KBC quiz does not test your knowledge

I do watch KBC quite often on Sony TV. It is a TV show where people can become millionaires by answering 'tough questions' like "which is the longest rail bridge in India', 'which cricketer won the Arjuna award in 2011' and so on. It is an indeed a lovely show to test your 'data-retrieving ability' and earn 'money' from that ability.

But 'data' should not be confused with 'knowledge'. It should be remembered that the journey of talent building starts with 'data'; it does not end with data. In the journey of building your talent, 'data' classification is the first step. The next steps are data > information > knowledge > raw working model > Skill ( mature working model). And it is the combination of skills that help you develop the talent, be it in singing, mathematics or programming.

Data > Information > Knowledge

For instance, when you hear that software company like TCS has a turnover of 2.1 billion in a quarter, this input is Data. Not useful by itself. So you add context to the data to make it useful. This becomes information. For instance, if i tell you that the turnover of its competitor Infosys was 1.8 billion in the same quarter, this data becomes more useful for you. Data with appropriate context is Information. You can view data from different windows of context. For instance, if i tell you that the turnover of TCS in the previous quarter was 2.5 billion, the data assumes different significance. Information therefore is 'contextual'. Smart people use 'multiple' contexts to make the data useful to them.

On the other hand Knowledge is 'information with why'. Knowledge deepens your understanding of the subject. For instance, when you want to understand why TCS turnover is low/high this quarter, you  gain more knowledge of the subject. For that you will have to get more information, such as the amount of turnover of TCS this quarter from North America as compared to Europe? Or the turnover of TCS  from Banking domain as compared to say Telecom domain? The journey from Information to knowledge is driven by your desire to understand 'why'. You have to view the same data from different 'windows' and gain more understanding of what that turnover means.

Knowledge > Skill

The journey till knowledge can be covered by sitting in the arm chair. Next step in the journey - of converting knowledge into useful action - requires active working mode.

For instance, imagine you are a share broker or business analyst. What action would you recommend to your client-investor on the basis of 'turnover of 2.1 billion last quarter'? Should he buy more shares of TCS or sell them? This skill is based on how you 'process the knowledge' into action. For this processing, you design a 'working model' to understand and predict the share price; one of the element of which is turnover.

When you are inexperienced, your working model is 'raw'. It is based on few elements with thin interconnections between them. With deeper 'understanding', you add more elements to your working model and also connect them 'densely'. Your working model improves as it starts reflecting 'as-is reality' of share price in a better way. With further deeper understanding and reality-testing ( both are required), your working model matures. Now you are called a sharp 'share analyst'.

This is the skill stage of talent building. It may take years to reach this. Some fail to reach this 'skill' stage because of the inherent difficulties in 'reality-testing'. One can read research papers and model to incorporate 'more and more elements' in the model, but all that is useless until you can 'test them' in the reality appropriately. If the model is not reflecting reality, we say that the person's knowledge is 'theoretical'.

Imagine, that instead of a share analyst, you are a manager of Infosys of telecom domain. In that scenario, your working model has to be developed with very different elements. This working model therefore is highly individualised and has to be developed and reality-tested by every individual for his own 'action'.

It has also been seen that talented individuals do not possess more data; they possess more relevant knowledge, that is better working model. For instance, when the pieces on the chess board were placed randomly, it was seen that both amateur and professional chess players remembered position of about 14 pieces on the board. However, when an actual chess board of a live game ( in between) was shown to amateur and professional chess players, professional chess players remembered all the pieces on the board, while amateurs could remember half of the pieces on the board.*


Conclusion

As your child is still studying and developing his 'knowledge', you are more concerned in helping your child develop his journey from data > information> knowledge. A skillful teacher can help your child build this chain better.

And because we build knowledge from one level to another in a chain, not understanding arithmetic in the 5th class creates difficulty in understanding arithmetic in 6th class. At this time, your child needs individual customised 'guidance' to identify and rectify his chain; not a coaching class that teaches the entire class of students. Later, we shall see what skillful teachers do differently.

From the above discussion, you would also appreciate that a coaching class may help your child get better marks, not necessarily gain better knowledge, because the actions for gaining more knowledge are not similar to actions for getting more marks. And remember, both are necessary: marks for short-term, and knowledge for long-term purpose.

