A little late in responding, but just got a chance to read this. Great article!
Here is my favorite line:
"Why is it so easy for the unschooled to keep up with their better-educated brethren? My guess is that it’s because very little learning goes on at school at all."
This is my response to everyone who wants better personal finance taught in school. That's a great concept, but falls victim to the issue that very little learning goes on at school...because the average 14-year old doesn't really care and has no concept of how to apply it. In college they might care a little bit, but most had no real desire to learn about the BS OPM and how to use it as a tool unless it was "on the test" (which I get 100%) or if they thought it was going to make them rich (it doesn't without understanding a whole lot more). The same is true for any other skill set taught in college (probably less so than finance where people are motivated a bit more by greed than they are in learning about photography, history, or many other fields). Learning and applying what you learn is HARD and typically takes intrinsic motivation.
That said, I also loved your closing comments on kindness. Don't be a jerk was one of the lessons I tried to incorporate in teaching over the last half of my career.
Thanks Kevin for your perspective esp given your experience.
Where do you think intrinsic motivation comes from? Do you think even when it's not present it's dormant and their needs to be conditions or a why to unseal it?
I believe it is present in most people (although likely not everyone), it's just a case of finding the right strategy.
One of my favorite books is "Range" by David Epstein who argues pretty convincingly that most of us don't know what we want to do because there are SO many different things to do. He refers to this as "Match Quality" (I'm sure someone else came up with the idea), but if you think of what he's talking about it is finding YOUR specific interest and recognize that your interests will change (the person you are today will not be the person you will be in 20 years). He also covered wicked vs. kind learning (one of my favorite topics), thinking with analogies (another favorite), and recognizing that deep learning is typically slower and harder because it requires understanding the concept (interleaving).
The problem is there aren't formulas for this stuff and if you don't find a good match between your interests and desires and you focus on money (which makes sense -- I think we'd all be lying if we said it wasn't important to success/happiness to have some degree of wealth), it's hard to put in the time/effort to make it. I actually bought this book for my MBA finance class the last couple years of teaching as I thought it was essential concept and I'd guess that about 50% agreed to an extent.
Probably the best tool to unlocking intrinsic motivation is through being active/involved parents that spends time with your kids on match quality and the concepts discussed in Range. I would argue that it was one of the most meaningful books I read and tried to share it with as many people as possible.
A little late in responding, but just got a chance to read this. Great article!
Here is my favorite line:
"Why is it so easy for the unschooled to keep up with their better-educated brethren? My guess is that it’s because very little learning goes on at school at all."
This is my response to everyone who wants better personal finance taught in school. That's a great concept, but falls victim to the issue that very little learning goes on at school...because the average 14-year old doesn't really care and has no concept of how to apply it. In college they might care a little bit, but most had no real desire to learn about the BS OPM and how to use it as a tool unless it was "on the test" (which I get 100%) or if they thought it was going to make them rich (it doesn't without understanding a whole lot more). The same is true for any other skill set taught in college (probably less so than finance where people are motivated a bit more by greed than they are in learning about photography, history, or many other fields). Learning and applying what you learn is HARD and typically takes intrinsic motivation.
That said, I also loved your closing comments on kindness. Don't be a jerk was one of the lessons I tried to incorporate in teaching over the last half of my career.
Thanks Kevin for your perspective esp given your experience.
Where do you think intrinsic motivation comes from? Do you think even when it's not present it's dormant and their needs to be conditions or a why to unseal it?
I believe it is present in most people (although likely not everyone), it's just a case of finding the right strategy.
One of my favorite books is "Range" by David Epstein who argues pretty convincingly that most of us don't know what we want to do because there are SO many different things to do. He refers to this as "Match Quality" (I'm sure someone else came up with the idea), but if you think of what he's talking about it is finding YOUR specific interest and recognize that your interests will change (the person you are today will not be the person you will be in 20 years). He also covered wicked vs. kind learning (one of my favorite topics), thinking with analogies (another favorite), and recognizing that deep learning is typically slower and harder because it requires understanding the concept (interleaving).
The problem is there aren't formulas for this stuff and if you don't find a good match between your interests and desires and you focus on money (which makes sense -- I think we'd all be lying if we said it wasn't important to success/happiness to have some degree of wealth), it's hard to put in the time/effort to make it. I actually bought this book for my MBA finance class the last couple years of teaching as I thought it was essential concept and I'd guess that about 50% agreed to an extent.
Probably the best tool to unlocking intrinsic motivation is through being active/involved parents that spends time with your kids on match quality and the concepts discussed in Range. I would argue that it was one of the most meaningful books I read and tried to share it with as many people as possible.
Ty for a thorough answer and I'm a fan of DE myself (he has a very nice substack in addition to his books)