[_benj]

I was lucky enough to be homeschooled (semi-properly) and thus avoided some of the terrible learning habits of traditional education.

Curiosity was encouraged and the curriculum, specially during early education (i.e. before I had to pass SATs), was mostly driven by interest and what books where available in the local library.

As an adult, and after being affected by 8 years of undergrad and grad schooling, I've notice that I need to make intentional efforts in order to approach something I want to learn in a "non-academic" way, say, curiosity driven, exploratory and giving myself permission to take a different direction at any time.

In a professional context (software engineer) where "learning" is very goal oriented, i.e. interface with X vendor's API or use SQL to do something, I seldom worry about learning more than the bare minimum needed to complete the task because 1. the project has a deadline and 2. the motivation for the "learning" in that context is getting paid, and I've realized that trying to get paid AND finding joy in learning is near impossible for me.