[Music]
while I was waiting in the kitchen just
before coming up on stage here I was
reading that newspaper students of the
University of Amsterdam are offered
cuddling sessions with puppies to cope
with pre-exam stress I’m sorry I’m from
so stress is on the rise among students
three out of four students feel
emotionally exhausted while not all four
students suffers a burnout and one out
of five students is affected by anxiety
and depression a common causes among
students of stress include first of all
the changing of the environment because
students move from the parents to a
vibrant interesting City secondly dating
with new girlfriends and boyfriends
third meeting new people
so that means social stress and peer
pressure time management because they
need to all go organize all of this and
then finally studying with a fear of
failure and I always thought of school
University as a wondrous time of unique
opportunities and absolute freedom to
explore new ideas and to find one’s true
self
so what has happened in the Netherlands
why are our students so anxious and
depressed
are we anxious to learn is learning
making us anxious what is learning
learning is acquiring new knowledge new
skills or new values for example I may
learn about the law of gravity I may
learn cycling or sailing or I may learn
for example a new social competence like
collaborating with other people yes
ladies for males typically like me
collaboration requires learning
learning is acquiring new knowledge new
skills and new values otherwise it
wouldn’t be learning learning reviews
what I don’t know what I can’t do what I
have not yet experienced so by
definition learning is always
overwhelming and surprising and because
learning is new and surprising
I feel incompetent learning reviews that
I have to deal with uncertainty that I
need to take risks I feel in experienced
learning is annoying and if you like
learning then you’re learning something
you already know learning should be
annoying the more you struggle the more
you learn and the bigger the challenges
the more happy you will feel afterwards
but learning itself is unpleasant and
that that’s why it’s usually based on
pain and on coercion in learning I’m
constantly confronted with my own
failures learning is very scary because
in learning during learning I change
through learning I become a different
person the world transforms each time I
learn you will either grow or you will
shrink so how does learning affect our
person how does it change our world and
our person well it does through
understanding do you know the difference
between knowing and understanding
knowing
is passive understanding is active
knowing is adding information to my mind
to my brain understanding is processing
that information in my mind and in my
brain knowing isn’t really affecting me
emotionally
but understanding makes me happy or sad
of course you need to know to understand
but then again you may know everything
but understand nothing understanding
requires a commitment a readiness and
eagerness to change it takes me one
second to know the death ends life but a
lifetime to understand women know all of
our relationships but still they do not
understand man and man know all about
sex but they do not understand women and
man and actually I don’t think they
understand and no sex either and the
standing is enjoyable because we may
predict the world when I understand
really understand the law of gravity I
know that every Apple on earth will go
down when I understand my wife I know
that she will be very very angry when I
forget picking up the kids at school at
4 p.m. only when you have changed
you have to understood but it takes an
effort learning is like running a
marathon I mean in the beginning before
you start you’re overwhelmed you’re
surprised because it’s too difficult you
won’t make it
and then by coercion of others you start
running but it’s it’s hurting its its I
mean it’s a lot of pain hours of of
struggling of being uncertainty because
you don’t know whether you will make it
and then finally in the end you’re
overwhelmed and surprised again because
you made it and you feel these seconds
minutes of intense pleasure learning is
hours and hours of pain and struggle for
just a few seconds of understanding but
if you finish it will change you for
life so how does the mind learn the mind
learns through errors we learn by making
mistakes every time I face something new
in the world
I do not approach it unbiased I already
have an opinion in my mind I predicts
the world I anticipate what will happen
because people dream young girls have
imagined their wedding a thousand times
young boys have driven their sports cars
hundreds of hours mothers have caressed
their beautiful children non-existing
and writers have written their
successful books a thousand times
we constantly predict the future even
very small tiny daily things are
anticipated for example suppose that I
that I’m hungry and I crave for food
then I imagine is juicy tasty hamburger
based on my previous experience and on
my perception of external cues I create
the image of a perfect hamburger but
there is a problem because my prediction
is not quite accurate an error will
occur there will be a difference between
