““We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” — Peter Drucker
The Science Of Learning At The World’s Most Innovative University
After completing my first year at the world’s most innovative university, I realized that the way most of us think about learning is completely wrong.
Before you throw your flash cards at me, or close this tab because you’re “done with school”, let me explain.
If I were to tell you what I usually associate with learning, the first word that came to mind would be “school”.
That doesn’t seem too crazy, as most of us consider school a place purely constructed for this thing we call learning. Then we graduate, and our school churns out an economically productive individual.
Success.
The only problem with this is that when school ends, often our focus on learning does too.
What do most people not realize?
A decline in learning new things after we finish school also leads to a decline in creativity and critical thinking skills.
In a professional setting, if you’re working in a team where no one is learning anything new, your collective performance could even struggle, with more people increasingly adopting fixed mindsets.
Okay, okay, we all sort of know that learning is important at all stages of life, but I’m reminding you of this because this idea rarely translates into action.
Today, I’m going to tell you what I have learned over the past year about how to learn effectively, even if you hated school.
…Not just so that you can pack what I say away into another mental filing cabinet, but so that you can finally turn your knowledge into action.
Let’s get started.
The Gardeners & Carpenters In Learning
One analogy that helps me understand different approaches to learning is the same analogy used to understand different approaches to parenting.
There are the gardeners- those who nurture the growth of a young seedling, making sure it’s healthy and well-nourished with enough sunlight and water to prosper.
Then there are the carpenters, building a structure to achieve the desired end result.
In parenting, this is usually meant to demonstrate the difference between moulding your child into a predetermined ideal of adulthood versus focusing on giving a child what they need in that instant.
It ultimately boils down to the eternal struggle between outcome and process.
Is it about the journey or the destination, grounding in the present moment or sacrificing for the future?
In learning, we see the same battle.
Do we learn because it gets us that impressive salary at a Fortune 500, or because it nourishes our minds with exciting new ideas that make the lens through which we live more colorful?
The idealistic side of me wants to say learning should always be pure and internally motivated. The pragmatic side says we learn for survival and status alone.
What it should be is perhaps not even the relevant question here.
The truth is simply this: learning is one of the highest-leverage investments in yourself, even after you finish formal schooling, but we are only given the tools to do it one way, like the carpenter.
The Switch In Learning
The difference, though, is that once we finish school, we see a switch.
We are no longer learning in the style of a carpenter, building up knowledge whose structural integrity must withstand exams.
Without exams, we are learning like the gardener, growing, weaving in and out of ideas and projects like a vine stretching toward the sun.
We don’t have to achieve depth, so we often don’t.
We have the freedom to learn anything we want, however we want, but we usually decide there is no time left over.
Limiting Beliefs About Learning
Now that we have already established that learning is important and that once we leave school, the way we think about learning is limiting us, let’s get specific.
Here are 3 limiting beliefs about learning that are holding you back not only from being a better problem-solver and more creative thinker, but also from having more fun and building greater connections with others.
#1: You learn for knowledge.
Let me guess—you were taught that learning means memorizing facts, spitting them back out in exams, and maybe feeling smart when you can casually reference some obscure theory in a conversation.
But here’s the problem: this kind of learning doesn’t stick.
And worse—it misses the point entirely.
Gardening reminds us that growth isn’t about hoarding seeds—it’s about what takes root.
When you learn like a gardener, you don’t collect knowledge just to have it—you grow it to use it- to nourish your ideas, cross-pollinate fields, and feed action.
In fact, studies show that when you cram knowledge for the sake of retention or regurgitation, you forget most of it within days.
But when you use what you learn—apply it, explain it, build with it—it transforms into something alive. Something useful. Something memorable.
#2: Learning is a chore.
If every time you think about learning, your brain sighs like you just asked it to scrub tile grout… we have a problem.
The truth is: if you believe something is a chore, you’ll avoid it.
It’s basic human psychology.
High friction = low follow-through.
And if you associate learning with drudgery, you’ll either procrastinate endlessly or push through with zero joy (and probably zero retention).
Gardeners don’t treat tending their plants like a punishment.
They do it with music playing, while experimenting, failing, and replanting.
And they love it.
#3: It has to make sense.
There’s this belief—especially in the productivity-obsessed world—that your interests must line up neatly into a five-year plan or a LinkedIn-optimized narrative.
You need to justify why you’re learning about regenerative farming and computational physics and 16th-century botanical illustrations.
Gardeners know better.
They plant things because they feel drawn to them. They’re curious. Something in the seed speaks to something in them.
