so for the last four years I have been a
history teacher and two weeks ago I was
introducing a lesson to my class when I
offhandedly mentioned that the formal
study of history is merely an
intellectual exercise it’s of little
pragmatic value to us today the minute
that I said this is my class erupted
into fine chatter mr. Aguilar how can
you say that the study of history allows
us to learn from our mistakes yeah mr.
Aguilar the study of history gives us a
better understanding of the world around
us amongst all the incredulous looks
that I received then two questions of
why do you even teach history anyway one
student in the back of my class yelled
out actually he’s right and at that
moment every single person in my class
turned their attention to this student
as he rifled through his book bag and he
pulled out a book he pulled out Michael
Lewis is the undoing project and he
began to explain to the rest of my
students the historical interpretation
suffers from a cognitive bias where
history isn’t actually what happens it’s
what we say happens it’s our perception
of it to a point where we start creating
a false reality of past events that
actually warps our perception of the
future most of my students couldn’t
understand this abstract explanation
because they’re not independent thinkers
they’re not Mavericks formal education
has effectively stripped them of their
autonomy Mavericks are able to see the
world from a multitude of different
lenses they don’t have to be told how to
think about something and they
definitely don’t need to be told how to
learn because deeply embedded in the
fabric of our society is this idea that
you have to wait for wisdom to be passed
to you by some parent mentor a teacher
and this is simply not the case if you
look at all the great visionaries in
recent memory you come to find out that
the one thing that made him special the
thing that allowed them to be pioneers
in the respective fields they didn’t
learn it within the four walls of a
classroom they’re the ultimate
autodidact they taught themselves nobody
taught
chance the rapper how to achieve
mainstream success in the music industry
without selling out to a record label
nobody taught Angela Merkel how to
navigate the 2008 financial crisis in
Europe and rise to be the most powerful
woman on the planet today and nobody
taught frida kahlo
how to explore the essence of mexican
identity through self-portraits the word
genius is often used to describe these
visionaries like their abilities a
product of privileged natural-born
talent or the right alignment of stars
this is simply untrue genius is a
product of unquenchable curiosity and
relentless pursuit it’s inherently human
and attainable the problems we will face
in the future the problems we face now
will take an unprecedented amount of
creativity to solve so we’re gonna need
a lot more unconventional thinkers we’re
gonna need a lot more Mavericks so the
question is how do we instill this type
of genius and more of our students how
do we make them a little bit more
creative a little bit more maverick it’s
rooted in books we need to encourage our
students to be voracious readers
whatever it is that they’re trying to
accomplish in their lifetime someone’s
probably already done it and written
about it the great Otto von Bismarck
once said fools say that they learned
through experience I prefer to profit
off other people’s experience what
Bismarck is saying in this quote is that
learning through your own blood sweat
and tears is incredibly draining and
ill-advised I prefer to learn through
other people’s experience and books
provide a fantastic resource for this
Warren Buffett the second wealthiest man
on the planet today said that the best
investment he ever made was buying a
book by Benjamin Graham in the 1950s he
attributes literally tens of billions of
dollars of his net worth to one book so
what is the value of a book that changes
your life forever
it’s impossible to put a monetary value
to that book because it’s priceless the
word read has an asterisk in my
presentation for a very important reason
be careful what you read because not all
books are created equal some books are
entertaining or academic in nature and
have no real world application given
that choice read
to have the ability to teach you skills
pragmatic skills that you’re gonna need
to accomplish your goals in the future
the second thing we need to encourage
our students to do Stu spend more time
alone
today’s collaborative work environment
with open floor plans and group projects
is incredibly misguided solitude is
crucial to the creative process and we
often see that breakthroughs happened
through deep individual introspection
Albert Einstein figured out the theory
of relativity while working in the back
of a Swiss Patent Office in 1905 after
almost a decade of working on the
problem by himself dr. Seuss the famous
children’s book author wrote most of his
ingenious stories in a lonely belltower
office in La Jolla California by himself
it was even said that he was scared to
