I'm reading Larry Gonick's book on Physics. There is so much there that I studied in school, but never really understood.

In the past I've ascribed this to my growing maturity as I age. Now that I have kids in school, I realise that the difference is examinations.

We didn't study to know. We studied to remember. The focus, when reading, was to be able to reproduce. Only the most captivating of texts and concepts escaped this treatment and were really understood.

In college I studied to learn. Which led to a rather mixed bag of examination results. But I had a free pass in college, so it was OK. Whatever I learnt, I still know. Whatever I had to mug up for exams was gone even before the next semester started.

In contrast, absolutely everything I learnt by doing in childhood, on computers and with other tools, still stays with me. Both the understanding of underlying concepts, and the muscle memory of how to use tools.

Larry Gonick is awesome. Thank you Meera and Rajeev for introducing me.