So I got a question.....

You don't have any strong inclinations? What makes you feel the most like a badass when you imagine yourself as an expert?

you should learn blacksmithing so when our society inevitably collapses you have a craft that's useful, unlike all that computer shit everyone else is recommending.

no way! there's more than enough smithed material to salvage for a few lifetimes, but he won't be able to hack drones in the post apocalyptic world without at least a little programming background

yeah, good luck finding a power source or electronics that haven't been damaged by emps

le duh, we'll rebuild after the EM pulse that shuts us down

(im just being difficult (and i hope SB39 learns something, regardless of what it is!))

learn to love your fellow man

Create a profession that nobody has thought of yet. Once you have this planned out, create an international interest so people want to work in this profession, then spend the rest of your life touring the world going to conferences and lectures as an expert within the field of your profession. You wouldn't have to learn a thing!

Other than this you could also try creating sculptures from your own bodily waste. You could call it Poop Pottery.

then after you get famous write a memoir and call it "a fecal matter".

If i had weird al yankovic's hair i would kill myself.

  On 2/15/2013 at 6:02 AM, zaphod said:

read the rules, dupe

  On 2/16/2013 at 2:35 AM, luke viia said:

le duh, we'll rebuild after the EM pulse that shuts us down

Two words: Faraday cage

Make moonshine, beer, and the finest pino noirs in a climate that doesn't even support that grape with the power of your intelligence and sheer audacity that only someone with your IQ of 180 can fucking muster. In your spare time, be a freelance interior decorator that trades antiques and replicates posh celbrity homes on a middle class budget. This is the ONLY way to make it in today's economy and if you half-ass that shit you only have yourself and your parents to blame. Maybe train horses as well. Take steroids, get pec implants, I don't give a fuck just get out there and raise hell. Play the accordion like Hendrix played that instead of the geetar. Take Bob Ross' template of painting landscapes and paint Draft 7.30 styles covers with happy little squiggles. Grow a fro. Be an alcholic, discipline your wive(s), make your kids join the military and donate to charity every full moon. Buy a Hummer and try a drive-by shooting, but have a spiritual side as well to balance out such erratic, inexcusable behavior. Dedicate 4-5 years of your life to an opiate addiction only to kick it and have an epiphany that creates a wellspring of groundbreaking, unprecedented creative inspiration that lasts for generations. Direct a feature film and put your cast and crew through the wringer, only to break worldwide box office records as you explore the Earth's core. Fuck life in the ass, kick rocks, and invent three religions before a 4th finally catches on, bringing you wealth and prosperity. Run for president and eat burritos, because burritos are quite good, IMHO.

coursera.org probably has all you need

From my personal view everyone is self-thaught to a certain degree. And with a strong desire and discipline people are able to master a lot of stuff outside of the formal education route. Perhaps I'm hacking the discussion, but depending on how you frame the concept of autodidact, you can see it everywhere or hardly nowhere.

Lots of people with a degree end in jobs hardly related to their education. Some followed extra formal courses. Lots just ended where they are by learning in practice. But wether something is suited for people to learn for themselves depends mostly on practicalities. Is it possible ( practicle) to learn something by trial and error? I wouldn't recommend developing a nuclear bomb in an autodidactic way outside of the formal institutions, if you catch my drift.

Lots of things are suited to be learned outside of the formal institutions. Better, if there's an option to do it outside of those institutions, by all means do. But wether it is suited for you depends on a lot of factors.

Personally, I have learned despite of the formal institutions. I feel these institutions have, for a large part, limited my learning experience. And only after I became aware of it, i was able to (learn to) enjoy a learning experience. If there isn't a part of autodidactivism involved, I won't have the motivation to learn. (But i'm consciously being very loose with definitions here. Which is one of the consequences of being an autodidact, btw. You will develop your own language for the thing you're learning. And that language could diverge radically from those used in the formal institutions)

  On 2/16/2013 at 12:51 AM, ZiggomaticV17 said:

 

  On 2/16/2013 at 12:25 AM, SB39 said:

 

  On 2/15/2013 at 7:57 PM, ZiggomaticV17 said:

 

So many programming languages are well documented you could teach yourself to code. Plus there are a lot of free dev tools. Just google a language (Java, C++,etc...) and get started.

 

Ummm, not sure if that's a suggestion or what you think I talking about, either way not for me, and I wasn't getting into that subject matter. Thanks anyways a tho. For the the rest of u all, pretty good info.

You said...

"Now some examples are game designer, architect, programmer, whatever."

 

How do you think programmers program? They use a programming language like java or C++.

Your not following me, but it's cool. Thanks nonetheless. It's just a related field but does not require programming. Like if I mentioned I wanted to get into the editing business of movies, but didn't want to say that I would have mentioned lighting, key grip, sound, fx whatever. It's just in the same genre but different aspect. Blee

can anyone recommend somewhere online to study maths upto a higher grade/a level sort of standard, in preperation to applying for something engineering based at college next year? is this sort of thing possible?

  On 2/19/2013 at 11:30 PM, messiaen said:

can anyone recommend somewhere online to study maths upto a higher grade/a level sort of standard, in preperation to applying for something engineering based at college next year? is this sort of thing possible?

Youtube. Youtube has actually helped me on several calc tests. there are some really good vids of students making the math very simple to understand. however, there are also a lot of vids that will complicate things even more. so youve gotta be careful.

  On 2/19/2013 at 11:30 PM, messiaen said:

can anyone recommend somewhere online to study maths upto a higher grade/a level sort of standard, in preperation to applying for something engineering based at college next year? is this sort of thing possible?

Can't say I've used it but maybe this site:

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic

Umm, this is my thread

thats fine, il fight you.

  On 2/15/2013 at 6:18 AM, zaphod said:

few if any people can become experts at something through self teaching. it's a nice idea, but it never works. i recommend going to school or getting a job in a field you're interested in where you can learn first hand how to do things. in the same way that language learning almost never works unless a person experiences immersion, reading or watching lectures on the internet is just going to make you slightly more informed about a topic than someone with no knowledge. your post is vague, so what exactly are you trying to learn?

tend to agree. you have to be really disciplined.

it's possible, but the amount of devotion/discipline is higher than one might think.

i do think it's possible though, even for working/middle class freeks like myself. shitloadofeffort:required

Messiaen, look at my post earlier in this thread and check out the links. Especially saylor.org.

  On 2/20/2013 at 5:55 PM, SB39 said:

Umm, this is my thread

no it's not. it's ours.

  On 2/20/2013 at 6:14 PM, keltoi said:

 

  On 2/20/2013 at 5:55 PM, SB39 said:

Umm, this is my thread

 

no it's not. it's ours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjB9jlDvUNM

that saylor site looks great, just enrolled and starting studying the maths strand. this is precisely what i was after, cheers.