Exposure to a healthy amount of confusion offers significant benefits.
The more kids experience confusion in the right context, the more they'll be willing to wade through the feeling of not knowing—a key survival skill in today’s world.
3 Principles for Exploring Confusion 👇
1. Expose kids to confusion
Encourage kids to solve that harder math problem or read that challenging book. Let them explore complex ideas and help them understand that when they do, they are going to feel confused—and that’s okay.
When they play a new game, resist the urge to tell them the rules. Give them the chance to figure it out for themselves. Over time, you will notice they will start to enjoy it.
On how to raise successful kids, the power of video games, the school system & alternatives, lessons from kids and the Stoics, and ways to learn and love learning 🤸
Mental models are especially helpful when we face complex situations.
When new information hits us left and right, we need to know how to interpret it. We need a guiding light to lead us in the right direction when things get chaotic.
This is particularly true with parenting.
Our kids change every day.
They’re leaping from one stage of development to another. And we’re overloaded with all sorts of data, from the opinion of your mother-in-law, the newest hot tip on mommy blogs, to the latest findings of childhood psych.
What should we do with it all?
Without mental models, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and paralyzed, but with mental models, you can sort the good ideas from the bad, orient yourself to what’s most important, and take decisive action.