The first week of Launch Academy is now in the books and it was, for me, a tremendous success. There is a quote that summarizes my week fairly succintly:
“Isn’t it wonderful? That feeling of not knowing too much about
something… Incomplete information… Endless possibilities… When you don’t
know much about something, it’s the most exciting sensation." -Kutsnetz in Talus, by Erol Ozan
There is so very much that I don't know about the subject at hand. But how thrilling is that? In 7 days my base of knowledge has grown wider, and a bit deeper. Width is easy. Depth is more challenging. Similar to learning a foreign language - memorizing nouns is easy and with some effort and time one can know a lot of words. But using them in sentences, conjugating them, pluralizing them, etc. - well that depth takes considerably more time and effort.
Each exercise and each interaction with a peer or a mentor has given me a few more words, and taught me how to use them. Being able to use the newly acquired language either by explaining it to someone else, or working through a new problem on a white board is deeply satisfying and confirms that, here and now, I am in the right place.
The Launch Academy approach to education is refreshing, and so different from the traditional experiences that many of us grew up with. The objective is not to understand something before everyone else and horde that to prove that you are the 'top of the class'. If you understand something before your peers, it is your obligation to pay it forward and help someone else understand it. And you know what? Explaining a concept and working through a problem with someone else does not weaken you, it empowers you! Your grasp of the knowledge increases when you can explain it.
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