Nurture, Nature & Reality

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We hear all the talk about adversity and how it can shape us.  Well, it's true. This is a guest post* from Nick DiNardo, author of The Game of Adversity, who shares from experience how we really can turn adversity into opportunities, if we want to.  Nick is passionate about this and it's infectious.**
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“Needs are imposed by nature. Wants are sold by society.”

— mokokoma mokhoNoaNa

Imagine this. We have identical twins: the same DNA, the same looks, the same insides. They were the same twins in high school whom you confused more than you’d like to admit and even now can barely tell apart. Now, let’s take these twins and separate them at birth. As soon as they’re born, they’re reared in completely separate environments: different parents, different upbringings, different households, different...everything. They’re the same people—the same twins with the same DNA—but are in wildly different environments. Now, let’s take twins who were brought up together in the same household as a control group and compare the two sets of twins. Here’s the surprise: This was an actual experiment that took place nearly thirty years ago, and its implications are far-reaching.                              

The researchers had a few questions: How will these two sets of twins turn out? How will this go? And what does this say about nature versus nurture? It was about figuring out how much of who we are is ingrained at birth and how much of who we are is a function of our environment. Interesting things started happening immediately. First, some of the identical twins in the same household actually ended up being wildly different. Yeah, they were competing in the same household, yet they took on very different roles within it. On the other hand, there were twins who had never met who also ended up different as well. The research is by no means conclusive on whether or not we’re 100% nature or 100% nurture. But, as Martin Seligman states in his book Learned Optimism, around 50% of a person is genetic, and the remaining percent can be learned through experience, explanatory style, and growth mind-set. And this is good news. Controlling all the variables, especially all the variables of someone’s life, is a near impossible task. But the science is clear: Who we are is a combination of nature versus nurture. It’s all contextual, and we have the power to change it. If it wasn’t—if we didn’t have a choice—would I have written this book [The Game of Adversity]?

Yes, there are things that give you a specific predisposition to maintaining a growth mind-set and being self-aware. But your environment essentially does the same things: Over time, it cultivates these traits within you. The interesting thing is this: It’s not one or the other. Nature feeds into nurture, which feeds into nature. It all works together as a group effort, and by the end, who you are is a collection of the events that happen to you. You are the end result. By intentionally putting yourself in environments that are difficult and challenging and by understanding yourself on the hero’s journey, you override nature and build your inner greatness—but only if you are equipped with the right tools to flip adversity into advantage. Some of the progressive research has come from leaders in the field of neuroplasticity (brain plasticity)—Norman Doidge and Michael Merzenich, the authors of the books The Brain that Changes Itself and Soft Wired. Prior to the 1970s, the consensus among scientists was that the human brain was relatively fixed—or hardwired—after a critical point in early childhood. Most forms of brain damage and mind-sets were seen as irreversible, and the attitude was nearly apathetic. But over the last thirty-five to forty years, significant research has proven that the brain is far from fixed. Instead, it is supple, plastic, and regenerative, even for those in old age. The process is straightforward: As the brain takes in new information, it rewires itself and forms new neural connections that change the matter of the brain itself. The key point here is, of course, that the inputs matter. Whether you’re a voracious reader or a dedicated gym goer, you are kneading the flour that is your neural network. And this is liberating. What you’re doing this afternoon has a neural impact on who you are going forward, however small, however big. As Robert Greene argues in his book Mastery, “People get the mind and quality of brain that they deserve through their actions in life. Despite the popularity of genetic explanations for our behavior, recent discoveries in neuroscience are overturning long-held beliefs that the brain is genetically hardwired. Scientists are demonstrating the degree to which the brain is actually quite plastic—how our thoughts determine our mental landscape. They are exploring the relationship of willpower to physiology, how profoundly the mind can affect our health and functionality. It is possible that more and more will be discovered about how deeply we create the various patterns of our lives through certain mental operations—how we are truly responsible for so much of what happens to us.”

So, the next time you face a challenging client, a tight timeline, or a bad quarter...work to focus on the opportunity in the obstacle.  Each of those situations is an opportunity to build new skills and improve.  Adversity shows itself every day, and you'll be better equipped to address because of what you faced today.

