Enthusiasm is not a childish whim. It's the fuel on which the brain learns best
For years, we've been told that learning must hurt, and that work, by definition, is something from which we must rest. The problem is, the brain works differently. When curiosity, play, flow, and a sense of meaning appear, we learn faster, deeper, and more durably.
That's why the topic of enthusiasm isn’t a soft story about “positive thinking.” It’s a very concrete biological, psychological, and developmental mechanism. And it can be regained—even after years of school-like drill.
Why did we so easily believe that learning must hurt?
In the adult world, play is often seen as something unserious. If someone says they learn with lightness, it’s easy to suspect they’re not doing it "for real." As if effort were proof of value.
This thinking can be seen in our whole approach to work. Even in the healthy idea of work-life balance, you can sometimes sense the assumption that work is the less pleasant part of life, and life only begins after it.
Here the perspective of André Stern comes through powerfully—the author of the books "Enthusiasts" and "I Never Went to School", also known from the documentary film "Alphabet". This is an important case, because Stern never went to school, wasn’t homeschooled, nor tutored. He learned what he wanted, when he wanted. He learned German because he wanted to immerse himself in the language of his ancestors and his father.
This flips the order we're used to. Not compulsion first, then knowledge. First an inner pull toward the topic, then learning.
85% of knowledge evaporates. Unless enthusiasm is involved
The biggest paradox of modern education is that we've settled for extremely low effectiveness in learning. The forgetting curve shows that after standard education we can quickly lose even around 85% of material.
This isn’t a minor flaw of the system. It’s a signal that we often learn against the way the brain works.
But when fascination appears, things are different. You don't need to force more flashcards, drag yourself through repetitions, or look for memory tricks. Knowledge starts to be retained naturally, because the whole biochemical mechanism of memory consolidation is triggered.
This was well described by German neurobiologist Gerald Hüther. When something really moves us, what comes into play is a cocktail of three key substances:
- dopamine
- endorphins
- adrenaline
This set works like "brain fertilizer". It supports neuroplasticity and helps create new neuronal connections.
The limbic system acts like a bouncer: It only lets in what's important
This is where an important element of neurobiology enters: the limbic system. Practically, you can think of it as a club bouncer who decides what gets in.
Two structures are particularly important here:
- hippocampus
- amygdala
If material is just repetitive noise to the brain—like mindless memorizing of dates, vocabulary, or reading the same chapter over and over—the limbic system often labels it as not important. And then the information simply doesn’t get prioritized.
You can see this in everyday life. When you commute to work by the same route every day, your brain stops registering it. But if there’s an accident, the lights change, or something unusual happens, your attention sharpens instantly.
Novelty, emotion, and significance activate memory. Repetition without meaning shuts it down.
A child doesn’t learn faster. A child learns differently
Adults like to say: “kids just pick up things faster.” It's a convenient but simplistic explanation. A child doesn’t so much learn faster as learn in a different mode.
In practice, children act like little scientists. They do exactly what the scientific method assumes:
- Pose a hypothesis,
- Run an experiment,
- Observe the result,
- Adjust assumptions,
- Try again.
This can apply to anything. Will a shelf hold the weight of books? Can you make a river out of this puddle? Can a cardboard box become a spaceship? Are sticks and blankets enough to build a fort?
That’s why children are so effective. They’re not in passive reception mode. They’re in exploration mode.
This is especially visible in multilingual families. A child can enter Polish, Swedish, or Lithuanian in parallel, almost effortlessly. Meanwhile, an adult can drop tens of thousands of zlotys on courses and still have problems having a simple conversation. Not because the adult is naturally "worse." They usually learn without the same immersion, freedom, and sense of meaning.
Enthusiasm doesn’t vanish with age. It waits for something to trigger it
The best news is that this mechanism doesn't disappear after childhood. Enthusiasm doesn’t vanish. It just stops being activated.
In a child, intense fascination can appear every 2–3 minutes. In adults, it often drops to 2–3 times a year. That’s not a minor mood change, but a massive difference in the quality of cognitive life.
One simple experiment is enough: sit at a bus stop and try to look at a tram through the eyes of a child. Suddenly, questions come back: what’s its force, its mass, how many people can it carry, what’s its speed, how does this system work? The phenomenon that activates automatically in a child can be deliberately invoked in an adult.
This is important, because it shows: genius was never biologically taken from us. It was only muffled by procedure.
Everyone is born with the potential for genius
The word "genius" is often reserved for a few textbook names. In practice, though, it's something simpler: the ability to connect fields, ask unexpected questions, and step outside the standard norm.
