While I spend a decent amount of time trying to memorize various things using tools like Anki, for the most part rote memorization is unnecessary. Learning systems and frameworks for understanding are vitally important, but for most everything else you can just look it up when you need it.
Similar to the “you won’t be carrying around a calculator in your pocket when you’re an adult” that many of us heard in school 20 years ago, they could have also said “you won’t be carrying around the entirely of the world’s knowledge in your pocket” and they’d have been wrong about that too.
Of course, finding that knowledge can be tough as times, as the ability to use tools like Google is a skill. It’s a skill we can all learn, but it’s a skill nonetheless.
Lessons
When it comes to business, the best things you can learn are lessons. Many of them you’ll have to experience for yourself, but learning from others can be a shortcut along the way. Jonathan Rosenberg tied these two together nicely when he said:
“In the real world, the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market.”
Learn to search efficiently, learn the frameworks that dominate your industry, then learn lessons along the way and you’ll find yourself doing very well.
Leave a Reply