College Education vs Autodidactic Education

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People I have access to communicate with regarding their knowledge and experiences:

My stepdad, who has a BA in chemistry and physics.
My wife, who has an AA in Early Childhood Education.
Nehemiah J., who has a PhD in geology.
Sheila K., who has a BA in anthropology.
Jonathan S., who has a PhD in physical chemistry.
Jay W., who has a PhD in nuclear chemistry.
Erick S., who has a PhD in physics and astronomy.
et al

So, how is it that not becoming indebted by thousands of dollars supposedly disables communication?

You are taking this way too personally. In my posts I mean "you" as in the general "one" as in "people", not "you" as in "iamnotaparakeet". Nowhere do I indicate that one needs a formal education to communicate with others. Formal enrollment in a school can facilitate that communication, simply by bringing people together physically, but it is by no means a requirement. To the contrary, actually; I have learned a lot through WP, through casual conversations on a ski lift, etc..

Oh yes, I suppose it would be difficult and time consuming to learn everything on my own in the hyper-literal sensationalistic interpretation of the term autodidacticism. And if it would be overwhelmingly impossible to do that then it is also overwhelmingly impossible to study college textbooks, do the homework, and get feedback from friends as to the soundness or unsoundness of my work. Wow, that is simply one amazing piece of logic coming from a person with a PhD.

Ok, so you meant vos rather than tu.

You are definitely privileged to have access to that kind of resource! When I was a senior in high school contemplating what to do next, all I knew were nurses and accountants. I was the first one in my extended family to pursue a physical science, so I didn't know anybody who could be a repository of information at the time. And this was 1994, before the Internet became widespread. Where could I get fast access to that information? College. Sure, in retrospect it probably wasn't the only way to get that info, but it was the only one I knew at the time, and one with which I was comfortable. I was a lot more antisocial back then, so I would've been very hesitant to call or snail-mail people I had never met to try to get info from them, but I was familiar with a classroom environment. In case you may be wondering, for my undergraduate education I got 1 year of scholarship, and the other 3 years I paid for out of my own pocket. My parents didn't pay for it. And for me, I never had any regrets about my decision to go to college. Not then, and not now. Indeed, I don't think formal education is for everybody. It's great for some people, and not great for others (such as yourself). I see no problem with that, and I do not regard you in any negative light at all by deciding that there are better alternatives for you than formal college education. What I find admirable is a willingness to continue to test one's own limits and to not back away from personal challenges, regardless of whether those challenges are on a college campus or at home.


iamnotaparakeet, I actually do agree with everything you're saying. I mean that seriously, and not sarcastically. All I'm saying is that there are always two sides to every situation.

And by the way, you can go ahead and insult my formal education degrees as much as you want. The diploma's just a piece of paper anyway. Life is all about what you learn along the way. It's about the journey, not the destination.

Sorry, it's just difficult for me to ascertain when a person is doing an extreme counterpoint as a way to demonstrate an extremity detriment or if they intend it to be meant in a more boolean manner.

For the record, I also do not object to keet's choices of what to do with his own life, time, and money. If he finds it preferable to read books in his spare time rather than pursue full-time formal education, that is his chocie.

What I do object to is the constant and overblown criticism of the educational system and people who are taking that route without knowing the details of those people or the system. I have a nagging suspicion that this is somewhat a case of "sour grapes" where keet was disappointed with his own experiences in the higher educational system and has projected that outward into an antipathy towards all formal education.

Actually, as compared to being in college, the quantity of spare time to study is greatly increased allowing me to study the textbooks, complete the review and practice questions, test my knowledge, etc. Being enrolled in college presents the additional time constraint of completing busywork within arbitrary deadlines, which it is simply a matter of mathematics to see that without such constraints there is more time to actually learn rather than merely perform.

I honestly can't remember the last time one of my professors assigned busywork. And I have a pretty good memory.

I only have a formal education up to the age of 13. Make of that what you will. (obvious genius)

Yes, we all know that the University of Miami is a good school. Lucky you.



Did you drop out and continue your education on your own or did you just drop out and do nothing?

I dropped out due to mental health problems i was having at the time that i still have today. I have been able to become quite well read and literate through reading books, newspapers and online. I have no interest in the world of work or my societal status so this helps. If you are interested in getting a good job or having lots of status a degree would be the way to go.

Actually, I'm more interested in saving up money I earn from my current job, investing it in a manner that within a decade the periodic return on investments will exceed the cost of living and just continue investing past then as well. I don't mind working personally, although sometimes I wish I had started doing this when I was a teenager since I was stronger then. Nevertheless, I care little to nothing about status symbols and as such I prefer to value what is real rather than what might as well be ornamental.

It also seems to be very offputting to accumalate debt as it goes against my base common sense that it is better in terms of personal autonomy to be in the black financially. A mature degree here now (thanks to our current washington aping government) would set me back almost 30000 pounds. One could even make the case that the true market value of a degree is far lower. Particularly in regards to aspies who often end up in poor employment despite their educational attainment level.

Be careful if you do make investments that they are safe ones. I don't know what the ratio of people becoming bankrupt doing that is compared to people becoming Warren Buffet but i suspect the odds may be stacked against the individual.

Yeah, as for the true market value of a degree as more people obtain them that means more supply of technically overqualified workers for low end jobs and low demand for any individual degree holder for the specific field they have sought to have a degree within.

Yes, I will be careful to invest in lower risk investments. It means having to invest more money due to lower dividends but also less probability of total loss of investment.

I will agree that you seem to have a remarkable antipathy for a system of education with which you have very little practical experience. If this is indicative of the manner in which you self-educate, it creates grave doubts in my mind about the quality of the education you are providing for yourself. I would be the last person to suggest there are not substantial flaws in our formal systems of education as they currently stand. However, I think it's worth noting that your own experiences, as someone who is highly intelligent, are not necessarily generalizable to the population as a whole. It may be that you are capable of professionally socializing yourself in a way that allows you to participate in the field of your choice at a level equal to that of the typical graduate with an equivalent level of education, though having gone through that process, I have my doubts. It may also be that formal education is not capable of providing you the level of education you have developed on your own. Formal educational systems are not designed to cater to extreme outliers, however. As massive bureaucratic systems, they are intended to meet the needs of large numbers of people with a diverse array of motivations for seeking an education. As with any system, however, formal education must strike a balance between coverage of population needs and cost, as diminishing returns make increasing coverage impractical.

I will agree with an earlier comment. Whatever failure rates may be present in our formal educational systems, their success far outstrips the bonafides of self-education.