my predicted hamburger and the actual
real hammer
and that difference is what we call the
prediction error with a prediction error
the brain learns the ultimate goal of
learning is to predict accurately the
future by eliminating the prediction
error either by adapting my anticipation
or by changing my behavior for example
go to another restaurant the better that
your and summation matches reality the
more you have learned and the better you
can predict the more successful you will
be in your life the success of
McDonald’s is not that they make very
tasty hamburgers the success of
McDonald’s is their accurate
predictability all over the world in
every country in every restaurant
McDonald’s serves the same Zozi
cheeseburger but we love it because
we’re in control my imagination matches
reality always human beings prefer the
dullness of control above the magic of
surprise so how does the brain learns we
know the brain correlates of these
prediction errors its dopamine dopamine
is a neurotransmitter because it
transmits information from one brain
area to another brain area and dopamine
signals the difference between my
expected reward and the actual reward so
for example when the actual hamburger is
much more tastier than the one I
predicted dopamine in the brain will
rise it will go up
when the actual hamburger is much worse
than the one I’ve predicted dopamine
will go down and when the actual
hamburger perfectly matched my
anticipated hamburger nothing will
happen
dopamine will stay the same and I’ll
don’t learn anything but when dopeman
Rises I feel happy and it drives
motivation positively to go for another
hamburger when dopamine drops I feel sad
and it drives my emotion negatively to
avoid the previous one and in both cases
I learn and it will change my behavior
so let’s try to learn something here
right now all of us let’s do a very
short experiment let’s have a look at
his picture how do you feel it’s allowed
to say something
could someone comment what are you
seeing here water does it look like nice
is it who would like to have a swim in
this water raise your hands high high
high yes thank you
the others can’t swim or without its
water it’s calm it’s blue right ok let’s
so how do you feel now can someone
comments please you’re scared good
someone else you know you want to know
what’s under it probably shark okay now
who would like to have a swim so what
has changed have we learned something
yes the sea has changed this third
picture is exactly the same as its first
picture but still it feels very
different
we suspect something beneath the water
we have a more accurate idea of the
world now we understand because why all
these people here on the beach don’t go
for a swim and even without the shark I
still anticipate the shark our brains
our anticipation machines learning
engines and what they do is constantly
looking for accurate predictions of the
world by eliminating errors first we
imagine the world fueled by our internal
desires and external cues secondly we
use our perception to compare external
reality with my top-down imagination and
third I use that knowledge to understand
the world it means that I’m capable of
building longer existing networks of
knowledge to predict accurately the
world that will evolve over time
understanding is predicting about
coincidence I have learned a few things
first of all you can imagine you can
imagine how much your expectations
determine what you feel what you see
what you hear it is hard for reality to
correct your imagination secondly you
can imagine how hard it is to learn
something really new something that
escapes my end
anticipation something that goes beyond
my ex
patience and my pre-image of the world
and finally we can understand as well
why most people do not listen to others
to understand but to reply it’s hard to
keep an open mindset understanding is
one day I was invited by a colleague
living in Cape Town South Africa and he
said could you come over and give a
lecture on anxiety said okay it’s fine
so the long trip and he said well let’s
have a good glass of red wine I’ll
invite you at my house I went to his
house he went to the cellar
his wife was gone I don’t know what’s he
doing but anyway he was looking for the
best bottle of red wine and I was
wondering just walking around his study
and suddenly at the left side in the
room I noticed at a side table like an
empty box of glass like an aquarium
without with with without any cover
within the aquarium was sand and there
was some traces in the sand and in front
of the glass box there was a cart with
and at that moment I just looked at the
ground at the ceiling behind the
curtains I was really scared but why
suppose that mr. Spock was here
the Falcon from Star Trek what would he
say he would say human being bar are you
afraid the only thing I see is a
rational being in reality is an empty
box of glass sandwich aces and AB card
that says King Cobra
you’re right mr. Spock but we are not
Vulcans we are humans we create a story
we need a story because we want to live
in a meaningful world so what we do all
the time as human beings is we
anticipate the future reality with
meaningful connections between things
that I pick up outside in the world even
if they’re not related to each other I