In this sense, every child starts out a natural polymath. They have not yet been beaten into a single perspective, label, or path. They test, mix, compare, invent.
That’s how breakthroughs are born. Copernicus didn’t repeat the accepted model of the world. He questioned it. That exact same root is visible later in discoverers, engineers, and inventors: the question “but what if it’s different?”
School often doesn't develop genius. School organizes it
Preschool is a place of movement, experimentation, openness. Then comes school: a desk, 45 minutes, assigned seat, asking permission to go to the bathroom, grading, subject hierarchies.
This isn’t a minor organizational change. It’s moving to a system that teaches you:
- not everything can be studied,
- not every curiosity is welcome,
- not every mistake is acceptable,
- not every topic has equal value.
The effect is paradoxical. First we smooth kids to fit the system, and then as adults we admire those who didn’t fit.
Steve Jobs, Edison, Einstein, Feynman — What they had in common
When you peel off the legend from the names, you see something very human and very uncomfortable for the system.
- Steve Jobs once wanted to eat only apples.
- He could live in a house without furniture because minimalism was more important to him than convention.
- Thomas Edison was kicked out of school because his teachers couldn’t handle him.
- Albert Einstein was not the model student and had serious conflicts with the system.
- Richard Feynman also wasn’t a perfectly “school-type” figure—more a symbol of rebellious curiosity.
They weren’t people who fit the mold beautifully. They were people who went down their own paths.
The best role of a teacher? Not instructor. Assistant
This is very visible in education models that provide more freedom, such as the Finnish model. There, the teacher doesn’t have to be the central figure dictating every student move. They can be someone who accompanies, supports, and unblocks.
The closest analogy in modern organizations is a good Scrum Master. They don’t do the team’s work or give all the answers on a platter. They guard the framework, remove obstacles, and help maintain direction.
It works similarly in learning. Enthusiasm alone doesn’t mean chaos. There also needs to be a goal. It's not enough to say, "I'll study history today." You need to know: which fragment, why, with what question in mind?
Mistake is not failure. Mistake is a learning mechanism
One of the most toxic adult habits: the fear of being wrong. In a well-understood cognitive process, a mistake is not a catastrophe. It’s feedback.
The scientific method is not about avoiding mistakes at all costs. It’s about getting as quickly as possible to what doesn’t work and shortening the path to the solution.
That’s why it’s worth reclaiming the positive meaning of the word amateur. Etymologically, it comes from the Latin amator—“lover," "enthusiast.” It’s not about being clumsy. It’s about someone who does something out of love for the subject.
Such a person has the right to try, make mistakes, improve, and return. It’s from this stance that mastery is most often born.
Artificial intelligence restores lost agency to people
The book "Enthusiasts" was published in 2018, before tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini went mainstream in daily use. Today it’s clear that AI does more than automate tasks. For many people, it gives back the feeling: “I can try”.
That's a massive change. For years, millions were chewed up by a system that taught: this is for experts, don’t touch this, you can’t build that, it’s too hard. AI suddenly opens doors. People who never had the courage before start building:
- their own website,
- a simple product,
- a service,
- communication with a community,
- a prototype app,
- a new business model.
Enthusiasm is contagious—but not in the way most people think
The word enthusiasm itself has a beautiful etymology. It comes from the Greek entheos—literally, "God within." It means experiencing something greater, passing through oneself.
Here's another important aspect: enthusiasm spreads to others. It’s not about everyone catching precisely our passion. If someone talks energetically about quantum mechanics, another person doesn't have to fall in love with quantum mechanics. But their own process might start: "Can you think like that?", "Can I use this myself?"
That’s why people full of authentic energy are so compelling. They don’t just sell knowledge. They unlock curiosity in others.
Key takeaways
- Enthusiasm is not an add-on to learning. It’s one of its strongest engines.
- Standard learning without emotion and meaning leads to fast forgetting—even about 85% of material.
- When fascination appears, the brain gets biochemical support: dopamine, endorphins, and adrenaline improve knowledge consolidation.
- The limbic system filters information. That which is emotionally dead and repetitive is often treated as noise.
- Children learn effectively because they behave like researchers: hypothesis, experiment, correction.
- A child can enter a state of enthusiasm every 2–3 minutes. For adults it may be only 2–3 times a year.
- The education system often organizes and limits more than it develops natural curiosity.
- Many remarkable creators and discoverers—Jobs, Edison, Einstein, Feynman, Copernicus—were not model products of the system.
- The best role for a teacher, parent, or leader is often a safe, non-judgmental harbor.
- Mistake is not failure. It’s data needed for learning.
- Today, AI can very tangibly unlock agency, connect disciplines, and shorten the path from idea to prototype.