*Repurposed from The Game of Adversity:  8 Principles to Turn Life's Toughest Moments into Your Greatest Opportunities.

**Nick interviewed me for his Meet Education Project Podcast.

Nick is an entrepreneur, author, consultant, and public speaker focused on adversity, personal growth, and education.  Throughout his career, he has interviewed hundreds of experts on overcoming adversity, dealing with trauma and stress, and the crucial role that it plays in our cognitive development and education.  

Nick has dealt with adversity his entire life.  At seven years old, Nick's family went from living the American Dream to a foreclosed home, divorce, and mental illness.  He spent a year sleeping on the floor of a one room apartment and sharing a kitchen with 17 people.

He writes and podcasts more about his journey, the story and science of adversity, and personal growth at NickDiNardo.com and meeteducationproject.com. 

 

A Biologist, Computer Scientist & Historian walk into a....

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It is through eclectic, diverse, and seemingly random relationships, interactions and friendships that we learn and then change the world.  Andrew Kaplan eloquently sums this up in his post below he wrote right before graduation.  So much of our learning is from each other and I have learned so much from him over the past 3 years. Thank you, Andrew.
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To an old house on Angell Street*

As I sit writing this at my kitchen table, a housemate walks into the room and sits down next to me.

“How do you define religion?” he asks as he combs his unruly left sideburn with bunched fingers.

“What?” I respond.

“Just answer the question.”

I live in an old Rhode Island house on Angell Street with five other seniors. Our floors are sinking and our walls are thin; an open floor plan helps a whisper from the basement be heard in the third-floor attic. The house smelled of fresh paint the day I moved in.

Among my housemates are a neuroscientist, a biologist, a philosopher, a computer scientist and a historian. Or, looking at them another way, they are a dancer, a drummer, a basketball player, a teacher and a founder. And they are the blood pumping through the veins of this house, imbuing it with life.

Because I am about to graduate, people often ask me to describe my time at Brown. They expect tales of hallowed professors pronouncing truths in packed lecture halls. They expect memories of heartfelt conversations about the meaning of life on the quiet greens where foliage helps you spin nascent life philosophies into the early mornings. They expect stories of finding romance in the dining hall and losing it into the wild night. And I’ve had my fair share of those experiences.

But the old house on Angell and the people who live in it symbolize what has made my Brown experience unique. One of the greatest pleasures of the past four years has been discovering things I never thought I would simply by being around people who are so infectiously enthusiastic about topics I never thought I’d learn about.

When I think about my time at Brown, I think about one of my housemates working on a computer science project, describing the mystery of the deep web and the power of torrent — and blowing my mind in the process. Or when another inspired me to take NEUR 0010: “The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience” by sketching out an action potential’s effect on the nervous system. Or when yet another sat down next to me and asked me to define religion, prompted by a class project on religious law.

This is for them and for what they represent. And this is to thank the countless Brown students with deep-set passions who have passed in and out of my life, many of whom I consider my friends. Watching a fellow Brunonian’s eyes dance with excitement when discussing a subject they love is a truly special experience, one that makes this place so exceptional.

So here’s to a group of housemates brought together by a university that cultivates passions ranging from the microscopic to the universal to form a microcosm of my Brown experience as a whole. Here’s to falling down an intellectual rabbit hole and emerging hours later with a better understanding of what drives my fellow classmates. And here’s to acknowledging one of the reasons why Brown is so special: Each member of the Brown community has the ability to awaken that same curiosity and passion in you.

Lastly, thank you to the place I associate with that type of enthusiastic learning: an old house on Angell Street with an open floor plan and sinking floors.

Andrew just graduated from Brown University with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. He was a 2013 C.V. Starr Social Innovation Fellow for Common Sense Action, which he co-founded with Sam Gilman. Andrew is moving back to NYC joining the Urban Fellows Program to pursue his passion for public service, especially for the homeless.

*Originally published in the Brown Daily Herald, May 21, 2015 and republished with permission by the author.