Ramses Oudt Profile picture
11 Jan, 12 tweets, 3 min read
Learners are the future of knowledge work.

In our complex world, knowing is no longer enough. The skillset we need to solve new challenges is that of knowing how to learn.

A thread on the new kind of knowledge worker:
The learning worker.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See the thread.
The knowledge worker is dead. Long live the learning worker!

In our increasingly complex world, we can no longer rely on existing systems and knowledge. We see new problems for the first time, and the only way to cope is by learning and adapting.
We need a new type of knowledge worker—one who always learns and shares information.

We need people who believe
that shared knowledge is power.

We need learning workers.
Learning workers are powerful because they:

• Customize their work.
• Choose their environment.
• Use the best tools.
• Learn just-in-time.
• Share freely.
• Teach freely.
• Influence and lead.

Let's dig into each one.
Learning workers customize their work.

With new challenges emerging, set ways of working no longer cut it. Learning workers approach problems from different angles, unbound by conventions.
Learning workers choose their environment.

Digital work removes physical restrictions. Knowing how they think best, learning workers use new possibilities and work wherever they function optimally.
Learning workers use the best tools.

Most knowledge workers let companies dictate their tools. Learning workers realize they're a digital craftsperson and therefore use whatever tools necessary.
Learning workers learn just-in-time.

The time for HR departments to teach us is over. New problems arise fast, so learning workers adapt by learning whatever they need, whenever they need it.
Learning workers share freely.

When others are overwhelmed by information, learning workers distill the useful bits and share freely.

Knowledge is as useful as the action it triggers.
Learning workers teach freely.

Progressing learning workers go further than simply sharing information—they also teach others. Helping people grasp complex knowledge, they become key figures in their teams.
Learning workers influence and lead.

With their deep metacognitive knowledge, experienced learning workers are in the perfect position to influence how work is done. Knowing that they don't know, learning workers are open to input, making them great leaders.
I wrote this atomic essay as part of #ship30for30.

If you liked this essay / thread, I have a full-length article about learning work on my blog:
ramses.blog/learning-worker

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More from @rroudt

10 Jan
Real learning is messy.

School feeds us the illusion we can learn isolated topics and string them together later. But, the world is chaotic, so we need to adapt our learning approach to it.

An atomic essay on embracing messiness in learning.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See the thread.
Life is messy.

Our brains evolved in a chaotic world, not in a classroom.

While we're now spoon-fed knowledge, our ancestors couldn't predict what they needed to learn—
they knew when death was staring them in the face.
School gives the illusion you can divide knowledge into sequential units.

But, only when you put things into practice do you know what you need to know.

The solution?
Start before you're ready.
Read 8 tweets
9 Jan
You can teach yourself.

If you're reading this, you have the ultimate teaching and learning tool; writing.

By explaining things to yourself, you uncover holes in understanding—enabling you to learn deliberately.

🧵Atomic essay on learning through writing.

#ship30for30 Image
Richard Feynman—the physicist—famously had a quote in the corner of his blackboard; "What I cannot create, I do not understand," followed by "Know how to solve every problem that has been solved."
Feynman took pen to paper and worked from memory, explaining concepts to himself in simple terms. If he couldn't, that was his cue to dig deeper.

By seeing simple explanations in his own words, he could make ideas his own and wrap his head around complex topics.
Read 8 tweets
8 Jan
School makes us lazy.

We listen, cram, and test—doing little else with our fleeting knowledge. Lots of talk, little action. How can we break this cycle?

Read my atomic essay about learning through creation 👇

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my essay in the thread. Image
Learn by creating.

It's easy to be book smart, but acting on knowledge and making something in the real world is how you grow.

Get more immediate feedback, discover what works, and see if what you learn is useful for you.

If it doesn't work, you adjust.
Root your learning environment in reality.

It's difficult to take what you learn in a classroom to real life. The solution? Make life your classroom.

Think with every new idea of how you could use it, and then try it out.
Read 9 tweets
7 Jan
The best way to learn is to quiz yourself often.

You learn no skill or knowledge in one go. Mastery is only possible through repetition.

To learn, retrieve, and challenge yourself.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my atomic essay in the thread.
What you read evaporates.

One moment you picture yourself applying all the useful ideas from a book—next, it's like you've never read it.

What's going on?
Memory runs on emotions.

When something resonates, it's likely to stay with you. But with so many useful ideas, remembering them is hard.

You need a system.
Read 9 tweets
6 Jan
Build a learning infrastructure if you want to be effective.

Your mental bandwidth is limited, and your mind is like a sieve—only part of what passes through sticks.

To stop forgetting, you need a second brain and feed it.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my atomic essay in the thread.
Your mind is a sieve.

Only a fraction of what travels over your neural pathways sticks; everything else is filtered out.
Forgetting is not a curse.

Without forgetting, everything that you ever did or said would haunt you forever. But if you're trying to learn, you want to minimize forgetting in the long term.
Read 12 tweets
5 Jan
Effective learning is counterintuitive.

Most learning advice in school will waste your time and effort. Making what you learn stick is simple if you know how.

My second atomic essay for #ship30for30.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my essay in the thread.
School is the worst place to learn how to learn.

It's not because of school you develop, but despite it.
Most learning methods you learn in school make sense intuitively but aren't effective.

Rereading and cramming lead to illusions of knowing; it may be enough for exams, but not to succeed in life.
Read 11 tweets

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