Learning is an invaluable skill, and now more than ever, it’s possible to fuel a lifelong love of learning, regardless of how you like to consume information. Knowledge is more free & accessible than ever before thanks to the internet. And the more we can learn as multi-disciplined students, the more we can excel in the things in life that matter to us.
One of the key principles of Wealth Orb is fostering a love of learning–I believe meaningful change happens in our finances, in our professional lives, and in our personal relationships when we constantly strive to improve and grow as individuals and humans. In this blog post, I’ll share actionable ways that you can learn and grow–in all areas of life that matter to you.
Once you stop learning, you start dying. – Albert Einstein.
An almost incomprehensible amount of data is added to the internet every single day. More is added each day than could be consumed by a single human in multiple lifetimes, likely hundreds or even thousands of lifetimes.
According to a 2021 study by Statista, over 328 million Terabytes of data is created and added to the internet every single day–and the figure is growing. Of course, not all of that information will be useful, or even consumable, but it does illustrate the way in which data (and knowledge) is exponentially increasing–especially in the age of AI.
Tools like search engines and generative AI allow us to parse through the endless sea of data, finding precise, niche parcels of knowledge in an instant.
There’s tremendous beauty in the nature of human knowledge
Knowledge is everchanging and expanding. It’s shared between individuals through relationships and connections. And it’s stored across many different mediums.
The truths of today are the unknowns of yesterday. Further, Our understanding of our own personal truths is everchanging. We learn new things all the time, yet it is only when we experiment and apply our newfound knowledge to new situations that our understanding changes. Growth happens when our understanding of our knowledge evolves.
Book and theoretical knowledge is great, but we need to understand how to experiment and apply it in an empirical environment to experience true growth. Paul Kalanithi expressed it beautifully:
You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving. Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete. – Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
I agree with Paul and believe we can learn something from every single person we meet–that growth, learning, and value are enriched by the meaningful relationships we create in life.
There’s no limit to our ability to find new knowledge–or create our own
New knowledge can be consumed almost anywhere. The amazing part about modern learning is how many different ways there are to embrace learning. If you’re not the type of person who likes to bury your nose in a book, no problem!
- In-person classes
- 1:1 training or tutoring
- Social media
- YouTube & video courses
- Top-notch Khan Academy courses that can help you learn almost anything in the world at an at-least baseline level.
- Books (print, digital, and audio)
- Magazines
- Blogs
- Podcasts
- TV shows & documentaries
- Radio shows
- Research & scholastic journals
- AI tools (just be sure to fact-check)
- Meetups & clubs
- Online forums
- The list goes on!
You’ll notice that many of these mediums involve forming meaningful relationships with others.
Learning has never had to be a solitary activity. Community can cultivate incredible environments of personal growth fueled by the passion & fulfillment of mutual interests. There is value in taking time to reflect alone as an individual, but there is almost always an opportunity to join a community as well.
The more we learn about a particular topic, the more mastery we build.
When we seek something, we gain something
Improvement doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when we seek it out. Striving to learn new things and grow as a person will result in improvement and change. We need to practice. Learning is a skill, and it needs to be practiced. The more we time we spend learning new things, the better we will be at learning in the future.
“Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillfull, swift, and steady.” – Bruce Lee.
Think about your favorite long-term hobby. You had to start as a complete beginner, but over time you accumulated more and more knowledge about that hobby.
It’s easy to start by learning from others and following in the footsteps of the greats. Over time, you probably created some of your own knowledge and learned new ways to apply the concepts you had learned that hadn’t been discovered yet (at least not by you).
There’s beauty in striving toward excelling in something–to becoming equal parts student and teacher. As cliche as it sounds, the master can almost always learn something from the student that will shatter their understanding of a topic or concept.
It’s a beautiful journey, not a frantic race to the finish. Embrace learning, and develop a love of growth and improvement in your life. Practice learning and spend time doing it every day, and you have the power to forge the growth you seek–one step at a time.
Do you think you can predict where lightning will strike?
Think of creating new knowledge to share with others as the effort of trying to predict where a singular lightning bolt will strike during a thunderstorm.
The more precisely we predict the radius of the lightning strike, the less our chance of success. But the larger the radius of our prediction–the more likely we are to be successful, to the point where success is all but guaranteed.
Learning is a lot like having the ability to increase the radius of our lightning strike prediction. The more we learn about a topic, the more surface area we create which will act as a conduit to synthesize our own knowledge. With enough hard work invested in learning and mastery, luck becomes a trivial plaything.
🟢 Orbs of Wisdom
Orbs of Wisdom are actionable insights from Wealth Orb content that you can incorporate to elevate your personal finances.
Incremental wins and sustainable strategies compound over time, turning seemingly insignificant tasks into the building blocks of incredible future milestones.
- Strive to learn something new & valuable each and every day.
- Actively spend time learning things about the areas of importance in your life.
- Practice the skill of learning–regardless of your preferred medium(s) of consuming new knowledge.
- Double dip and invest in your physical health at the gym or on a walk/run/bike ride while learning something new from a podcast or audiobook.
- Look for opportunities to apply what you learn and experience how they apply outside the theoretics.
💬 Reader suggestions for discussion
- How do you prioritize being a lifelong student in your own life?
- How do you like to consume new knowledge? How has this changed over the years?
- Have any questions or comments? Join the discussion in the comments sections below!
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