careers they choose [72% millennials and 66% Gen Z) than the global average
break 44% millennials and 49% Gen Z). Mental Health is also an emerging value
among younger generation.
Help them
figure out what they love
The best
role you can play as a parent is to help them discover themselves,
gradually and without any pressure to figure it out quickly. Parents should
avoid becoming overly concerned with grades. Grades, are important, especially
if you want to get into a good school. It's just that you shouldn't think that just getting good grades will ensure you a successful future. Rather, having a well-rounded
base of experiences and skills to draw from will serve you better in the long
run. Encourage them to take up hobbies, help them to take up internships for
gaining real world experience and parents should do their best to learn about
how the world is changing.
Prepare
them, don't instruct them
Srikanth Shastri, one of the interviewee, calls this approach to parenting as ‘guidance
with the light touch’. He believes the best advice focuses on the process of
making decisions rather than the decisions themselves. He advocates of teaching
young people how to approach the decision in their life that is how to break it
down into its component parts, how to weigh the pros and cons, how to think through all the potential outcomes and how to ask all the right questions. In
short, teach children how to think, and not what to think.
Ofcourse
parenting has to be sometimes heavy-handed and prescriptive but these should be
reserved only for instances when the mistakes are of a catastrophic nature.
Building Agility and Resilience
In a rapidly
changing world, where change is the only constant, young people need to be made
comfortable to embrace this brave new world. Agility and Resilience are two
qualities today’s children need to inculcate, to thrive in this new world.
Expose your
children to diversity (new skills, new experiences, new environments, new
scenarios) so that it develops adaptability and agility in them in due course
of time. In-short as parents help to diversify your child's toolkit so that
they have many more skills and experiences to draw upon in their future.
As parents,
give your child the opportunity to fail, especially early in their lives. As parents we first need to overcome our own fear of failure. Parents who exhibit this in
their own life will be a learning model for their own children (learning by
observing/role model). Secondly, encourage your child to take up challenging
assignments so that they can taste disappointment that comes with failure and
learn why they failed and learn how to bounce back e.g. try learning a musical
instrument, try learning a foreign language, apply for a challenging school,
take up sports etc.
As parents,
we can provide our children a safe space, a safety net, so that they can
experiment with their life, learn to fail in a safe environment and eventually
build agility and resilience for the long run.
The Secret
Sauce
“Parents can
instill in their children the values that help them to succeed, but do it in a
manner that doesn't project their own worldview, which was shaped in a
different era.” – Monica Hariharan
According to
Monica, the secret sauce for everyone looking to succeed in today's world is to
take all of those deeper values and find new ways to express them.
The author sums
it up by stating, this secret sauce is infact the age old ethical template defined
by hard work, excellence, rigorous thinking, dependability, resilience and
adaptability. The key for parents today is to give their children this template
without being too prescriptive in how to apply it.
Conclusion unlocking a Growth Mindset
The author
connects Growth Mindset (by Psychology Professor Carol Dweck) with Marc
Randolph (co-founder of Netflix) 2022 commencement speech at Cape Cod Community
College in Massachusetts.
Marc says, “follow
your dreams” might be the worst thing to tell young people. He continues, the
advice perse is not bad, but no one tells you ‘HOW’.
He
advocates that young people should ‘Stop Thinking and Start Doing’. He believes
it's more crucial to learn how to execute your goals so that when you do
discover your dreams, whatever that may be, you will be in a position to
practically make them come true.
The author
states instead of telling people to follow your dreams we should say discover
your dreams. Which means your dreams are in some fixed entities rather they
are dynamic and changing. They are something to be discovered through the
process of your own career journey. Discovering your dreams requires experimentation.
It requires throwing yourself into new situations and over time, figuring out
what you are best at and what gives you the most sense of fulfillment. In other
words, it’s about inculcating a growth mindset.
A growth
mindset propels us and makes us break away from stagnation of fixed mindset. It
makes us a person who is ‘work in progress’, who can learn new skills, gain new
knowledge, continue self-discovery, explore new opportunities and continue to pivot
through their lifelong journey.
 |
| Pramath Raj Sinha (image courtesy - Harappa Education) |
The author Pramath
Raj Sinha, concludes in his own unique style – “I want to leave you with a
nugget of wisdom. As you peer into your career, whether it be from the vantage
point of a high school student, a college graduate, or a mid-career
professional, it's imperative to do so with patience and curiosity. Don't fall
victim to the pressure from your own peers or teachers or family or society to
prematurely figure it all out. If you're not certain about what you want to do
with your life, that's OK. The world isn't certain. So how could you be? As you
take the next step in your career journey,
try to see it as a learning opportunity. And one day, you’ll look back, connect
the dots of your squiggly career and will be amazed at how much you’ve achieved.”
Credit:
I highly recommend checking out the book 'credit' by Pramath Raj Sinha and published by Penguin Publication. This book summary is intended for educational purposes to spread the ideas and knowledge presented in the book. However, I strongly suggest getting an in-depth reading and gaining deeper insights by purchasing the book. It's definitely worth it!
Link: https://www.amazon.in/Learn-Don%C3%A2%E2%82%ACTMt-Study-ever-changing-landscape/dp/0670097489/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23I7GPLAUMBOD&keywords=learn+don%27t+study+pramath&qid=1693196467&s=books&sprefix=learn+don%27t+study+pramat%2Cstripbooks%2C224&sr=1-1
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