Input is the Five Senses, Output is Muscles
I am reading “What It Means to Understand” by Takeshi Yoro.
Just because you read a textbook on how to swim doesn't mean you'll be able to swim. Even if you watch a video on how to ski, you won't be able to ski. So, if you jump into a pool once, will you be able to swim? Probably not. Touching a shamisen once won't make you able to play it. This applies not just to basic academic skills, but to everything in life; the fundamental way to learn is the same. There is nothing but repetitive practice.
As discussed in the first half of this book, input is done through the five senses, and output is done through muscles.
Input is seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, touching with the hands, smelling with the nose, and tasting with the tongue, while output is solely the movement of muscles.
When learning something, you need to aim for “internalization”, or “a state of understanding that involves the body.” No matter how much you input, if you cannot effectively operate or utilize it with your muscles (body), you will end up being all theory and no practice.
By repeating “input through the five senses” and “output through muscles,” knowledge and culture become internalized. That is the mechanism of learning, according to the author.
Things taught in schools and classrooms, such as swimming, skiing, or playing the shamisen, take a lot of time to master. The same goes for riding a bicycle or drawing a picture. You don't become able to do them so easily.
You can't become able to do these things just by reading a textbook, watching a video, or touching the real thing a little bit. You had to know the necessary knowledge and then try it yourself (with your own body). And you had to do it repeatedly.
Learning as an adult is the same. Unless you repeat “input through the five senses” and “output through muscles,” you won't internalize anything.
No matter how many business schools you attend, how much you study for certifications, or how many online courses you take, if it hasn't been internalized, you haven't truly learned it.
No matter how much you hear about business etiquette in training, or how many videos you watch about leadership, you cannot put them into practice just by doing that. Through the process of repeatedly testing the input content with your own body, those pieces of knowledge and skills should become internalized.
Personally, I remember the night before I first met a client for work, after watching a YouTube video explaining how to exchange business cards, I practiced it over and over by myself in my apartment.
Some people may be skeptical of school education or corporate training, but I do not think the education provided there is meaningless in itself. I believe the problem is that neither the 'teacher' nor the 'learner' understands the mechanism required to truly 'master' something.
Learning or education that does not aim for 'mastery' only produces people who are 'passive input-only' or 'intellectually top-heavy'.
Both as teachers and as learners, we need to approach learning while considering the path to 'mastery'.
I believe that only those who receive education that incorporates the 'repetition' necessary to acquire knowledge, or those who go through a learning process that practices 'repetition', can enrich their lives through learning.