the importance of learning random things

I was being interviewed by a University a couple weeks ago, and one of the questions the interviewer asked veered into the topic of knowledge, education and learning.

We spent over 15 minutes talking about the importance of learning — even if it’s as simple as reading a book/article, watching a YouTube video, or listening to a podcast.

Sometimes, that’s all it takes to become hooked by a random topic or discover something you truly love researching about.

The conversation ended with me saying that our life on earth is extremely limited — merely the blink of an eye in the universes timeline — so why wouldn’t we try to learn as much as we can about the world around us? Why wouldn’t we attempt to read as many books as possible, learn about philosphy, quantum mechanics, biology, mathematics or whatever else intrigues us?

It would be a complete waste of our potential.

Especially now — with a huge void in education and the general sentiment of High School students finding school a burden rather than a priviledge — it’s important that we promote learning as something transformative.

And I don’t mean the type of learning most of us are used to: 6 hours and 5 days a week of stress, memorization and seemingly useless information.

I mean general learning. Being able to research into something completely random, but cool regardless. Literally anything, from music theories, the latest technological breakthroughs to history myths, astronomy and quantum physics.

This not only makes you a more interesting person to talk to, but is so important for the development of your brain.

It can also be really fun.

This doesn’t mean sitting down and watching an hour-long YouTube video (although it can if that’s something that you enjoy). It can be as simple as reading a good book — every single piece of literature holds some sort of lesson, new perspective or knowledge — or even listening to a podcast (one of my favorite things to do).

Since my life is usually pretty hectic, I like to listen to podcasts while I workout at the gym, or on my drives to school in the morning.

Recently, I’ve really loved listening to “The Trillionare Mindset” for more general life advice, and then for specfic topics, I’ve getting into “Ologies with Alie Ward.” She essentially interviews people on her podcasts about a bunch of random information, but they all pertain to these individuals “ologies” or focuses of study.

If you want book or YouTube reccomendations, please reach out to my Instagram: @sophiarundle, and I’d love to give you some!

Learning random stuff is fun, and you never know when the information you’ve gained could become useful in the future.