On Repetition

My younger daughter asked me the other day to put the do du dudu song. While I was searching for the song on YouTube, she was trying to sing it and was miming the actions—Daddy shak do du dudu, Mommy shak do dudu. I was amazed that a child who had just turned two and for whom English was not the first language, not only remembered the song but also understood it. 

It came as no surprise to me that the song is the most-played video on YouTube. It was a rage even in the 2020s when my older daughter was listening to it and shows no signs of stopping. 

The reasons kids (and adults) love it are because of its catchy tune, easy-to-understand lyrics and referencing the main characters in their world. But the reason it is remembered and understood is that it is repeated ad nauseam. Listening to the same lyrics again and again starts making an impression on the minds. First they remember the words and the order in which they come. They associate it with their world, and finally, they absorb it. 

Come to think of it, even adults learn the same way. It is rarely that a new topic is absorbed in the first reading. It requires multiple readings to understand and absorb the core themes.

There are friends of mine who have stuck to the same career path and often complain that they are bored with their jobs, doing the same thing over and over. But see them in action at work, and it's like seeing an artist. They know the solution to the problem and have considered its effects on the second, third, and fourth orders. Mastery masquerades as experience, honing its skills via repetition. 

In today's age, with shorter attention spans and an overload of information, we rarely revisit the same information or content. This is also seen in the deluge of mediocrity all around. Revisiting the same thing gives an illusion of being stuck.  In the search for the new, we are losing the carefully honed mastery of the past. 

The only way we will revisit something is if we genuinely love it. Only if we find enjoyment in it and do it for the pure joy would it be worthwhile not to get bored. So maybe that is the future of work: choose what you enjoy doing so the repetition does not feel like drudgery, master it, and then monetise it.

Maybe my 2-year-old likes sharks and will be a marine biologist or possibly a mime, but right now, though, there is a diaper emergency.