No fallen tree on the side of the road is safe
It’s easy to believe that learning is like a harvest. Like a clear cut in the forest. Get all the timber you need. Or go buy a cord or two of wood for heating your home all in one go. Go to college, take a class, get the knowledge or skills you need.
My Dad has always been a bit of a scavenger. Growing up on the east coast where winters where long and harsh, no tree fallen on the side of the road was safe. He’d pull his car over, chainsaw in the back at the ready, cut it up into manageable pieces, and throw it in the back.
I think learning is a lot like that. No conversation, no book, no observable interaction, should be safe from learning, from applying. Taking little nuggets, bits and pieces, from the “1,000 coaches” all around you every day.
In order to do this well you have to know how to apply the core of the idea or thinking to your specific context.
In college I poured over every issue of Communication Arts. I just loved looking. But I wasn’t always learning. A mentor leaned over my shoulder as I was in mid-drool at the latest “cool design” and said “make sure you’re thinking about what you’re looking at. WHY you like it or don’t like it. HOW they did what they did to make you feel that way. And THEN, implement those aspects into your own work.”
Stealing people’s ideas is lame. And wrong. But learning the “why” and “how” and figuring out what applicable wisdom there might be to your specific situation is a state of being.
I never know when I’ll see or hear something that could be useful or helpful. So I just stay ready for everything.