Learning is everything. It is what excels us as humans. It is what drives us to do more. It is what enables us to experience life to the full. The problem many face however, is learning retention, that is, remembering what you have learnt. Firstly, we should all become learners, before actually learning anything. If you learn how to learn, you will never be left behind.
Then you come to learning as a process, and recently I came across a beautiful description by Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla motors, and PayPal. He is also a billionaire. Elon said:
“Think of learning as a semantic tree. First you learn the principles (the roots and the trunk), then you learn the details (the branches and leaves). If you only learn the details (leaves), they have nothing to hang on to, they just fall away.”
The process of learning how to learn is essentially this exact point. I think this by Elon is an even better way to put it, and i wish i said it first!
So in any endeavor of betterment, remember the semantic tree.
For more from Elon Musk, check out this Reddit AMA that he did last year.
