I recently found to this track called "Iran Air by Hiatus." Wonderfully composed and the lyrics intrigued me and finally, I managed to watch the YouTube video.
This video shows people holding photographs of their grandparents and family from Iran, who fled from Iran to the UK as refugees during the 1979 Revolution. I was curious to learn why the Iranian revolution happened. Youtube is my favourite school. I started with a basic video and learned some basics about the Revolution:
11 mins to understand this revolution.
If you have 45 mins for some more depth.
I learned that the Iranian revolution is a result of economic inequalities, attempting to “modernise” an economy and how the religion played a role in the revolution. I learned about how nuanced the whole history is and how American and European countries funded a coup to keep their rights to extract Petrol from that region.
I went deeper into this rabbit hole to understand the contrarian opinions of this incident in human history. I further watched a set of videos to understand more of this subject and it gave a decent view of this story that unfolded before I was born.
I am now considering picking up some good book recommendations from Reddit/Good Reads to learn from them and get a more holistic picture. I also came across some movies about the Iranian revolution.
This subject actually allowed me to understand a bigger perspective on the world’s current leaning on Oil and how it drives our world economy. More importantly, I paused and questioned why learning gets easier with a certain mindset. I understand curiosity very differently than I could ever in my life.
What happens when you are naturally curious…
I always use to wonder about how certain people can absolutely describe learning as it being an insatiable activity. When you start to be curious and start learning insatiably, you will naturally start to do the following:
To ask questions: Asking great questions and wondering why something happened instead just accepting the answer that's thrown at you. For example, you could ask the following questions:
Why did a revolution happen in 1979? Did more revolutions happen before?
What kind of revolution was this? Economic? Political? Religious?
What were the external forces that contributed to it?
What are the underlying patterns that caused this revolution?
What kind of role did Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini play in this revolution beyond that was said or seen? How was his life like and his background and what caused him to be the central figure in this revolution?
How did the many Iranians become refugees and how did they deal with it?
Did this revolution spawn a new set of tribes, rules and sects of people?
How was the psychological state of Iranian society?
How did they cope emotionally, physically, psychologically, financially, etc?
Essentially, The quality of questions allowed me to learn more and go deep with just what is fed to me via YouTube or books or Reddit.
Learning to understand perspectives and connecting dots.
These perspectives enhance my vision on how the world runs on the sale of natural resources especially Oil & Natural Gases. It allowed me to understand how money can not just drive countries, people, apart and drive how the whole country in a very different direction.
This connection of dots can only happen when you allow yourself to connect dots and understand and learn better.
Choosing which rabbit hole to go down into and how much time to spend on it.
You can spend a lifetime in learning about it and do a PHD on it but that's not my aim. My aim is to actually just learn and be fascinated by the world.
I spend time focused on learning about subjects like history, economics, the human condition and more. The pursuit of learning is fun and to broaden my view of the human condition.
Learning to connect dots back to your daily work and life.
You might ask where will actually use my knowledge of the Iranian Revolution in daily work. Here is a peek into my brain connecting the dots:
Human beings are inherently always seeking growth to make their lives better.
If the aim of Xperian is to provide a great ecosystem for Makers, then we should be able to make it available and accessible. What points can be available and accessible?
Feed the hunger first and then address the mind. As human beings, we cannot go without food, water and shelter. Only when the body and its hunger is settled you can then think about learning. Teach essential skills and then we can give you frameworks later.
Teach a holistic & first principle-based to inform and equip people with the lens to learn and teach themselves. Make them independent learners and help them be responsible for their lives.
An economy will have its highs and lows. How can Xperian weather that ebb and flow? What should the culture of Xperian look like? Should it be self-reliant on its co-founder's skills, etc & so on...
You need to feed your brain a varied list of perspectives to get better outputs. The more your brain feeds information, you will connect the dots.
You will start to take religious notes and start writing naturally.
You would want to free up all this information and look for ways to put down this overflowing information. The amount of information that is buzzing in the brain has to have its own outlet and over a period of time, you will start to find the right and comfortable outlets to document your learning.
In conclusion, I understood curiosity intellectually and I am now experiencing it.
Chase curiosity and learning will come naturally. Curiosity cannot be taught but only lived.
Until next time,
Madhuri 🌞