Self-Mastery Nº43
Learning to Love Learning
Happy Easter!
Welcome to Self-Mastery — a place for exploring timeless ideas to become the architect of your mind, create yourself, and do less, better.
Most of my school life wasn’t fun. Rather, I hated it. Years consistently went by where I struggled to enjoy anything about it—and the learning experience was awful.
I wasn’t in a great place with my friends, myself or with what I wanted to do. School gave me no direction, yet there was so much pressure. 99% of teachers were unhelpful—it was like they were just fighting to make it to the end of each day. They didn’t like it if you questioned or challenged them. You were just wrong. No questions asked.
I had to deal with bullies. Terrible relationships. And status signalling galore. School was like a festival for people to just show off.
I struggled in a lot of subjects. The teachers didn’t seem to care. It felt like a time in my life that I simply needed to tick off.
Sixth form (college), however, was where things started to change.
Perhaps it was slightly before then, but around that time—at 16 or 17—I started to focus on subjects I truly liked. I gravitated to English, Sociology and Sports. The nature of sixth form allowed me more free time to spend on learning in a new way. A way that actually worked.
I was always interested in English and Sports. I didn’t realise until recently. And sixth form was where I began diversifying the ways I explored those subjects. YouTube videos, research papers, group learning and games really helped me dive deep and submerge myself into these topics.
It was at this moment when I realised I loved learning. But the way I had to learn before was unhealthy. I was finally doing things my way. I wasn’t judged or graded by a biased teacher or machine. I was pulling ideas, concepts and models together in my own time. Doing, practising, learning, felt sublime and natural.
I realised that we’re all driven by continuous improvement. We thrive when we keep learning. It’s magical. And this is what makes the internet so special; you can type in anything you’re curious about, and you can learn about it in the way that works for you. Schools and teaching as we know it will change over the next years. But right now, you can become an expert in whatever you want. You can learn however you want. Learning is one of my loves, and it can be the same for everyone else.
You can become a lifelong student and choose who gets to teach you.
You learn to love learning by being able to make your own choices. Choose what excites you, what makes you want to go deep. Then dive in.
What’s on My Mind
An excerpt from Ava, on Effort:
"[I]f someone’s much better than you at something, they probably try much harder. You probably underestimate how much harder they try. I’m not saying that talent isn’t a meaningful differentiator, because it certainly is, but I think people generally underestimate how effort needs to be poured into talent in order to develop it. So much of getting good at anything is just pure labor: figuring out how to try and then offering up the hours."
— Ava
Explore
The outcome is overvalued.
The process is undervalued.
— Jack Butcher
Article of the Week
Fasting isn’t about weight loss. It does so much more than that. It’s about giving yourself and your body a break.
Interesting Thing of the Week
A thread of inconvenient truths you don’t want to forget.
Question of the Week
How much do other peoples’ thoughts matter to you?
Have a wonderful Easter,
Yours,
Jelani