I have just reread an article about Learning Obesity I bookmarked some time ago, and I can’t avoid writing several notes. The Learning Obesity concept is clearly explained at http://www.ravinglearnatics.com/2012/06/learning-obesity.html Briefly: In the same way that if you eat more than you need to you will become fat, mental obesity takes part when you learn more than you need to perform work.
“Over-teaching occurs when we pile more content on a learner’s plates than they need to perform their job. If a learning activity isn’t immediately relevant and doesn’t directly help a learner perform their job better, the learner will not retain the content and the learning turns to fat, regardless of how good the content is”
Soon before that, this article explains that you cannot efficiently recover contents learned a long time ago. Taking that into account, this article proposes several good practices for the enterprise, among them:
“Feed the fewest number of people the least amount of relevant learning snacks, but do so as quickly as possible so the food stays warm“
That’s impeccable. Neither mathematics nor accountancy can trick it.
But people do not need to learn snacks only to use them directly at work. Human curiosity is not renounceable; indeed, learning makes you more human. Is it necessary to qualify each human activity in terms of ROI or Value Creation?
Nope.
I need what some thinkers consider to be not useful to avoid crossing the slight border between human and zombie in the omnipresent labor market.
I want my fat! 😉