meet the children that read his books
for fear that they might not like him
solitude is powerful and only as it
recently have we begun to forget this
fact the pursuit of mastery in any field
continues to be deeply intrinsic and
very personal the third thing we need to
encourage our students to do is to
internalize this concept of dead time
versus a lifetime in this world there’s
two types of time there is dead time
when you’re just passively waiting for
something to happen and then there’s a
lifetime when you’re actively learning
and leveraging for some kind of end goal
my favorite example that illustrates
this concept is in the life of a
criminal named Detroit Red Detroit red
did a little bit did a little bit of
everything
he ran the numbers he sold drugs he
stole things
he even moonlighted as a pimp
unfortunately for red he was arrested in
1946 for trying to sell a stolen watch
and to make matters worse he happened to
be carrying a loaded gun with him so he
was sentenced to 10 years in prison at
this critical moment in Detroit Reds
life T was faced with the decision dead
time or a lifetime he chose a lifetime
and he began to learn instead of that
the minute that he got to prison he
checked out the dictionary from the
prison library and he devoured it from
cover to cover
he read history philosophy religion
Detroit read transcended confinement
through the pages that he absorbed years
after his release journalists would ask
him hey Detroit
what’s your alma mater
and his one-word response would be books
prison was his College Detroit red would
go on to be one of the greatest civil
rights activists this world had ever
seen
you might know him by his real name
Malcolm little or Malcolm X these three
principles are merely a starting point
from which to gain a better
understanding of the world around us
through formal education we have
effectively created a homogeneous
thinking pool that discredits anyone the
challenges the existing paradigm it kind
of creates as mob mentality that
undermines our ability to think freely
an education bubble looms and the only
way passed it is to foster more
unconventional thinkers more Mavericks
because as Charles Darwin found out
during his research in the mid 19th
century and the Galapagos the answer
lies in the anomalies see to our eyes
Mavericks seem strange and out of place
just like mutations did to Darwin almost
200 years ago but if we study it closely
we come to realize that they’re mutation
their unorthodox approach that’s their
key to their survival
thank you
[Applause]
history teacher and two weeks ago I was
introducing a lesson to my class when I
offhandedly mentioned that the formal
study of history is merely an
intellectual exercise it’s of little
pragmatic value to us today the minute
that I said this is my class erupted
into fine chatter mr. Aguilar how can
you say that the study of history allows
us to learn from our mistakes yeah mr.
Aguilar the study of history gives us a
better understanding of the world around
us amongst all the incredulous looks
that I received then two questions of
why do you even teach history anyway one
student in the back of my class yelled
out actually he’s right and at that
moment every single person in my class
turned their attention to this student
as he rifled through his book bag and he
pulled out a book he pulled out Michael
Lewis is the undoing project and he
began to explain to the rest of my
students the historical interpretation
suffers from a cognitive bias where
history isn’t actually what happens it’s
what we say happens it’s our perception
of it to a point where we start creating
a false reality of past events that
actually warps our perception of the
future most of my students couldn’t
understand this abstract explanation
because they’re not independent thinkers
they’re not Mavericks formal education
has effectively stripped them of their
autonomy Mavericks are able to see the
world from a multitude of different
lenses they don’t have to be told how to
think about something and they
definitely don’t need to be told how to
learn because deeply embedded in the
fabric of our society is this idea that
you have to wait for wisdom to be passed
to you by some parent mentor a teacher
and this is simply not the case if you
look at all the great visionaries in
recent memory you come to find out that
the one thing that made him special the
thing that allowed them to be pioneers
in the respective fields they didn’t
learn it within the four walls of a
classroom they’re the ultimate
autodidact they taught themselves nobody
taught
chance the rapper how to achieve
mainstream success in the music industry
without selling out to a record label
nobody taught Angela Merkel how to
navigate the 2008 financial crisis in
Europe and rise to be the most powerful
woman on the planet today and nobody
taught frida kahlo
how to explore the essence of mexican
identity through self-portraits the word
genius is often used to describe these
visionaries like their abilities a
product of privileged natural-born
talent or the right alignment of stars
