Dave Pollard writes about "Becoming a Tiger: How Baby Animals Learn to Live in the Wild, by Susan McCarthy."

The primary message of this book is that all of the qualities that define learning, intelligence, knowledge, technology and culture (including songs, dances, shared social behaviours and skills, mating rituals, habits, tendencies, preferences, work-product, language, and socialization) are present in abundance throughout the animal kingdom.

But the more important message, I think, are these five universal truths about how we learn:

* We all learn differently, so no one way of conveying knowledge can ever be effective for most or all learners
* We learn more from being shown than from being told (and we almost universally dislike pedagogical, classroom-type teaching -- we learn from and within the real world)
* We learn (a) from observing someone else learning something, (b) from being shown something directly ourselves, and (c) from thinking and practicing further on our own (most animals prefer to try hard new things while no one is watching them) -- and all three types of learning are essential for a complete learning experienced
* Rivalry, shyness, impatience, urgency, attention, and the desires for freedom, independence and control all influence our learning capacity as much as mental ability
* In encouraging learning, rewards are important, but motivation is much more important -- that's why we learn much better just-in-time (when we're motivated) than just-in-case
* We learn best from role models -- those we trust, respect and consider to be successful in the field we are learning about -- and role models are self-selected, they cannot be imposed

Sramana Mitra writes:

The Strategy has not worked. Some $20 Million in venture money has already been burnt in the trial and error process over the last 3 years. A few rounds of hiring and firing of CEOs and executives have already taken place. But the company has still not hit its stride.

Hundreds of pieces of data elements lie scattered in the brains, computers and desks of the employees, current and former. Yet no process exists to assimilate, synthesize, and collapse the existing institutional knowledge collected over years of experiments, mistakes, and hopefully, some occassional, even if accidental, successes, into a digestable set of nuggets that lead to good, solid decisions.

Have you ever wondered what to do with this problem child? I am sure you have. In fact, scenes from Board Meetings and Partners Meetings emerge through your subconscious on otherwise soothing summer nights ... even when you may be consciously in denial.

In the carnage of the last 5 years, the above has been the story in every VC’s life. Here are a few simple questions that I suggest you ask...