Lessons from the Past 157: Why We Should Keep Learning

Walter Vieira 31 July 2026

Life

Updated at 4.40pm on 3 August 2026 to include clarification from Ricardo Rey, author and founder of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights

I am told that most human beings use only 10% of their brains throughout their life. Somehow, I never really believed this. We spend so much time studying, reading, seeing visuals and attending conventions. And to assume that all this means only10% usage of my mind?

But reading a very thought-provoking editorial in the Economic Times (ET) recently made me wonder whether the assumption that we use only 10% of our brains is correct.

On 9 June 2026, the Municipal Council of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Quebec (Canada), unanimously adopted a resolution recognising fundamental rights of the Tree and formally adhering to the three founding articles of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights. The Declaration, authored and initiated in France by Ricardo Rey, is institutionally carried forward and safeguarded by La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus, and recognises trees as fundamental to sustaining life on Earth and seeks to place their preservation at the centre of environmental governance.

The Declaration is built on three core principles: that a tree is a sentient living being and a common good of humanity; that life on Earth depends on the existence of trees; and that human beings, guided by reason and conscience, have a responsibility to act towards trees with fraternity, solidarity and care.

The ET editorial says that it is tempting to sit in our sixth-largest economy and see this as a mere first-world 'hippie-type' legal curiosity. But the move is a declaration of a fact that applies everywhere: Nature is not a backdrop to human life, but a participant in it. By recognising trees as part of the ecosystem, environmental stewardship is elevated from 'principle' to 'policy'.

Quality of life is inseparable from the health of one’s surroundings. A polluted river diminishes the quality of life as surely as a broken street light. When communities extend their sense of belonging to include trees, parks, and clean air, they cultivate a culture that values continuity, restraint, and care - qualities as valuable to enterprise as they are to life.

The rights of trees are, in effect, the rights of citizens to breathe clean air, enjoy shade and live in surroundings that nourish, not degrade. Such a ‘policy’ mindset is far more likely to treat its members with a better standard of living than abstractions of progress.

The ET editorial continues - The act of protecting trees isn't far removed from protecting the neighbourhood from neglect. Both spring from the same ethic - 'the commons matter'. The Canadian town move should serve as a pointer that modernity is not measured only by GDP or by moving to better climes, but by 'living well every day'. A strong civic sense that incorporates paying attention to the quality of one's surroundings (and not just inside one's homes, buildings, workplaces) - creates cities that are humane and efficient.

This ET editorial affected me, perhaps more than many other readers, because I come from Goa. This was because in 2016, an Act was introduced in the assembly to exclude coconut palms from being considered trees. Therefore, no permission was required from the authorities to cut a coconut tree.

Goa went on a rampage, cutting a large number of coconut trees to make room for houses/ holiday homes for the rich from all over India, and coconut trees will not be a deterrent. Fortunately, the Goa assembly in 2017 expressly reintroduced a bill that included coconut palms in the statutory definition of a tree, using the words 'and includes coconut palm'. It also established a specific procedure for applications concerning old, unyielding or dangerous coconut palms.

In my mid-80s, I am getting to a stage where I reflect on what I know and, more than that, what I do not know. It is true what I said at the beginning that somehow, somewhere, we all stop learning. We think we know everything that we need to know. And just yesterday I picked up an edition of Inspirational Quote published by St Paul Press, a monthly booklet which is published for sale and which again shows many of us how much we do not know and makes us realise how far we have yet to go.

I was reading facts about ants. Although we are surrounded by ants, I did not know most of what I am listing below. I am sure many of my readers do not know these facts, either.

That ants are mostly found in hot climates; that they have six legs and each leg has three joints; and their legs are very strong, so they can run very quickly.

That the average lifespan of an ant is 45 to 60 days; and the ant is able to lift about 20 times its own body weight.

An adult ant is unable to swallow solid food. It depends on the juice it is able to squeeze out of pieces of food; and it uses its antennae for touch as well as smell.

That there is at least one queen in each ant colony. Queens are provided with wings at birth; they lose these wings after they fly to start new colonies. Ants have two stomachs. In one stomach, they store food for themselves, and in the other, they store food to be shared with other ants.

That black ants and wood ants do not have a sting, instead, they are able to squirt a spray of formic acid.

That when an ant finds a source of food, it leaves a trail of scent to attract other ants in the colony to it; and that they use pheromones (chemical signals) to communicate with each other.

And ants have the largest brains of any insect. One ant has 250,000 brain cells. For comparison, humans have 50 to 100 billion brain cells.

Can this info be added to the 10% usage of the human mind?

Of course, some of us can also say this is useless information in my profession and in our life!

And therefore, right through life, young or old, you keep learning or ‘should ‘keep learning, if one is not doing that already!

You may also want to read other articles written by the author. Here is the link:

https://moneylife.in/author/walter-vieira.html

(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, an international conference speaker and has been a visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.)