Recently, I attended a talk by the ex-Deputy Director-General of Education. She regaled us with insights and stories in regard to Serving with Passion and Purpose.
She’s one of the most well-known educators in my fraternity, so her words carry a lot of weight and resonate with us teachers a lot. Or at least me. Anyway, what struck me most about her pep talk was her observation that Singaporeans are adept at problem-solving, but our Achilles’ heel is inventive thinking. Which makes sense because Singaporeans have typically done well in international assessments. In fact, we topped the world in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study assessment, even when the scores for the Problem Solving and Inquiry task were included. (Sorry to blow my country’s trumpet!)
But erm, we have yet to produce a Nobel Prize winner. I don’t even think our country comes up with a lot of groundbreaking patents.
What has this got to do with 37x? Ah, thank you for your patience in reading thus far.
It seems to me very clear that if I wish to stand out and pull ahead of the competition, I ought to nurture my entrepreneurial spirit and sharpen my creative saw. Draw links across disciplines, look at things from various perspectives, collate practices from different fields and synergise the best of them. So, if I were to intentionally use Stacker News as my incubation ground and just aim to improve by 1% every day, I will be 37x better at the end of one year.
After all, SN boasts a multitude of inputs that are germinating grounds for innovation: different cultures and perspectives, curated media articles, authentic sharing of self-stories, etc.
Of course, my intention to hone my inventive thinking skills must be matched with action. Be purposeful in the way I frame my problems and request for advice; be conscientious in organising the takeaways when I get responses (maybe this is where Obsidian comes in); be tenacious enough to prove deeper and explore wider.
Sounds like a tall order, but well, I am having my school holidays next week. So, I can experiment with my use of SN and see how things go.