What Waitzkin, students who learn successfully, and Lamb practice is something known as “productive failure.” There is broad scientific consensus that the most profound learning occurs when we experience this sort of failure. Rather than simply answering a specific question, it is beneficial to be challenged and even to fail. Failure provides an opportunity to analyze a problem from different angles, pushing us to understand its deep underlying structure and to hone the transferrable skill of problem-solving itself. Sure, immediate assistance can be highly satisfying. But when we succumb to
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