This is why I love to learn

I love learning.

Yesterday I got to thinking about that. Why do I love learning? After all, when I die what benefit will all that learning have done for me?

That line of thinking put a damper on my love for learning. A temporary damper, however, since I woke up this morning again eager to learn new things.

Nonetheless, the question remained at the back of my head all day long.

Just now, as I a was reading a marvelous book, I realized the answer. I love learning, not for any particular benefit it might bring me, not because it might advance my career, I love learning because I love the beauty that I uncover while learning. It is this beauty which motivates me, it drives me to want to learn more and more.

I feel confident that a life filled with uncovering beauty is a life well-lived.

 

Successful people are those with a great love for their craft

Yesterday I was listening to an interview of Malcolm Gladwell. The interviewer asked Malcolm why he didn’t believe in genius. Malcolm said that successful people are those with a great, all-consuming love for what they are doing, not because of some genius quality.

He gave an example: When Wayne Gretsky was 2 years old his parents would let him watch hockey games on TV; after each game ended he cried because he loved the game so much he didn’t want it to end. This love for hockey consumed him and he went on to become arguably the greatest hockey player of all time.

Albert Einstein was great because he had a tremendous curiosity. He didn’t strive to become the greatest scientist in the world. He simply wanted to understand how the universe worked. As a side-effect of his great curiousity he became arguably the greatest scientist of all time.

This is what I learned: Don’t strive to be a great hockey player (or scientist or teacher or researcher or whatever). Instead, be filled with a tremendous love for hockey (or science or teaching or research or whatever). If you do that, then you will become great without even trying to become great.