What It Means to Keep Studying After School

Books about personal development often put studying right in the title. When I was young, I could take the need to study for granted. Working made the consequences of what I had not learned much easier to see.

There are things I need to understand now that never appeared on a school timetable: interest rates, investing, AI and changes in the industries around me. I can see why I kept coming across the word “study” once I started looking for help.

Takashi Nakajima on learning while working

Japanese business writer Takashi Nakajima makes the subject explicit in a book published in Korean as Study Intensely in Your Twenties.

Much of the advice is familiar. Pay attention to what the day teaches you and take the trouble to learn what you cannot yet do. I found it more useful when he turned to examples from working life.

Start with depth and learn to work across fields

The book is for people who have started work. Nakajima wants them to keep studying even after a job gives them a routine they could follow for years.

He suggests developing one skill in depth, then learning enough about other fields to work across them. The picture is a T, with one long vertical line and a broad horizontal one.

Speaking, English and technology

He singles out three practical skills: speaking well, using English and being comfortable with technology. The point is how much a person can do when they can bring all three to the same task.

I had put a lot of time into writing and English while working and keeping a blog. I could see the gaps in my technical knowledge. I wished I had begun filling them earlier, so I started with what I could learn now.

Keep ideas where you can find them

Nakajima suggests keeping something close at hand to record an idea. Then group related notes so you have a way to find them again when you need them.

A digital record of the people you meet

He also writes about keeping business cards in a digital record. The system can outlast the exchange itself. It gives you a way to remember when you met someone and why you might want to talk to them again.

Learn what a price has to cover

Nakajima distinguishes studying management and economics from getting a feel for how a business actually works. A first attempt to sell something can make the choices behind the terms much easier to remember.

Start with a product and ask who might buy it at what price. The question brings you quickly to money, materials and what you can afford to spend on each one.

Keep a record of the work as you do it

He advises keeping a running record of your work instead of waiting until you need to write an application.

What did you do, what was your part and what happened afterward? If you keep the answers as projects end, you can explain them to somebody else while the details are still clear.

I took the book as an argument for staying a student once you have a job. Practice can become a part of the work if you leave enough room for it.

I am well past my twenties. Some of what I learned a few years ago already needs updating. That is reason enough to keep going with the subjects I can still use.

Book details

Study Intensely in Your Twenties

Author

Takashi Nakajima

Korean edition published

January 25, 2008

ISBN-13

9788925516387

View on YES24

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