build something because I want to make
sense of it understanding is not a
choice it is not an option
actually it’s an obligation you have to
understand and gradually why we talk
about learning we begin to understand
anxiety human beings are anxious because
they anticipate all the time first we
create the world to make it meaningful
and then we try to escape it and the
more we are out of control the harder we
anticipate to get grip on reality and
the more we anticipate we are trapped in
our own imagination and the harder it
will get to it will be to get in touch
again with reality not the world is
dangerous
we are dangerous anxiety is always true
but
every time a lie so let’s go back to the
first question all he anxious to learn
yes we are learning is anxiety because
during learning we need to be
uncomfortable
we are incompetent insecure we don’t
know what happens to be out of control
without anxiety you cannot learn but on
the other hand anxiety is learning as
well because at that unique moment of
being anxious you confronted with the
limits the boundaries of your comfort
zone and you realize that you’re at the
verge of going beyond these boundaries
to detect something really really new
that scares you anxiety is a unique
moment of learning an opportunity for
learning when I am a few years ago I had
a crazy idea was 50 that I would like to
learn to act on stage perform on stage
so I wrote a theater play but I’m not a
professional so I couldn’t and each time
that I went on stage I was so scared I
was so anxious and the director I had a
director
acting director she said to me well
maybe you should begin with walking on
stage just walk on stage no more no less
than yourself just a human being
I mean don’t make it very difficult a
little bit more open and calm walk on
stage completely purposeless but with
the name like a real actor and I tried
but I couldn’t I couldn’t walk on stage
here I was demanding is 50 years old
professor in psychiatry head of the
department three children and I couldn’t
I had to learn to walk again like a
child and then I remembered what was the
walking walking is the very first thing
human beings learn how many times have
you been falling before you could walk
and eventually I learned to walk on
stage because I wanted to understand I
wanted to change myself as a person I
want to change the world
I said learning is like running a
marathon no no it isn’t it is walking
learning is just walking no more and no
less than being yourself by the big blue
sea on the beach with a cheeseburger
just try walking and you will see it will change you forever
while I was waiting in the kitchen just
before coming up on stage here I was
reading that newspaper students of the
University of Amsterdam are offered
cuddling sessions with puppies to cope
with pre-exam stress I’m sorry I’m from
so stress is on the rise among students
three out of four students feel
emotionally exhausted while not all four
students suffers a burnout and one out
of five students is affected by anxiety
and depression a common causes among
students of stress include first of all
the changing of the environment because
students move from the parents to a
vibrant interesting City secondly dating
with new girlfriends and boyfriends
third meeting new people
so that means social stress and peer
pressure time management because they
need to all go organize all of this and
then finally studying with a fear of
failure and I always thought of school
University as a wondrous time of unique
opportunities and absolute freedom to
explore new ideas and to find one’s true
self
so what has happened in the Netherlands
why are our students so anxious and
depressed
are we anxious to learn is learning
making us anxious what is learning
learning is acquiring new knowledge new
skills or new values for example I may
learn about the law of gravity I may
learn cycling or sailing or I may learn
for example a new social competence like
collaborating with other people yes
ladies for males typically like me
collaboration requires learning
learning is acquiring new knowledge new
skills and new values otherwise it
wouldn’t be learning learning reviews
what I don’t know what I can’t do what I
have not yet experienced so by
definition learning is always
overwhelming and surprising and because
learning is new and surprising
I feel incompetent learning reviews that
I have to deal with uncertainty that I
need to take risks I feel in experienced
learning is annoying and if you like
learning then you’re learning something
you already know learning should be
annoying the more you struggle the more
you learn and the bigger the challenges
the more happy you will feel afterwards
but learning itself is unpleasant and
that that’s why it’s usually based on
pain and on coercion in learning I’m
constantly confronted with my own
failures learning is very scary because
in learning during learning I change
through learning I become a different
person the world transforms each time I
learn you will either grow or you will
shrink so how does learning affect our
person how does it change our world and
our person well it does through
understanding do you know the difference
between knowing and understanding
knowing
is passive understanding is active
