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Unlike a machine, which becomes worse for the wear with application, the human brain gets better with exercise.
The electrical connections thrive as we use it more, but 80 per cent of the time, we are in autopilot mode.
After a series of familiar tasks, the brain slips into a state of low activity, diminishing chances of learning and creation.
Mr G. Shankaran Nair, President – Corporate Strategy, Servion Global Solutions Ltd, advised MBA students of Sathyabama University to never allow their brains to dull and stop learning new skills, even if they are the simplest.
The lecture was organised by BL Club along with presenting sponsor Central Bank of India.
New skills
“Acquisition of new skills is a regenerative process. Even the simplest of them will alert the brain to new ideas.”
He says the brain is very rarely open to doing unfamiliar tasks.
He brought up the work of Mr Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002, to explain the functioning of the rarely used but efficient part of the brain: System 2.
Employed in logical reasoning and deductions, this part of the brain can process information and come up with inferences, as opposed to snap judgments and stereotyping of the prominent and less useful System 1.
Mr Nair said students should tune up their System 2s to innovate and snap out of the ease of being in status quo.
“Try left-hand shaving if you're right-handed to put your brain on new terrain. Because you never know where the blade is going to go the next moment.” He talked about Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc and a pioneer in personal computing, to explain how his gut instinct and readiness to try out new ideas helped scale challenges.
Reading habit
With the information explosion on the Internet, he said reading as a way to acquire knowledge is dwindling.
He told them to read widely, be a “here and now” person, and get into a physical routine: “Anil Ambani was once asked by one of his shareholders: ‘If you cannot look after your weight, how are you going to look after our money?' He started working out that day and you all know how fit he is now.”
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