Learning to *enjoy* learning?

[jeromedawg]

Hey guys,

Ran across this article a [quite successful] buddy of mine posted and it got me thinking...

https://hbr.org/2014/09/the-best-leaders-are-insatiable-learners/

It makes sense: always being excited to learn new things and such does seem to translate to natural leaders who are not only good at what they do but can lead/teach others as well if not better.

But are any of you *not* in that boat? And does anyone just not have the desire to learn new things and grow? Whether at work, at home, or whatever you do. I don't know, I never had much drive as a student of anything (whether in high school, college, or continued education). Generally, if something seems too overwhelming to figure out, I usually give up fast. There are plenty of examples of this and I admittedly suffer from "analysis paralysis" it seems.

It's frustrating because I feel like I will never become "good" at most things at this rate. You obviously need learn and practice in order to get really good at whatever it is. I don't know what stops me: analysis paralysis, laziness, etc... you name it. So what do you guys, who have struggled with this and have overcome it, generally do to get yourself out of these situations? Is there a definitive answer? How do you learn to love or enjoy learning (and "insatiably," as the article states)? Or do you just learn strictly as a means to an end? It's really difficult for me to comprehend an "insatiable learner" doing something as a means to an end. It seems as though they just really love learning about whatever their learning.

[jeromedawg]

When I was a child, I had an explicit goal to be a "polymath" -- that is, to be good at everything.

These days, I don't exactly think of it that way. Instead, whenever I'm confronted with a question or problem, my instinctive reaction is always, "I can figure this out". No matter what field it is, what skills are involved, no matter how esoteric the problem, I approach it with the attitude that I can and will become an expert on the subject matter. It never even crosses my mind to hire somebody else to do it for me, because what would I learn from that?

In other words, for me, "insatiable learning" is just a function of a general "do-it-yourself" attitude, combined with a desire to help everybody I can. I find the best way to learn is to teach. More than once, I've learned new fields by joining an online group for the topic and helping people solve problems in the field. In order to answer the questions, I've had to become an expert at the field. When I was a child, I did the same thing on a smaller scale by providing tutoring services in subjects I did not know much about at the onset of the tutoring, but became better at through the exercise.

Now, the article you link to approaches this from the context of how to make better employees. But for me personally, I don't think any "job" of any kind could ever satisfy me, because any job is too narrow in focus. I've never wanted to limit my expertise or my learning to any one subject or industry or role. This is partly why I can't relate to people who say they "love their job". I don't think I could ever enjoy working in the same field for more than a little while, because there's so much more in the world to learn than any one subject.

Very interesting - thanks for your perspective. Regarding people who say they "love their jobs" I'm guessing they are saying that because they potentially are in a position where perhaps they wear many hats doing things that they enjoy? I don't know... I just spoke to a product manager today, who was offering some mentoring advice, and he told me that he "loves" his job - while it's frustrating at times, there are so many different things he gets to work on so he is never bored. Maybe "I love my job" just means that your job is never boring, never overly stressful, and you feel like you're really contributing or making a difference in a multitude of ways. Obviously, each job title carries different implications. It seems like product managers have to "wear many hats" in a sense. I don't know, maybe that's something that I'd actually "enjoy" ? I guess when you're in a position to offer up some sort of help, even if you're not good or great at it, you still strive to do well because you know at least someone (or more) is depending on you (so maybe there's an element of being "customer-driven"...) ?

[Noodle]

Reading the article, it seemed to me that the kind of learning that it encouraged was more about curiosity, or keeping yourself out of a rut, rather than in-depth mastery of a specific subject or skill. The successful leaders I can think of are less about going deep (that's what they hire people for, after all) but going broad enough to understand a lot of different people around the organization and to keep an eye out for opportunities that the organization hasn't invested in yet, and bring in the right people for those. So, for instance, when Twitter was a new thing, the interested leader might read some articles on it, perhaps sign up for an account and follow a few people, etc, get an idea as to the tone of the communication and who's using it, and then tell his marketing team to investigate further; he's not making himself an expert in Twitter communication (but his Marketing director had better). As opposed to waving a hand and saying, "I just don't get these young people and their tweeting" which is the kind of thing I have heard from some of the older members of my field...  Do you really find that you are incurious about the world? (That's not sarcasm, it's just that that's a different issue than "I have trouble sticking with something until I master it").

In terms of learning in general, it might be that you don't respond well to traditional text and classroom based instruction, or you might not need to truly master every new skill. You don't have to do everything in depth...a lot of times when I decide that I want to learn something new and the project peters out, it's because I really only needed to know a little to meet my goal.

And in terms of "loving your job"--I think a lot of people use this to mean "I really like my job and am good at it" rather than the "I have a passion for my work" that gets a lot of scorn around here. I think very few people have a passion that matches their paid employment, but I truly believe that a job you like and can succeed at is an achievable goal. Cal Newport has written a lot on the subject and his comments parallel what you say about your acquaintance the project manager.

[forummm]

I can't help being a polymath. I have to keep learning about whatever is interesting to me. It's just what I do. Knowledge is such power. Take ERE for example--that's just huge information that most people don't have.