Want to Go Further in Your Career You May Need a #8216;Mindshift#8217;

Want to Go Furtherbei in Your Career You May Need a 8216Mindshift8217 Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., runs the most popular massive open online course (MOOC) of all time. Roughly two million people have enrolled in it, which is about equal to the enrollment in all of Harvards MOOCs combined. Oakley developed this wildly successful course in her basement. It cost less than $5000.Thesubject? Learning How to Learn.When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the most popular MOOC ever would be one about learning itself. What could be more universal?I think the MOOCs success is a tribute to the fact that, if you really move into the new medium and think abouthow people can learn effectively instead of trying to transpose the old-fashioned ways of people just standing in front of a chalkboard and teaching, people love it, Oakley says.Recently, Oakley developed a second course. Mindshift Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential , which serves as accompaniment to her new book of the same name.Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Oakley via phone aboutMindshift,MOOCs, and why following your passion isnt all its cracked up to be. Checkout a transcript of our conversation below, minimally edited for style and clarityRecruiter.comId love to start with the title of the bookMindshift.Can you explain what exactly a mindshift is and why its relevant to job binnenseekers and professionals?Barbara Oakley A mindshift is a change in your own mind that occurs through learning.One of the easy examples for me to give is, when I welches young, I hated math and science. I kind of flunked my way through elementary and high school math and science. Then, when I was 26, I was getting out of the Army, and I realized I had no marketable skills. So I decided to see if I could learn to do math and now Im a professor of engineering. It clearly worked.I think its clear that we are all capable of doing far, far more than we ever imagined we could do. This book is meant to give people examples of people who have made small and large changes in their lives because of what they learned, but also to give insight into what science has told us about how we learn, change, and grow not only when were young, but even well into maturity.RCRelated to this concept of a mindshift, the book also talks about the importance of broadening your passion. Theres a quote in the book I found particularly interesting Have you ever unnecessarily limited yourself by heeding advice to follow your passion? Thats pretty common advice, but you suggest its not all its cracked up to be. Could you say a little more about this?BOWere told to follow our passion, but the problem is that passions develop aroundwhat were good at. Maybe you think that isnt a problem, but the challenge arises because some things take longer to get good at. We tend to just throw those things out the window and say, Im not good at this, its not my passion, I have no innate talent. The reality is that, with a little more time, those passions and that talent can actually develop.RCThis reminds me of another important concept in the book broadening your learning toolkit. Whyis this something the book stresses to readers?BO Knowing a little bit about how your brain works can do a lot to help you in your life of learning. For example, you often first encounter something and you look at it and say, Well, I cant figure it out. I must not be good at this.If you know about how your brain works, you know that when you first look at something, youre using one set of neural networks. When you get stuck, you need to back away and let a second neural network work away in the background. Then, when you return to it, you can actually solve the problem. So, its actually perfectly normal not to understand something the first time you see it, and people dont realize this.Another thing is that many peoples biggest challenge in regard to learning somethi ng new is simply procrastination. We procrastinate in part because when you even just think about something you dont like, it activates a portion of the brain that experiences pain, so the brain naturally skitters away from that thought, and thats when you procrastinate. A few simple tools, like the Pomodoro Technique, can allow you to skip past that procrastination before it even activates the pain and get you going with what you need to be doing in order to learn and change.RC Mindshiftalso touches on taking an active role inchanging your brain. I think that, normally, a lot of us arent even aware that its possible to actively change your brain. Can you give an example of what it looks like to change ones brain?BOA lot of times, we passively watch something, but we dont try it ourselves. What happens is, if we actually actively do something ourselves instead of just passively watching it, thats when it begins rewiring things in our brain, enhancing, building, and growing new circu its.There is even a case of a gold-medal-winning javelin thrower who simply watched videos online because he couldnt afford to go train with an expensive coach. Then, he actively practiced based on what he was watching. Thats what made the changes in his brain.Another example I had a student who came up to me once after flunking a test. He held the test up and said, I dont understand how I could do so badly on this test. I understood it when you said it in class And thats part of the challenge We unfortunately have given learners the idea that all you have to do is understand something and click it will magically stay with you for the rest of your life. The reality is that understanding isnt enough. You need to actively do the problems yourself. You need to work, understand, and practice with material in order for those neural circuits to actually grow.RCYou yourself teach MOOCs, and in the book, you talk about how important they are, so I was hoping you could elaborate on that, t oo. Why are MOOCs and online learning so important for todays job seekers?BOMOOCs are life-changers The reality is most people particularly people in the 25-50-years-old range cant afford to just quit their jobs, go back to school, and take three or fouryears to get a degree. It just doesnt work that way for people who have really busy lives. But these people want to learn more about what theyve already studied, or they want to make changes.What MOOCs do is provide a way for you to get a top-notch, world-class university training. For example, Coursera has 150 of the worlds leading educational institutions offering MOOCs on its platform. You can find whatever interest it is you want to pursue. Whether its coding, data analysis, business marketing, or medieval manuscripts, they have great courses for that.