Lessons From Kids — Ana Lorena Fabrega

1. How to TINKER

Kids love to fiddle, dabble, and mess with stuff until they figure it out.

Adults see this as a waste of time, but it's the only way to make new discoveries, like the airplane and the lightbulb.

Kids love to pretend they're doctors, engineers, artists, and musicians.

Adults feel bad faking it until they make it, but kids know the power of mirroring role models. Read more here.

Kids love to interrupt: "No, put the block here, not there!"

Scientists call this burstiness— a sign of great collaboration.

Adults worry about speaking out of turn, but productivity comes from ignoring status games and focusing on the problem at hand.

Kids love to make crazy connections between unrelated things, like cars and elephants or paper and concrete.

Adults don’t want to seem silly, but innovation requires looking at the world in unexpected ways.

Read more here + watch my latest video on Elastic thinking!

Kids love to get to the bottom of things and ask “why, why, why, why, why?”

Adults don't want to look stupid, but breakthroughs happen when we stop making assumptions and think from first principles .

Kids love to focus on what they enjoy and quit stuff they don’t like.

Adults get stuck doing things they hate, but fulfillment comes from cutting your losses quickly and doubling down on what works.

I explore ideas like this in Fab Fridays, my newsletter on childhood education with a twist + new ways to learn.

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