If ‘Serial Learner’ is a thing, I have it.
and… I’m very happy, because it has totally transformed me!
I am a serial learner.
There, I’ve said it, and now I‘ve written it. Therefore, it shall be. I am, and I will probably always be a serial learner, and I am happier because of it.
Like most of you reading this, I tend to repeat behaviors that make me happy.
You might ask, “What, exactly, do you mean by ‘serial’ learner?”
It’s a fair question. After all, the word ‘serial’ as it is often used in “American” English, refers to chronic behaviors that are less-than-savory. Often, it is followed by words that evoke painful emotions — words like, ‘… -offender,’ ‘… -killer,’ and the like. I will explain.
I find that ‘serial’ is the best word to describe the level to which I have taken the concept of learning. Learning is very much like a narcotic to me, and I believe I have discovered the root cause. More to come on that.
I haven’t always been this way
As a grade school student, I earned above average grades but it wasn’t because I was excited to learn. The fact is, I was negatively motivated to earn good grades — I didn’t want to face Mom and Dad when I got home from school on report card day unless my grades were beyond good. I learned from their behaviors, how ever negative though those behaviors were.
In high school, my friends mostly landed in the circle of people who were above average students, not too geeky, and were as comfortable in a conversation about baseball as a conversation about the Pythagorean theorem. From that circle of friends came peer pressure to turn in my homework and study just enough to qualify for honor roll (most of the time). Through those years, study and learning tipped the scale just a grain or two toward ‘pain,’ versus ‘pleasure’ for me.
Despite my sub-optimal study habits, I managed to graduate college with a degree in Electrical Engineering, albeit not top 1-percenter. Try doing that these days with an average-at-best appetite for learning.
After college, everything changed.
It turns out that (in business) effort counts much more than test scores, but they forgot to teach that part in college. After all, college is a business.
Never the one to shy away from a good challenge, I have had what reasonable people consider an above-average career; and yet during most of my corporate career, I was never excited about learning, save for announcements about a wonderful invention that could calculate square roots, yet fit in the palm of the hand, or how about getting navigation instructions from a mobile telephone! I have always been ready to learn more about that sort of thing.
Learning about things that excite is, well, exciting!
I finally reached a point in life when I could follow my passion, and as luck would have it, I discovered my passion at almost the same time. I have been trying to catch up ever since. Please read on to find out more about my passion and the “why” in my life.
Lucky for me, just as I discovered my life’s passion, there was an explosion in the delivery technology for sharing (selling) great training (and much of it is free!). And that, my dear reader, is the root cause of my addiction to learning…the confluence of
- Knowing one’s passion in life
- Availability of knowledge necessary to perform that passion well
- Affordability of the knowledge and tools necessary
- Position in life to make one’s passion the #1 personal priority (behind family)
When it hit me, it was like a bolt of Lightning!
I have never been the same…and that’s a good thing.
Before you read on, I will share a deep inner secret. You see, since birth I have been a ‘both-brained’ person (is there a name for that?). I have above average aptitude for science+logic, as I do for art+creativity. That said, during my early years the left brain (the science+logic part) won out, always pushing the right brain (art+creativity) interests into the background. As I reached middle age, the right brain drew even, and then over time the right brain has taken over my destiny.
When it hit me, that insatiable desire to learn more and more, it was like a bolt of lightning. I recall the instant when it happened, as if it were yesterday, although I can’t say for sure the date. What I can say for sure is this: I was on a plane when it happened. It was a business trip. I had purchased a book to read on the plane, and in that book, I found the single nugget of knowledge that changed me forever.
The book was a typical self-help guide on the relatively new practice (at the time) called ‘digital’ photography. For background, I cannot recall a day in my life when I did not have a camera close at hand. Photography has always been a favorite hobby, but the changing technology (at that time) from film to digital media had, frankly, muted my interest. My first digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 990) did a nice job of taking snapshots, but that was the extent of my understanding of the camera and the topic of digital photography. The camera was a black-box that did only one trick, or at least for me it did.
I wish I could recall the title of the book I read on that plane, or the author’s name. I promise I will search for it, so I can heap great praise on the writer whose words impacted my life in such a profound way!
The single nugget of knowledge was this:
In digital photography, there is a “thing” that is to digital as the ‘film negative’ was to film. In other words, this “thing” makes it possible to artistically ‘develop’ an image, using an average computer, in much the same way that I used to develop film. Who knew? (Certainly not me!)
