Self Education

I self educate all the time. It’s the only way I feel that I actually learn and retain info.

Superb advice as always.

The biggest lesson I was taught at school was that there are much better ways to learn than sitting in the chair in your standard classroom.

Taking personal responsibility for your own education is one of the most important things you can do in life.

“Never let your schooling interfere with your education.” – Mark Twain

I’ve found that, for me personally, mixing travel and private classes in a field I’m interested in is the best solution. I used to just read about subjects I was interested in, but I found that it rarely gave real world results.

Case in point, I just got back from 5 weeks in Ecuador, where all I did was take Spanish classes, singing classes, and salsa classes. I still paid less for the entire month than I would’ve in the States for just one class. And, most importantly, I learned more in those 5 weeks through all the private tutoring than I would have in months of self-education through books and internet resources, saving me lots of time to pursue other goals.

Brian: A business is anything that tries to make money. It doesn’t have to be a storefront, although even that isn’t as impossible as you think. Look around at stores you see – do you think all of those people were wealthy when they started their stores?

What I had in mind as I wrote it were online businesses. Anything from creating a web app to selling drawings on etsy.

Tynan

For many years I have read in the way that most people “surf” the internet. One book prompts me to investigate a subject more, and leads me to another book. That book onto another, and so on. Quite soon you will find that you have a really great knowledge of certain topics (sometimes quite obscure ones). I have found that this knowledge has been extremely useful in my professional life, as so often somebody will mention a book that they have read, and I have also read it or have read something on the same topic and can discuss it with them. Other times, they mention their hobby and I am able to talk to them about that too for the same reason.

The overall philosophy that I use is that I read what I find interesting, without regard for whether I think it will be useful or applicable in my life. When something is interesting and I feel enthusiastic about it, I often then find a way to make it apply to my life. If I can’t, then perhaps one day in the future it will.

I do agree with you completely, and I think the gov. should fund self education more, instead of further subsidizing university. Perhaps a system where the gov. pays for you to live and eat at an information library of sorts with books, computers, and instructors. Such a system would be much cheaper than hiring PhD’s at 100k a year to teach non-relevant drivel. I know I learn so much more when I do independent study. (I want my four years back, if you can’t tell )

As far as post ideas go, IMO, I think whenever you can identify something wrong with society and can find a logical, implementable solution to fix it, it makes for very insightful posts. I’m sure writing about things like complex phone systems gets new blog traffic, but I feel like you could have a greater impact by attacking socio-economic or scientific issues. I know you’re very smart, which is why I really enjoy reading about your take on various aspects of reality.

Interesting and cool