For those of you who are not Christians, don’t worry. I’m not going to get too biblical on you here. I am a Christian but you don’t need to be to take this advice. I’m just sighting my source. The verse says, “Test everything, hold fast that which is good.” Yes. We are talking about testing.
I have never come across a fellow lifelong learner who has followed this advice. This has kind of been my competitive edge. The think that makes me better than everyone else. The problem you will come across when doing any kind of learning is, experts disagree. A lot.
It will surprise people just how much people disagree. For example, many experts don’t believe in evolution. Yes. That’s right. Evolution is under debate. As is the best type of diet, exercise, budgeting, job training, teaching style, best way to build a car, management style and essentially every other thing you can think of. In fact, some of them are so debated that academics get into physical fights over them.
So, the problems comes with how do you know who’s right? Which experts do you listen too? Which study’s do you take as conclusive and which do you ignore? The simple answer is you can’t do that with any of them. You have to test yourself. And this is where you start to learn the truth. (small spoiler law 12 is needed to make this law really work.)
Having said that you need to test on a scale that is appropriate for you. You can’t go out and test if the earth is round by getting in a space ship and flying around the planet.
You need to pick and choose your battles. For example, as I am writing this, I am testing a new diet I read about in the china study. Is this the best diet? I don’t know. The book leads me to believe it was worth testing. I’m giving it two years.
Next you need to remember to have measurable results for what you are testing. You can’t just go by your gut feeling. Studies have shown that your gut feeling is often way off base. For example, Canada has much higher satisfaction in their health care despite having longer wait times and a higher mortality (death) rate.
Yes, you can be more satisfied with treatment that has a higher chance of killing you. It’s very important to measure results.
As an example, for my test with the china study diet I am measuring my micro nutrient levels after 2 years to see if they are in an acceptable range. This is mostly for health. I am also measuring my weight and BMI. The thing I am most looking for with BMI is if I can put on muscle in this diet. I thought the diet would be a bit low in protein so I had some concerns with that.
Lastly you need to consider scale. There are three parts to this. Time, money and effort. How long will it take you to get a good test. How much money will it take? How much effort will you need? You might decide the best test is unfeasible and too look for the results of others.
Again, if you take my diet, I decided that two years was long enough to find any long-term problems so my test was two years. I was going to spend money on food anyway so essentially it was free. As far as effort goes, I needed to cook a bit more of my food but I enjoy cooking so the effort was also very minimal. Lastly the results from this test have a big impact on my life because I might keep this diet forever. So the results are defiantly worth the test.
Other test might be a lot smaller. For example, you could test the mailing birthday cards to people from how to win friends and influence people. That might take you two months and say $5-$10.
The problem with this is that you would have to find something to measure. Maybe people showing up to a party or being invited to some event. Or maybe you just want a better reception from your family come Christmas. You know, when you still figuring out your life and everyone’s very critical of you.
To summarize, you need to test what you can, as long as the results are worth the money, time and effort you need to test it. If the test is not worth it then you need to rely on results from people who were able to conduct the test.
This means a lot more research and effort but testing everything is a huge advantage for learning. It makes sure you are learning what is true instead of what is popular.