The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133

Episode Overview

• Host Destin Sandlin explores the difference between knowledge and understanding by attempting to ride a "backwards brain bicycle," where the steering is reversed.
• The episode documents his 8-month journey to unlearn a deeply ingrained skill and contrasts his struggle with his young son's much faster learning process.
• Destin uses this experiment to illustrate the concepts of neuroplasticity, cognitive bias, and the difficulty of changing established mental frameworks.
• He takes the bike to various speaking engagements, demonstrating that virtually no one can ride it on their first try, reinforcing the idea that the brain's "algorithm" for riding a bike cannot be easily overridden.

Key Concepts

• The Backwards Brain Bicycle: A bicycle modified with gears on the steering column, causing the front wheel to turn in the opposite direction of the handlebars. This creates a conflict between the rider's intellectual knowledge and their ingrained motor skills.
• Knowledge vs. Understanding: The central theme is that knowing how something works (knowledge) is fundamentally different from being able to do it intuitively (understanding). Destin knows turning the handlebars left will turn the wheel right, but his brain's ingrained "algorithm" for balancing makes it impossible to apply this knowledge initially.
• Neuroplasticity: The experiment highlights the brain's ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections. An adult's brain is less plastic, making it much harder to unlearn an established skill and form a new neural pathway. In contrast, a child's brain is significantly more plastic, allowing them to learn the new skill much faster.
• Cognitive Bias: Riding a bike is a form of procedural memory that becomes a cognitive bias. The brain defaults to this pre-programmed set of actions, and even with conscious effort, it's extremely difficult to break from this rigid mental model.

Quotes

• At 01:25 - "Knowledge is not understanding." - Destin explains his core revelation after repeatedly failing to ride the backwards bike, realizing that knowing the mechanics was not enough to overcome his ingrained motor skills.
• At 03:15 - "Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes you cannot change that, even if you want to." - This quote summarizes the powerful hold that established neural pathways and cognitive biases have on our actions, regardless of our conscious intentions.

Takeaways

• True understanding of a skill is achieved when it becomes an intuitive, ingrained process, not just when you can intellectually describe it.
• Unlearning a deeply rooted skill or mental model can be significantly more challenging than learning it from scratch.
• Children's brains are far more adaptable (neuroplastic) than adult brains, which is why they can acquire new complex skills like languages or motor tasks more easily.
• We all operate with cognitive biases and ingrained "algorithms" that shape our perceptions and actions, and it's important to recognize how difficult these are to change.