Maybe There’s Still More to Learn?
{One Word 2026 September Linkup}

How often do you question what you already know? It’s easy to overlook our ordinary knowledge as if it’s settled. 

But what if there’s still more to see about something you’re already familiar with?

Try choosing some everyday thing—a word (maybe your One Word of the Year?), an idea, a place, a hobby, a relationship, even a belief—and see what happens if you get a bit more curious about it.

After deciding on a topic, try these ideas.

LOOK IT UP

There are hundreds of ways to learn more about anything.

• Talk to an expert.
• Experiment with it.
• Explore online.
• Use a paper dictionary.
• Open it up.
• Read a book.

NOTICE WHAT’S NEW

Pay attention to what truly sparks your interest. Let go of the boring stuff and go down a rabbit hole for fun. Find a few things you didn’t know before.

Sometimes a tiny bit of new information can open a much wider door.

ASK YOURSELF

• What surprised me?
• Did it change my thinking in some way?
• Will anything I learned change something in my everyday life?

MY WORD: SHIFT

I did this exercise with Shift, my One Word. And honestly, I didn’t expect to find much because I’ve already been looking at the word for 9 months.

But I was wrong. I uncovered some very interesting and new things.

Here are four rabbit holes I went down with Shift:

1. No Label Shift Key

When I got a new Mac laptop, I noticed that words were missing from some of the keys. My Shift key no longer says anything; it’s just an up arrow.

The word Delete is also gone. It’s now simply a back arrow. 

old keyboard vs new keyboard

Apparently the U.S. has been lagging behind. Only in March 2026 did Apple switch to using “glyphs” instead of text labels on their keyboards. A few words do remain…esc, fn, command, etc.

But don’t look for caps lock, tab, or return. 

And something else I found out: the earlier typewriters had no shift keys. Everything was typed in all capital letters. They eventually introduced a shift function when they added two carriages: one for lower-case and one for upper-case. It continued evolving from there. 

2. Shifting Gears

I asked my bicycle expert husband to help me better understand how gears work. I quickly saw how ignorant I’ve been. Jeff taught me a lot. I learned even more by watching a couple YouTube videos. 

3. Shift Sculpture

Photo by Simon Rabyniuk and Pooya Aledvood

In King City, Ontario, Canada, lies a large outdoor concrete sculpture (I’d call it a wall) built in 1972 in a farmer’s field. It is an example of contemporary ecological art named “Shift” by the acclaimed sculptor Richard Serra. Jeff and I also watched a documentary about it.

So interesting how six concrete walls have created such a stir over the years for various reasons.

4. Character “Shift” in The Chronicles of Narnia

Keith Robinson

It’s been awhile since I’ve read book 7, The Last Battle, in the Narnia series. I’d forgotten there is a character named Shift. He’s a talking ape, “the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine.”

In the book, Shift appoints himself to be a fake spokesman for Aslan. He’s quite shifty (deceptive) and his character shifts (changes) throughout the book. 

Share With Us

If there’s something you’re interested in, take another look. Ask a new question. There’s always more to learn.

Share your discoveries in a comment below or link a blog post (open until October 10).

Upcoming: Our October monthly linkup opens Monday, October 26.

Question for you:

What’s something new you’re discovering? Share in the comments. 

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