The Anti-Learning Brigade
My buddy Jon has a great post about The Anti-Learning Brigade, which is somewhat inspired from my last post. He gets to the core of the topic a little better than I did.
I too have encountered a kind of anti-knowledge crowd in my travels as a creative person. Everyone is eager to tell you why you can’t do something, or why you’ll fail. Until you actually do it. And then they either shut up, or they’re mystified. But never apologetic–go figure. A few from my life:
“Some people have been learning to play guitar since they were three years old. Eric, you’re sixteen. You shouldn’t try… just stick to what you already know.”
Between the age of 16 and 17, I learned to play guitar. I may not be Eddie Van Halen, but I learned. I can write a lick on guitar. I can play lick on guitar. More importantly, I had fun learning it. It’s now amongst my catalog of skills.
“What are you doing making game levels, wasting all this time in your bedroom? You think you could actually get a job in the game industry? Keep dreaming.”
Wow, there’s an amazing paradox here. I kept at it, and I landed a job in the game industry. But just wait one minute… I thought it wasn’t possible!? What were those voices telling me I was crazy, and that I couldn’t do it?
Likewise, when I took it upon myself to learn writing, people said, “Dude, you can’t learn that. You’re either born with it or you aren’t. You’ve either got it or you don’t. What makes you think you can be a good writer?”
There is nothing stopping anyone from learning… EXCEPT those negative voices of the Anti-Learning Brigade. Ignore them. Chances are, if they actually BELIEVE what they’re trying to tell you, then they’ll never amount to much. If they don’t believe it, then they’re just trying to shove you out of the competition, and make their own lives easier. In either case the Anti-Learning Brigade is founded upon ignorance and anti-competitive philosophy.
Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do. Don’t let anyone interfere with your learning game. Crush em’ under your boot heel by proving them wrong. Make them eat their words. There is nothing more empowering than crushing someone mediocre who has to resort to deception and politicking to try and end your self-improvement.
Crush them. Crush them now.
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October 30th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
October 31st, 2006 at 9:09 pm
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August 29th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Eric, what a post to get back to. I agree with every word!
August 31st, 2006 at 6:37 am
It’s pretty awesome to read over the start of this post and then contrast with where it ends up, the psychotic imperative of “Crush them. Crush them now.” :D
But it really can’t be understated, can it? You and Jon share a great deal of determination and a kindred sense of self-betterment, great to see you guys posting on the subject.
I was initially going to post how the anti-learning brigade really wasn’t something I’d had to deal with personally, but how quickly we forget… I lived and was schooled in a small town, but thankfully commuted to a laboratory high school.
Before I escaped to a great education and a far more positive general social/cultural environment there, by junior high I could feel the maw of small town ignorance begin to open around me and my classmates. I got out, but sadly I know many of my classmates did not. That’s one of the quiet tragedies of America (and the rest of the world).
Because for every one or two like you or Jon that violently rejects the negative kinds of things people try and tell them, there are countless more whose horizon of opportunity, of promising futures are dimmed.
You know they’ve done studies about how hugely expectations factor into these kinds of things, right? Study starts with two classes of kids, both with equivalent learning ability/test scores. They give one teacher class A and tell the teacher, “these kids are brilliant.” Then they give another teacher class B, and say “these kids are really pretty dumb.” And low and behold, the expectations carry the day: at the end of the study/semester/whatever, class A performs exceptionally well, and class B performs worse than they did before. All because the teachers did or did not push them… people rise (and fall) to the expectations set for them.
So before I ramble further, kudos to help inculcating a more positive overall learning culture. Setting higher standards for ourselves, as well as others, can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
August 31st, 2006 at 11:23 am
I think I’m one of the luckiest girls out there. Growing up, my parents let us try anything and everything. In fact they encoraged we try everything at least once…because we’d never know if we’d like it or be good at it.
I had teachers who told me to those same things…oh you’ll never be able to do that. Worst yet I had IN COLLEGE a professor who never ’said’ the words but constantly in comments and body expressions let me know he didn’t think I’d be good at architecture.
I thank God I had the parents I had. Even today, I’m always trying new things, going off in new directions, and my parents have never told me once it’s a waist of time or I shouldn’t do that.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:17 pm
For the people who are constantly striving to improve or learn new things, everything is great. But when you occasionally encounter those people who don’t hold themselves to a high enough standard (in their own eyes), you meet a lot of bitterness and resentment. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I don’t truly believe they try to bring people down because they want others to fail (it is a sick kind of person that does) — but more because they feel they need to enforce some kind of social barrier to block your path from being ‘too good,’ usually arising out of their own insecurities.
We don’t like to think it, but our everyday lives are filled to the brim with petty politics like this. All you can do is surround yourself with optimistic, self-bettering people, and ignore or minimize the effect of the negative people who will only drag you down.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Hi Eric,
My name is Tania von Rothkirch und Panthen and I live in Kelowna B.C.. I was searching my name on Google Search today and your site was the first to come up. I haven’t tried a search on “von Rothkirch” in years because I never found anything so I was surprised to see that we have the same last name. I would be interested to know about your family background. If you care to please e-mail me back and let me know if you can share any info.
Thanks,Tania
September 1st, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Tania, I emailed the address you left in this comment, hope you got my mail.
September 26th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
This is funny, but I live about an hour away from Tania, who commented above. I don’t often see posts from our area. I live in Kamloops, BC (Canada). Hi Tania. :)