Learning is a Lifelong Pursuit

When do we stop learning? When do we stop investing in education and seeking to better understand the world around us? One of my first questions for friends and family when I see them is, “What books have you been reading lately?” I believe that there is great value in continuing to seek knowledge and being curious. Just because your formal education may be completed doesn’t mean you should stop thinking and broadening your perspective. Reading and knowledge make us better people.

Utilizing our time for sports, social media, and Netflix shouldn't replace our pursuit of discovery. While those things can be fun, I’m not sure they really make our lives richer and more meaningful. They seldom cause me to think in deep and profound ways.

I find reading and education invite me to see the world in deeper and more complex ways. They encourage me to move past simplistic, shallow, or conspiratorial views of life and consider the views of others. Education offers a broader and wider view of a sophisticated world.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading Walter Isaacson’s book about Leonardo da Vinci. Before I started the book, I didn’t know much about da Vinci other than that he painted his two most famous masterpieces, The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. In this book, I discovered that Da Vinci was brilliant. He was not only a gifted painter, but a man who studied key aspects of science, human anatomy, birds, water, and the solar system, long before others even thought about it.

Below are just a few of the things I learned he discovered and considered during his lifespan.

1)        He devised a type of odometer that measured distance by counting the turns of a vehicle wheel.

2)        He presented “pain and pleasure” as twins in his writings. In his view, there is never one without the other.

3)        He dissected human bodies to learn about anatomy and perfect his art. For instance, the length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height. He illustrated this in his Vitruvian Man.

4)        He set the course for men like Galileo, recognizing that the Earth was not the center of the universe.  

5)        He learned that a bird’s wings do not move upward and downward at the same speed by observing and focusing on their movements.

6)         He realized, before other scientists, that a bird stays aloft not merely because the wings beat downward against the air but also because the wings propel the bird forward and air pressure decreases as it rushes over the wing’s curved top surface.

7)        He shared scientific insights such as this precursor to Newton’s law of motion: that a body in motion will stay in the same motion unless acted upon by another force.

8)        He became the first person in history to fully describe the human dental elements, including an almost perfect depiction of a tooth's roots.

9)        He suggested fortress walls be curved because it would reduce the impact of cannonballs.

10)  He believed mathematics and geometry worked together with direct observation to solve scientific and engineering issues.

Yet one of the most impressive things about Leonardo was his decision to move from not only seeking knowledge that could be of practical value but seeking knowledge for its own sake –– out of pure curiosity and joy.

He was one of the original “lifelong learners.” He believed education and learning made us better people. Men like da Vinci remind me that there are still things to study and understand in the world. I trust that all of us find the joy and satisfaction of learning.