My wife and I have both been pursuing self-directed learning for years — she's deep into permaculture and I'm working through philosophy and psychology — but we're realizing our whole sense of who we are has become tied to being 'learners' and it's creating this weird competition between us where we can't just be together without performing our intellectual growth.
More people experience this than they realize.
Two people have organized their shared life around the pursuit of knowledge, but this has created a dynamic where authentic presence is constantly mediated by the need to demonstrate learning.
“Where Are You with Self-directed learning as identity?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.