School's out but class still in session

When you graduated and start to work, do you stop learning?

I bet everyone will say, they thought so too when they got their scroll from whatever high school, college or university they have been studying. We always thought that you will never have to go to class anymore. Waking up early in the morning and having to hear some bored lecturer lecturing the same things they have been lecturing for years. One of the running joke that I remembered when I used any of my seniors' lecture notes was how predictable some lecturers are that they will even tell the same joke they have been telling years before and it was reflected in the notes. That is how repetitive the lecturer was. Year in, year out.

It seems that, it is not the case. For instance, from Monday to Wednesday this week, I will be at a conference on Islamic finance. Though I am there more to network and exchange ideas with other participants, I do try to relearn and learn new stuff. It is not everyday I hear CEOs of banks across the country and some even come from outside of Malaysia talking about a topic I held dear to my heart. I have heard some of the topics before but hearing them from a different person makes it something worth learning. Even walking in the woods can teach you new things everytime you past new places (even old places).

And at today's session (Monday), I met some participants who are running multi-million dollar company and they still come for conference like these. I mean, if you only need to learn once and then work for the rest of your life, I think the education and even the book industries would go bankrupt in a matter of minutes. 

In short, you never stop learning, even if you already have a Ph.D in something. I bet, those with Ph.Ds are the one who have to learn more and more.

 

We learn new things every other day, whether we like it or not...