[ Linear / Spiral ]

It’s normal to think of training and learning as linear.  That’s to say that “Topic 3” must be preceded by first understanding Topics 1 and 2.  In many cases, there are pre-requisites identified that say you can’t know ‘y’ until you know ‘x’.

This is probably mostly true, particularly for factual or mathematical learning.  But, as I’ve learned recently, when we bring in ideas, innovation or complex problems, our learning is more of a spiral. 

We need to circulate around a whole range of topics, ideas and facts, in and out, up and down, in order to solve complex problems.