_Written on 2025-06-12_ Things that we naturally do are rarely rewarding. We need to summon willpower to work out, cut down sugar, and do laundry. Understanding is an exception. We naturally want to understand. Children start asking why at a young age. Why do I have to eat veggies? Why do I need go to bed? Why? Why? Why? At the same time, understanding is immensely beneficial. Imagine a game called “Predict”. In this game, you get points for predicting the correct outcome. For example, if you predict there’s going to be a thunderstorm and that’s indeed the case, you get 1 point. If you pay attention and have lived long enough to witness enough thunderstorms, you’ll probably spot the familiar clouds that would be precursors to a thunderstorm. That gets you more “Predict” points than pure luck or hunch. This is called a _pattern_. Patterns are a great start, we’re getting closer to understanding, but we’re not quite there yet. True understanding not only takes sharp eyes, but also a sharp mind. When someone comes up a coherent idea on how things work under the hood, and that idea has helped them successfully earned lots of points, we can say they start to understand a phenomenon. To me, life is a game of “Predict”. The most satisfying thing about learning is to be able to predict things before they happen. It’s almost like my brain can simulate how things would turn out before trying them out, thus I can pick out the best route in my head and save a ton of time. That’s what’s incredibly rewarding about understanding. It’s hard work to find all the puzzle pieces and put them together, but we have our innate curiosity on our side, and in the end it will be all worth it.