The word “learning” often makes you think of school. Waking up early. Memorizing things. Crying over calculus tests at the kitchen counter. Dreading homework. Having to do it anyway. The works.
Studying became a “have to do” rather than a “want to do.” That only makes sense. When it’s associated with pressure or obligation, it becomes a responsibility. A weight. A job, rather than a way to relax and play.
The benefit of being a grown-up is that it doesn’t have to be.
You can learn about whatever the hell you want, however the hell you want, and at whatever pace you want. You can give up when you get bored. Move on to something new. Put the book down. Forget everything. Who cares?
You can learn on TikTok, the toilet, or via analog book while sweating on the recumbent bike at the gym. There are no rules or requirements and no one is grading you. This makes learning as an activity…fun. And much like eating a salad on Sunday (while sweating Hendricks and olive brine), it makes you feel healthier. Better. It’s like Brussels sprouts for your brain.
The funny part about my love of learning is that the literal act itself is what’s enjoyable to me, but I have the memory of a fruit fly. So, if you asked me a single fact from the podcast I listened to while walking my dog this morning, odds are, I couldn’t even tell you the title.
I genuinely just love the whirring feeling of my brain as it deciphers what Angela Duckworth and Mike Maughan are saying or what Mark Kurlansky is writing (yes, I am reading a book about salt). Analyzing it. Drawing connections. The spark-plug feeling of the neurotransmitters firing on all cylinders.
It’s the intellectual equivalent of a runner’s high.
Ways to love no-stakes learning just for fun:
Write down words you don’t know (or just like) when you read or hear them.
Look them up. Use them. I saw the phrase “much-maligned” in a newsletter the other day and loved the way it sounded. Maligned means to “speak about (someone) in a spitefully critical manner.” This weekend Manchester United tied with West Ham. After years at the top of the league, fans have maligned the team for their messy play and low standing.
Read newsletters.
Write newsletters.
Write anything. Lists, stories, poems. Turn cocktail party gossip into a notes app screenplay on the subway home. Write streams of consciousness on the back of a CVS receipt. Nothing matters!
Go to talks and launches and openings and book releases.
Make art.
Ask questions.
The key factor here is that regardless of what you do to learn, go that one step further.
Question the claim the author made. Look up why something is the way it is. Argue it in your head.
Don’t just look at art. Think about it; figure out what it’s saying and why and who cared enough about it for it to be on the wall today. What point in history or the artist’s life did it represent? Poetry forces you to do this because the point is never made in a straightforward manner. You have to decipher and deduce and figure out the hidden meaning. Bring that same curiosity and dexterity to untangling everything else.
To that end, here are a few works of art, music, writing, and fashion that have been inspiring me recently:
I love this piece because there’s something about the vibrance of the oranges—the bright, unapologetic, adamant shade of reddish-orange used—that feels so dissonant with the unassuming background. It feels even more incongruous with winter as a whole.
Oranges are a winter citrus, but I love how strongly they stand up to the season’s greyness. The sad, drab, stir-crazy nausea of the cold months. The contrast sticks with me.
The piece also makes me think about my mom because her hands always smell like peeled oranges or clementines and her hugs always smell of Jo Malone’s Orange Blossom perfume.
Kurt Vonnegut telling his wife he was going to buy an envelope
I’ve been thinking a lot about style simply as a canvas for day to day life.
A tarp with which we cover ourselves to go about our living, rather than something reserved for “The Stylish Crowd.”
I think the division that social media has created between those who are “Aesthetically Inclined” because the internet has lauded them as so, and “The Rest of Us” who are, either Not, or Not Enough of a character to have collected internet renown for our eBay curatorial skills, has made style inaccessible. Something reserved for “The Fashion People,” when it’s really not meant to be.
James Baldwin was a novelist, an activist, and a playwright. None of those things put him on a runway for people to point and judge his ascot, but still, he naturally had impeccable sartorial taste in the way that he thoughtfully presented himself to the world. It wasn’t performative—he was an author, and to my knowledge, not yearning to make his big break in fashion influencing—so his colour-storied curations felt honest.
All of that to say, that there is an enlightened “coolness” to dressing in a way that feels sincere and intentional independent of whether or not it is going to be or meant to be externally perceived. All I can hope is that I grow to embody the same since there is nothing I love more than the activity of dressing myself in the morning as demonstrated here!
These are a few people who I think have aced this balance in the internet age:
Maggie Klimuszko—I love her anti-capsule way of life. My favourite thing about her is that it seems like she has always been exactly who she is. From the way that she dresses and how she decorates her home to the way that she talks about style and the subtle elements of design (down to framing and notebooks), she truly embodies everything that she shares with an excitement, creativity, boundless love for colour and curation, and infectious joie de vivre!
Verona Farrell—Verona Farrell elegantly toes the line between dressing effortlessly and effortfully in the most inspiring of ways. She epitomizes cool girl with her curly red hair and infinitely sharable lists, but in a way that endears you to her (and gives you the biggest friend-crush!). Her outfits are the perfect mix of feminine and edgy, and she has truly nailed the ability to elevate simplicity with the addition of a statement hat or earring.
Marcus Milione—As one half of the brother duo behind Minted New York, it’s no surprise that his style is impeccable. What I admire about the way that Marcus dresses is the thought and tailoring that goes into every piece. His outfits are timeless and intentional, while still feeling uniquely him with his signature flares and loafers.
The Rad brothers, Denny and Enny—I was immediately endeared to them because, like my brother and I, they are Manchester United fans who are best friends with their siblings, but as their videos continued to pop up on my feed, I came to love the way that their style marries European draping and craftsmanship with a sense of vintage Americana and academia. Their vibe is also just plain…fun.
Ok, but where were we?! Back to learning for the goof of it—there is no right or wrong topic to learn about. Being an adult means you get to pick what fascinates you. Just because the person next to you picks Cicero, that is in no way better or smarter or more valuable than you choosing the Chincoteague Island horses or why the bar at the Carlyle is named after the illustrator of the Madeline books. They’re just different.
My favorite things to learn about are food history, Studio 54, art history, tech scandals, hotels, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, sports biographies, writing about writing, psychology, cultural anthropology as related to how the determinants of status and cultural capital have changed over time, old Hollywood, and romance.
Let me know if you want me to share my favorite podcasts, books, newsletters, etc. to learn from!
Until next week!
xx
Saanya
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fan-fucking-tastic. thanks for a wonderful Thursday read - let's catch up soon.
loved this so much (and not only that YouTube!) all of it! Thanks Saanya!!