The argument in brief
The question
What does it take to keep learning once formal education is over?
The claim
Framing what we do as studying a subject, rather than learning a skill, is a more wholesome shift in mindset that leads to stronger strategies for lifelong learning. Confidence: A personal reflection from my own experience. No studies cited.
The evidence
  • My own experience of becoming self-taught after formal education.
  • My own distinction between learning (aimed at a skill, then it ends) and studying (exploring a subject as a series of unknowns). It is a framing, not a finding.
The best counter
Learning and studying are close to synonyms in everyday use, and renaming an activity may not change how anyone actually goes about it. The habits (notes, teaching, testing, questions) may matter more than the label.
What would change my mind
Evidence that people who describe their learning as study use no different strategies, and learn no more deeply, than people who don't.
Open gaps
1 gap. Statements I haven't verified yet. Each is marked in the text.

When education ends

The questionWhat does it take to keep learning once formal education is over?When we think of education, we think of school and college, accompanied by exams and assignments. But when we leave education, we don’t think of ourselves “in education” but in our career.

We no longer take exams, and we no longer set ourselves assignments. We learn what we need to learn when we need to learn it. Personal growth happens through necessity, usually through the requirements of a job role.Gap · needs evidenceThis is my impression; I have no figures on how adults mostly come to learn new things.

We stop learning.

Learning or studying

So what are you studying? If you’re currently in education this would be a much simpler question to answer. But pay attention to what the future may hold. If you’re not in education you might think of the things you’re learning but not necessarily studying.

What’s the difference between learning and studying? One is about the desired outcome of a new skill or understanding. I’m learning how to paint. I’m learning how to write better. Your measure of success is in the acquisition of a new skill, then it ends.

A competing explanationIn everyday use, learning and studying mean nearly the same thing. The distinction here is my own framing, and calling something study may change nothing about how we actually go about it. The habits in the next section may matter more than the word.But to study, you are looking at the subject as a series of unknowns waiting to be discovered. You don’t quite know where you’ll end up. “I’m studying the art of writing.” It feels different. It feels more wholesome, more mysterious and more rewarding when you unlock its secrets.

Curiosity and discipline

To be a lifelong learner, you need the hunger for curiosity and a discipline to act upon it. Your curiosity will be your guiding compass, while your discipline will be the strategies that you employ to explore it.

The question you need to ask yourself is what is it that you’re doing to be a true lifelong learner. Reading books is a great example. Do you take notes? Do you think deeply on the subject and solidify your understanding by teaching it to others? Do you test your knowledge to find the gaps that you can revisit? Do you focus your questions deep into the material so that you can find answers?

That’s what it means to be a lifelong learner.

The ah-ha moment

Today’s ah-ha moment is that we may think of ourselves as continually learning, but Claima personal reflection from my own experience, not testedframing it in the context of what we’re studying has a much more wholesome shift in mindset. It allows you to develop stronger strategies to become a lifelong learner. You have to truly study the material to become a deep thinker in the topic.

Your own learning programme

It’s reasonable to think that after you go through education as a child, you’re done and out there in the real world. Lessons, assignments and exams are a thing of the past.

How sad.

It took me many years to uncover my passion for being an autodidact, a self-taught person.

Only after formal education completes does the real learning start. The learning that aligns with your heart. The learning that aligns with your why. And you get to set the curriculum.

Imagine where you want to get to. Now imagine the skills and knowledge gaps to get there. Do you have a plan for learning those skills?

Maybe you need to code to build the app you want to build. Maybe it’s reading the books to help you get into a new field. Or maybe it’s just following your curiosity and seeing where inspiration takes you.

You have to take this seriously. Between where you are now and where you want to get to, is a path that requires new skills and habits. To do that, you need new inputs to guide you. This is your learning path.

A six-week exercise

LimitsI haven’t tested whether six weeks, or one topic a week, works better than any other structure. It is the shape I chose, not one I measured.Create yourself a six-week learning programme:

  1. Write down the goals of the programme
  2. Identify six topics that you wish to cover, one for each week
  3. Find a course or book to study
  4. Schedule into each week as the weekly “lecture”
  5. Set a practical assignment for each lecture so you can put it into practice

Here’s my free Notion template you can use to create your six-week learning programme.

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” The line is often attributed to Dorothy Parker, but the earliest known source credits Ellen Parr.SourceThe earliest instance found is a Reader’s Digest “Quotable Quotes” column from December 1980, which credits Ellen Parr. Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence that Dorothy Parker, who died in 1967, used the saying, and suggests the similar surnames caused the mix-up.Quote Origin: The Cure for Boredom Is Curiosity. There Is No Cure for Curiosity, Quote Investigator, 1 November 2015

Sources

  1. Quote Origin: The Cure for Boredom Is Curiosity. There Is No Cure for Curiosity, Quote Investigator, 1 November 2015

Books behind this essay

Not sources for any claim here. These are books I have finished that shaped how I think about this question. Where I rely on evidence, it is cited in the text.

The whole shelf