Quote of the Day: Øystein Stray Spetalen on Education

If you’ve ever caught yourself going through the motions, competent, busy, and strangely unfulfilled, then this insight from Øystein Stray Spetalen is the jolt you’ve been waiting for: “I think one of the most important things in life is to be curious and always be learning.” It reads like simple advice until you notice how radical it is in a culture that rewards certainty more loudly than questions.

Curiosity is more than a personality trait; it’s a refusal to let life harden into a closed system. When you rank questions above answers, you don’t just gather information, you keep your world elastic. The adult temptation is to trade wonder for authority: to act like we’ve “figured it out” because that posture earns status. But certainty has a hidden cost. It shrinks your future to the size of your current assumptions, and it makes resilience harder because every change feels like an insult to your identity.

“Always be learning” turns curiosity into a discipline, not a mood. Learning compounds, especially when it crosses borders. The investor who studies psychology, the engineer who learns storytelling, the manager who reads history: these aren’t hobbyists, they’re building a wider map. In a volatile economy and an even more volatile information ecosystem, the most fragile person is often the unteachable expert. The most powerful phrase you can practice is also the most freeing: “I don’t know, yet.” That humility is the engine of leadership.

As a prominent Norwegian investor and philanthropist, Øystein Stray Spetalen has spent a career placing bets in uncertainty, where the edge often comes from noticing what others ignore and learning faster than the crowd.

April is nature’s annual reminder that renewal is not a speech; it’s a process. Apply the quote today in small, concrete ways: ask one more question than you think you should, read outside your feed, keep a “surprises” notebook, and invite someone to critique your thinking. Stay interested, stay teachable, and life stays larger than your current limits.