Hacker News Reader

"Nobody likes learning for the purpose of learning."

I do.

I have found few things more pleasurable than learning only for my personal enlightenment

I doubt it. Our brains aren't designed that way (I even saw studies about it, but right now I can't search for any, 'working). There are always other motives for doing it.

For example I'm learning new things out of belief that doing it will improve my life in some way. I liked computer science because of the thrills of building things, and I keep on learning to break my own limits, always wanting to build better applications / algorithms. Seeing the results of my work makes me really happy (that's not too uncommon among us developers I believe). I also liked math in college because I've always enjoyed solving puzzles, and for the satisfactions of doing it before the others did.

"I also liked math in college because I've always enjoyed solving puzzles"

Is this not learning for learning's sake?

I dunno. I watch and enjoy documentaries on subjects I've got no particular interest in, and will likely never come across again. What's my motive there, if not learning for the sake of learning?

PS: Our brains aren't designed, 'that way' or any other.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com