This is not a technical post about photography or technology. I may write more in the future about digital photography, but this post is all about ‘serial learning.’ Learning becomes necessary, even desirable, when we are confronted with a new possibility that we find highly desirable, but lack the deep understanding needed for execution.
Oh, yes, that ‘thing’? It is called a “RAW” image file. Only a few cameras can record RAW image files, but wow! A digital file that contains very, very detailed information about every single dot in the image. Add to this ‘thing’ a software app like Adobe Lightroom CC or Photoshop CC, and you are ready to begin a multi-year adventure in becoming a master at digital photography!
The thing is, I knew nothing about a digital darkroom, digital image files, or even how light is captured and saved in a digital file. I needed to learn all of this, and as fast as possible. That was more than ten years ago, and if I am honest, I am still on that journey today.
There is hardly a day that goes by without me logging in to one of my favorite training sites (which I share below). On a typical day, I will pay very close attention to 1–4 hours of instructor-led training. Occasionally, I pay less attention but I still have a training session playing as ‘background noise’ while I work on other things.
How becoming a ‘Serial learner’ may work for you
I enjoy sharing ideas that have worked for me. Here is a short list of the ways ‘serial learning’ has worked for me, and may work for you:
- Exercising brain ‘muscles’ previously unused can create an emotional ‘high,’ much like the ‘runner’s high’ reported by distance runners
- Recognition as a ‘professional’ may instill personal pride, sense of accomplishment, and (maybe) financial gain
- Self-challenge may lead to new places and experiences, even profound realization(s) about our culture, environment, or even self
- Defining your “Why” — the purpose, inspiration, priority, etc, that guide you — may improve your clarity of purpose, consistency, and quality of work
My first instinct in searching for education is to (somehow) ‘qualify’ a resource: What is the likelihood that I will learn, and what is the likelihood that the material will be correct? Sometimes I need to take a ‘sample’ before I can answer these questions.
My favorite places to find free education* are:
* I will only recommend products that I currently use
CreativeLive (creativelive.com)
My ‘best-in-class’ resource for any topic in the arts, personal improvement, and business development for artists and creatives is creativelive.com. CL classes are free of charge during ‘live’ streaming or re-broadcasts (a calendar of broadcast times can be found on their web site). There is no membership charge. CL offers paid education, as well — read below under “My favorite places for paid education.”
Youtube (youtube.com)
For a broader library of topics, Youtube offers an immense scope of non-curated content. I use Youtube frequently, but the task of locating and qualifying content is not trivial. There is no membership or access charge, although premium services can be purchased.
My favorite places for paid education* are:
* I will only recommend products that I currently use
CreativeLive (creativelive.com)
Class videos are provided free of charge during times when content is ‘live’ or re-broadcast online. Training materials, such as the instructor’s slides or discount codes, are generally not downloadable unless the class is purchased. Classes are individually priced, based upon the duration of training, or bundled with related topics. A one-time purchase enables class videos and other class materials to be streamed, downloaded, and watched at any time. Purchased access never expires.
LinkedIn Learning (linkedin.com) formerly Lynda.com (lynda.com)
LinkedIn Learning is now a property of Microsoft, and is currently available only to paid subscribers to a LinkedIn Premium account. LinkedIn Premium members have unlimited streaming access to the entire education library. The LinkedIn Learning catalog is broad, and class videos are delivered in short segments, making it possible to easily locate a specific topic or to consume training in short spurts as you have time available.
Master’s Academy (mastersacademy.com)
Ben Willmore is one of my all-time favorite instructors. I first met Ben on CreativeLive, and I purchased just about every one of his CL classes there. Ben recently launched this membership-based platform, and I quickly joined. Content is mainly related to topics in photography and the processing of photo images in the Adobe suite. Ben presents not only the basics, but he also goes deep into highly specialized topics that can be the difference between ‘above average’ and ‘stunning’ images. With a paid annual subscription, members have unlimited streaming access to the entire library, and currently receive a new video weekly. Content is currently not downloadable, so an internet connection is required to access the library.
Please share your thoughts on this.
I look forward to hearing from you. This is a side-effect of my addiction — I’m always asking friends where they go for training!
Larry Rogers Bio
Larry Rogers is a conservation and landscape writer and photographer, currently based in southwest Ohio. With an educational background in engineering, but with a passion for wildlife and the environment, Larry now shares his experience making the transition from a corporate life in the technical field to a life of sharing images of many of the wildest places on earth, with a message of conservation and respect for the environment. Larry has published two e-books, available in the iTunes Store, and articles on LinkedIn.
