Want to acquire knowledge?

All of us strive to acquire knowledge. Knowledge that will boost our careers. Knowledge that will help us lead better lives. Knowledge for knowledge's sake.

But is there an easy way to acquire knowledge? James T. Mangan believed there is, and in a book first published in 1936, he outlined 14 ways to acquire knowledge:

1.    PRACTISE
2.    ASK
3.    DESIRE
4.    GET IT FROM YOURSELF
5.    WALK AROUND IT
6.    EXPERIMENT
7.    TEACH
8.    READ
9.    WRITE
10.    LISTEN
11.    OBSERVE
12.    PUT IN ORDER
13.    DEFINE
14.    REASON

My favourite blogger Maria Popova recently published a post about Mangan, whom she refers to as "the prolific self-help guru and famous eccentric". Each of those points mentioned above has been elaborated upon in Popova's post, which you can read here: "14 Ways to Acquire Knowledge: A Timeless Guide from 1936". Especially read what Mangan has to say about acting on your desires, reading, and writing.

How would you like to test your knowledge... and help end world hunger at the same time?

I flunked a simple "Level 5" grammar question on FreeRice.com today — but never mind. I get a chance to continue answering questions on a variety of subjects and at increasing levels of difficulty. For every answer I get right, FreeRice donates ten grains of rice to the needy.

So what is FreeRice.com? It is a website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. And it has two goals:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.

2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on the site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

You can test your knowledge on many topics:

1. HUMANITIES
    Famous Paintings
    Literature

2. GEOGRAPHY
    Flags of the world
    Identify Countries on the Map
    World Capitals
    World Landmarks

3. ENGLISH
    English Vocabulary
    English Grammar

4. MATH
    Multiplication Table
    Basic Math (Pre-Algebra)

5. CHEMISTRY
    Chemical Symbols (Full List)
    Chemical Symbols (Basic)

6. LANGUAGE LEARNING
    German
    Spanish
    French
    Italian

7. SCIENCES
    Human Anatomy

8. TEST PREPARATION
    SAT®

The beauty of this programme is that you get to sharpen your mind even as you contribute to ending hunger in the world. As my students would say, how cool is that?