The Art of self-education

This will be a no B.S blog about autodidact-ism. We will explore how to properly teach ourselves. We have to make sure that we keep on learning and educating ourselves even after our “degrees” end. The pace of growth in almost all the fields is phenomenal. CRISPR-cas9, Meta-mathematics, chaos theory, macro-economics etc. Tell me a course which encompasses everything and is affordable.

People need to learn how to learn. It is not a choice, it is the need of evolution.

Before we move forward, I want to state that this post in no way intends to undermines the importance of colleges/universities. It certainly raises some questions and points out some flaws/suggests improvement but I still think that at least in developing countries college education is mandatory. This is because colleges at least in India make you meet certain communities which you might never meet if you stayed in your local area. Colleges show you how real world looks like, it gives you certain life experiences which are priceless. Having said that, there are tons of shitty colleges in India. If you enter in one of those colleges, then don’t you worry because it is important to understand people. It is crucial to identify people who act like know-it-all but don’t know a thing. Keep reading and we will explore how you get the art of self-education right.

Let’s see what Wikipedia says about education —

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.

It is important to understand something properly before solving it. What do you mean by education? It is not a degree, it is a process. Education is a life long process. Whenever you learn something about an event, a community, a cult, a philosophy etc. you educate yourself. Education is not about medals, marks or beating someone with your intelligence. Education is about uplifting yourself from darkness. Education is about exploring the unknowns and creating a better version of yourself.

Here are some blog worthy points(at least for me) pointing our some issues in Indian education system, we train teachers based on their academic qualifications but whenever a teacher comes to a class he is the same person who has the same dogmas and maybe superstitious beliefs which exists in the school’s locality. Anyways let’s get back to the topic of self-educating ourselves.

Why self-education?

You might ask. I’d say that self-education gives you a lot of space to ask questions from the text which is imparting you the knowledge. It gives you space to make errors and learn without the fear of judgement. Of course, it is difficult to learn from books/blogs/videos etc but that’s the need of the hour and we cannot do much about it.

We are experience such boom in the knowledge that it will be hard for a big institution to pivot quickly. A lot of colleges in India still teach Turbo-C! If you are from such college then you would need to teach yourself the latest technologies. You can complain to no one because world is cruel and no one cares about your miseries. You have to go back in history and find stories which would inspire you. A boy from a small town gets a book “Carr’s Synopsis” and develops great mathematical ideas eventually.

If you are in the job market then a few years ago, people were happily doing deterministic computing until probabilistic computing boomed and now everyone wants to get into Artificial Intelligence. A boom is always followed by rat race.

Before starting to know how to properly educate yourself you need to think that there were people who did something for the first time in the world. Newton developed calculus, people who were in the race to make aeroplane were not a student of aeronautical engineering.

How do you teach yourself a skill?

In the era of internet it is super easy to learn something new. You need only one thing which internet has snatched away from us. In the world of insta-likes and instant replies you would need patience.

1. Find the legit resources — This would seem as an obvious answer but seeing tons of b.s out there we would have to emphasise it. People have got amazingly well skilled in making buzz online. It becomes really hard especially for a beginner to separate legit content from hype. So how would you trust a guru online? If someone is actually been professionally employed and his work can be verified over GitHub/books then you can trust them. Always check our free resources before buying anything. A course should have a money-back guarantee. If we are talking about books, don’t buy cheap books. Always read classics.
2. Supplement resources — After you have found a legit book/course. It is time to search for right supplement content. You can check for blogs by reputed people. Take blogs with a pinch of salt, they are never peer-reviewed. Also try taking advantage of arxiv, it will give you access to research papers for free.
3. Start building something — Always test your learning by building something. From a simple web app to a machine learning model, build something. It is the best way to boost self confidence.
4. Try super specialisation — If you liked the subject you are exploring then don’t stop there. Keep exploring and reading more about it. Try going cross-discipline. Always think of combining two things.
5. Test your understanding — If you cannot explain it simply, you haven’t understood it well enough. So try teaching someone. It is the best way to test your understanding.

These are some ways to learn something new. Feel free to post your thoughts. I am curious to know how you taught yourself a skill.