[gregjor]

We learn from birth without conscious effort or awareness. As we get older we learn patterns, incentives, rules, punishments that interfere with self-directed learning. Young children show intense curiosity and learn quickly. After a few years of school those qualities usually get pushed down and replaced by the forms of “education,” which get mistaken for “learning” due to perverse incentives.

You can recover your innate curiosity and ability to learn. If you went through typical schooling you have to give yourself permission to learn on your own. I recommend John Holt’s books How Children Fail and How Children Learn, and Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich.