Believe me, the question posed by the title of this blog post is actually more common than you think. Some people are under the impression that you only need a bachelor’s degree to do well in life.
Others are convinced that you need to get some sort of advanced post-graduate degree. We’re talking about a doctorate, at least. Others, and the number of these people are increasing over time, are under the impression that you don’t need a college degree whatsoever.
So, which person is correct? Which school of thought can lead to greater success with everything else being equal? Well, the shocking answer actually revolves around the definition of “education”.
Believe it or not, every single day you’re alive, you are learning. You may not be aware of it. You may not seek it out. It may not register in clear terms. You may not be able to see it in black and white, but you’re still learning.
Even if you already learned how to drive. When you learn a new route or you learn how to evade and avoid a possible accident, you learn something new. It registers at some level or other.
When you find yourself in the same situation at some point in the future, if you have a good memory, you can benefit from what you just learned. This applies across the board.
I’m not just talking about avoiding accidents. I’m not just talking about stuff that you do physically. This can involve concepts and topics that you come across in your line of work.
This can also involve issues or potential opportunities in your business and personal relationships. Again, this applies across the board because if you think about it, human beings are learning machines. We really are.
We are biochemical learning machines that pick up all sorts of signals all over the world and process these signals to produce outcome. There is a specific output to our learning process.
We don’t just learn for the sake of learning. However, there are no shortage of people who are under the impression that people do learn just for the sake of learning.
Believe it or not. Even if somebody is learning some sort of academic discipline that has no direct practical application, they can actually still be picking up secondary education that can have practical effect.
For example, when you learn Latin, you’re really learning how to learn a new language. You’re learning syntax and grammar. You’re learning how to budget your time, how to make use of whatever resources you have available to get the most results out of the activity that you have chosen. At the very least, you learn opportunity costs.
Believe it or not, for every second you invest in doing something, you’re automatically not doing something else. What if that alternative activity pays $1000 an hour and here you are learning stuff and getting paid zero.
Do you see how this works? Given this concept of broad day-to-day education, the only answer to the question posed by the title of this blog post is a resounding no.
There is no such thing as too much education. If you really want to live your life at the highest level possible, I’m not just talking about your income, social status, or sense of personal effectiveness, you need to learn.
In fact, you need to learn about learning. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but it’s true. When you learn how to learn in an effective way, you develop a system and a method that enables you to live life to the fullest. You have to remember that education is just a tool. It’s just a means to an end.