I spend a good deal of time memorizing information. This could be cards I put in Anki, doing my “Daily Review” in Readwise, or any number of other things. Memorizing information isn’t bad, but it’s worthless if you stop there.
In a recent episode of “Founders”, host David Senra shared thoughts on some time that he spent with Charlie Munger and he dug into this very concept. From the show:
“Learning is not memorizing information. Learning is changing your behavior. If I spend all this time reading about Charlie Munger, watching his Q&As at the Berkshire meeting, listening to his speeches, reading books, reading people who were influenced by him, and it doesn’t change my behavior, I’m just wasting time.”
I need to be careful with that when it comes to learning, and to be sure that I’m making actual use of what I learn. I’m confident that much of what I learn is of benefit, but I’m also confident that I have pieces in there that don’t do much good in the long run for me.
If I think “how can this information help to shape my behavior?“, it will make me better consider what I’m taking the time to learn. That doesn’t mean that everything needs to have a lesson behind it, as entertainment is an important facet of our lives, but simply that I need to keep that in mind when I start to learn something new.
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