Lifelong Learning

The picture on the left was taken when my daughter was a baby. She couldn’t read at the time, of course. She was just mimicking her parents. It’s one of my favorite pictures because I believe a commitment to lifelong learning is one of the best gifts a parent can give a child. And I believe a commitment to lifelong learning is one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves.

Adam Kace at Monk at Work has recently asked What’s Your Learning Edge? What have we been reading and learning that really lights our fire? At the moment for me it’s listening again to audio books of the Harry Potter series as well as reading several books about the series:

• John Granger’s Finding God in Harry Potter,
• John Granger’s Unlocking Harry Potter–Five Keys for the Serious Reader, and
• Louis CasaBianca’s Defogging the Future–Unauthorized Speculation About the Seventh and Final Book of the Harry Potter Series

Is that really the best use of my time right now? Definitely yes. Defogging the Future is a fun read as well as making me realize how much I missed the first time I listened to the books. John Granger analyzes the works as serious literature. It’s been years since I read a literary analysis and again, he makes me aware of how much I missed just thinking of the books as adventure stories.

But what practical use is it? It’s impossible to predict. Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple, dropped out of college and started auditing the courses that interested him instead of the ones that were required. As he has said, “…much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.” Richard Feynman started analyzing the motion of a plate students were using as a Frisbee. He did it just for fun because he was stuck looking for a good project to work on. It turned out what he learned playing around had relevance to quantum electrodynamics and eventually led to the Nobel Prize he won.

So don’t be afraid to play, to pursue some interests just because they fascinate you. Your play may or may not end up having direct practical value, but it will keep you creative and fully alive. That alone is one of the best preparations for thriving in this rapidly changing world.