Maintain a Child's Mindset

I recently came across a terrific interview with Robert Greene, the author of The 48 Laws of Power. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4ukcL8RPI

During the interview Greene talks about a man named Daniel Everett who attempted to learn a language called, Piraha - an indigenous language of an isolated group of less than 420 people living along the Maici River in north-western Brazil. It is considered to be the most complicated language in the world.

Everett found learning the dialect nearly impossible. Still he believed in time he could learn the language because he noticed children had the capacity to pick it up and so he figured could as well.

Through his own failure to master the language he discovered the reason the children were able to seamlessly speak Piraha was for two main reasons:

1. Their survival depended up on it.
2. They had not yet developed a "holier than thou" mindset. 

In other words, with adulthood comes experience. And with that experience often comes the assumption that we know it all, particularly when it comes to a field or craft we've spend considerable time honing.

When we adopt this mentality we invariably close ourselves off from learning new things. The trick is to appreciate that someone will always know something we don't and, if possible, protecting a childlike curiosity and mindset.