Healthcare Futurist Jack Uldrich on "Unlearning"
Here's a link to a 15-minute presentation I recently delivered to United Healthcare. The title of my talk was "Why the Future of Healthcare Will Require Unlearning."
Unlearning Lesson #12: Think Small
“If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must employ methods never before attempted.” --Sir Francis Bacon Question #12: If the average temperature of the earth increases due to global climate change, what will be the primary cause of rising sea levels? Did you say melting ice caps and glaciers? Wrong. While it’s true [...]
Future Unlearning
In my new book, Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite lessons for Achieving a Successful Future, I argue that unlearning will be one of the most critical skills of the future. To understand why this is the case just consider the emerging field of data mining and business analytics where IBM's Watson can now sift through the [...]
Unlearning Lesson #11: If It Goes Without Saying, Question It
“We only hear those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Question #11: Why does it get hotter in the summer? In the late 1980’s, for the production of a movie entitled A Private Universe, the filmmakers posited this question to 23 graduating seniors of Harvard University. Twenty-one (21) [...]
Unlearning Lesson #10: See What Isn't There
"You don’t understand something until you understand it more than one way.” – Marvin Minsky Question #10: Does a rusted nail weight more or less than the original, non-rusted nail? It weights more. This finding, discovered by Antoine and Marie Lavoisier in the late 18th century, was a rather startling because it drew attention to [...]
Unlock the Keys to Failure
“To kill an error is as good a service, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.” – Charles Darwin Question #9: Who coined the phrase, “The survival of the fittest”? Did you say Charles Darwin? If so, you are mistaken. The honor belongs to Herbert Spencer who first used [...]
Unlearning Lesson #8: Bite the Hand That Feeds You
“The mastery of transformation is the process of unlearning what you have already learned.” –Unknown Question #8: In hospitals, what action is estimated to reduce the risk of infection from catheters by as much as 90 percent? The answer may surprise you: systematic hand-washing. That’s right, if more healthcare professionals—the very people charged with healing [...]
Unlearning Lesson #6: Study at an Anti-Library
Lesson #6: Study at an Anti-Library "There is a huge difference between what people actually know and how much they think they know." – Nassim Taleb Question #6: Which of these animals is more likely to kill you: A shark or a deer? The right answer is the deer. In fact, the contest isn’t even [...]
Unlearning Lesson #5: Do Not Feed Creatures of Habit
Lesson #5: Do Not Feed Creatures of Habit “Not choice, but habit, rules the unreflecting herd.” – William Wordsworth Question #5: On a game show, you are given the option of choosing a gift behind one of three doors. One door holds a new car; the other two, goats. After you have made your selection, the [...]