Do you remember those kids who were told not to touch the stove, but then you’d see them around school with a tube of Neosporin and a bandage covering half their hand?

Yeah, that was me. And apparently not much has changed.

I swim often at my local gym’s pool. My father is a fish and tends to frequent the spot. This particular morning was freezing, even by California standards. Being that I was wearing tight Speedo shorts (stunning visual I know), I decided to run away from the cold and quickly launch myself into the heated pool.

Wisdom and previous experience, as well as about 6 signs say “Don’t dive”.

I dove.

The perfect ADD storm of cold weather and tight Speedo Jammers caused my brain to lose focus. I hit my nose on the bottom of the pool and came up with a bloody face. And my dad was watching too! Fortunately he’s grown used to my stupidity and when I surfaced he gave a sardonic “hey son”.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson. This time…

This experience actually caused me to think (danger). There are typically three ways people learn.

The first: Learn by discovery.

In this method, learning is accomplished through experiencing. It is notably inefficient and it often proves painful. Learning by discovery is like the kid who didn’t listen to his mum when she said “don’t touch the stove”. This method is equally powerful as it is dangerous. It’s risky. But I don’t want to cast a shadow over it. Learning by discovery is the key to innovation and should NOT be discouraged.

The second: Learn vicariously.

This is the most common form of learning and far more efficient (and often less painful) than the discovery method. You learn from the wisdom of others. To put it in perspective, mum tells you not to touch the stove, so you don’t touch the stove. Simple as that.

Although this method is quite a bit more efficient than learning by discovery, it does not often breed innovation and can even stifle it (if discovery is discouraged).

Now, if we coalesce those two methods, we can make learning ultra efficient while encouraging innovation and collaboration.

The third: Dynamic Discovery

You learn using the knowledge gained by discovering while at the same time applying the wisdom of others. And so does your community.

To use the stove analogy: Instead of touching the stove to see if it’s hot, you heed the advice of your mum…AND discover how to turn the stove on and off. And your neighbor uses your knowledge and learns how to control the temperature of the stove. And so on and so forth.

What you begin to see is an unfolding of best practice. Wisdom and knowledge are not excluded from the process of evolution. They too can grow stale and obsolete. The concept of survival of the fittest still applies. The evolution of knowledge (aka collective intelligence) needs to be constructed around a medium. This medium has to facilitate a community of learning based in and around experiential wisdom.

And it has to be simple.

Many attempt to promote learning by discovery OR vicariously, but few have succeeded at facilitating an evolved version of the two.

For some of us, we’ll burn our hands on the stove as long as we live. For the rest of you, learn and improve, build a childproof stove. Or deeper swimming pools.