Thus far I have talked about observation and learning in terms of the need to do it in general. The greatest tragedy is to have this big, beautiful world to see and learn about, yet not take an interest in any of it. There is beauty in learning for the sake of learning and in thoroughly exploring whatever happens to interest you at the time. Falling down the Wikipedia hole is a great way to learn random stuff and open up new horizons. Checking out random but interesting nonfiction books from the library can be an amazing way of learning not just interesting, but occasionally useful information as well.
And yet. . . Random learning is beautiful and good, but like most good, beautiful things it can be taken to excess. Most of my posts so far have been targeted at an audience that I assume to struggle to find the motivation to go learn things; this post is for those of us who love it so much that it leads to other problems. Learning addicts would do well to consider a few questions every once in a while: Question 1: How does this knowledge improve my life? It’s OK to learn things just for entertainment value, but if you’re only learning it for entertainment value, you need to stay aware of that fact so you can treat it with the same considerations as entertainment. Even with more practical kinds of knowledge, it can be easy to get so caught up in the accumulation of new input that you never actually put it into practice. Question 2: Is the amount of time I’m spending learning this thing preventing me from learning other things I need to know more about? Again, it’s OK to learn things just for entertainment value, but it needs to be balanced. I realized at the end of last year that my random nonfiction reading was out of control and decided that for every random library book I checked out, I needed to read something in my existing library—which mostly consists of theological books and other pastor-y things. This had a dual advantage: I gained more knowledge and skills for my job, and I chose my library books more carefully because I no longer permitted myself to go on what I can only describe as a library bender of checking out, say, 12 books at a time. There are some learning pursuits that after a certain point can only properly be described as a waste of time, like becoming fluent in fictitious languages like Klingon or Quenya (Elvish). A few words for entertainment value are sufficient. Question 3: Is learning about this thing hurting me in any way? This may seem like an odd question to ask, but there are some topics that can be damaging to spend too much time studying. I worry a little bit, for example, about fans of true crime murder books. Unless you are professionally in law enforcement or a writer for a police procedural, it’s not healthy to spend the majority of your reading time with the darkest parts of human nature. Knowledge is power, and you need to know yourself well enough to assess whether or not you can trust yourself with the power you’re acquiring. In a somewhat different vein than true crime, a fascination with human sexuality can either come from a place of childlike curiosity for a truly complex topic or it can be an unhealthy outlet for unmet needs. Sometimes it’s both. The purpose of this question is to pause every once in a while and assess whether it’s really healthy to keep going on your current train of thought. Question 4: Is it dangerous for me to be learning about this thing on my own without the guidance of an expert? This is more of an issue for knowledge you actually intend to use, but there are a number of fields in which it’s easy to learn just enough to be dangerous. Sometimes that danger comes in the form of annoying actual professionals by thinking that you fully understand their profession from your hobby learning. Knock it off! A casual glance at an interlinear Bible does not make you a Bible scholar, a weekend course in programming does not mean you will understand how long things take to program, and even a robust knowledge of therapy techniques does not qualify you for the delicate task of providing therapy without the battle-tested hours of observed clinical practice actual therapists have to go through. It’s even more dangerous when you go forth into the world trying to do some of these things without proper guidance. There’s a reason why it’s illegal to practice medicine without a license. You can do real harm without the balance and nuance of a more focused education. Question 5: Are my sources of information trustworthy? This matters on a number of levels, some more obvious than others. Most obviously, you don’t want to be reading deliberate lies. You also don’t want to be reading someone blustering on about stuff they don’t actually understand. Less obviously, even experts are sometimes wrong because of the assumptions with which they approach things. For example, the reason there are so many different denominations of Christianity that all claim the Bible as the foundation for faith isn’t because there are different Bibles, but because there are different approaches to the Bible. Every area of study has internal discussions and debates that are frequently hard for outsiders to detect. Sometimes they’re so subtle that you will not see them without formal schooling, but they will influence what you’re seeing. This kind of bias is so woven into the fabric of our society that you see different items in a search engine depending on what computer you’re using. Because it’s so impossible to root out all of the bias in what you learn, it’s healthy to acknowledge that there’s always room for error. Humility is key here. The sorts of people who need to read this article tend to experience the dark side of being naturally curious: the accolades of being seen as smart. If you love learning, try to avoid being sidetracked by the perils of being praised for it. Many otherwise brilliant people have fallen into all kinds of traps by forgetting that the world is too vast and complicated to become a true expert on any part of it because, at the end of the day, the part is tied to the whole. The moment you think you’ve arrived, you’ve lost. There’s always more out there and at the end of the day, you simply don’t know everything. Stay curious, stay humble, stay balanced, and you’ll get a lot farther than even the brightest who think they’ve learned it all.
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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