Art Markman, Professor of Psychology and Marketing at The University of Texas at Austin, writes
that the annual South by Southwest
festival provides an opportunity to explore the difference between how technology professionals and musicians view the use of information.
Many technology companies operate on the assumption that individuals and organizations will become more productive as access to information becomes easier. As Markman points out, this is because we tend to think about information as something that just needs to be accessed: “If only we could put the right information in the right place, people could use it effectively.”
But simply making information accessible isn’t enough to turn it into knowledge or action.
Many of the musicians who play at SXSW (and elsewhere) are testament to the power that comes from years of intense and sustained practice: “nobody thinks that they could learn to play an instrument at a professional level without actually engaging with it actively.”
Markman argues that the process of acquiring knowledge should be just as active as learning to play an instrument.
He recommends the following four steps, borrowed from the world of music, to help make your learning more effective:
1. Produce something: A musician practices by playing, and the same should be true for learning conceptual knowledge. After reading an article or book, listening to a lecture, or watching a documentary, try to explain what you’ve learned back to yourself or to someone else – if this is hard to do, go back and review the material.
2. Get the details right: Musicians know that they haven’t learned a piece until they’re familiar with all the details, from changes in tempo to the pitch of the notes. The same should be true of knowledge that you consider important – it’s hard to come up with a creative solution if you don’t understand the details of the problem.
3. Learn your theory: Great improvisers in music have a command of theory that goes beyond just knowing notes. In your own area of expertise, you should focus on asking and answering the question Why?: “The better your ability to understand why things happen, the more effectively you can diagnose the cause of unexpected events.”
4. Know your scales: All good musicians have spent countless hours playing scale patterns, because these basic skills form the building blocks for more advanced performance. What are the key skills you need to have in your own line of work? Have you mastered them?