Hello,
Learning is one of the pleasures of life that is beneficial and never-ending.
The joys of quenching one’s curious thirst never go down, no matter how often it’s done. It’s truly a hedonic escalator.
I feel very thankful that I fell in love with books and the broader idea of wide learning. It has been the perfect input for a mind that generates endless questions and revels in the joys of discovery. I believe that all human minds are like that- it’s just that some of them watch their curiosity get zapped out due to poor influences or just plain bad luck.
But for those who can sustain their limitless wonder about the world and how it works, reading and learning are sources of endless joy. If one can truly cultivate a habit that can produce everlasting joy and awe, must it not be one of our biggest priorities in this short life?
That is why I decided to write something on how everyone can build their learning machines and watch their knowledge and satisfaction compound year after year.
Here’s how one can go about it:
Discover the pleasures of curiosity
The first and most critical step is to quickly discover what you enjoy learning.
Find out what you love reading about quickly, instead of falling into the trap of self-help/business books that can zap the energy out of your good intentions.
I believe many people are enthusiastic about learning but fall into the self-help black hole, never to emerge from it for fear of being confronted with the same mind-numbing levels of boredom again. Books aren’t supposed to be that way.
So don’t go down that route of picking up a random bestseller to kickstart your learning journey. Be a little smart about it and ask yourself “What am I really interested in and can talk about for a long time?”. Now pick up a book on that topic or listen to an insightful podcast and get the wheels of insight turning.
Making even one or two mindblowing discoveries in a field that you have an interest in can set the learning flywheel in motion.
For me, this probably happened with psychology and human nature.
When I first learned about the techniques of influencing people in Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion, it blew my mind and I immediately wanted to seek out more such insights. Or maybe it was Robert Greene’s 48 Laws Of Power- the stories I read in it were deeply fascinating and I felt like I wanted to learn more about power, human nature, history, and warfare.
So the most important first step you can do is to actively seek out your Aha! moments- and try to get to those mindblows quickly so it can trigger a domino effect of “I want more of that!”.
Once the need to want more insights/ideas/anecdotes arises from within, half the battle is won. You have discovered the joy of learning, and there’s no looking back.
Then it’s all down to quality selection, broadening one’s horizons, and ensuring the machine never breaks down. That’s what the next few steps cover.
Mix up your sources
While I wrote about the critical step #1 in the context of books, the journey of experiencing aha moments can happen without books too. You can make mind-boggling discoveries through long-form articles, podcasts, or newsletters.
I’ve found many interesting ideas through them, and all my monthly roundups in this newsletter are specifically based on non-book sources.
Check them out- some brilliant ideas like ‘Full Reset’ and ‘Overbuying Psychology’ were picked up from a blog and a podcast respectively. The idea is to cultivate a broad variety of sources so learning can happen in all forms and doesn’t rely on just one.
I’ve picked up ideas from podcasts that would take me ages to come across in some books (which are time-heavy investments and therefore slow-rolling in terms of the ideas delivered per unit time), and some deep mental models from books (like ‘The True Believer’) which I’d probably never find in a Twitter thread or a podcast.
So mix things up. Maybe start with podcasts and slowly ease your way into books if it feels hard initially. But cultivate many, many sources till learning new stuff becomes a daily need- and the process will gradually take you towards books.
Treat this newsletter, therefore, just as one node in your learning machine. My ultimate hope is twofold: to inspire you to become a lifelong reader and become a multi-disciplinary learner who falls in love with the idea of broad learning.
That brings us to the next point.
Embrace multi-disciplinary learning
Variety is the spice of life.
You may be a big lover of psychology books but it’s human nature to get bored after reading dozens of them on the trot.
It makes sense, therefore, to mix things up so you don’t abandon the entire learning regime when you stop reading what you’ve always read and then don’t know what to pick up next (because you never tried anything else).
Moreover, it’s also important to read across subjects to become a better thinker, thrive in uncertain environments (sounds like our world today, doesn’t it?) and develop a broader perspective.
I’ve already written a piece on cultivating range so if you’re curious, go through it. Hopefully, you’ll be convinced to read across a broad array of subjects.
Read, write, explain
You can practice the 'Read, write, explain’ paradigm to derive richer dividends and take your learning practice into overdrive.
Try writing articles (or even a 100-word post) on what you learned from a book. Summarize the key learnings from a podcast in a note. You’ll be shocked at how difficult it is to articulate what you think you know.
It’s because writing is an extension of thinking, and good writing cannot happen without clear thinking. That is exactly why people try to explain things over a call instead of writing a well-crafted note: it’s many times harder. And that’s also why Jeff Bezos has banned PPTs: he wants people at Amazon to write their memos so they can devote time to better thinking.
Writing about your ideas is a great way to test what you’ve learned, and emerge wiser in the process. One of the reasons I write these articles is to test (and develop) my understanding.
Run through the 4 steps and you’ll see the joys of learning compound over time. The benefits of greater perspective, well-informed thoughts on things happening around you, and specific knowledge of things you may be working on will merely be the by-products.
The ultimate purpose will always be to experience the joy and wonder triggered by discovery. And that’s the only thing you want to aim for- because only that will ensure that learning becomes an infinite game.
I wish you all the best in this journey, and I’d be delighted if this acts as a nudge to help you become a life-long learner.
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