knowing is adding information to my mind
to my brain understanding is processing
that information in my mind and in my
brain knowing isn’t really affecting me
emotionally
but understanding makes me happy or sad
of course you need to know to understand
but then again you may know everything
but understand nothing understanding
requires a commitment a readiness and
eagerness to change it takes me one
second to know the death ends life but a
lifetime to understand women know all of
our relationships but still they do not
understand man and man know all about
sex but they do not understand women and
man and actually I don’t think they
understand and no sex either and the
standing is enjoyable because we may
predict the world when I understand
really understand the law of gravity I
know that every Apple on earth will go
down when I understand my wife I know
that she will be very very angry when I
forget picking up the kids at school at
4 p.m. only when you have changed
you have to understood but it takes an
effort learning is like running a
marathon I mean in the beginning before
you start you’re overwhelmed you’re
surprised because it’s too difficult you
won’t make it
and then by coercion of others you start
running but it’s it’s hurting its its I
mean it’s a lot of pain hours of of
struggling of being uncertainty because
you don’t know whether you will make it
and then finally in the end you’re
overwhelmed and surprised again because
you made it and you feel these seconds
minutes of intense pleasure learning is
hours and hours of pain and struggle for
just a few seconds of understanding but
if you finish it will change you for
life so how does the mind learn the mind
learns through errors we learn by making
mistakes every time I face something new
in the world
I do not approach it unbiased I already
have an opinion in my mind I predicts
the world I anticipate what will happen
because people dream young girls have
imagined their wedding a thousand times
young boys have driven their sports cars
hundreds of hours mothers have caressed
their beautiful children non-existing
and writers have written their
successful books a thousand times
we constantly predict the future even
very small tiny daily things are
anticipated for example suppose that I
that I’m hungry and I crave for food
then I imagine is juicy tasty hamburger
based on my previous experience and on
my perception of external cues I create
the image of a perfect hamburger but
there is a problem because my prediction
is not quite accurate an error will
occur there will be a difference between
my predicted hamburger and the actual
real hammer
and that difference is what we call the
prediction error with a prediction error
the brain learns the ultimate goal of
learning is to predict accurately the
future by eliminating the prediction
error either by adapting my anticipation
or by changing my behavior for example
go to another restaurant the better that
your and summation matches reality the
more you have learned and the better you
can predict the more successful you will
be in your life the success of
McDonald’s is not that they make very
tasty hamburgers the success of
McDonald’s is their accurate
predictability all over the world in
every country in every restaurant
McDonald’s serves the same Zozi
cheeseburger but we love it because
we’re in control my imagination matches
reality always human beings prefer the
dullness of control above the magic of
surprise so how does the brain learns we
know the brain correlates of these
prediction errors its dopamine dopamine
is a neurotransmitter because it
transmits information from one brain
area to another brain area and dopamine
signals the difference between my
expected reward and the actual reward so
for example when the actual hamburger is
much more tastier than the one I
predicted dopamine in the brain will
rise it will go up
when the actual hamburger is much worse
than the one I’ve predicted dopamine
will go down and when the actual
hamburger perfectly matched my
anticipated hamburger nothing will
happen
dopamine will stay the same and I’ll
don’t learn anything but when dopeman
Rises I feel happy and it drives
motivation positively to go for another
hamburger when dopamine drops I feel sad
and it drives my emotion negatively to
avoid the previous one and in both cases
I learn and it will change my behavior
so let’s try to learn something here
right now all of us let’s do a very
short experiment let’s have a look at
his picture how do you feel it’s allowed
to say something
could someone comment what are you
seeing here water does it look like nice
is it who would like to have a swim in
this water raise your hands high high
high yes thank you
the others can’t swim or without its
water it’s calm it’s blue right ok let’s
so how do you feel now can someone
comments please you’re scared good
someone else you know you want to know
what’s under it probably shark okay now
who would like to have a swim so what
has changed have we learned something
yes the sea has changed this third
picture is exactly the same as its first
picture but still it feels very
different
we suspect something beneath the water
we have a more accurate idea of the
world now we understand because why all
