Teaching Yourself

[Guest Wall Bird]

So I've been thinking about devoting the next year of my life to a real back-to-basics approach. I want to learn to how to cook, read, speak, write, do math, manage my time, and various kinds of other skills. One thing I'm very interested in is becoming an autodidact. That is, I would like to learn how to best teach myself so as to be efficient in these pursuits. I've been very inspired by Frank Zappa, Benjamin Franklin and all of other figures who have managed to educate themselves well in a variety of subjects. I want to practice these fundamental skills in order to build a stronger mental foundation for everything else I intend to pursue.

 

Are there any good references about theories of self-education? Books, sites, videos, etc... Does anyone have experience with this? Things that work. Things that dont.

[Guest Rotwang]

Regarding maths, I've learnt quite a bit by myself; it's not hard to do if you're willing to put in the time. Are there any particular areas you want to know about? You should definitely ask for textbook recommendations, if you don't have any mathmo friends then sci.math is a good place to ask.

[chenGOD]

Find a subject that interests you on wikipedia. Then read the references, and read the bibliographies of those references. Find forums related to those subjects and discuss them with others.

Just practice the maths/cooking/practical skills.

Keep an open mind and have fun.

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

next time i move i'm considering not getting a internet connection or anything. i work at a computer at work so i can just do stuff there on my lunchbreak if i need to. the internet's great but i'm the sort of person who will just aimlessly go on a wikipedia 1000 degrees of seperation trail and not really get anything abck if you know what i mean.

 

EDIT: or read watmm

 

yeh this has really been something I have been thinking about doing lately. I have deciding to nearly cut playing games nearly completely out of my life. getting rid of the internet would be a great distraction killer as well.

 

only problem is I need to start promoting and social networking more. Im already half hermit, so if i cut out the internet I will stay in contact with people even less and do even less promotion on my projects.

[remy marathe]

thomas jefferson was a good example of a polymath.

 

the easiest way to get good at something is to simply do it, often. if you want to learn a language, practice it. reading books about how to get good at reading books isn't going to get you anywhere.

[chenGOD]

thomas jefferson was a good example of a polymath.

 

the easiest way to get good at something is to simply do it, often. if you want to learn a language, practice it. reading books about how to get good at reading books isn't going to get you anywhere.

 

 

but reading books about history, economics, philosophy, political theory, sociology, anthropology, evolution etc will help you understand how the world works.

[mistymountainhop]

sounds like an excellent plan, i wish you best of luck

 

read up on the trivium and quadrivium. here are a couple of excellent podcasts to get you started on the ideas. they start slow but have some good information that is not taught in schools any longer. (unless you're ivy league)

 

http://gnosticmedia.podomatic.com/enclosure/2009-10-25T22_26_49-07_00.mp3

Here we begin to learn about learning, logic, critical thinking, Hegelian dialectics, Plato, the Trivium, the Quadrivium, the 7 liberal arts, and many other facets of human cognizance.

 

http://gnosticmedia.podomatic.com/enclosure/2009-11-01T23_11_48-08_00.mp3

In tonight's show we continue our discussion on the Trivium and discuss the Quadrivium with Gene Odening. Here we continue to learn about learning, logic, critical thinking, Hegelian dialectics, Plato, the Trivium, the Quadrivium, the 7 liberal arts, and many other facets of human cognizance.

[remy marathe]

thomas jefferson was a good example of a polymath.

 

the easiest way to get good at something is to simply do it, often. if you want to learn a language, practice it. reading books about how to get good at reading books isn't going to get you anywhere.

 

 

but reading books about history, economics, philosophy, political theory, sociology, anthropology, evolution etc will help you understand how the world works.

 

i meant reading books about theories on how to learn how to read/learn efficiently. having just gotten through with a phd program, i can vouch for this being a total waste of time. of course reading books is totally necessary. but the more active and physical the thing you're studying, the less theory will help you with it. this is just a form of putting off the actual act of learning.

[chenGOD]

thomas jefferson was a good example of a polymath.

 

the easiest way to get good at something is to simply do it, often. if you want to learn a language, practice it. reading books about how to get good at reading books isn't going to get you anywhere.

 

 

but reading books about history, economics, philosophy, political theory, sociology, anthropology, evolution etc will help you understand how the world works.

 

i meant reading books about theories on how to learn how to read/learn efficiently. having just gotten through with a phd program, i can vouch for this being a total waste of time. of course reading books is totally necessary. but the more active and physical the thing you're studying, the less theory will help you with it. this is just a form of putting off the actual act of learning.

 

Are there actually books on how to read? lol that's some kind of bizarre negative feedback loop, surely.

