Avoid the ConceptCram Mindset: Real Expertise Is CanDo

By STSI Staff

If you’ve ever sat through an advanced placement (AP) course—or really any advanced class or degree—you know the drill: more is more. More reading. More lectures. More material crammed into your brain. For years, we’ve been taught that the road to expertise is paved with volume. The more you know, the more advanced you are.

Let’s call this mindset ConceptCram—the belief that piling on concepts, facts, and theories equals learning. Our education system is built on it: heavy course loads, endless content, complicated explanations. We reward students for carrying more, not for mastering what matters most.

But here’s the truth: ConceptCram is the wrong mental model. It doesn’t create expertise. In fact, it often gets in the way of it.

ConceptCram vs. CanDo

Real expertise isn’t about what you know about. It’s about what you can actually do.

• ConceptCram = MORE IS MORE Stuffing in concepts, collecting facts, reading more, carrying more. Fragile, short-lived, collapses under pressure.

  
  

• CanDo = LESS IS MORE Practicing fundamentals, burning neuronal pathways, training until performance is automatic. Durable, reliable, shows up under pressure.

Neurons Looking vs. Neurons Burning

Here’s the neuroscience in plain English:

• Neurons looking at neurons. This is what happens when you learn a new concept. For a moment, your brain “lights up.” You’re primed. You get it. But under stress, it’s gone—you revert to your default. This is called metacognition—“neurons looking at neurons,” as Dr. Derek Cabrera of Cornell University and Cabrera Lab explains. It matters because it makes us aware of how we are thinking. But awareness is fleeting if we don’t take the next step.

  
  

• Burning the neuronal pathways. This is what happens with practice, ritual, and repetition. “Neurons don’t just take a moment to see,” Cabrera explains, “they wire together—they form structure that determines future behavior.” The pathway strengthens. Over time, this becomes your new default. When the pressure hits, the skill holds.

This is why repetitive practice on simple fundamentals is so important. The problem is, the moment we’ve learned a new concept—the first step—we move on to another. We don’t practice. We just keep cramming concepts and call it learning. That’s not what true expertise is.

The Trap of the ConceptCram Mindset

Here’s the problem: when people stuck in a ConceptCram mindset encounter CanDo learning, they often reject it. It feels repetitive. They think they “already understand” the concepts. They dismiss it as too simple, too basic, even beneath them.

But the proof is in the pudding. Ask them to perform the skill—even in a contrived, basic setting—and they often cannot do it. Ask them to apply it in a complex, real-world situation, and they quickly revert to default thinking and behavior. Performance fails, because the pathways were never burned in.

The shift requires more than new methods. Learners must actively recognize and resist the ConceptCram mindset. They have to keep the new paradigm—less is more, CanDo over ConceptCram—front of mind. Without that awareness, they’ll continue mistaking familiarity with concepts for genuine expertise, and they’ll miss the transformation.

Why the Best Drill the Basics

The world’s best performers already know this. Elite basketball players, special forces operators, and master musicians don’t chase more concepts—they return to the basics, over and over again.

• The best basketball players drill footwork, free throws, and defense—simple fundamentals.

• Special forces operators live by the mantra: slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Precision under pressure is built on fundamentals, not flash.

• The greatest musicians practice scales, timing, and phrasing endlessly, so that when it matters, the music flows.

For them, less is more isn’t just a philosophy. It’s the path to mastery.

The Real World Is a Jam Session

And when the lights are on, the real world doesn’t follow a script. It’s not about playing to the plan—it’s about adapting when the plan breaks. As Mike Tyson famously said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

That’s why the best musicians aren’t just those who can play sheet music—they’re the ones who can jam. To jam is to adapt, to improvise, to use fundamentals as a springboard for flexibility in real time.

Expertise is the same. CanDo mastery means you can perform under pressure, in messy, complex, changing situations. ConceptCram collapses; CanDo adapts.

The Most Important Skill: How to Think

If there is one skill that sits above all others, it is the skill of thinking itself. Not what to think—that always depends on the situation—but how to think. The ability to organize information, adapt under pressure, and make sense of complexity is the foundation of every other skill you’ll ever learn.

So what has 35 years of scientific research taught Cabrera about this?

1. What systems thinking really is (and isn’t). Systems thinking is not abstract jargon or lofty buzzwords. At its core, Cabrera’s research shows it is the ability to structure thought using four simple patterns—DSRP: Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives. These are the universal building blocks of cognition, as fundamental to thinking as DNA is to biology.

2. Practice is more important than concept learning. Just like basketball, special forces, or music, thinking is a skill. And like any skill, you don’t get better by learning about it. You get better by practicing it, over and over, until it becomes second nature. Concepts prime awareness, but only practice rewires your defaults.

3. What precisely to practice. The good news is that systems thinking can be broken down into discrete, learnable actions: the Six Moves. These are practical, everyday mental maneuvers that operationalize DSRP. They are the “fundamentals of thinking,” the drills that—when repeated—turn structure into skill.

4. How to practice. Practice requires protocols. Cabrera’s team has developed exercises, routines, and techniques for applying the Six Moves to real information and real problems. These practice protocols ensure that thinking is not left to chance—it becomes a deliberate, trainable discipline.

   
   

The takeaway: The most important skill is not carrying a heavy load of concepts (ConceptCram). It is mastering the how of thinking through structured practice. When you learn to think structurally—using DSRP and the Six Moves—you unlock the ability to solve problems, adapt under pressure, and perform in the real world.

The Science of Less Is More

The research is clear:

• Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988): Too much content overwhelms learning.

• Skill Acquisition (Fitts & Posner, 1967): Mastery moves from knowing → practicing → doing.

• Deliberate Practice (Ericsson et al., 1993): Experts refine fundamentals, not accumulate concepts.

• Embodied Cognition (Wilson, 2002): Knowledge without doing is inert.

• Learning Science (Bjork & Bjork, 1992): Durable learning comes from difficulty and depth, not breadth.

  
  

Time to Change the Paradigm

We’ve been taught: 

EXPERTISE = KNOWING LOTS OF STUFF (ConceptCram, More is More).

But the science shows: 

EXPERTISE = PRACTICING SIMPLE FUNDAMENTALS (CanDo, Less is More).

ConceptCram is a distraction. CanDo is the path. Learners must recognize this paradigm shift, embrace simplicity, and resist the instinct to dismiss fundamentals as beneath them.

Because real learning isn’t about how much you can cram into your head. It’s about what you can actually do—under pressure, in real time, when it counts.

References

1. Aljrarri, W., Bustamante, J., Ingwell, A., Labrada, T., Nadig, B., Shin, J., Weis, M., Cabrera, L., & Cabrera, D. (2024). New hope for policy schools. Journal of Systems Thinking. https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.00000101

2. Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (1992). A new theory of disuse and an old theory of stimulus fluctuation. In A. Healy, S. Kosslyn, & R. Shiffrin (Eds.), From learning processes to cognitive processes: Essays in honor of William K. Estes (Vol. 2, pp. 35–67). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

3. Cabrera, D., Silberman, D., & Cabrera, L. (2025). Popularity without proof: A systematic empirical review of systems thinking frameworks. Journal of Systems Thinking, 1–29.

4. Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.

5. Fitts, P. M., & Posner, M. I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

6. Steinhall, N., McPettit, R., Bond, J., Parks, M., Khan, M., Sharfarz, D., Cabrera, L., & Cabrera, D. (2023). Wicked solutions for wicked problems. Journal of Systems Thinking, 4(3), 1–68. https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.000053

7. Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.

8. Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625–636.