Serendipity and Learning

Well, not exactly. The Rubber Duck principle and the psychology is explained here . A few weeks while working with a team, I suddenly realized what was missing in the flow of a particular problem. In my mind, the program was sorted and delivered to multiple audiences with great success. However, as I explained it to this audience (a very experienced audience) and took them through this process, I realised that the explanation could do with a few more in-between steps. I had to do this process slowly because this team wanted a skill-building exercise and in doing so, my own clarity went up. And this workshop enhanced my own understanding of how I can do it in future. In short, it became better. (Yes, this one is short on details, but the idea here is to use the rubber duck principle in real life.) PS: After telling him about the rubber duck principle, the teenager has learnt this principle (confirmed its existence through a few youtube videos) and uses us as a rubber duck to ...

What fun it is to see an expert have fun is it not? When you see someone improvising on a piece of music or dance or facilitation or sports - is it not fun? The amazing thing about this is that unless you are an expert you cannot have fun. (Hat tip to better half for articulating this.) Let me qualify. If you see an expert musician improvise on a piece - and it sounds so good - almost as if she is playing around with the music - it is fun, but it is also good. The expert can have fun in a way that it is still rhythmic, musical, enjoyable - you name it. It is not the same as clowning around - singing off key or missing all shots that are thrown at you. This is the magic - where the expert juggler can juggle with more fun than anyone else. See this violin maestro having fun with the violin - a classical musician playing a film song and having fun with it. See his expressions as he does it... Or watch Roger Federrer try out a new second serve return - that only an expert can...