From the course: DJ Patil: Ask Me Anything

Why is apprenticeship important?

From the course: DJ Patil: Ask Me Anything

Start my 1-month free trial

Why is apprenticeship important?

“

(quick upbeat music) - [Interviewer] We used to have an apprentice model, right? And then we went to this like very formal - Right. - [Interviewer] Like you're gonna get a degree in this, this, and this and now you talk about the fact that maybe we should move back a little bit toward that apprentice model. - Yeah, so I fundamentally am a product of an apprentice model. When I was an undergrad, I got to apprentice under the phenomenal people who are scientists. When I was a graduate student, I got to apprentice under the people who created an entire of field, or the people that created the set of weather, how to actually model the weather. In industry, I got to apprentice under people like Reid Hoffman (laughs). And all these other luminaries. And in the government, I got to apprentice under President Obama and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. And I can't imagine how I would learn those things without what they taught me. I also apprenticed around my peer group, the people who are my peers, and who I got to collaborate and share with those ideas. Because we were working together on a problem, it was a we. It wasn't an I, it was a we kind of moment. We collectively learned more effectively and were able to do more together than we would as just individuals tryin' to come up with ideas on our own. - [Interviewer] Do you think that you were able to apprentice because of the field that you chose to study? Do you think that there are other fields that don't necessarily have the privilege of an apprenticeship? Because you know you got to study under all these people who are great mathematicians or physicists, but maybe not everything, have you seen a discrepancy, or disparity, I should say, between fields? - I think it's actually less of a question of fields and a question of how do people perceive their responsibility of growing talent? And the people that I've been fortunate enough around, in the fields I've been around, are ones that strongly believe in growing talent, and have been just dedicated to this idea of you pass on your knowledge by working closely with a person. I've just been so fortunate to be able to have an opportunity to mentor other people who are comin' up the pipe who have done phenomenal work, just done incredible things. So what I think is there is how do we encourage every discipline to ask the question of what does good mentorship look like? What does it look like to actually invest in a person? The same way like Mister Napp was the person who gave me my second chance but allowed me to kinda mentor under him in a way. How do each of us become a Mister Napp for somebody else? And the assignment I would give people out there is write down the five people that if you invested a little bit more time, they would become a force multiplier in their own right. That could by your kids, could be your spouse, could be somebody out there that just needs an extra helping hand. What would it look like to just invest an hour a month, maybe an hour a week, maybe it's that you take 'em on for even a more extensive time measure that you work with 'em one on one. What would that look like to just spend time with them? (quick upbeat music)

Contents