Passion and life-long learning

As the popular wisdom goes, we are gifted and cut out for one occupation (perhaps not so radically in the USA.) After the initial training, learning becomes more and more difficult, and by aging the brain get frozen and ingrained habits are all that still move us. It would be as we were parts in a machine, pefectly adapted to its functioning, but performing only narrowly specialised tasks, and unable to change or evolve. At least, that's how the society, or rather those who rule it, want us to be. People with very partitioned knowledges and skills are easier to control.

That was also the dogma among the scientists, but more and more researches conjure up a quite different picture. It was observed that the brain looks like very differently between a youngster and a grown-up, and a conceptual leap was done, but no so rightly. It was thought that we have the same neurons we had at our birth, but now we know that new ones can be created in the hippocampus, a part of brain important for leaning new things. In general, it was realized that the brain is much more plastic than once believed, and efficient learning is possible at every age.

Actually, as every life-long learner knows, learning is like bicycle : He who stops pedaling, falls, and he who practices regularly, rides faster and longer. The learning ability slowly weakens when not used, while acquired knowledge allows to learn faster, better, and more. There is no limit in the amount of knowledge that can be assimilated, only in the limit of the daily amount, but this flux can also be increased by the study, especially though chunking*. Transfer between chunks in different domains is what consolidates the knowledge, and the reason why there is nothing not worth learning.

A life of learning is like building a pyramid. At first it is a gathering of individual facts, in a given field, that seem unrelated. That is the base of the pyramid. These facts represent concepts and ideas, that combined together will give bigger concepts and ideas, the subsequent stroreys of the building. In the course of the construction, the base can be enlarged with material from other fields, but it is easier because there is already a structure to rest on. The never achieved goal is of course to put down the apex, the unique corner stone. It is a state of perfect mastering of the knowledge acquired. From the top, the base seems far and fuzzy. The petty details aren't useful any more, as they can be found again easily. Why have learnt them so painstakingly then? Because without a base, there is no pyramid, and no top. To enter into it though, you'll need the seven golden keys. Have you collected them in the journey?

In spite of all that, you won't go very far without passion. It is what both inspires and facilitates learning. A life without passion is not worth living. They need not be fixed, actually they can change quickly enough. There is nothing wrong with that, that means you are evolving, and you won't be stuck in a lone domain, each one enriching the others. There are periods, where some passions predominate and the corresponding learning and pratice take place. The downside is too many passions, because the available time isn't extensible.

This endevour won't lead you to any destination, like an exam, a profession, or a complete knowledge. There is no terminus, what is important is the walk, not the goal. The sides of the pyramid are like vanishing lines. They seem to meet somewhere, but it is an illusion, because the vanishing point is at infinity and you'll never reach it. Underway, you'll find some of the golden keys, but most probably not all the seven. For example : "There is something rather than nothing." "The Universe is organized." "The laws of Nature are the ones that allow the maximum complexity." They may be much less metaphysical according to your convenience. These keys is where all what you know leads, sort of universal aphorisms, or like the categories in mathematics. All together would give access to the ultimate knowledge, the holy grail that no human eye ever saw.

* Chunk : It is a set of information, concepts or actions that are tied together through practice, and that forms a single unit in memory. In the computer analogy, it would be a subroutine or a function.