
Samuel Holston
Co-Founder at BrainTools Lab and host of the BrainTools podcast, helping schools build skills AI can't replace through brain science and metacognition.
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Aug 8, 2026
185 - Out of Autopilot
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John MiktonHOST
So Sam, when schools and workplaces that you work with, what do they get wrong about this idea that Kieran's talking about practice, rituals, and reputations when something becomes difficult in the learning?

Samuel HolstonGUEST
I think, um, w- what learners often get wrong and what schools and, and workplaces get wrong is we really think about like practice and learning as content and not as like effort and output.

Samuel HolstonGUEST
And so what I say the big thing is, uh, you know, people will reread materials or learners will read materials, or they'll go over their notes, or they'll watch another YouTube video, or, uh, the HR and learning department will provide some more content resources, but the reality is the, the learning is in the doing, right? And so what I think happens is when learners don't have the tools to realize, um, that they, they learn by doing the thing and experiencing it, they default to this behavior of just reading more, consuming more content.

Samuel HolstonGUEST
And as a result, particularly with difficult things, because, uh, learning difficult things, it, it feels hard.

Samuel HolstonGUEST
It activates like the, uh, parts of our brain that, that create this amygdala friction, this like limbic friction as they call it in, in the research, where it feels like something we don't wanna do.

Samuel HolstonGUEST
And so I think it's really, really important and when schools and workplaces think about trying to, you know, teach difficult things, that they embrace kind of like the suck and they teach their learners, "Hey look, this is gonna feel hard.
13 MINS LATER