autodidactics

[mickey]

"Autodidact" is a fancy word for "someone who has no formal training but is self-taught to the level of proficiency." I never studied back when I was in school and coasted to mediocre grades. I graduated but didn't learn anything. Since becoming a recluse, however, I've thrown myself into self-education. My idea of fun is reading up on something in order to know more about it.

Anyone else here the same way?

 

[Peaches]

Coursera forever!

also Codeacademy, but that is too mathematical for me

also:

 

[mickey]

Peaches,

Did you draw that graph yourself? Using what software?

I've tried Codeacademy and don't like it. For beginners the Runestone Interactive version of _How to Think Like a Compuer Scientist_ is probably the best way to get introduced to the computer science mindset and learn the basics of one's first language. I also like _Python for Informatics_ for people who are either very young or very casual about programming.

I've self-studied other stuff as well. My enthusiasms vary from month to month and I'll concentrate on something for a while before turning to something else. Before programming it was graphology, and I even wrote an article on cuneiform that got published on an ehthusiast's website as an informational article.

 

[Peaches]

oh, no, I wish, just something I saw a while ago

Codeacademy is for children or for people really bad with math, like me

 

[mickey]

oh, no, I wish, just something I saw a while ago

Codeacademy is for children or for people really bad with math, like me

Peaches,

Did you try Khan Academy for math? I just finished doing their Early Math module and it was fun. You can study various things there in a fairly contemporary way.

 

[Seeker_2.0]

I study for fun all the time. Taught myself html language, wood carving and cooking thus far.

 

[kamya]

Just about everything I do is self taught.

 

[mickey]

Do other people who are self-taught have problems having your proficiency recognized and acknowledged? I don't seek recognition or acknowledgement, so it's not a problem for me, but I know that, in case of disagreement with someone who has a piece of paper from a university or a professional accreditation, they'd pull out their piece of paper or accreditation in order to win the argument. (People use dirty tactics in conflict more often than they use clean ones.)

 

[Solivagant]

Anyone else here the same way?

Yes, I am. Learning is my hobby.

When I was little it was my dream to go to college, as if it were some mystical land of knowledge I wouldn't have access to otherwise. But frankly, I've learned more in a single day of my own study than in a whole semester of college. There was hardly anything they taught that I hadn't already taught myself. The only purpose of college at that point was to get the piece of paper that certifies to the world that I know what I already knew.

 

[kamya]

Do other people who are self-taught have problems having your proficiency recognized and acknowledged? I don't seek recognition or acknowledgement, so it's not a problem for me, but I know that, in case of disagreement with someone who has a piece of paper from a university or a professional accreditation, they'd pull out their piece of paper or accreditation in order to win the argument. (People use dirty tactics in conflict more often than they use clean ones.)

Not really. Usually it's pretty obvious to others whether you know what you're talking about or not.

 

[mickey]

Kamya, no offense intended, but that's actually funny.

 

[Tealeaf]

I lean more towards the jack-of-all-trades path when it comes to learning on my own.

I have some basic, self-taught skill in:

• "Old school" style graphics, after I used to edit video game sprites on our Windows 95/98 (I can mimic them now and do simple animated icons, which I did for fun a couple years back)
• Ocarinas
• HTML/CSS/Javascript
• Stupid-ass VLSM

Maybe other stuff? I'm also working on a second language off and on. I know enough German to translate some YouTube comments, but that's about it. Everything I know about writing is self-taught, too.

 

[kamya]

Kamya, no offense intended, but that's actually funny.

Feel free to explain.

 

[mickey]

Kamya, no offense intended, but that's actually funny.

Feel free to explain.

The suggestion that people automatically recognize whether someone is knowledgeable, even if they themselves don't share that knowledge, strikes me as 100% contrary to life experience. The number of highly popular, fraudulent "experts" out there (e.g. Dr. Phil) comes to mind.

 

[ladyforsaken]

Kamya, no offense intended, but that's actually funny.

Feel free to explain.

The suggestion that people automatically recognize whether someone is knowledgeable, even if they themselves don't share that knowledge, strikes me as 100% contrary to life experience. The number of highly popular, fraudulent "experts" out there (e.g. Dr. Phil) comes to mind.

Hmm, I didn't see kamya's post saying such. If you are knowledgeable about something in particular and hears someone else talk about it, I'm pretty sure you can tell whether they know what they're talking about or not by what they're saying against what you already know. At least this is what I understood from kamya's post. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mickey]

Then I misunderstood what was being said. Sorry.

 

[ladyforsaken]

Then I misunderstood what was being said. Sorry.

I'm not sure if I was right either... we'll have to see what kamya says.

 

[kamya]

Yeah I meant people that are also educated in the same areas being able to tell whether you know what you are talking about or not.

 

[mickey]

Yeah I meant people that are also educated in the same areas being able to tell whether you know what you are talking about or not.

Okay, then that makes sense. Sorry and thank you.

I was saying something different, tho. I was saying that people who have credentials will use those credentials against someone who has just as much knowledge but doesn't have the credentials, in cases where there is conflict or disagreement. The first thing you get asked is not whether you know about something but whether you have a piece of paper from a college or a professional regulatory body.

 

[SophiaGrace]

I know a lot about survivalism, prepping, homesteading and bushcraft. Halfway through the HTML and CSS course on Codeacademy. Know around 200 words of German. That's about all for me in terms of self-teaching. Oh and I learned about feminism, opiates and suicide on my own as well. I know a little about literature, but not much.

Not really anything that translates into job skills.