…I Am an Explorer.
I love learning, finding new challenges, solving puzzles, discovering myself. The unexpected discoveries are the best. When working on a project, I get distracted and wind up chasing rabbits down holes. Sometimes those rabbit holes open up to whole new worlds that I never would have expected.
Like not being an expert.
Becoming an expert is limiting. Once you’ve established yourself as an expert, you stop. Past success hinders the future. I become inhibited. I become bored. I guess I am bored easily. I don’t think I can fix that. I don’t think I want to fix that.
Experts vs Self-Directed Learners
“Autodidacts” are self-directed learners. The list of self-directed, lifelong learners is long and noteworthy:
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Herman Melville
- George Bernard Shaw
- Ernst Hemingway
- Orson Wells
- Woody Allen
- Abraham Lincoln
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Louis Sullivan
- Le Corbusier
- Thomas Alva Edison
- Wilbur Wright
- Buckminster Fuller
- Elon Musk
“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” – Peter Drucker
Expertise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But exploration, discovery, and learning…now that’s exciting.