When Learning is Gaining

I want to think some more about the "learning is losing" perspective on life.

We tend to think that learning is for the people who don't know anything about a subject.  In fact, the most avid learners in any discipline are always those who are already experts to some degree. I think about the stories of Michael Jordan and his desire to become a better basketball player.  That desire continued to increase, even when he was regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

The desire to learn is a sign of strength, not weakness.  I think about myself.  I am most interested in learning more about those subject I already know.  I am interested in those topics and want to know more. I have more than a nodding acquaintance with theology, with the psychology of hope, and with several other subject areas.  And I want to learn more about these areas.  I am open to that learning because I already have strengths in those areas.

I think about those who resist learning.  They (we) often live in a closed, self-contained, self-sufficient world. They already know everything they need to know.  New input is an intrusion and a destabilizing force.  This is the root, for example, of the seven most deadly words in the church: "We've always done it that way."  Keep your new information to yourself, thank you very much.  We are quite fine as we are.

Of course, no one can survive without new information.  The world continues to change.  Let me use this image.  I can try to stand in precisely the same place in a river.  The river, however, continues to flow.  Even though I am standing still, my surroundings will change despite my preferences.  Remaining in the same place is simply not an option in this life.

Why, then, do people regard learning as losing.  This perspective is relies on a scarcity mindset.  If you have something of value to share with me, then I must be lacking.  After all, there's only so much knowledge to go around.  If you have more, then I must have less.  If you have something to teach me, then I must be stupid and ignorant and defective.

In fact, when we learn from one another, everyone gets smarter.  The pie gets bigger and there is more to go around.  The smartest people learn the most from others.

A scarcity mindset is always rooted in shame.  Shame is that sense that I am not enough--and that eventually everyone is going to find that out.  If I have something to learn from you, then I am not enough.  There is something I don't know.  There is some way that I am deficient.  And when you share some new information with me, you are simply pointing out my deficiencies for everyone to see.

Think about all the angry ways that we respond to new input.  

• "Well, of course, I already knew that!"
• "So, what makes you so smart?"
• "That may have worked in your last job, but this is a different place."
• "Don't tell me what to do!"

It's one thing to have some legitimate skepticism.  But most of our responses to learning opportunities arise out of our sense that we are not enough.  Most of our responses to learning opportunities demonstrate the deep sense of shame so many people have in general.

In fact, it takes great security to engage in real learning.  I must be humble enough to know that I don't know everything.  That humility is rooted in the sense that I may not be everything, but I am enough.  So then I don't have to threatened by new information or insights.  I must have confidence that I can absorb and integrate the new information.  That takes the flexibility that only a clear sense of self offers.  I suspect that some resist new information because they don't know who they are.  They fear that their fragile sense of self will be eroded by the new perspectives.

Learners know first of all who they are and what they are worth.  When that is the case, learning is gaining.