Splash No. 238 - Autodidact
Autodidact
As long as I could remember, I always thought it seemed nobler to be an autodidact, self-taught in all things that mattered, rather than to be someone who learned more traditionally with classes and teachers. Since I’ve always lived among the internet, I’ve spent years constantly trying to learn new skills, and more often than not have gone to extreme lengths to try and figure out how to do them on my own without any external help.
Part of the reason I always went down this path was that I never wanted to spend money, knowing that I was likely to want to quit any given skill after some time if my focus shifted. On the other hand, even though I was good at school and learned a whole from my many years there, I often bought into the narrative that music and popular culture taught me that school only taught you to follow instructions. While I excelled in school, I wondered if I was learning in a manner that would leave me unprepared to do anything without instruction and guidance — would I be able to function in the real world without that sort of direction in the future?
So perhaps it was something like “the grass is always greener,” I sought to learn things on my own in spite of the fact that it was much more difficult for me, so it would feel like a larger accomplishment than what I could achieve by my own volition. I’d been helped by my teachers and my family my whole life, so I was always seeking to try and learn things on my own, whether it be an instrument or a piece of software or something in between. In high school and middle school, most of these attempts didn’t go anywhere, as I’d grow bored of them.
However, when I graduated high school and started college, I found myself learning more and more things on my own, due to a single-minded focus on trying to explore creativity. I taught myself about writing and photography and illustration, simply by doing it. Yet, now looking back, I wonder if those were able to catch largely due to the books I read, the ones that gave me structure about how to approach things, like Austin Kleon’s step-by-step guides on creativity or Elle Luna’s suggestion of the 100 day project to explore new types of art. The concept of being self-taught seems a bit strange when you think how impossible it is to learn anything without help from someone or another.
What Richard Linklater said,
Are any of us self-taught? It just means [you] didn’t go to school for it. But you do have teachers. You have mentors. You learn from everybody. Emerson said, ‘I will learn from everyone and be no one’s disciple.’
I’ve been learning again, building another website, and dusting off my HTML and CSS skills. I’ve picked these up over a few years, mostly cobbled through half-completed online courses and referencing random pieces of documentation I find via Google searches. But with this project, I approached things a little differently. As I figured out my concept and proceeded to start building it, I asked a friend about how he would build it. When I tried his approach and started running into roadblocks, I didn’t try every possible answer I could find in random forums until I gave up entirely. No, instead, I asked for his help, and he solved my problems in a few minutes. He patiently pointed me toward potential solutions and let me go on my way. And that way was a whole lot easier.
Now, thinking back, I wonder how much time I would’ve saved or how many skills I might’ve not given up on if I hadn’t thought that I had to figure it all out myself. I wonder if someone could’ve taught me this sooner.
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - january 23 - another diverse month
ARTICLE - "Is the World Ready for Extremely Effective Weight-Loss Drugs?" by Will Peischel - fascinating exploration into drugs to treat obesity and what it could mean for the way we view obesity.
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