There are many definitions of learning (many of which you can find pretty nicely gathered here) but the common themes among all these expert definitions can be summarized like this: learning is a process of absorbing information to create and strengthen connections that improve our abilities to navigate similar problems and situations.
You can learn from books, from other people, in more formal settings, directly from life experience… the universe has gifted us with many opportunities to peel back the layers of the natural world around us and reveal valuable lessons.
Maybe you’re already sold on the wonders of learning, but I thought I would offer you some really powerful and concrete benefits learning can bring that you may not have considered before. Here are just the major ones:
Learning boosts your “cognitive reserve”, a term, according to Harvard Health, that describes your brain’s ability to improvise and adapt to unrelated problems and new challenges. This reserve is powerful enough to counteract physical brain damage and stave off age related cognitive decline
Learning is often transferable and compounds in its usefulness. An example: hosting parties will build your social skills which then may transfer to better performances at job interviews or networking without having to separately work on those skills
You become a more tolerant, accepting human being no matter what you study. Just the act of acquiring higher levels of formal education has been strongly correlated to viewing other human beings with less hostility. According to an analysis taken from data in a 1970 British Cohort Study, acquiring a degree is correlated to individuals becoming less authoritarian and less racially prejudiced. In another study by NatCen Social Research and the Open University for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, university graduates were found to have more tolerant views towards immigrants and those receiving government assistance.
Learning increases the “psychological richness” of your life. Fumbling, practicing, and then finally mastering a new skill adds so much texture to your lived experience. You’ll move through the entire range of human emotions as you brush up against the frustrations of being a newbie, the elation when you finally grasp a new and difficult concept, and the satisfaction of executing it more easily over time. You can learn greater emotional intelligence and emotional skills to experience life itself more positively and fully. Existing becomes more interesting. You become more interesting. You’ll be able to interact and relate to a broader group of people as you acquire more skills, become more stable and pleasant to be around, and join in activities you all enjoy.
You become a greater asset to yourself and your community. The more skills you learn and knowledge you have, the more things you can do and the greater mental resources you have to solve personal and social issues. You will feel more relaxed knowing that you can hop into a number of professions in the event of job loss and others will trust and rely on your competence. In turn, they are more likely to extend generosity and help your way when you need it most (and we all will at some point)
Learning is salvation. Maybe not in the religious sense, but it can absolutely offer you the same feeling of hope in times of distress. There are points in life when it really feels like nothing you’re trying is going your way. When you are getting just absolutely battered by fate, the satisfaction from getting the hang of a new skill or finally solving a new puzzle can be just what you need to get through your days. Learning is also salvation from the risks of remaining ignorant. Unfortunately, malicious people often take advantage of people with less knowledge and fewer skills. Knowledge gives you a greater ability to act in your own best interest and more accurately discern the best path for yourself.
Those are only some of the incredible ways learning enhances us as people and our experiences on this planet.
But not all learning is productive. Plenty of teaching is well-intentioned, but wrong and misguided. And a lot of learning that humans do, especially early in life, takes place undetected, far beneath our levels of conscious awareness. We learn from others and our environments for better and for worse.
I want to take a moment and discuss the “for worse”. It’s easy to find articles and studies on the benefits of reading and learning, but I want to discuss some drawbacks and ways that this neutral process can be hijacked for negative outcomes.
You can learn harmful, untrue, negative things. You can learn to be more violent, more negative, and more aggressive. In fact, we often do. Social learning theory states that much of how we interact with others is learned as children by watching and then mimicking others. A more violent and aggressive environment is more likely to produce more violent and aggressive humans. You can learn incorrect information that steers you wrong and influences you to harm others.
