The Importance of Learning New Skills as an Adult
Alpha Kilo founder Amanda Kasper explores why adventures in skateboarding, guitar lessons, and songwriting have changed her business
A few years ago on my birthday, a dear friend and I decided to go to Wild Wadi Waterpark in Dubai. We were both in town for the Dubai Design Week, whereby Alpha Kilo had orchestrated a 40+ person global press trip, but work had wrapped up and we had until the wee hours of the morning to entertain ourselves. As someone obsessed with my birthday and all celebrations around it, I was allowed to choose any destination and David would join in on the festivities. So off to the waterpark we went. We were awkward at first as it had been easily twenty years since either of us had graced such an establishment. We timidly ventured out of our locker rooms without our phones, or a towel, or even a coverup as per instructions, and wondered for a moment at our survival. Soon enough we were working our way through every single ride at the park — from a meandering stream float to an insane death drop that we both have yet to recover from completely. Beyond laughing so hard I truly believe I corrected a stiff neck, I walked away with something incredibly valuable — the knowledge that no matter how old I get, every year I need to confront something with childlike wonder, fear, anticipation, and enthusiasm. Over the following months, it became clear that if I push myself in this direction, I will come out the other side happier, healthier, energized, and with my brain firing on all cylinders.`
I decided to dig a bit more into the research around embracing the inner child and learning as an adult — and by research I mean a few google searches that appeased my curiosity. In this article published in the Journals of Gerontology, a team of actual researchers concluded, “learning multiple new skills in an encouraging environment in older adulthood leads to cognitive growth, just like it does in childhood.” In fact, they found that it increased the cognitive abilities of older adults to that of ones 30 years younger. To unpack that for a second, the research shows that if we decide to finally pick up — let’s say — skateboarding at 47, we’re encouraging brain stimulation that gets our head buzzing like an 17-year-old about to hit the streets for her first night out in NYC — awake, aware, and intuitive. For the control group, the research team used learning Spanish, drawing, and music composition, but I decided to use go with skateboarding to increase the tension on the wire, but, you do you.
Since that fateful trip down the slides of Wild Wadi Waterpark, I’ve committed to learning a new skill each year; last year, it was finally learning how to swim strokes beyond my princess paddle, and this year, I’ve started guitar lessons. My genius instructor (and in full disclosure, good friend), Mikey Fitzgibbon, constantly reminds me to suspend judgment. As adults, we’re quick to say I can’t do this or I’m terrible at that — and then drop it as if we are meant to have an innate natural ability immediately with no previous practice or exposure. Luckily, new research like that above demonstrates there’s still much to be rewarded if we keep encouraging ourselves to pick up new skills. In fact, Margaret Talbot does a wonderful deep dive into how “the joys — and occasional embarrassments — of being a novice could be an antidote to the strain of being a perfectionist” in this recent New Yorker article).
As co-founder and managing director of Alpha Kilo, my brain is flexed in many different directions throughout the day, and I believe my new side-skills-hustle has invigorated the way I can move from one project or topic to the next with ease. Alpha Kilo is in a phase of serious growth at the moment and, on any given day, I find myself bouncing from reviewing legal documents to researching the social impact of nostalgia marketing, from learning how to use TikTok/Twitch/IGTV and so on to concepting ideas for product launches. Our clients range from FMCG companies to cultural institutions, start-ups to heritage brands. For each one, we develop and execute bespoke media strategies that combine deep narrative and creative activations so as to not only achieve pervasive coverage but create impactful campaigns that viably impact growth. As you can imagine, this means my daily topics of exploration and conversation range far and wide.
As Talbot discovers, learning multiple skills at the same time can increase understanding across applications. In addition to my guitar practice, I’m also free writing each evening (see my last article on Jeff Tweedy’s latest book for more on that front), The swim lessons of 2019/2020 definitely contributed to an embracing of a more childlike approach, and by that I mean, I gained an ability to play, prod, and question my approach — to try new ways of working, to make off the wall suggestions, and to bounce back quickly if all didn’t go to plan. This year, with the multiple creative efforts at play in my off hours, I find my mind to be more creative, more flexible. In January alone, we shipped 16 new business proposals, of which I am the main author. I attribute the ease in which they came together with unique and engaging ideas tailored to each brand a hallmark example of my happily stimulated brain. I am also processing the stress of having a full plate in a very different way so that in some way, though I have carved time away to learn new skills, I’m more productive and my energy more focussed on the task at hand as opposed to the stress of the mountain of work in front of me.
In his book, Learn Better: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything, Dr. Ulrich Boser writes, “For a long time, people assumed that the ability to learn was the same thing as intelligence: If you’re smart, you can learn. What we know now is that specific approaches and techniques can increase students’ success.”
Let’s bury deep that adage about old dogs and new tricks and embrace learning to reboot our youthful enthusiasm, stimulate our brains, and suspend that inner voice of judgment. Will you win an Olympic medal or a Pulitzer for it? Maybe not, but the process of learning new skills will be beneficial in so many other ways, not the least, that aforementioned botox for the brain.
