Don't let schooling interfere with your education. — Mark Twain

Don't let schooling interfere with your education.

Author: Mark Twain

Insight: There's a real tension baked into this idea that most of us feel but rarely name. School teaches you how to pass tests, follow instructions, and compete for grades. Education—the actual thing—teaches you how to think, question, and become interested in the world. Sometimes those align perfectly. Often they don't. The sneaky part is that good grades can actually convince you you're learning when you're mostly just getting better at the system. You memorize for the exam, forget by summer, and call it done. Meanwhile, genuine curiosity—the stuff that makes you google random rabbit holes at midnight or pick up a book because you're actually confused about something—that's what actually sticks. It rewires how you see things. This matters now more than ever because information is everywhere. The bottleneck isn't access anymore; it's attention and genuine interest. The people who thrive aren't necessarily the ones with the best transcripts—they're the ones who stayed curious after school ended, who kept asking questions when no one was grading them. Protecting that curiosity, that willingness to learn things that don't have immediate payoffs, might be the most practical skill you can develop.

Source: Following the Equator, 1897