10 Useful Gurwinder Ideas
But in the context of teaching, learning, and communication
I have been following Gurwinder for a while. I am fascinated by the way he conceptualizes “meta-concepts” with precision, clarity, and brevity.
In this post, I’m sharing 10 useful ideas from Gurwinder’s pos. I have lightly tweaked and reframed them in the context of teaching, learning, and education.
1. Being Cognitively Poor is Expensive
Being poor is expensive; constantly managing scarce resources requires such mental effort (intellectual and emotional) that there’s little brainpower left for anything else. Thus, poverty makes it hard to escape poverty.
Similarly, not having enough relevant accurate prior knowledge (ie: being cognitively poor) is expensive for a learner. This condition makes it hard to escape poor learning outcome.
Students with weak prior knowledge must work much harder to process new information. Instead of building on existing knowledge, they will have to constantly start from scratch, leading to frustration and disengagement.
This is the reason why the Knowledge Gap widens over time. Those with strong prior knowledge grasp new ideas faster, making learning more efficient and enjoyable. In contrast, those without it experience slower & challenging progress, reinforcing a belief that they’re “not smart enough”.
2. Great Learners Practice Harder
“The good practice until they get it right, but the great practice until it’s harder to get it wrong. The 1% ers do what 99% of students can’t or won’t do”.1
One of the goals of learning is to take your skill to the level of automaticity and flexibility, where you rarely make any errors. Good practice is not enough. You need deliberate practice.
Many students believe that once they "get it," they’re done practicing. This leads to shaky knowledge which is easily forgotten when the context changes (for instance, during exam). Mastery requires overlearning — going beyond correctness to effortless execution.
3. The Protege Effect
“The best way to learn something is to try to teach it to others. The sense of responsibility to your student motivates you to understand a topic, and the act of explaining something helps you to connect the dots and commit them to memory.”
But wait, this one needs a bit more reframing from “how learning actually happens” pov.
Here’s my version:
“An efficient way to learn more deeply about something you already know is to try to teach it to others.”
4. The Illusion of Explanatory Depth
“The illusion of explanatory depth describes our belief that we understand more about the world than we actually do. It is often not until we are asked to actually explain a concept that we come face to face with our limited understanding of it.”
To break this illusion and to check if you have really understood any concept, explain it to others (related with the earlier point).
And ask them if you were able to make them understand. If there’s no one around, self-elaboration also works.
5. Taking Knowledge for Granted
“Just as many people in affluent societies take wealth for granted today, many also take knowledge for granted. As a result of centuries of complex, cumulative normative and institutional changes, many people living within liberal societies with high rates of institutional trust enjoy something extraordinary and unprecedented: reliable knowledge about distant, complex facts.
We will think—mistakenly—that ignorance and misperceptions are aberrations that require deep explanations, when they are instead the default state humanity will revert to in the absence of improbable and precarious norms and institutions.”
Truth is not the default. The default is ignorance and misperception. I relate this one with some of the persisting edu-myths (like Learning Styles or Bloom’s Taxonomy as a 6 level pyramid) that so many teachers take it for granted.
6. Goal Dilution Effect
“We assume that the more arguments we give, the better our case. In reality, our weakest arguments dilute the strongest. Generally, you’ll only be as convincing as your worst point, so instead of making as many arguments as you can, make only the best.”
This quote was used in the context of negotiation. However, it also works in the context of persuasion, presentation, and even teaching.
Stick to the rule of three: Three proofs. Three examples. Three major points.
Anything more than that will dilute your main point.
7. Brandolini's Law (aka the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle)
“It takes a lot more energy to refute bullshit than to produce it. Hence, the world is full of unrefuted bullshit.”
B.S. ideas are cheap and effortless to produce, while refuting them requires time, patience, willingness, knowledge, and a lot of critical thinking. Thinking is hard. And thus, there remains a lot of unrefuted b.s. in the ideological/romantic world of education.
Ideas like “Education is not the filling of a pail but lighting of a fire” or “Schools kill creativity” will largely remain unchallenged. So will the flawed ideas like Constructivism as Pedagogy and learning styles to differentiate instruction.
(I wrote these two posts here and here till now, and yes, it’s taking a lot of time and energy to refute these romantic b.s. in education.)
8. Misunderstanding is the Default
Writing has existed for <2% of human history, so our brains are not evolved for reading; we need vocal/facial cues for context. Thus, accept that you'll be misunderstood online, but never stop posting, for the only way to write clearer is by writing.
Reading and writing are unnatural cognitive activities (ie, biologically secondary skills) compared to spoken communication, which relies on vocal tone, facial expressions, and body language.
Because writing strips away these contextual cues, misunderstanding is inevitable. Especially in online interactions (as here in substack).
Unfortunately, the only way to improve clarity in writing is to keep writing.
9. Grice’s Razor (aka Principle of Charity)
Most people are bad at expressing themselves, so don’t interpret their words literally, but rather by what they are most likely to mean. What they are most likely to mean is whatever the best possible interpretation of their words is.
Students often struggle to articulate their thoughts clearly, so instead of taking their responses at face value, give them a benefit of doubt. Assume that they are trying to communicate something reasonable even if they can only express it clearly.
Effective teachers know this and thus they:
a. Ask Clarifying Questions → “Do you mean X, or are you trying to say Y?”
b. Restate for Clarity → “So you’re saying A leads to B, right?”
c. Encourage Reframing → “Can you explain that in another way?”
d. Highlight Stronger Interpretations → “I think you’re getting at this crucial point…”
10. Sorites Paradox
What's the minimum number of grains of sand needed to make a heap? We don't know, because human language (in this case the word "heap") is imprecise. If our language can't even quantify a heap, how can it resolve the complex questions we so fiercely debate?
Both teachers and students often assume words have clear-cut meanings, but many concepts—especially in philosophy, ethics, and education—are fuzzy and context-dependent.
Recognizing this forces us to think deeply about definitions and how meaning shifts based on context. If students recognize vagueness in the words and ideas they use, they become more thoughtful in formulating their ideas. They learn to ask: What exactly do we mean by X? Where does the boundary lie?
Teaching therefore is an attempt to make ideas less vague, less imprecise, and less abstract.
From the comment section under this post: https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2025/02/01/no-you-dont-get-an-a-for-effort-adam-grant/
Thanks for sharing!