I’m reading through This is Marketing by Seth Godin. Many have said that Seth Godin is the father of modern marketing.

I’m not sure about the father, but I do know that he speaks to the human heart of what we all value. None of us want to be spammed, content for the sake of content.

We want content that sees us, so that we can see it.

It’s an amazing book, and if you’re in business—marketing or otherwise, you will benefit from this book.

Learning all starts with asking questions. What questions are you asking. And Seth Godin fills this book not only with the questions any business should be asking, but also the mindset of how to solve them. He gives practical examples too, but every business must build their business differently. He put it best: “Always be wondering, always be testing, always be willing to treat different people differently. If you don’t, they’ll find someone who will” (Seth Godin).

And learning causes tension.

“All effective education creates tension, because just before you learn something, you’re aware you don’t know it (yet).”

Seth Godin, This is Marketing

That’s why learning is hard.

Learning starts with, “I don’t know something.”

I don’t like admitting that I don’t know something.

You probably don’t either. That’s one common trait among us.

We might learn to accept that and learn how to respond correctly when we don’t know something, to save face, but if the choice was to know everything so we didn’t ever have to ask the question, we most likely would take the choice to know everything.

But I probably don’t want to know everything and, neither do you.

You want to know what you need to know.

And you need to know the answer to your questions.

So we must learn to ask the questions we need to ask in order to get the answers we need to move forward. 

Learning starts with humbly saying, “I don’t know something” but it never ends there. It continues on by saying, “And I’m sure there’s an answer.”

And today, there’s always an answer, if you look hard enough. It’s what Daniel Kahneman would advocate for in using our second system in our brain (Thinking, Fast and Slow), the one that can think critically and challenge our initial assumptions (system 1). 

The first ad on your Google search is rarely the full answer to your question. It could be, but most likely it will take some deeper searching than just the description on the Google page.

You’ll need to double click to get the full information.

And that’s what makes learning hard. You’ll need to double click. It’s when we double click that we get the answers we’re truly looking for—or at least closer to the answer we’re needing. 

Sometimes our answers reveal more questions, which then means we need to keep searching, keep asking, keep listening, keep growing. 

That’s also what makes learning hard. It’s hard because it’s never done. There’s never a moment when we could say, “We know everything.”

There’s always something more to learn. 

That could be exciting for you, or not. The infinite game of learning and growing isn’t for everyone. 

But the other option is not worth it either. If you don’t keep learning, eventually you’ll be left behind, out of touch, out of date.

Learning keeps our sell by date fresh.

Not only because the world is changing and the problems we face today require a new set of thinking than the problems yesterday. But also because the assumptions yesterday were disproven today. Or at least they could be.

I’m glad I’m continuing to learn about parenting. And so are my kids. I didn’t know how to change a diaper when Ellen, my oldest, was born. But I quickly learned. I was a dad, and dad’s change diapers. 

Ellen doesn’t wear diapers anymore. Now she’s on the precipice of preteen and all that goes with the next 10 years called the teenage years. If I don’t learn how to parent a teenager, the tools I know for parenting a toddler will sorely disappoint me. And her.

So I’m learning from other parents, books, and trial and error how to parent a teenager. I’ve never done it before. There’s the tension. 

As I learn, it will make these coming years easier. Not because I know what I’m doing, but because I’m learning how to do what will be required.