Push And Pull Learning

I have recently encountered two different ways of learning.

Right now I’m trying to get into a new computer science subject. At first, my learning was shaped by a general feeling of having to do it, like running uphill. I had to push myself to learn.

Then something sparked my curiosity. The subject became interesting.

Immediately, learning became effortless – it felt like I “had to do it” not because something forced me to, but because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Push learning became pull learning – wanting to learn as much as possible and pulling knowledge towards me.

From the outside, it’s quite obvious that intrinsic motivation is much more encouraging than extrinsic motivation.

But the question I’m now asking myself is, how can I replicate this pull learning experience with any other subject? How can we consistently move from “push learning” to “pull learning?”

I'm unsure about the answer, but it's probably rooted in curiosity and joy.

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