194: "The Beginner's Creed": What does it mean to be a beginner?

Today on the show, we’re talking about what it means to be a beginner.

Peter Denning is a Distinguished Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He chairs the Computer Science Department and directs the Cebrowski Institute, an interdisciplinary research center for information innovation. Peter has held previous faculty positions at Princeton, Purdue, and George Mason, and he was founding director for the computer science research institute at NASA Ames.

Peter joins us today in a conversation about what it is to be a beginner and the power of facing our moods of discomfort and confusion that mark being a beginner. He shares with us his own journey along with his learning about mood and how to move in the world from his learning with Dr. Fernando Flores and Gloria Flores.

Peter crafted The Beginner’s Creed, a poetical statement intended to help us recognize the power of embracing the moods we find ourselves in as we navigate learning anything new - from becoming a parent to taking on a new role or challenge at work.  The creed’s brilliance is its simplicity to connect us with what it is to be human and live an engaged life in the areas we care about.

Other Resources

• "Interview of Fernando Flores on Emergent Innovation" by Peter Denning
  Fernando Flores, former president of Chile’s National Innovation Council for Competitiveness, discusses a new common sense about innovation.

• "The Profession of IT: Learning to Learn" by Peter Denning and Gloria Flores
  Do you get stuck when it is time to learn something new? Read this.