Exploratory Learning is Great and Terrible

When I was a kid, I went to school. I got older and kept going to school for quite a bit longer than most people do. Even now, I’m back doing more school—this time hopefully the last of it. While I succeeded at “school” and I did learn a lot from it, the learning I value most happened elsewhere. This is not some Neo-nostalgic elder millennial rant about the “value of experience” though it is valuable. Rather, I wanted to reflect on what I have learned while leaning in heavily to self-led exploratory learning from the internet. What I am talking about is soaking up information from Youtube, reddit, extension publications, blog posts, magazines and books. Often the process is chaotic and nonlinear. I really enjoy doing it, but it has drawbacks too—I discuss both below

It’s really slow and imprecise
The lack of structured curriculum and self-direction means that this is not a time-efficient method for learning. I’m not convinced that time-efficiency is even a desirable thing once you step outside productivist ideologies. The western capitalist ideal for learning is Neo requesting an upload, looking up and suddenly “know[ing] Kung Fu.” This over-emphasizes the information gained and deemphasizes how the process of learning changes and enriches a person. It also implies a flattened commodified understanding of knowledge and practice. Most masters would acknowledge that it’s never really possible to say that one “knows” their art or craft and only that they practice and are a student of that discipline. But for those more interested in gaining knowledge than in my transformative learning rant, it definitely requires a lot of patience to pursue this kind of learning. You will often go down paths that yield small rewards, and you may initially progress more slowly than someone following a more structured learning path.

You rarely know where to start when you’re starting
Not knowing where to start might be the biggest challenge of this kind of learning. You may jump into content that is too advanced or skip over some key lessons that a beginner in a more structured curriculum might have picked up. As a result you’ll constantly be discovering things and wondering how you missed them in the first place. I find jargon and the defining of terms and principles to be particularly frustrating in this regard. If you jump into the content you are trying to learn and the people are using terms and language you don’t know you have to pause that process to figure out that term. There’s something in this that feels similar to learning language in an organic environment (rather than a classroom). You have to ask what stuff means, you’re going to miss a lot of what is being said, but you are also exposed to so much that you have really compelling learning opportunities pretty much all the time.
​
Repetition is important
As a result of the impreciseness and the lack of clarity about starting points you may need to take in content in different formats and from different voices multiple times. I think this is one aspect of this type of learning that mimics some older forms of learning like apprenticeships and guilds. Watching someone do the same process over and over yields different results as the mind of the viewer internalizes the activity. At first you’re seeing broad strokes, often overwhelmed by the details of the process, a second viewing you’ll notice more detailed work and with each subsequent exploration of the content you’ll pick up on more of the fine points. Eventually you’ll connect these fine points back to larger concepts you had learned in the beginning

Notetaking helps a lot
By its nature, this approach won’t include a textbook or fixed lectures or any other notable structure. You’ll have to create this for yourself in one form or another. A few years ago I did some research on how people approach note taking and otherwise organizing thoughts. At this point I use a blend of spreadsheets (when they make sense), and Notes in the basic Apple Notes utility. It may take a few tries to get your notetaking system figured out, but stick with it because it will help you maintain progress and remember breakthroughs you have along the way.

Tradition feels more flexible
I think this is both a positive and a negative of the approach. You don’t have a singular “teacher” and you likely won’t be trained or educated in a single tradition. In many cases traditions are traditional because of redeeming qualities proven across time. In that regard, the lack of formal training can be a downside. If you’re looking for that kind of learning then a more traditional environment like a formal curriculum, internship, trade, etc. might be your best bet. At the same time, tradition sometimes falls victim to dogmatists who insist on rules that would be better stretched or even broken. I think this more chaotic, inefficient, non-linear learning process can help to avoid adherence to dogmatic precepts and even free thinking or creativity about a given topic.