You would also appreciate now that Internet only presents 'data' to your child. To convert that data into knowledge or action requires a huge degree of effort. Please do not ask your child to surf internet to decide which discipline he should choose in his life, because internet just provides data on different disciplines, not even information.

* Talent is overrated: Geoff Colwin 

Do you really care for your child?

Please see this example of how a doctor cared for her patient.

Saraswati was pregnant with her second child. She had pregnancy- induced diabetes causing her to go through a very tough regime. Last week she was admitted at Mallya Hospital in Bangalore because of her labour pain. She was admitted at 5 am in the morning.  

At 7 am, when the pain became too difficult to bear, she requested her doctor, Dr Shalini  to do Cesarean section. Dr Shalini acknowledged the request and continued with her efforts to help Saraswati. At 9 am, Saraswati's husband again approached Dr Shalini to relieve Saraswati's pain. Dr Shalini explained all the possibilities to her husband and told her why C-section is not necessary. When her husband, after seeing the continuing screams of Saraswati, again approached Dr Shalini later at 11 am, she firmly reminded her husband that she is a doctor, not her husband. 

As the afternoon progressed, Saraswai's pain increased. She hurled abuses to her nurses. She almost twisted the hand of her husband as she continued to fight the pain by holding the hands of her husband. She tried again and again to talk to Dr Shalini. Dr Shalini continued to firmly say no and remind her that she was in safe hands. By evening, Saraswati had stopped asking help from Dr, Shalini

At 10 pm, after 17 hours, Dr Shalini took Saraswati in the OT and delivered a baby child without doing C-section.

When i met Dr Shalini next day and asked her how could she withstood the continuing barrage of requests, solicitations and even veiled threats of her patient to relieve pain by using short term measures, she simply replied ' I really care for my patients'.

Being involved in helping parents and students for the last two years, it is rare to find a parent who truly cares for his/her child. Instead, I often see parents who are too eager to help ( helping child too quickly when the child is struggling to tie his shoe lace), who do not take the tough decisions helpful for the child ( such as not watching TV), or firmly saying no to the child's request of ice-cream in the evening ( because you feel guilty for going to work and leaving the child home!)

I have seen parents take seemingly difficult one-time decision, but do not have the self-discipline to practice appropriate behaviour with the child. For instance, two months back i met Sudha  who left her well settled job to ensure that her child is not put to day-care. But Sudha was unable to control her worry when her child did not eat food at 12 pm. She started force-feeding the child. Now her child of 3 years, who has never learnt to sense her own hunger, makes Sudha dance around for 1 hour to make her feed. Despite taking the tough decision to leave the job, Sudha finds it more difficult to maintain self-discipline in her daily actions with her child.

Why do you think Dr Shalini can practice this self-discipline, while Sudha could not maintain hers?  Even if Dr Shalini had acceded to the request of Saraswati and performed the operation, no one would have faulted Dr Shalini for her action. Infact she would have even got paid more for doing ceaserean. And,despite the honest intentions of Sudha, why is she unable to put them into practice?

One of the biggest difference between Sudha and Dr Shalini is the difference of subject knowledge.  Dr. Shalini has the 'right knowledge' to take a decision and stick with it, while Sudha is not sure of 'what to do and what not to'. Sudha's knowledge of child development is insufficient as compared to Dr Shalini's knowledge of 'child delivery'. How can Sudha gain the required confidence in her daily actions without acquiring the expertise of child development herself?

Sudha, as you would have guessed, should find an expert in child development and rely on her knowledge. Like Saraswati found Dr Shalini and then 'trusted' her to take care of 'child delivery', Sudha also should find an expert on child development and trust that expert to take the right decisions for developing her child. 

With the help of an expert on child development, Sudha will be able to avoid the mistake she did with her child and not get sucked in the ''downward spiral' of her child's behaviour. She will know for instance that TV and video games are the least useful gadgets that impede child's development. She will also know the 'exit paths'. For example, when the child gets stuck with a behaviour, she will be able to find a way to 'break the spiral' of the self-defeating behaviour of child.  Sudha will know that teaching 'language' to her child requires a different strategy than teaching child to develop qualities like concentration and patience.

