Recently, I was talking to a young biologist. He told me that his subject is very exciting because nature never ceases to surprise him. The same species of fish can exist in both northern and southern waters, but the local variants behave completely differently. Having studied one does not mean you understand the other. That is why you never stop learning, he said. Or to put it another way: nature keeps surprising you. These two views are the two sides of the same coin. The willingness to constantly learn is also an admission that one will never have anything close to conclusive knowledge, even in a more or less limited field of expertise.
Today, this is probably not only true of biologists but of almost any profession. Technological change is constantly altering the framework of almost anything. And this in a rather accelerating pace than a slowing one. Moreover, technology is not the only thing that constantly presents us with new challenges. The world is changing fundamentally in many ways. For example, it would be naive to think that a changing climate will only affect the work of biologists and meteorologists.
Learning as a time-out is an outdated model
Adapting and integrating new things into one’s work will have to happen in ever shorter gaps. In this respect, learning and working are merging more and more. So far people were expected to take a course and then return to work. In the best cases, they applied to their work, what they have learned. In the future, learning as a sabbatical will be the exception, not the rule.
Companies that allow learning as part of normal working hours have anticipated this phenomenon. Admittedly: The separation of learning time from so-called working time will be outdated. Nowadays learning should be possible at close, regular intervals and granted to all employees.
It also seems possible to me that in the not-too-distant future, the definition of learning time will become obsolete because learning and working will no longer be separable. The norm will be that one has to deal with something new every day. This will inevitably change our concept of work. People will no longer be productive just by doing their job, but also by learning.
The biologist I mentioned will not have a problem with such a definition. On the contrary, he is already living this concept. Probably not only him, but also many people who are already seeing learning as part of their work.