I’ve found learning to be effortless when I follow my curiosity.
The typical process is:
- Make an observation
- Ask a question?
- Research
- Understand
- Teach someone else
Unfortunately, this is the opposite of how structured learning works in a school setting. I always appreciated teachers and professors who didn’t teach to a test or a curriculum but instead had a genuine appreciation of the first principles in a subject area.
One of my favorite classes in high school was AP Language and Composition. My teacher, on the first day, told us, “Forget everything you’ve learned in English classes for the past eleven years. We’re going to start from the basics.” She was right. I had learned more about writing in her class than any other until that point.
The classes that are most memorable from my educational career, all have one thing in common: great teachers. Their curiosity was infectious and made me want to learn. Most of the other classes were just requirements that needed to be fulfilled.
Now that I’m outside of the school system, one of the greatest perks is having an unstructured learning environment. I can craft my own experiments and learn on my own time.
Additionally, I’m not constrained by the teachers or professors my school has. I can find the best people in the world online and ask them whatever I want to guide my thinking.
Naval said it best,
What will you learn?
