The Curious Power Of Lifelong Learning with Tom Vanderbilt

Hyper Curious

For all of us who are hyper curious, who are motivated to learn new things in our lives, today’s guest, Tom Vanderbilt, is an inspiration.

“One of the greatest ways to kickstart a desire to stay curious, to stay intellectually humble, to admit that you don't know everything that's out there, is to take up a new skill in which you have no background.”

Tom is a journalist and author of New York Times bestseller Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and Beginners: The Joy And Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning. Tom writes on many subjects for many publications, including Wired, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and the New York Time Magazine.

In this episode, we talk about the beginner's mind and why adults stop learning, how absorbing completely new skills triggers your curiosity to look at the world around you with a fresh perspective, and why we should be inspired by kids when they playfully try and fail and learn, as opposed to having a big goal to get to.

“Skill learning could help combat stress and build resilience because you no longer feel as if your life is dependent on a few things.”

From the importance of openness to experience, to mastering what you’ve learned by repeating and practicing it, to why the disruptive pandemic has forced us to change and given us a good excuse to learn new things.

“A lot of life is very habitual. We're not even aware of how much is habitual and one of the greatest ways to induce behaviour change is to have a disruption in one's life.”

If you’re a founder, starting a company or changing career, this is a truly curious episode that will hopefully inspire you to be a lifelong learner.

On today’s podcast:

• Why he wrote Beginners
• The main traits of hyper curious people
• The risk of being a generalist
• How the pandemic induced collective behaviour change
• Don’t rely on goals

Links:

• Twitter: @tomvanderbilt
• LinkedIn: Tom Vanderbilt
• Tom Vanderbilt