Lifelong learning is a lie

One of the most dangerous things you can do in self-improvement…

Explore the surface of everything, skimming your hands along the smooth, hard shells of millions of pearls, never noticing imperfections or variations, never wondering where they came from or what the layers beneath contain. You collect dozens of them, only to realize in the end that you never managed to cash in on the true worth of any.

A digital footprint is great and all, but if there’s no depth to your findings or your legacy, it’s all just a thin layer of slop smeared across cyberspace rather than a monument to your achievements.

Here are seven ways you are doing “lifelong learning” wrong.

No clear systems

You like your goals.

They’re nice, shiny, and fun opening lines when people ask about you and what you’re up to. They encapsulate your aspirations and your dreams, and they make you sound like you’re going places.

They’re the “what”, not the “how”.

You can make lots of goals and feel the ambition swell along with that burst of motivation at the start, but over time, those feelings fade and the reality of dedication to the pursuit sink in. All those New Year’s Resolutions that come and go, only to come again in your Champaign-drenched moments the next time you watch the ball drop.

Talk the talk and walk the walk. Goals are only the former. Systems are the latter.

Spontaneity as opposed to…

You don’t go to school when you “feel like it”.

The truth is that you were in the starting zone the entire time. The real skills you were supposed to pick up weren’t all in the books and the labs and the reports and the essays and the note-taking. The real skills were basic communication, research, self-motivation, self-discipline, and maybe a small amount of self-awareness.

Few realize this, too distracted by that shiny degree proudly hanging in their cubicle.

Leaning isn’t something you do when there’s time to spare. You’ve got to dedicate time to it. Whether you read a book, listen to a podcast, or buy that digital course, continuing your education is a matter of protecting your time. The problem is that the real world is a game of “Hungry, Hungry Hippos” rather than chess or checkers most of the time.

Blocking out regularly scheduled time builds momentum.

Same old, same old

Academia tends to be repetitive.

Course syllabus, first day jitters, topic intro and overview, progress through the basics and touch on some intermediate material, homework, quizzes, exams, an essay or project, then a final and you’re done. Lather, rinse, repeat for little groups of four or six courses depending on how crazy you are and what your caffeine game entails.

Reality isn’t like that at all.

There are many perspectives and angles for the things you want to learn about when it comes to skills beyond the ivory tower.

Cooking, cleaning, parenting, general household maintenance…there’s more than one way to skin a cat as they say, and while the fundamentals in everything are mostly the same, how ideas and techniques are presented are myriad.

Rhyme is more effective than repetition.

Never looking back

One of the most unfortunate aspects of the starting zone is that it only exposes you to the fundamentals of the game.

If you’ve ever explored the world of speedrunners, then you know that it takes depth of understanding in order to complete a game in the shortest amount of time possible. If anything, this approach requires mastery at a level that few achieve, and leaderboards are dominated by tenths of a second in some cases.

Lifelong learning is a similar gig.

The truth is that speedrunners reflect a lot on what to do and how to execute, where there are potential exploits in the game, possible weaknesses in the code, and optional ways to tweak system settings. In some cases, gameplay is the smaller portion of the time devoted to this activity. Even in my career as a test engineer, most of the time is focused on setting up the equipment and procuring the right materials. The actual test may only take a few minutes.

Never getting a second opinion

These days, it’s getting easier and easier to craft your own little echo chamber.

Surrounding yourself with “yes” people is a terrible way to live. While your friends and family are your support and cheerleaders in your pursuits, they’re also the ones who will tell you when things aren’t going well or whether or not you should make course corrections.

Seek out mentors and guides, not gurus.

I’ve had so many throughout my life, and each one has given me a different way of looking at things that I never considered before. People from different walks of life have experiences and challenges that they’ve overcome that you may never have to go through, but the lessons they share help to shape your own perspectives.

You’ll never fully appreciate a diamond if you only see it from one angle.

Just reading about it

There’s a time and a place for learning about things that you might never use.

The sad part is that lifelong learning isn’t about continued exposure to lots of different things. Reading widely is a great thing to do, but when it comes to actually learning something, you have to apply it. Just because you read a book on Tai Chi or making a soufflé doesn’t mean you can go out and teach it to others.

The follow through is the most important part of the process.

This is where most people get cold feet. You sign up for a gym membership, but you rarely make time for it. You’re on dozens of subscriptions for various newsletters that share tips on writing, SEO, marketing, philosophy, psychology, but your own business flounders from the lack of action. You’ve read lots of recipes on how to make the best cookies, but you’ve yet to make your first batch.

If you’re serious about progression, you’ve got to execute.

Lack of mindset

I’ve written about this ad nauseum.

If you think that the starting zone was good enough to set you up for a life of leisure and luxury, think again. Lifelong learning is a lifestyle, not a catchy phrase that you throw around. It seems like there’s a lot of that going around these days, and it’s helpful that the details are often glossed over.

A fixed mindset stays in the starting zone.

Choose your hard

I’ve seen this phrase to the point of cliché.

It make a lot of sense, though. My parents taught me this concept very early in my life under a different saying though: “bitterness before sweetness”. The harder it is upfront, the easier it’ll be later on. This is true especially in design as well. It’s way cheaper to plan out and design something with a thought towards possible pitfalls as opposed to doing everything by the seat of your pants.

Lifelong learning is a continuous process.

These are some of the pitfalls that may be familiar to you, but they’re good to keep in mind. Becoming complacent and just coasting through life may be a comfortable way to go, but it’s hardly going to make things better for the people around you.

Your digital legacy won’t benefit from simply summarizing the work of others.

Let me know what you think!

Next time, we’ll start on the next seven-day series for building your digital heirloom: resilience and overcoming challenges.