AB...L? Always Be Learning

Every day is the best day in human history. I say this because every day we learn and know more than we did the previous day. This may be an overly optimistic view to take but it is what I believe. Every day is a day closer to medical cures, to getting to know people we never met before, and creating memories with those we love. It is amazing all of the good that knowledge can do. Because of that, isn’t it great for all of us to live in an age when knowledge has never been so easily attained?

When I was in college many years ago the internet was just starting to become a truly understood thing. Back then we still had plenty of information and data to consume. The major difference was that we had to go to it. When you needed to learn something you went to a lecture or the library. You sought out an expert and asked if they had time for you to observe or ask questions. It was a fine system but also rather time consuming and geographically limited. Some information was only available in some libraries. Some experts lived thousands of miles away.

Today we can learn almost anything from wherever we are. Need help jump starting a car? All it takes is a phone and a data signal and five minutes later you can be rolling. When did Alaska become a state? Quick Google search and you got 1959. It is so easy and quick. Don’t get me wrong, WebMD is never going to be a substitute for medical school, but it can give you more than enough information to thoroughly freak you out about your sore throat. Hopefully you get the point; it has never been easier to learn than right now.

This comes with some challenges of course. Like any good thing it can be abused if you are not careful. I love Wikipedia but that does not mean I do all my “learning” from its entries. And despite my best efforts I am not sure I have learned anything worthwhile from the many episodes of Teen Titans Go! I have watched. So in an era of non-stop information overload it falls on our shoulders to be discerning. We need to decide what we are consuming so that we can be learning the right stuff. So for every hour you spend watching The Bachelor, maybe try to balance it with some NatGeo Channel, or Create, or Discovery, or History Channel.

Diversify your inputs but try to learn something every day. There are tremendous benefits to learning. First, the more you learn new things the quicker that learning takes hold. Just like practicing your free throws, the more you practice the better you get. Learning is the same way. The more you learn the quicker you become able to learn. Second, it actively changes your brain chemistry for the better. The more you practice a new learned skill the denser your myelin becomes. Myelin is white matter in the brain that helps with all kinds of performance improvements. Third, learning new skills has been shown to decrease a person’s likeliness of developing dementia. Fourth, psychologists have shown that learning is a core need of psychological well-being. It strongly impacts self-esteem and self-efficacy.

So we know learning is good for us and we also know that learning has never been easier to do than today. Put those together and I don’t see any excuses for you to not be learning things. Make a dedicated effort to learn something every day. Don’t just hope or assume it will happen. I spend a good amount of time in my car. I live in Alaska which means traveling some pretty great distances on a fairly routine basis. I am amazed at all the things I have learned while driving with the benefit of audiobooks and podcasts. Best part is they were all free. My library card includes access to audiobooks I can listen to on the Overdrive app. I have learned about the financial crisis (Too Big To Fail), the fall of Enron (The Smartest Guys in the Room), management ideas (Switch) , numerous biographies of interesting people (Thunderstruck and Killing Patton), the importance of data in decision making (Moneyball), and that Jack Reacher is the baddest mother&^$*er in literature maybe ever (every Lee Child book). I probably would not have ever sat down with enough time and focus to read all of these books. Some are pretty dang long. But on a 6 hour trip to Tok I can think of nothing I would rather do.

Sometimes you only have an hour and an audiobook is too long. Hello Podcasts. A few of my favorites are Revisionist History, Ted Talks Daily, Stuff You Should Know, The Brink, and Choiceology. In 2 minutes I can find a podcast on almost any topic I am interested in at that moment. If you really want some fun learning checkout The End of the World with Josh Clark. It is one of my favorite limited run podcast series ever.

Here’s the main point. Get out there and learn something. Then do it again tomorrow. And the next day. Learn big things and small things. Learn things to talk about at work, talk about at parties, and talk about at home with your family. Do yourself and the rest of the world the best favor you can, Always Be Learning.