The importance of self-learning

After stumbling across this brilliant essay by English computer scientist, Paul Graham, I decided to pick up his 2004 title, Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age. The book, a collection of essays including Taste for Makers, explores Graham's views on art, design, programming, wealth, and startups.

Hackers & Painters is a thought-provoking and insightful book that I would recommend to every young and aspiring technologist. Although his work is over ten years old, the majority of Graham's opinions and ideas still hold much truth. In particular, one of my key takeaways from the book is that if you strive to be worldly, well-balanced and open to interests outside of your field, this will make you infinitely better at what you do. This is why self-education is so important. Whenever there is a topic at hand that you realise you know little about – may it be finance, law, politics, art – then know that there is an opportunity for growth, for pushing boundaries, to learn something new and different and exciting.

Five hundred years ago, polymaths were not uncommon. To be a Renaissance Man meant to excel in a significant number of different subject areas. Leonardo da Vinci was not only a seasoned artist, but a man involved in sculpting, inventing, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography (to borrow from his Wikipedia page). Undoubtedly, da Vinci's expertise in areas outside of painting made him a better painter. In today's age, it seems, one can only hope to have enough time in a day to become so multidimensional.

These days, we become specialists rather than generalists. Personally, I value breadth over depth. A person who might once have been considered a polymath in the 16th century is likely to be called a "jack of all trades, master of none" instead. And why is it that there are negative connotations with this label?

Perhaps we specialise because there is so much already known, and it takes a deeper understanding of one topic to reach new insights. Perhaps it's because specialising is easier and more economical. It takes less energy to know one thing excellently than it does to know many things well. Perhaps it is personal gratification, to be able to call oneself a master of "x" or expert in "y". Both our careers and our job security encourage us to specialise. Or perhaps we specialise because society models us to, as we pursue our bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees.

Whatever the cause, my objective is simply this: Never stop learning, and never be afraid to learn something new.