Indirect Lessons
Inspiration from Randy Pausch
The literal meaning of the word ‘Head fake’ means faking by head movement. In football, the opponent moves his head one way giving an impression that he is going in that direction. But the next moment, he would move the opposite way. Hence, a fake head movement to deceive someone. In the stock market, the same follows which means a consistent decline or rise in stock value for sometime before it flips in just the opposite direction.
However, there is another term ‘head fake learning’ which is something different. As explained fantastically by Randy Pausch in his novel, “The Last Lecture”.
In what was the auto biography of the dying man, he explained how he learned the qualities like perseverance, teamwork, sportsmanship and hard work from his tough time at football league even though he could not make it to NFL which was his actual goal indeed.
So head fake learning means learning something in disguise of some other goal.
A few years back, I would solve Sudoku puzzles that would appear daily in the newspaper. Even though I did not have an iota of interest in reading the news, the first thing in the morning was to solve the Sudoku in the least time.
Ever since the advent of mobile phones, I never play games on the device which I believe can be used for instead much better purposes. But the only game which I remember installing on it was ‘Sudoku’. There was this craze of beating my own record everytime. I just loved the game to an extent that sometimes I would even carry its paper cuttings inside my book and solve it in the college cab. Seeing this, a junior started competing with me on daily basis. Everyday, he came with a refreshed energy to beat me down in the game. But I was invincible. To my surprise, the game turned out to be one of the events in the annual tech fest of our college. Undoubtedly, I won it and got a certificate as well. That, I keep as a souvenir of my memories with the game.
That time, apart from a random interest in solving a mathematical puzzle, I did not have the slightest idea what qualities I was learning out of it. But when it came to clearing the aptitude tests for the type of job I wanted, that random interest of mine had a major role to play. I barely knew, that solving the puzzle everyday, I was in a way, overcoming the time constraint in solving similar mathematical riddles associated with these competitive exams.
The concept of head fake learning teaches us to focus on indirect learning rather than on apparent failures.
Let me quote another example from personal experience. Every year, I participate in the sports events organized by our company. Badminton being one of my favorite sports would keep a hope of winning. But, I was struck one day, when a volley of shots was missed. People seemed surprised so did I along with a tinge of embarrassment that I was feeling inside. But after I left the court, losing, I felt the taste of defeat. It was bitter but strong. I felt shaken up from inside as if until then, I had been living a comfortable life with nothing much happening like victories and defeats. That day I realized the importance of both. If victory motivates you, defeat makes you stronger. I learned that failures are important because they not only teach you where you were wrong but also test the level of your ego.
And I learned to accept defeats by converting them to fun moments or to consider them as a necessary immunity booster.
We should not count failures, but the many lessons that we learn during the course of events whether not by choice.