In other words, despite her good intentions and one-time decision, if she really cares for her child, Sudha needs to find a consultant in child development who can guide her. Do you really care for your child?

Post script: When i asked Saraswati next day what she felt, she replied " In the first pregnancy which was done thru operation, i never experienced the birth of my child. Thanks to Dr. Shalini, this time, i could experience the feeling fully. It is very very different. I would have missed this if Dr had listened to me. And i would not have known what i missed. I wonder how many things we miss in life, but we never know. Life is really queer.".

Prepare your child to manage his/her stress

The single biggest factor that causes difference between high capability of your child and his lower score, either in exams or test, is stress. However, most of the time, other than frequent pronouncements such as 'Do not take stress' or 'Be calm', we do not actively help our child in managing his stress.

However, if you have read stock and flow model of stress management, you will now be able to do something very specific to help your child reduce his stress. As you would recall, the actions of managing stress have to be three-pronged ( one pronged attack on stress is not effective):

1. Reduce event level stress

a. Subject level stress

For instance, your child is more stressed in English or science, because he finds that subject difficult to understand. Or sometimes, even if she understand mathematics well, she does not understand one chapter well.  Sometimes you will find that your child understands a chapter, say in English, but is unable to 'articulate' it in proper words. I have found some children find it difficult to 'memorise'   incidents such as in History or Geography. In other words, do not generalise a problem. Do not accept blanket statements that 'I do not understand science'. Instead understand the specific cause of failure, be it subject or chapter, and address the specific problem. Take help of coaching class or teacher, if needed.

b. Exam-writing stress

Second major reason of faring poorly in exams is the child's inability to respond appropriately in an exam, despite his knowing the subject well. Simple instructions in the paper are ignored, a key point in a question is overlooked or some silly mistake like wrong numbering is done while answering. If this is happening only in one subject, then the reason is due to first point (subject level stress) , not due to exam writing stress.

However, if your child is faring poorly (than expected) in most of exams, or across subjects, then it is important to understand his 'style' of writing exams. Here you need to understand what your child does during the exam. Take a case of a recent exam and find out his method of 'answering' the exam: how does he decide which question to answer first, how does he verify later, if he takes more than expected time to answer a question what modification does he make in answering the rest of paper. If he is unable to explain, which is often the case, either get his answer paper ( where he has fared poorly than what he expected) from the class teacher, or the coaching class teacher. This 'process of enquiry' is important to help your child appreciate that 'his method' of answering exam has to be 'altered'.

Once your child's specific 'issues' have been understood, then prepare a 'exam-answering' plan that is mutually agreeable to your child. While preparing the plan include appropriate set of generic 'solutions' such as sleep well before the exam, do not study till the last moment, answer easy questions before attempting difficult questions, and so on.

The last, and most important step, is to find if your child can 'execute' the plan as decided. This will require help from teachers, or giving exams at home to see if the child is able to 'follow' the agreed plan. Unless the plan is 'fine tuned', it does not work. Here the practice of giving repeated exams to children is helpful.

2. Increase his assimilation threshold

Athletes, like your child, work throughout the year. To win the gold medal, they have to fare well in those critical 'five minutes' in Olympic games or World championships.  Like your child, outcome of the full year of their effort is 'visible' by the performance in those few critical minutes. How do they deal with this stress?

Sports Psychologists help them 'defocus' from the end result by 'focussing' on the process of reaching the goal. By defocussing the attention from the eventual 'medal', the athlete is able to concentrate on today's effort. And by doing the right things today, he prepares in the best way possible. Even while during the championship, because he is not focused on the result, he paradoxically produces his best performance. Psychologists have discovered that this is the best known way to bring out the best performance in endeavors which are evaluated in such 'short time-windows'.

You have to help your child in the same way. Instead, I have seen parents do the exact opposite. They constantly remind their child about the eventual goal of 90% marks and increase the stress further. I have seen some parents say that if they do not remind their child that they have to get so much marks, they may lose focus. But that is not proved to happen !

There are various ways of practicing this method. You have to find a method that suits your home culture and your child. I have seen a family practice the principles of BhagwadGeeta, which states " Just do your Karma(work)'. Forget the end result, as it is not in your hand.  It really helps your child not just managing his exam stress, but even his stress in the future life. That is a really innovative way of increasing assimilation threshold.

