(Part of the Art of Learning series.)
Being good at something means knowing how to enjoy it. It would be tragic if you graduated from your program with excellent grades but no love for the subject you have spent years learning to master. In this talk, I go through a few simple strategies to help you experience the pleasure of learning and remember the satisfaction that school also provides. I began and ended the lecture by quoting from Quine’s The Roots of Reference, a series of lectures about we master theories:
Learning is a matter of learning to warp the trend of episodes by intervention of one’s own muscles in such a way as to simulate a pleasant earlier episode. To learn is to learn to have fun. (28)
A … serious objection to hedonism is simply that it is unrealistic as an account of responsible adult behavior. For instance my self-imposed activity, thinking and writing, is not fun. Very well; responsible adult behavior is an obscure and complicated matter. Still, when we are looking for the elements of the learning process at its simplest, perceptual similarity and the pleasure principle afford a reasonable schema. (32)
I organized the talk on a sort of timeline. Looking back on your past, try to find satisfaction in the process. In the present, try to find pleasure in the moment; and, looking ahead, to the future, try to be confident about your plan. None of this is easy; these are habits of mind (and heart) you form through deliberate practice. But you will not regret the effort if you succeed. If you’re working in a way that is making you increasingly frustrated with the process, or casuing you suffering in the moment, or shaking your confidence about your future, then it’s time to rethink your approach, adjust your attitude. This is not what school is meant to feel like.
If you don’t like school it’s probably because you’re giving yourself too much or too little time for you tasks, or you are imagining your peers as less likable than they might well be. It’s all about “apportioning the moment” and alternating between “the arts” — reading, writing, talking, listening, and thinking. Work from the center of your strength. And take some long walks. Finally, remember the wise words of Cyril Connolly: “there is no happiness except through freedom from Angst and only creative work, communion with nature, and helping others are anxiety-free.” Seek out these simple opportunities to be free from worry on a regular basis. Happy learning!
I’ve written about Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks in a blogpost from 2022.
At the beginning, I mentioned my definition of poetry as “writing that makes you feel better.” Not, writing that makes you happy when you are sad but better able to feel sad. More precisely, more efficiently. Better able to get through it. And better at being happy of course, at enjoying the good times. Taking pleasure.
In the Q&A, I was asked to suggest some poets to read and offered the following list: William Carlos Williams, Lisa Robertson, Ben Lerner, Kate Greenstreet and, my personal favorite, Tony Tost, who writes: “Like a cloud, I was meant to serve a large population.” Williams taught us that there are “no ideas but it in things”; Lisa Robertson encourages you to make “your data shimmer”; Ben Lerner offers us his consolations as we “enter the academy single file”; and Kate Greenstreet’s story knows it’s being followed.
As for music, you know best, but might I recommend Lee Morgan’s “Procrastinator” and Billie Holiday’s “Summertime”? And here (in the dead of winter) is Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s wonderful verse (from the title track of an excellent Bill Evan’s album):
Just as the trees can be sure
that their leaves will reappear,
they know their emptiness
is just a time of year,
You must believe in spring.
See also “How to Keep it Simple and Real”, “The Process and the Moment”, “The Pleasures of School”, “Discipline Zero”, “Competence & Competition”, “Enjoy the Company”.
And here’s a writing exercise you might enjoy: “Where to Find It”
You can find the Bill Evans documentary I mentioned on YouTube: