How to Learn About Everything

clipped from metamodern.com Read and skim journals and textbooks that (at the moment) you only half understand. . Include Science and Nature. Seldom stop to study a single subject with a student’s intensity, as if you had to pass a test on it. Don’t drop a subject because you know you’d fail a test — instead, read other half-understandable journals and textbooks to accumulate vocabulary, perspective, and context. Notice that concepts make more sense when you revisit a topic, and note which topics provide keys to many others. Continue until almost everything you encounter in Science and Nature makes sense as a contribution to a field you know something about. Why is this effective? You learned your native language by immersion, not by swallowing and regurgitating spoonfuls of grammar and vocabulary. With comprehension of words and the unstructured curriculum of life came what we call “common sense”.