3. Diffuse accumulated stress


Despite all the precautions, because a child's 3-hour performance is going to measure his full year effort, he does accumulate stress in his body. That is inevitable.

Yoga is the best medicine for releasing this stress. A half an hour yoga every day is enough to release the accumulated stress in the body. However, if that is difficult to implement, then undertaking any physical activity like playing a game of cricket is also helpful. If your child has a hobby of music, it is a good solution, but one still need to find a way of 'physical release of stress'.

Believe me, if you can do this for your child, you will have armed your child with a tool of stress management on which he can rely throughout his life.

You cannot learn to swim when you are close to drowning

I read this question in the 5 October, Times of India from a student named Nidhi:

" I am in my 4th year doing BTech from Jaipur. I am a bit tensed about my college placement, so i want to do some course which can help me in my recruitment in a good software company. What course can i do?

If you have read my blog of how Vinod Kambli missed the bus because he tried learning something when it was too late, you will understand the meaning of the heading of this blog. As i said in that blog, some skills like coconuts take long time to seed and mature while some like sugarcane take short time to mature. If you do not anticipate like Nidhi, you are too late to do anything. Taking course in the final year helps, but is not enough to help you get through in a software company, because software companies have too many choices. This is the common mistake all individuals with cognitive talent do.

If you read the case of Casy , a CA student, you will see the repeat of same pattern. Despite doing CA, which is one of the toughest course in knowledge work, he was not able to find the job he wanted because he 'woke' up too late. And when you woke up too late, it is double whammy, so to say:

• On the one hand, as Casy has to learn something in a short time, he is already stressed. And stress is  not good to learn something 'new'.  
• As Casy did not get selected in the first companies because of his poor preparation, it further demotivated him and increased his stress further. Further, as some of his friends ( who had scored lower than him) got selected, it increased his stress further. 
• Not able to get through an interview, of a company, say TCS or Infosys, shuts off the window for Casy. Now Casy cannot apply to TCS or Infosys again, at least for the time being. Opportunity window is closed for him. 

 So two things are happening simultaneously: On the one hand, because of inadequate preparation, he is not getting through the interviews. While on the other hand, as his opportunities are slipping, his options are decreasing. This is a vicious cycle at its worst. What do you think happens to such students like Casy?  

You are right. They pick the first available job ( which is perhaps the worst choice!) and move from the 'ditch to fire'. They have just 'postponed' their problem from today to tomorrow. Now they go further in the muck. In other words, because of one mistake, you keep on doing more mistakes and keep on getting in the muck deeper and deeper. 

What is the best way out of this jam? If you understand the Unfolding of cognitive talent, you will realise that this stage of Nidhi is the end of Stage I of Talent exploration:Funneling of the talent zone by choosing the domain and task. At this stage, you have to 'think through' with proper guidance, decide what is best for your current abilities, and then 'plan and prepare' to get it.  Nidhi at least is more lucky. She is sure that she wants to chose the domain of software, Casy did not even know that.  However, i am not sure, if Software is Nidhi's choice or compulsion. 

Many students today chose software, not because their talent is suitable for it, but because that is the easiest way to get the job today. That is the path of least resistance. I have worked in a software company and have met many students ( not just handful) who rue their decision of choosing 'software' domain and then curse themself for a long time ( and sometimes throughout their life) because they are handcuffed in a golden 'chain'.  They cannot 'leave' software domain because they will never get any other 'domain job' at the same salary. 

For a child who is in SSC or HSC ( 8th to 12th), it is therefore important to take these decisions in a right way. The earlier he understands how his cognitive talent unfolds & what is coming on the next turn, the earlier he can start the 'preparation'. And if he is 'armed with the right knowledge and tools', he navigates through the journey smoothly. Even if he encounters hailstorm or hurricane, he is ready because he is equipped. 

Are you equipping your child appropriately to help him discover his cognitive talent? Or are you just waiting for the right things to happen to your child in some or other way? 

One Single talent is not enough to flourish in life

Please read this blog to understand what is talent, especially the cognitive talent, and what are the four stages in the unfolding of the talent.

