Romanticize Doing NOT Learning. Learning Is Just a Byproduct

I’m actually annoyed learning is romanticized so much. I have an image of my head of a woman  with a fashionable side-bag full of books from university who purrs in a spanish european accent, “I just love learning!” Fine. That’s better not loving learning. But I find many people are content to just continue learning without ever considering actually doing something with what their knowledge. It’s quite selfish, I think.  You clearly have a lot of resources at your disposal and you’re just going study for years justifying your intellectual masturbation because society upholds this pursuit with a kind of aristocratic prestige. There are so many big problems with pouring your heart into. Devoting years to learning is fine, but do it with a purpose of spreading your insights and improving your surroundings.

Anyway, that’s not most people. But there are certainly a lot of people who fit that mold. And when I sense that, my stomach rolls over and pretends to play dead for about 3 minutes.

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  • Matt

    I agree, yet I know I somewhat fit the negative mold you describe.  I find it frustrating, a senior in high school, that I have so much time invested in admissions game that I have no time left for experience of the sort you describe.  But I really got a kick out of “intellectual masturbation”.