Developing a Multidisciplinary Mindset
Ideas Elaborated on From The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street
In Learn With Matt Newsletter, I’ll be exposing you to ideas, models, frameworks, and elaborations from some of my thoughts, journals, books, and articles that I’ve thought about and read. My hope is that these newsletters can be helpful and inspirational for your own learning journey.
Quote from The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street
While we want accurate models, we also want a wide variety of models to uncover what's really happening. The key here is variety. Most of us study something specific and don't get exposure to the big ideas of other disciplines. We don't develop the multidisciplinary mindset that we need to accurately see a problem. And because we don't have the right models to understand the situation, we overuse the models we do have and use them even when they don't belong.
My Interpretation
I think each and every one of us can be biased in the way we think and generate our strategies for taking action. We are influenced heavily by the type of work we do. For example, I’m a teacher at a secondary school, hence the reason why I love educating people, but after reflecting on the quote above, I can see that most of my decisions are based heavily on education in and outside of the school.
The same may be true for you in whichever field you work in.
Although I can see that I have an advantage over most of the people I know personally in the field of education because I read avidly about a wide variety of subjects such as business, psychology, and even science. This has been a huge benefit for me as a teacher because I’ve been able to have a wider range of knowledge to share with my students. It makes it much easier to be more efficient in every aspect of my job.
Having a Multidisciplinary Mindset
The more you absorb knowledge within and outside your field of work and try different ways of implementing it into the way you think and live, the better you will be at solving problems at work and at home.
I challenge you to start reading or watching videos about subjects you don’t normally learn about. Try broadening your horizons and experimenting with what you discover. Keep your mind curious and always look for ways to optimize your mental models and discover new ones along the way.
What are your thoughts on having a multidisciplinary mindset?
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