That glib cliché holds within it a truth that sits at the core of who I am.
I love learning things.
Facts... I don't retain them like I used to but my mind pick ups useless facts like a flypaper collects dipterans. I do also pick up a few useful facts along the way too, but they're not so much fun... many of these are historical dates, characters, events, etc
Connections... partly because of how my mind works, many of these facts are woven into a web of unlikely connections and associations that cross a range of disciplines, only some of which I have any competence in...
People... I am not great in social settings with people I don't know, unless there are enough of them for me to hide in the crowd or treat as an audience, but it's great when I do encounter new people with interesting stories or inspiring skills and talents.
A sub-set of "new people" are those that I haven't encountered in person, but are new artists, authors, musicians etc that I have happened upon and have become my new best friends. When I occasionally encounter such people in the flesh or online I invariably fail to express adequately my admiration, not out of any attempt to stay cool, but out of inner fan boy embarrassment.
Insights... from encounters with new people (and engagement with interesting "old people"), my reading, and increasingly from podcasts (having largely abandoned mainstream radio) I continually gaiTom Whitwell, managing consultant at Magnetic.n new insights into the world and have my own perspectives challenged.
In spiritual terms this, for me, is essential. I have consistently suggested that those of us who claim to be Christians cannot call ourselves disciples of Jesus if we think we have learned all there is to learn spiritually. A disciple is a learner...
In all these ways I am continually learning, and today, when listening to a favourite podcast "Freakonomics Radio" with Stephen Dubner, I came across Tom Whitwell, managing consultant at Magnetic, who, for a number of years has published on his website every December a list of 52 things he has learned in the previous year.
This has challenged me going forward, to reflect, with varying levels of profundity, on what I have learned in this day's "schoolday."
So starting tonight, and with my first "learning" gleaned from the podcast referenced above, I'm going to post on social media (probably Facebook and X/Twitter because they'll be short and text based and I don't understand TikTok or Insta) using the #EveryDaySchoolDay tag.
Where it's a more complex piece of learning I might blog here and post the link, and I might do a weekly compilation here too... but for the most part it will be a short post with an embedded link or photo before I head bedwards...
I'd also be interested to learn what you've learned each day... so either feel free to stick yours on a comment to the original post or post your own using the hashtag
#EveryDaySchoolDay
The attached image and quote by Steve Jobs sums up the spirit of this challenge, and could well be seen as today's "learning" as I had never come across it before goggling the phrase "Every day's a school day." But then I am not a fanboy of Jobs or his company's products... however it was better than another AZ Quote image directly citing the phrase featuring Baroness Michelle Mone wearing what I presume are one of her company's products... And I am not referring to PPE...
You can look that up yourself without a link.
Cheers
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