Learning How You Learn Leads to New Skills

I was always jealous of the people who could study for the test. The people who didn’t always know the material but could still get a 100% on an exam by studying the night before. Or the 1600 SAT takers who memorized only the required information. I was never that student. I couldn’t sit down and study the necessary material because everything fascinated me.

Once, I was supposed to be studying all the bones in the human body, instead, I learned everything about how the arm works. I had gotten fixated on how to figure out why we have an ulna and a radius that I forgot to study the rest of the bones. I failed my test. But I learned how to learn. 

Luckily, the real world is far different than the classroom.

For me, learning is a way to explore questions. I set out with a hypothesis, some grand vision in my mind, and I work my ass off to figure out a solution. Every step I have taken in my career has that objective in mind. I am always looking to explore ideas that I’ve developed throughout my life. Much like studying the human arm, I get fixated on a certain objective and won’t stop until I arrive at a satisfactory answer. Although this might keep me from seeing the whole picture, like the entire anatomy of the human body, the specialization creates new skills. Eventually, those skills combine into a well-rounded skillset.

Learning how you learn is far more important than learning for a test. Anyone can memorize formulas or definitions. Not everyone can take lessons learned from mutliple perspectives and apply them to make a whole. Learning the way you learn is your competitive advantage.