The truth is: your interests don’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
The dots only connect looking back. Steve Jobs famously said that, and he’s right.
He had no idea that taking a random calligraphy class would influence Apple’s entire design philosophy and help shape technology used by billions. But it did.
So plant the seeds you’re drawn to.
Water them.
Let them grow however they want.
Some will flourish. Some won’t.
But in the process, you’ll grow too.
And later—maybe years from now—you’ll look back and say, “Oh. That’s why I needed that.”
Learning Like A Gardener
Now let me tell you what small adjustments you can make from now on to keep learning and growing effortlessly.
#1: Learn by doing.
The most valuable thing I’ve learned after a year at a university with no exams?
That doing—not memorizing-is—is what transforms information into understanding.
Funnily enough, I might even add that learning by doing makes memorizing an effortless byproduct of any assignment.
Project-based learning lets ideas take root.
It turns the abstract into something you can touch, test, reshape, and grow.
The best part?
You don’t need to be in school to do this.
Learning by doing is available to everyone. You can build something tiny, test something silly, launch a little blog, redesign your bedroom as an engineering challenge, or start a recycled journal project with your own trash.
If learning is a garden, projects are the tools that help you dig into the soil.
Start small. Grow from there.
#2: Gamify, gamify, gamify.
I hate that we talk about “going down a YouTube rabbit hole” as something negative.
Can you imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t help but want to learn? Most people would say no, when actually, we have all experienced this addictive drive to keep accumulating information about something.
I say listen to your obsessions.
What are the videos you can’t help but binge on YouTube? What accounts are you drawn to on Instagram?
Let’s be honest—if learning feels like drudgery, we won’t do it.
But if it feels like play? We’ll sneak in hours without even realizing it.
That’s why gardeners don’t need to be forced to keep tending. They fall in love with the process. They experiment. There’s no external reward, but still—it feels good.
So gamify it.
Set up a points system.
Reward yourself with something lovely (like matcha or memes) when you finish that chapter or video.
Better yet: build quests.
Try this: instead of making learning something you have to force, find a way to make it feel like something you want to explore.
That might mean swapping textbooks for YouTube rabbit holes, walking podcasts, or passion projects.
However you frame it, lower the friction. Feed the fun.
Because if learning is joyful, you’ll keep showing up. And showing up is 80% of it.
#3: Ruthlessly pursue your nonsensical, impractical interests.
You know those weird things you’re interested in that you don’t tell people about because they “don’t fit”?
Those are often the richest soil.
Your interests don’t have to make sense. They just have to be yours.
Maybe you love spreadsheets and sculpture, or you’re obsessed with soil chemistry and early 2000s Tumblr aesthetics.
Maybe you’ve even been reading about how mushrooms communicate or watching videos on Japanese packaging design or sketching mechanical parts in your journal without knowing why.
Follow those threads.
Your passions don’t have to connect yet.
They’re seeds.
And like any good garden, some seeds grow in ways we couldn’t predict.
So ruthlessly pursue what pulls at you. The impractical, the out-of-place, the ones that make no sense.
That’s where you’ll find the roots of your originality—and maybe even your purpose.
Thought To Action
- Learn by doing—treat learning like planting a seed, and grow it through real-world projects.
- Gamify your curiosity to reduce friction and make learning joyful again.
- Ruthlessly pursue your weird, impractical interests—they’re often the roots of your originality.
- Reflect weekly to recognize how your ideas connect and evolve over time.
- Trust your learning journey even when it doesn’t make sense—growth is rarely linear.
Sources
Ingber, S. (2019). NPR Choice page. Npr.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/28/614386847/what-kind-of-parent-are-you-carpenter-or-gardener
Okano, H., Hirano, T., & Balaban, E. (2000). Learning and memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(23), 12403–12404. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.210381897
Reese, H. W. (2011). APA PsycNet. Psycnet.apa.org. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2014-55719-001.html
Steffens, M. C., von Stülpnagel, R., & Schult, J. C. (2015). Memory Recall After “Learning by Doing” and “Learning by Viewing”: Boundary Conditions of an Enactment Benefit. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01907
Stein, G. M., & Murphy, C. T. (2012). The Intersection of Aging, Longevity Pathways, and Learning and Memory in C. elegans. Frontiers in Genetics, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2012.00259
Walsh, M. M., Krusmark, M. A., Jastrembski, T., Hansen, D. A., Honn, K. A., & Gunzelmann, G. (2022). Enhancing learning and retention through the distribution of practice repetitions across multiple sessions. Memory & Cognition, 51(51). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01361-8
Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(1), 1–17. Springer Open. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y
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