My love for learning hasn't always been the most consistent. As a kid up until high school I was very curious, enjoyed reading and writing, basically most subjects I had an interest in, all the while loved being outside and being active as well. But as high school hit and into university, I just lost the motivation to continue learning. Reading and writing became more of an obligation, and 'learning' for the purpose of pursuing a 'higher education' and having to follow compulsory curriculums just did not sit right with me.

Learning at a young age was fun and exciting, but as I grew older it become more dutiful, and felt more like a societal requirement and responsibility in order to land some highly regarded job.

But I still had this itch to learn, as in learn for the pure excitement of learning. The joy I got from devouring The Hardy Boys series, or from speeding through the times table for the first time, or writing out my own murder mystery in elementary school, or learning to speak a bit of Spanish to my Latin friends, or learning to progressively get better at playing football, all of these moments are strongly ingrained in my memory and serve as reminders as why learning is so powerful and crucial to live a fulfilling life.

And as I was longing for something worth diving into, learning about, and obsessing over, along came Bitcoin. And boy has it been a learning experience and a half!

I still have so much more to learn about Bitcoin and probably will continue to have things to learn until my last breath. But Bitcoin has also been the catalyst that has awakened my learning spirit once again. And I am even more driven to learn and apply what I have learned into my life than ever before!

Traditional academia and education ended up putting my natural curiosity and willingness to learn into a deep slumber. The reasons to learn were always externally driven I felt. For a good job, to go to a good university, to live a stable life, so on and so forth. Basically I felt we were just being conditioned to 'learn' instead of actually learning for the sake of satisfying our inner curiosities and questions. Learning and knowledge should be something that allows you to feel empowered and yet within the confines of academia I felt I was becoming more and more enslaved.

So here I stand today. Constantly learning, building up my knowledge, linking my thinking, applying what I have learned, and sharing it in order to collaborate and communicate with others, as well as expand my consciousness with new ideas I receive from the plethora of brilliant brains in spaces such as on SN.

Truth is, I'm still learning to learn.

Therefore, I'm curious to know, how do you optimize your learning?