these people here on the beach don’t go
for a swim and even without the shark I
still anticipate the shark our brains
our anticipation machines learning
engines and what they do is constantly
looking for accurate predictions of the
world by eliminating errors first we
imagine the world fueled by our internal
desires and external cues secondly we
use our perception to compare external
reality with my top-down imagination and
third I use that knowledge to understand
the world it means that I’m capable of
building longer existing networks of
knowledge to predict accurately the
world that will evolve over time
understanding is predicting about
coincidence I have learned a few things
first of all you can imagine you can
imagine how much your expectations
determine what you feel what you see
what you hear it is hard for reality to
correct your imagination secondly you
can imagine how hard it is to learn
something really new something that
escapes my end
anticipation something that goes beyond
my ex
patience and my pre-image of the world
and finally we can understand as well
why most people do not listen to others
to understand but to reply it’s hard to
keep an open mindset understanding is
one day I was invited by a colleague
living in Cape Town South Africa and he
said could you come over and give a
lecture on anxiety said okay it’s fine
so the long trip and he said well let’s
have a good glass of red wine I’ll
invite you at my house I went to his
house he went to the cellar
his wife was gone I don’t know what’s he
doing but anyway he was looking for the
best bottle of red wine and I was
wondering just walking around his study
and suddenly at the left side in the
room I noticed at a side table like an
empty box of glass like an aquarium
without with with without any cover
within the aquarium was sand and there
was some traces in the sand and in front
of the glass box there was a cart with
and at that moment I just looked at the
ground at the ceiling behind the
curtains I was really scared but why
suppose that mr. Spock was here
the Falcon from Star Trek what would he
say he would say human being bar are you
afraid the only thing I see is a
rational being in reality is an empty
box of glass sandwich aces and AB card
that says King Cobra
you’re right mr. Spock but we are not
Vulcans we are humans we create a story
we need a story because we want to live
in a meaningful world so what we do all
the time as human beings is we
anticipate the future reality with
meaningful connections between things
that I pick up outside in the world even
if they’re not related to each other I
build something because I want to make
sense of it understanding is not a
choice it is not an option
actually it’s an obligation you have to
understand and gradually why we talk
about learning we begin to understand
anxiety human beings are anxious because
they anticipate all the time first we
create the world to make it meaningful
and then we try to escape it and the
more we are out of control the harder we
anticipate to get grip on reality and
the more we anticipate we are trapped in
our own imagination and the harder it
will get to it will be to get in touch
again with reality not the world is
dangerous
we are dangerous anxiety is always true
but
every time a lie so let’s go back to the
first question all he anxious to learn
yes we are learning is anxiety because
during learning we need to be
uncomfortable
we are incompetent insecure we don’t
know what happens to be out of control
without anxiety you cannot learn but on
the other hand anxiety is learning as
well because at that unique moment of
being anxious you confronted with the
limits the boundaries of your comfort
zone and you realize that you’re at the
verge of going beyond these boundaries
to detect something really really new
that scares you anxiety is a unique
moment of learning an opportunity for
learning when I am a few years ago I had
a crazy idea was 50 that I would like to
learn to act on stage perform on stage
so I wrote a theater play but I’m not a
professional so I couldn’t and each time
that I went on stage I was so scared I
was so anxious and the director I had a
director
acting director she said to me well
maybe you should begin with walking on
stage just walk on stage no more no less
than yourself just a human being
I mean don’t make it very difficult a
little bit more open and calm walk on
stage completely purposeless but with
the name like a real actor and I tried
but I couldn’t I couldn’t walk on stage
here I was demanding is 50 years old
professor in psychiatry head of the
department three children and I couldn’t
I had to learn to walk again like a
child and then I remembered what was the
walking walking is the very first thing
human beings learn how many times have
you been falling before you could walk
and eventually I learned to walk on
stage because I wanted to understand I
wanted to change myself as a person I
want to change the world
I said learning is like running a
marathon no no it isn’t it is walking
learning is just walking no more and no
less than being yourself by the big blue
sea on the beach with a cheeseburger
just try walking and you will see it will change you forever
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