We have seen that A&P performers have a uni-dimensional talent like dancing or playing a game like tennis. But even in A&P field, one 'ability' is not enough to produce extraordinary results. See this example of Alexander Dolgopolov. He is a very talented tennis player, but seems to lack the capability of making a ' game strategy' that is required to succeed at the highest level. Another tennis legend, Pete Sampras, in one of his interview talked about another unique ability required by tennis players: the 'ability to find emotional support' while travelling 250 days in a year.

In A&P talents, there are many such examples of talented performers who do not seem to do justice to their talent because of lack of some critical ability. That is why a talented performer in A&P field never pursues a single ability, but a set of abilities, which we call as Talent zone. His teachers in second stage of talent development help him identify these 'complementary abilities' and nurture it.

In cognitive field, as we have seen before, knowledge work often requires a multiple set of competencies to get the work done. Be it sales, design, innovation, or management, one ability is rarely enough to accomplish the task. Or be it in medicine, law, accounts or engineering, one cannot perform excellently with one ability.

In my coaching i have found simple traits becoming an Achilees heel for an otherwise talented performer. I have seen an excellent 'sales performer' who could not flourish in his talent because he lacked the skill to 'survive in corporate culture'. Or an excellent brand manager who could not excel in his talent because he lacked the skill of 'perception management'.

Out of all the competencies that significantly determine the progress of a performer, if I have to name one, it is mind management. One of the difference between an average performer and extraordinary performer is not the  amount of 'talent', but ability to manage one's mind, or what is called as 'mental toughness' or 'mental strength'. If you are following careers in sports, you will often hear this.

If, for instance, you observe the careers of Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar in cricket, Vinod Kambli was always supposed to be more talented than Sachin.  It was Vinod who made the first double century before Sachin despite entering test arena later than Sachin. But over a period of years, Vinod Kambli could not perform as well as Sachin despite huge talent, because of  this poor mental strength.

Many students, when i talk to them, always assume that they will develop 'mental strength' once they succeed. But the ability of Mind management has to be seeded early in life to produce the fruit at the required time. Some competencies can be learnt quickly, but mind-management requires a long time to seed and mature.

Even a farmer knows this difference. If he wants a Mango or coconut, it takes 5-7 years after he plants the sapling. If he however wants grapes, apple, pomegranate or gauva, it takes about 1-2 years. If he however desires sugarcane, it takes less than 12 months. He knows he cannot shorten this time despite whatever  'effort'. Even though better techniques help him reduce this time a bit, the quality suffers !

If Vinod Kambli requires 'mental toughness' when he is not performing, he cannot learn it quickly enough. Like they say, one cannot learn swimming when one is drowning. Even if he, due to divine force, learns it, his opportunity time window passes away by the time he learns mind management. Even if learns the new skill, he will not get the chance to play cricket. Many talented performers fail at this hurdle, because they forgot or ignore to seed the 'mental strength' at the right age.

Have you started teaching mind-management to your child?

It is not possible to predict one's potential at an early age

A study@ of 120 immensely talented individuals, below the age of 40, chosen in the aesthetic field (piano and sculpting), athletic or psychomotor fields ( Tennis and swimming) and cognitive fields ( mathematics and science) was done by a researcher quoted below. After they were chosen, their process of growth from childhood to talent realisation was tracked and documented retrospectively by interviewing them, their parents, and their teachers or coaches. Such longitudinal studies covering 10-20 years of growth trajectory are rare.

Many surprising findings emerged out of this study. For instance, Parents of these talented individuals displayed three common characteristics: they were very child-centred, practiced rigorous work-ethic at home and expected children to share distinct household responsibilities.

However, for the purpose of the discussion here, this study also highlights that one cannot identify one's potential at the age of 10-15 because of four reasons identified in the study:

1. It is hard to identify potential at an early age even amongst the best:

For instance, potential of these 120 talented individuals was not 'spotted' by any objective scientific method at an early age. Teachers or parents simply spotted these individuals as 'fast' learners based on how they performed as compared to their peers in their school or locality. Parents of these talented individuals did not encourage them because they were identified as 'stars' but simply because they thought it was the 'best' course of action. But getting identified as' fast' learner helped these children to get special attention from parents and teachers at an early age. This initial learning, when got rewarded and approved, further stoked their desire of learning and made them practice harder on their talent.