[remy marathe]

if there's something that human beings can be bad at, there's a book on it

[Guest Adjective]

Are there actually books on how to read? lol that's some kind of bizarre negative feedback loop, surely.

yes, there is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_read_a_book

I only know this after searching for Charles Van Doren, after a viewing of the movie Quiz Show.

[Guest hahathhat]

autodidacts obviously teach themselves how to teach themselves

[chenGOD]

Are there actually books on how to read? lol that's some kind of bizarre negative feedback loop, surely.

yes, there is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_read_a_book

I only know this after searching for Charles Van Doren, after a viewing of the movie Quiz Show.

 

That's quite the reading list they suggest.

[Overand]

No one in university ever taught me the word "autodidact."

 

Arts history is something I've always been good at teaching myself. I took it upon myself to learn everything I could about cinema starting around 17. I ended up taking cinema electives in uni just because I already knew the history so they were easy As so I could focus on my other classes.

 

Teaching myself discipline has been a little more of a disaster. That's why I'm on WATMM instead of doing useful things.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

i have learn a few important things and developed some capacities in my life only by myself.

regarding drawing and painting, i have an autodidact pretty much since the beginning. when a kid, i would be constantly drawing and experimenting alone and i didn't even thought about it, but i was actually... an autodidact already.

also i think in my case it is a bit of stubbornness, as i have never really enjoyed learning the academic, orthodox way and i can get pretty tied in and lack concentration when i don't have enough freedom. i guess you always need a bit of experimentalism and liberty.

but it really depends on a few factors:

you need to be deeply interested and focused on what you want to learn, or it won't simply work...it can be worst even. and then you need persistence. these are pretty much the requirements. talent i guess, it's not needed in this case. talent can be decisive if you want to go further in something, not if you want to learn.

[Guest Hanratty]

best way is to learn without an internet connection. or, do research, print it out, and read it, and don't go to any music-related message boards!

[Guest Ron Manager]

Learn Latin. You will be amazed at how much it stimulates your mind. Track down the series So You Really Want To Learn Latin by N.R.R. Oulton, it's in three little books. Aimed at 15-year-olds, but it's lucidly written and extremely effective.

[awesomeperson]

Read "how-to" books.

[marf]

i want to learn italian and french. Hard to know where to begin

[Guest Babar]

i want to learn italian and french. Hard to know where to begin

 

PM me.

[encey]

Guys, I need a four-inch penis by 3:00, and I also want to learn to run a three-minute mile and be able to tell the difference between Vietnamese people and people who were extras on "Cheers" using only my sense of smell. How do I do it?????

[Guest ruiagnelo]

Guys, I need a four-inch penis by 3:00, and I also want to learn to run a three-minute mile and be able to tell the difference between Vietnamese people and people who were extras on "Cheers" using only my sense of smell. How do I do it?????

 

PM Babar

[Guest inteeliguntdesign]

After getting rid of distractions, or more precisely keeping focused on one thing, which is an art in itself--it's keeping your brain fully interested in one thing, which involves keeping your imagination fixed on that--I'd say the most important thing is understanding how you currently learn poorly. I found I often read something but did not take it in, or could recite something but did not understand it. I'd classify most of my pre-18 education in this way. I find I only understand something if, after reading it, I can then explain it, mostly by writing it down in a diary, and then applying it to an example. Then I can think how that fits with everything I've learn, find out if I've failed to differentiate something from something else, if I can't really understand myself what I've written, etc. I'm hardly an autodidact, but I have found this has aided my self-study.

[dr lopez]

i think a real good example of a polymath is douglas hofstader (godel escher bach etc.)

 

reading his books i'm always kind of struck by how he sort of swings from one thing to another - deciding to learn russian on a whim to translate a poem, learning to operate the very first ultra-arcane word-processor for 40-hour weekends for six months to publish GEB in the way he wanted, studying brain chemistry, learning swathes of chopin pieces... etc. but it's done in this really pure innocent way. he's not brushing up on a sixth language in order to impress or fulfill some sort of ego - he's just genuinely interested in learning about these things.

 

i think you basically need to be quite fearless about it. that's where i'm (and a lot of other people) not very good - i get turned off by my initial inability in something. when that shouldn't really be a problem whatsoever - if anything you should relish those modest beginnings of learning something new. if focus on enjoying the journey and before you know it you're already at the destination.

Haha never knew he reached as far as NZ!

I was/is/mostly was friends with his daughter, and always thought of him as just a hopeless dad, and a complete academic nutjob; obviously very smart in the things you listed, but a when it came to participating in normal society. It didn't help that his wife was killed in a motorcycle accident when their kids were young