this is simply untrue genius is a
product of unquenchable curiosity and
relentless pursuit it’s inherently human
and attainable the problems we will face
in the future the problems we face now
will take an unprecedented amount of
creativity to solve so we’re gonna need
a lot more unconventional thinkers we’re
gonna need a lot more Mavericks so the
question is how do we instill this type
of genius and more of our students how
do we make them a little bit more
creative a little bit more maverick it’s
rooted in books we need to encourage our
students to be voracious readers
whatever it is that they’re trying to
accomplish in their lifetime someone’s
probably already done it and written
about it the great Otto von Bismarck
once said fools say that they learned
through experience I prefer to profit
off other people’s experience what
Bismarck is saying in this quote is that
learning through your own blood sweat
and tears is incredibly draining and
ill-advised I prefer to learn through
other people’s experience and books
provide a fantastic resource for this
Warren Buffett the second wealthiest man
on the planet today said that the best
investment he ever made was buying a
book by Benjamin Graham in the 1950s he
attributes literally tens of billions of
dollars of his net worth to one book so
what is the value of a book that changes
your life forever
it’s impossible to put a monetary value
to that book because it’s priceless the
word read has an asterisk in my
presentation for a very important reason
be careful what you read because not all
books are created equal some books are
entertaining or academic in nature and
have no real world application given
that choice read
to have the ability to teach you skills
pragmatic skills that you’re gonna need
to accomplish your goals in the future
the second thing we need to encourage
our students to do Stu spend more time
alone
today’s collaborative work environment
with open floor plans and group projects
is incredibly misguided solitude is
crucial to the creative process and we
often see that breakthroughs happened
through deep individual introspection
Albert Einstein figured out the theory
of relativity while working in the back
of a Swiss Patent Office in 1905 after
almost a decade of working on the
problem by himself dr. Seuss the famous
children’s book author wrote most of his
ingenious stories in a lonely belltower
office in La Jolla California by himself
it was even said that he was scared to
meet the children that read his books
for fear that they might not like him
solitude is powerful and only as it
recently have we begun to forget this
fact the pursuit of mastery in any field
continues to be deeply intrinsic and
very personal the third thing we need to
encourage our students to do is to
internalize this concept of dead time
versus a lifetime in this world there’s
two types of time there is dead time
when you’re just passively waiting for
something to happen and then there’s a
lifetime when you’re actively learning
and leveraging for some kind of end goal
my favorite example that illustrates
this concept is in the life of a
criminal named Detroit Red Detroit red
did a little bit did a little bit of
everything
he ran the numbers he sold drugs he
stole things
he even moonlighted as a pimp
unfortunately for red he was arrested in
1946 for trying to sell a stolen watch
and to make matters worse he happened to
be carrying a loaded gun with him so he
was sentenced to 10 years in prison at
this critical moment in Detroit Reds
life T was faced with the decision dead
time or a lifetime he chose a lifetime
and he began to learn instead of that
the minute that he got to prison he
checked out the dictionary from the
prison library and he devoured it from
cover to cover
he read history philosophy religion
Detroit read transcended confinement
through the pages that he absorbed years
after his release journalists would ask
him hey Detroit
what’s your alma mater
and his one-word response would be books
prison was his College Detroit red would
go on to be one of the greatest civil
rights activists this world had ever
seen
you might know him by his real name
Malcolm little or Malcolm X these three
principles are merely a starting point
from which to gain a better
understanding of the world around us
through formal education we have
effectively created a homogeneous
thinking pool that discredits anyone the
challenges the existing paradigm it kind
of creates as mob mentality that
undermines our ability to think freely
an education bubble looms and the only
way passed it is to foster more
unconventional thinkers more Mavericks
because as Charles Darwin found out
during his research in the mid 19th
century and the Galapagos the answer
lies in the anomalies see to our eyes
Mavericks seem strange and out of place
just like mutations did to Darwin almost
200 years ago but if we study it closely
we come to realize that they’re mutation
their unorthodox approach that’s their
key to their survival
thank you
[Applause]
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