An autodidact is a self-teacher. In other words when you teach yourself things on your own, enjoying the freedom of being absolutely self-paced. I've been teaching myself for most of my life, starting when I taught myself the BASIC programming language on an old Tandy my family found outside the UCSD student housing dumpsters. Later I taught myself calculus, Japanese, and really just about everything I know. Here are some warning signs that you, too, might be one of us:
You Might Be An Auto-didact If...
...Your dad insisted you go to med school, but you kept testing out of it.
...You didn't just teach yourself how to whistle, but how to whistle Beethoven's Complete Works.
...You've used google so often, the search bar is burnt into your monitor.
...You put an apple on your *own* desk in the morning.
...As a baby, you surprised your parents with a first word in Latin.
...You had to expand your closet space to fit more flashcards.
...You keep hoping they'll invent waterproof books for when you have to shower.
...Congress enacted anti-"self-taught driving" legislation after the mess you made of your hometown.
...You interpret Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" as a call for wider-spread self-teaching.
...You devour the biography of every politician before going to cast your ballot.
...You hit "random article" in Wikipedia and it says "Error: No unread articles remain".
...Instead of using fashion or music, you rebel against your parents by studying philosophies and disciplines they disagree with.
...You're ticked off that there just aren't enough Chinese characters to learn!
...In high school, you tuned out your algebra teacher and used her class as time to brush up on calculus.
...You taught yourself Law and passed the bar exam, just to contest a jaywalking citation.
...You designed and programmed a lifelike robot to take your "Computer Science 101" class for you.
...You took the phrase "reinvent the wheel" too literally and spent months chiseling one out of stone.
...You snuck into the neighborhood pool after hours so no pesky "lifeguards" would stop your self-teaching there.
...When you ran out of languages to learn, you started making new ones up from scratch.
...You've been gorging on pure lard so you can practice some self-taught open-heart surgery.
...Tired of web browsers, you taught yourself to read and write the HTTP protocol manually.
...You couldn't find a local weather forecast, so instead you used an advanced meteorology textbook.
...On a long road trip, you listened to "Euclid's Elements: The Book-On-Tape"
Here are some more serious articles on the subject of autodidacticism:
Autodidact: Be A Self-Teacher
Autodidact, PhD.
Short Story: The Juggling Balls of Destiny
You Might Be An Auto-didact If...
...Your dad insisted you go to med school, but you kept testing out of it.
...You didn't just teach yourself how to whistle, but how to whistle Beethoven's Complete Works.
...You've used google so often, the search bar is burnt into your monitor.
...You put an apple on your *own* desk in the morning.
...As a baby, you surprised your parents with a first word in Latin.
...You had to expand your closet space to fit more flashcards.
...You keep hoping they'll invent waterproof books for when you have to shower.
...Congress enacted anti-"self-taught driving" legislation after the mess you made of your hometown.
...You interpret Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" as a call for wider-spread self-teaching.
...You devour the biography of every politician before going to cast your ballot.
...You hit "random article" in Wikipedia and it says "Error: No unread articles remain".
...Instead of using fashion or music, you rebel against your parents by studying philosophies and disciplines they disagree with.
...You're ticked off that there just aren't enough Chinese characters to learn!
...In high school, you tuned out your algebra teacher and used her class as time to brush up on calculus.
...You taught yourself Law and passed the bar exam, just to contest a jaywalking citation.
...You designed and programmed a lifelike robot to take your "Computer Science 101" class for you.
...You took the phrase "reinvent the wheel" too literally and spent months chiseling one out of stone.
...You snuck into the neighborhood pool after hours so no pesky "lifeguards" would stop your self-teaching there.
...When you ran out of languages to learn, you started making new ones up from scratch.
...You've been gorging on pure lard so you can practice some self-taught open-heart surgery.
...Tired of web browsers, you taught yourself to read and write the HTTP protocol manually.
...You couldn't find a local weather forecast, so instead you used an advanced meteorology textbook.
...On a long road trip, you listened to "Euclid's Elements: The Book-On-Tape"
Here are some more serious articles on the subject of autodidacticism:
Autodidact: Be A Self-Teacher
Autodidact, PhD.
Short Story: The Juggling Balls of Destiny
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1 comments:
"You snuck into the neighborhood pool after hours so no pesky "lifeguards" would stop your self-teaching there."
LOL that would be like teaching yourself to drowned or it would in my case anyway :)
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