2. The child's development in a talent till the age of 10-15 is very very small as compared to what is required to reach the heights of that talent. This is so small a part of what has to be ultimately achieved that one cannot claim that this 'small' achievement will lead to 'big' achievement later.

In this study, out of 120, only two of the children by the age of 10 had won 'child competitions' while one of them had won a 'national competition' in his age group. But none of the three had shown any development that was comparable to the 'masters' in any field.

While the talent development of musicians and sportsman commences at the age of 6, the talent development of mathematicians and neurologists commences at the age of 13. It is therefore almost impossible to 'spot' potential of a performer in cognitive field - lawyer, chartered accountant, engineer, consultant - by the age of 15.

3. Because talent development happens in three phases, a child developed in one phase may fail in the other phase.

Talent in this sample of 120 individuals was found to have developed through three phases of learning: the first phase of introduction ( of about 3-5 years); the second phase of 'technical mastery of the domain' (of about 4-8 years) and last phase of Expression where the artists learnt to express his work in his/her style ( 4-8 years). This is true for all the three fields: art, sports and cognitive.

Substance and style of learning as well as instruction required in each phase is completely different. Because of this big difference, being good in one phase of learning does not mean that one will be good in a later phase, even though the learning occurs in the same talent field,

In other words, it is more than likely that a child with identified potential will negotiate one phase, and may fail in the next phases of learning. Perhaps, this is why so few identified talents ultimately reach their highest levels, be it in music, sports or cognitive fields.

4. Support mechanisms to support the growth of talent in each of these phases of learning is so different, that one cannot predict that one will get that support.

For instance, teacher required in the first phase are 'nice' and 'supportive', while the teacher in the second phase are 'technically adept'. Similarly, parental support in the first phase is of 'hand holding' passive support while in the second phase the parents were required to offer active support like 'relocation'.

Because of these immense challenges in developing a talent, the author of the above study writes "We do not believe the perfecting of aptitude tests or other predictive instruments would enable us or other workers in the field to predict high-level potential talent at these early ages".

I have also written other reasons in my book 'The five great myths of career building' of why it is prudent to ignore aptitude tests in deciding child's future potential. Despite all the bottlenecks of using these predictive instruments ( like aptitude tests), you will still be surprised why parents still use them. We shall speculate these reasons at some other time!

@Benjamin Bloom: Developing talent in young people

Course in law is turning out to be an excellent option

Aditya Sondhi, an alumnus, has written a good article on " Why to become a lawyer' in TOI of 20 June. She sums it with a very apt quote from her friend, Menaka Guruswamy, on why one should be a lawyer. As she writes, it is "to advocate, for those who cannot tell their own stories, to defend those whose freedom is in peril, to prod a nation to ask of itself: for whom am I, and for what was I created?"

More importantly, from the career viewpoint, course in Law offers all the four attractive options that can help you 'make' your career the way you want ( it has all the advantages that engineering option offers to students):

1. You can work both in back office ( corporate jobs) and front office jobs ( such as litigation)

R Venkata Rao, VC, NLSU, Bangalore in his interview on TOI of 19th june, says that 'Out of 80 students, 40 go to corporate, 20 go to litigation, 10 go for higher studies, and five to NGO's'. Depending on your fitment, you can chose either of the option.

2. It offers different subject area focus which one is interested in: You can focus on Social issues like pollution or child abuse, medical issues, insurance issues or corporate issues. This freedom enables you to make career in your subject of interest.

3. It offers jobs with different kind of employers: Corporate companies, NGO's ( they are called activist lawyers like Prashant Bhushan who is with Anna Hazare on Lokpal Bill) , Freelancers are some of the known options. Aditya Sondhi lists down some interesting options like radio jockey, IT entrepreneur, politics, theatre, art, (fiction) writing, and fashion. It offers jobs in justice delivery system, where you can make big impact.

4. It offers options to work part-time and full-time, working from home or office, because of internet. LPO's, like BPO's, are becoming quite popular because e-enablement of law. So you can work from your home, helping your client in US.

Like any other course that becomes popular, many colleges are mushrooming in India. It is therefore important to find the right college. The list of top ten colleges in the country, that appeared in TOI of 19th June, will help you find the best and also the required CLAT ( Common law Admission test) score that is required to get admission into it. Some interesting info on Law is also at this link.