Intentional Unintentional Learning

Everyone on the planet wants to be: 1. well-liked 2. successful and 3. happy. All three of these require self-improvement. For many people, once they leave school, learning and self-improvement ends. We learn a little more about our job specifically, but the rest of our learning is either unintentional or for entertainment purposes.

This can’t be the right way to go about life. Life takes place over 80 years, why contain our learning within 1/4 of it? No one was born perfect, we had to learn. During our first 1/4 of life, there are two primary ways we learn. First is intentional learning: from school, teachings, books, etc. Second is unintentional learning: from observations, coincidences, connections, etc. Our early learning shapes us into who we are, but we are always able to change. We are always able to get better as long as we try.

As we get older, we lose some of our curiosity and in doing so lose a lot of the valuable unintentional learning. We decided that since things generally worked out for us in the past that it is not valuable for us to continue learning in the future. We spend more time with people we have already learned from. There are fewer observations to make in the repetition of daily life. We begin to teach the younger generation.

We also slow down on intentional learning. We are busy. Life is stressful. We have work to do which takes up a majority of our day and often lacks opportunities to learn, at least ones that aren’t built in or scheduled. Many would much rather come home from work and spend time with their family or play video games or watch TV. We may do a bit of intentional learning about our favourite sports team or a hobby we have. I would consider this learning for entertainment purposes. What about learning to make our life in general better, not just one aspect of it?

I understand that it isn’t always realistic to sit down with a textbook on a subject and learn it from scratch. Learning something like we did in high school or college isn’t realistic in adulthood. There are courses you can take online but they have completion rates of under 20% so it is unlikely that you will finish them unless you are truly dedicated. Intentional learning also has diminishing returns. If you aren’t using things you have learned often, you will forget. The basics you learn earlier in life are more valuable and are used more than things learned later than life. Ideally, we would always be learning, but it is better to start something small. 1 is always better than 0.

What I propose is that we do more intentional unintentional learning. Give yourself opportunities to have unintentional learning opportunities. Take more moments to reflect on decisions you have made or actions you have taken throughout the day. Allow yourself to have coincidences and to make connections between things you have learned. Ask how does this apply to my daily life or my job or my relationships? As you begin to spend more time intentionally unintentionally learning, you may find yourself spending more time intentionally learning as well. Compounding interest is extremely valuable so make use of it.

It is easier for people to say to read more or write more or learn a new skill. Intentionally unintentionally learning, although it seems easy, is never as easy as it seems. It is unnatural in the information age not to be flooded with external stimuli. Once you try, you will see the benefits. A little progression in one area of your life will lead to progression in other areas. We should take more time for ourselves to better ourselves.

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