Learning can be implicit. This means that no one has to teach a person some concepts for them to learn it and it happens without your conscious participation. So although many people are not directly instructed to be biased against gay people, minorities, or women, if you live in an emotional climate that inherently devalues these groups, you are very likely to unconsciously learn and adopt these beliefs. Check out the citation to read some studies on implicit bias. This kind of learning is often more dangerous because without deep self-honesty and the willingness to interrogate your own beliefs and upbringing, you may believe that you are not, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc but move through the world and act in ways that display these unknowingly internalized values.
In a way traumatization is a form of destructive learning as well. There are multiple factors that make a person more or less exposed to trauma, but children, with their more fragile developing brains and limited life experiences, are more likely to “learn” devastating and incomplete lessons about life that limit their ability to function well in the present and into adulthood if left unaddressed. Traumatized people who do not recover are more likely to exhibit more negative attitudes and behaviors towards themselves and their societies. They are more vulnerable to the onset of mental illnesses. Trauma often changes how the victims live and relate to others around them, eroding close relationships and therefore their own well-being. In some ways, trauma is an example of stellar learning abilities– the coping styles are often useful for navigating volatile and unsafe conditions, but prove problematic when trying to live a normal, relatively calm life with others. Severe and unaddressed trauma can make lasting, negative changes to the brain and body that even make some physical diseases more likely.
Learning can and has often served nefarious purposes. Learning is how humans over time have built deadlier weapons and increased our abilities to wreak widespread devastation
There’s no doubt learning is powerful. An enormous amount of enlightenment has arisen from this potent ability, but so has an enormous amount of pain. Many human problems arise from ignorance, but also from bad learning.
Learning is something to take very seriously.
My vision for this section of the blog is to unearth more ways to learn better and guide our paths towards acquiring a host of useful skills and knowledge. I want to write about techniques both specific and broad, both fluid and systematic, and mental tools we may need in order to overcome some natural obstacles to learning well. I’ll also note anything I try and approaches that personally work for me and ones that don’t. I definitely encourage feedback and stories from you as well.
I want to tackle topics about learning throughout the human lifespan and dispel the untrue notion many people hold that childhood is the best or only time to really mold your scholarly pursuits.
I tacked on the subject of organization here because it forms the backbone of excellent learning. Its not all that useful to take notes if you can’t find them later, or struggle to study from them because they’re poorly arranged on the page. Organization is also an extremely important component in steady, progressive learning. How we organize our time, our resources, our energy and bandwidth, even our thoughts, all influence how well we can acquire these skills and retain the knowledge.
Being totally honest, organization has been a lifelong weakness of mine that I’ve improved on considerably as I’ve grown up, but still want to see much more development in. While some people are naturally more or less organized than others, I’ve found that this is also a skill that you can work to improve in lasting ways even if it runs counter to how you normally operate.
No matter what we study or what our overall life aspirations may be, we all can benefit from taking the time to develop more skillful learning for well-managed growth.
In a way, we all have a strong moral obligation to learn well if we want to do right by our human responsibility to be well and do well on this planet and for the success of this species. Learning well forms the foundation for building a more positive social climate for everyone, better health outcomes, and a more harmonious society for each following generation.
Progress personally and existentially hinges on this commitment.
Sources
"What Is Cognitive Reserve?" Harvard Health Publishing, www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-is-cognitive-reserve.
"How Social Learning Theory Works." Berkeley, HR, hr.berkeley.edu/how-social-learning-theory-works.
"The Top 7 Benefits of Learning a New Skill." Central Connecticut State University, https://ce.ccsu.edu/the-top-7-benefits-of-learning-a-new-skill/
"9 Reasons Why You Should Learn a New Skill Even if You Don’t Need It." Cognition Today, cognitiontoday.com/9-reasons-why-you-should-learn-a-new-skill-even-if-you-dont-need-it/.
"The Effect of Higher Education on Attitudes." UK Government, assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474228/BIS-15-89-the-effect-of-higher-education-on-attitudes.pdf
"Trauma and Violence." Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, www.samhsa.gov/trauma-violence
"Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care." National Center for Biotechnology Information, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/