Something we should NEVER stop doing

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. His copious body of work -- he wrote or edited more than 500 books and roughly 90,000 letters and postcards -- spanned a myriad of genres ranging from science fiction to history and chemistry.

He is perhaps best known for his Foundation and Robot series. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Asimov once said the following, with which I wholeheartedly concur:

"Education never ends."

So short and sweet, and yet so powerful a statement.

I've seen clips on YouTube of many of his interviews. Asimov championed self-learning and fretted that many people cease trying to learn new things once they graduate from high school or college.

He foresaw that one day technology would enable people to educate themselves without having to set foot in a school (i.e., the internet). Unfortunately, he did not live to see how the World Wide Web has made it easy to acquire knowledge on virtually any conceivable topic through Wikipedia, YouTube, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) like Coursera, and so forth.

Asimov would probably echo my sentiment that people have no reason to complain of boredom these days. There's more to learn and read about out there than we could ever hope to absorb in a single lifetime.

Indeed, if there's one thing we should never stop doing, it's educating ourselves. Whether we're learning about history or teaching ourselves the ins and outs of running a business, knowledge enriches our perspective on life and helps us gain a deeper appreciation for it.

The moment that light bulb goes off in your head -- meaning you've actually learned something new -- it's really a remarkable feeling.

I'm proudly an autodidact -- and this educational blog, which I run for pleasure, is a testament to my unbridled intellectual curiosity. A day that goes by where I don't learn something new feels like an utterly wasted one.

Do you agree with Asimov that education never ends -- or should never end?

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