I was raised with a simple, core belief: education is valuable in and of itself. Not just because it helps you get a better job, but because knowledge is a moral good. It’s its own reward.
I think some of this perspective is cultural, a remnant of my early childhood in India where academic pursuit is almost a spiritual endeavor. But over the years, I’ve come to realize it’s more than that. This isn’t just a cultural quirk; it’s a fundamental truth about how we navigate the world.
Even if you’re the most pragmatic person out there, solely focused on using education to climb the corporate ladder, you’ll eventually realize that the knowledge you gain today helps you make better decisions for the rest of your life. It’s not just about the job; it’s about everything else, too. Take my math degree, for example. I’m not using calculus to figure out my budget or manage a team at work. But what it did teach me is how to think about rates of change analytically. I use that lens constantly, whether I’m trying to figure out how fast a business needs to compound to hit a revenue goal or just marveling at how quickly my own kid is growing. That’s the real value.
But honestly? Beyond the practical benefits, learning is just plain fun.
Over the past year, I’ve taken over 20 courses on platforms like Coursera and YouTube. Some were directly relevant to my career, like improving my prompt engineering skills. Others were more for life, like a mini-course on making better financial decisions. And some were just for the pure joy of it. I recently watched a fascinating video from Branch Education about how GPUs work, complete with incredible animations. I have no practical use for that information, but it was just so cool to understand the technology that’s driving so much of our modern world. That curiosity, that sense of wonder—that’s the real win.
The point is, don’t let the idea of “practicality” limit what you learn. Follow your curiosity. The knowledge you gain will pay dividends in ways you can’t even predict.
What’s the most random thing you’ve learned lately just for the fun of it?
