Super Powers Must be Taught
If you are learning new things but not sharing, you’re doing a disservice to those around you. Maybe you think others get it already and you’re just new to the game. But it’s never the case. There’s always someone in the audience who hasn’t learned what you’re talking about. They might’ve missed the news, or maybe they’ve been using something else to get a job done, and don’t realize that they could be doing something new. An interesting thing happens when you teach others what you know: it builds authority within yourself, and it builds good will between you and your extended audience. Teaching and sharing and extending your knowledge out to others bubbles opportunities to the surface that might not have shown themselves otherwise. Bre here, in this picture, is the KING of teaching others. It’s baked into his life model. So, why aren’t YOU teaching what you know?
Not Enough Time
There’s never enough time to get done the things that need doing. It’s a given. But the more folks you teach, the more you can raise the bar. Build networks of people who do what needs doing. Extend. Friendsource. Do virtual barn raising. There’s not enough time to build a million little arks. These fishbowls need to be broken, and you NEED to get out there and swim among the masses. Teaching others what you know, and building larger PLATFORMS for people to understand and work on things together will pay off more in the larger story.
Not Unique
If everyone’s doing what you’re doing, it makes you a cog, the same as everyone else. Bullshit. How many pitchers are playing baseball today? Are they all doing it the same way? How many guitarists? Painters? Everything you do is the same as everyone else. Only you do it differently. The power in teaching others what you know is that they’ll grow the concept, do something different, make it better, and then you can jump on, learn what they did, and then flip it through the permutations again.
No Return on Effort
If you’re giving away all this knowledge, what’s in it for you? There are countless rewards to dispensing knowledge. Being known as the person with answers and how-to knowledge is almost immediately useful to your standing in the world, because there are plenty of people in the camp of NOT knowing. The return? More people knowing how to do what needs doing. More people working on the larger solution instead of reinventing the wheel.
Not an Expert
Why should people listen to you? You’re not an expert. Forget this one. If you know something, chances are someone else needs to know it. If you’ve figured out keyboard shortcuts to GMAIL, someone else needs that info. Have you figured out the best settings to transcode MPG to DV? Great! I don’t know those. Share? See? EVERYONE has something to teach. Everyone, and that includes you.
Any Questions?
If you’re not teaching and extending knowledge, and developing the larger picture around you, what are you doing instead? Why aren’t you taking on the larger questions and taking your swing at it?
And if you ARE teaching? Where are you putting it? How are you sharing it? Can people find it? Can they search it?
There’s a new media revolution on, and I’m not saying that to be dramatic. There’s something big moving. For every $5 Million Wallstrip deal out there, for every consolidation and purchase and shift, there are more things to be said and done in the personal media / new media / creating new things space.
Be a grasshopper. Teach. Share. Grow.
photo credit brex
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Comments
Hi Chris,
I pride myself as being the person people turn to when they need to know stuff. It started as a kid when I learned that not everyone remembers every thing they hear, see or read. That made me very useful and still does today.
Now it’s my mad Ninja Googleness that works best for me.
Andy Bilodeau
http://andy.andycast.net
This is exactly why I started each of my blogs. I felt like I was learning interesting things and ought to share that knowledge.
Brilliant and well said. If we all teach and all learn, then good things happen all around. It’s the hoarders of knowledge that create problems for those around them, either geographically or net-wise. It sure looks like (let’s hope) the trend will continue towards sharing and away from hoarding when it comes to knowledge.
I agree–another awe-inspiring, gob-smacking bit of inspiration to urge us on! I often forget that other people are not inside my brain learning along with me, so I am frequently surprised when people think I am two steps ahead of them.
One corollary to the
Oops…to continue what I was saying:
One corollary to these ideas is that, when you are out using your superhuman powers to teach others, don’t forget the people “back home”, your co-workers who hold down the fort if you are out teaching. They could use the benefit of your teaching, too. Perhaps even more so, since they have to try to keep up with you!
Happy Thursday!
Connie
very sound advice indeed. They teach sharing in kindergarten, why do we forget it when we graduate? And you are so right that you don’t need to only share in big chunks. I only learn in small bites. Sharing is good.
Right on.
I’ll add that if you’re being miserly with your knowledge out of selfishness then you deserve cracker crumbs in your sheets for all eternity.
Good message.
This is why I started volunteering at the Podcamp/Bootcamp events. It helps me build confidence with my crew of guys, and we’ve made a good deal of friends from the whole experience.
I’ve adopted a similar strategy to music. I’ve banded some good friends of mine together to form a couple new groups for my rap duo to work with. Teaching them how to record, song write to a beat, run some studio equipment. I’m not an expert by any means, but I can at least get these guys started and pass along what I learned from my producer and friend, Dr. Espling. Now we have a show booked with all three of our ventures, and more on the way, I’m sure. That whole network of people doing the stuff the way they need to be done to make this work, just like you said.
I have no problem sharing what I know- I do some times get embarrassed by what I view as holes in my knowledge.
For example- I can manage my website, I can do an RSS feed, I blog, I podcast, but I somehow missed the step learning about how to do trackbacks in blog comments or use xml/html in blog comment spaces. It’s been like learning a foreign language. I can think in links while blogging, I can scan xml to figure out where to plug in a button, for example, but I am not fluent, and there seems to be only one way to figure this stuff out- ask what seem to be silly questions, prompting real geeks to roll their eyes in disgust while mumbling “They’ll let anyone on the internet these days…” like a stuffy grandma in a country club.
Kidding, but seriously, I find that my biggest problem is figuring out who I can ask the “silly” questions to and not feel dumb or like I’m imposing. And this despite the fact that everyone is usually happy to help. I am my own worst enemy in this regard.
Great post, Chris! Teaching and sharing is really a significant part of what I do each do. You ask how and where? My answer is that it is my various blogs, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts and all the other media that we use. I live in that world because ultimately my interest is in sharing knowledge and learning from others who, in turn, share their knowledge. There’s so much to learn out there… and there’s so many bigger problems to solve… I think we all learn more when we share it amongst each other. Thanks for keeping on writing the inspirational posts!
Dan
[…] Filed under: just musing — Jon Swanson @ 4:08 pm Today Chris was talking about the importance of teaching, of taking what we know and passing it on. His point is affirming and challenging and frustrating […]
Another great post, Chris. One way to “find” the time to share is to schedule things advance. I commit myself to a monthly free Webinar where I talk to people about podcasting. Because it’s on my calendar so far in advance, I HAVE to do it! After all, people sign up in advance.
[…] [RL] there is a way to influence the world, what’s yours? June 7, 2007 Filed under: blog tag, real life, new media — chelpixie @ 4:24 pm Between Christopher Penn and Chris Brogan it’s a wonder I don’t have a headache. Christopher posted about a month ago about Second Life, Superheroes and the greater good. Last week, Chris Brogan posted about being the grasshopper. […]
[…] Chris was talking about the importance of teaching, of taking what we know and passing it on. His point is affirming and challenging and frustrating […]
See, this is what I mean about you being totally inspiring. Here I am, just starting to write a blog, and feeling like I’m not saying anything that everyone doesn’t already know, and you come along and show me I’m wrong.
It’s important to keep reminding people that they already *have* superpowers. When you don’t have to work very hard at something you’re really good at, you often forget that it doesn’t come as easily to everyone around you - once you’re reminded of that, it becomes a lot easier to go out and teach it to others. Thanks for the reminder! =)