# Learning When to Stop By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-06-11 One can learn from almost any experience. Often becoming proficient at something teaches one something as well. However, there is frequently a limit to what one can learn from specific experiences. A meaningful life lesson is to learn when to stop one activity and redirect one’s attention to another. This isn’t necessarily as easy as it seems. Ceasing to continue doing something can seem like quitting, and our society has a real problem with quitters (recall sayings like, “quitters never win, and winners never quit.” But transitions do require a shift, which requires one to stop doing one thing and start doing another. In the human development of game cognition, the first grid-based game children play is often tic-tac-toe. After mastering that game, children usually progress to playing checkers. Again, upon mastery of that game, children might start playing chess. Each game can be a source of learning and enjoyment. Few would expect or laude an adult to focus attention on cultivating one’s tic-tac-toe skills. Even focusing too much attention on checkers in adulthood would seem slightly odd. It is strange that, as a society, we expect people to make culturally appropriate transitions, but we do very little to cultivate learning how and when to stop. This has implications for work. Suppose there are limits on what can be learned from a given set of experiences. In that case, learning organizations must allow their employees to stop doing work that has become repetitive to the point of saturated learning. Sadly, organizations often relegate their employees to perpetual tic-tac-toe. Collectively, what we are doing isn’t working for far too many. Is the prospect of a mega-payout so enticing that we keep doubling down on an approach that is clearly ill-conceived? Given how society hates quitters, it might be that we cannot stop. #### Related Items [[Experience]] [[Games]] [[Learning]] [[Organization]] [[Work]] [[Development]] [[Society]]