Why Education Makes You Stupid!
Are you an Autodidact or Polymath?
Do you know what an Autodidact or a Polymath is?
Autodidacts are; self taught people. It is a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education.
A Polymath is; a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas.
HOW TO? THE BEST WAYS TO BECOME AUTODIDACT-POLYMATH
Have a weekly and daily schedule which involves the mind, body and 'soul'-like meditation or walking, which eventually leads to short and long term goals. Not only should mental activities be considered with both the ARTS and SCIENCES using multiple mediums, but one should be involved with mental activities, which concern both CONSUMPTION-READING, YOUTUBE, DOCUMENTARIES, and PRODUCTION-PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, WRITING, PAINTING, etc..
Along with NORMAL SLEEP, HEALTHY EATING and EXERCISE/WALKING, DO MEDITATIVE EXERCISES 10 MINUTES A DAY, which improve your memory.
EX: Recalling randomly selected numbers. Seems arbitrary, but works. Make sure to do activities, which involve both hands, so as to make sure both CREATIVE/RIGHT AND LOGICAL/LEFT SIDE OF YOUR BRAIN is being used in equal amount.
READ A LOT! Be curious and interested in a lot of things. Get a library card. Wander around and pick up whatever catches your eye.
READ ACTUAL PRINT ENCYCLOPEDIAS.
HAVE A THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE!
READ FICTION. You'll learn a lot more than you think and it will soak in without you really trying.
GET RID OF THE IDEA THAT THERE IS A FINITE (LIMITED) AMOUNT OF SPACE IN YOUR BRAIN FOR INFORMATION AND REALIZE THAT THE MORE YOU LEARN, THE MORE CONNECTIONS YOUR BRAIN FORMS AND THE EASIER IT BECOMES TO AQUIRE NEW KNOWLEDGE.
Learn a skill, which requires a different kind of learning than book learning. Get some software that will help you learn a new language.
READ TEXT BOOKS FOR FUN.
Try to invent a code. Try to invent a board games. Write some short stories and have them critiqued, the rewrite them so they are better.
READ ABOUT STRING THEORY
When you read and you find a new word you don't know the meaning of, write it down and look up the definition.
CHALLENGE AND TEST YOURSELF!
READ EXTENSIVELY ON DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND APLLY THEM.
Demand a lot of yourself and provide constant inspiration, reminding yourself why you are doing what you are doing.
Put yourself in environments conducive of the best conditions for this learning in you.
PUT THE RIGHT NUTRITION TO YOUR BODY AND BRAIN! GOOD FOOD EQUALS THE RIGHT FUEL TO GIVE YOU YOUR BEST PERFORMANCE!
READ BOOKS THAT ORDER YOUR THOUGHTS!
Plant ideas just before bed and view your learning as a form of play.
LIMIT THE TIME YOU SPEND ON NON-SEED PLANTING ACTIVITIES!
OPEN YOUR MIND BY LETTING GO OF ANY BIAS AND EMBRACE KNOWLEDGE. SEEK TRUTH IN ALL SUBJECTS WHETHER IT'S CONVENIENT OR NOT.
Most likely. the fact that you know the words autodidact and polymath means you probably already are one.
WHY EDUCATION MAKES YOU STUPID!!!
- IT IMPOSES PRESSURE ON YOU!
Basically, the rule is "if you don't do this by a certain time, you're screwed." This is not a very healthy approach towards education at all.
- IT CREATES IMMENSE AMOUNTS OF STRESS!
School and universities put you through a lot of psychological tension the whole time. The amount of anxiety you have to deal with while studying is completely unnecessary.
- IT ROBS YOU OF YOUR TIME!
Hours of dutiful reading. Hours of highlighting textbooks. Hours of strained eyeballs, staring hopelessly at Microsoft Word. Forget cultivating any meaningful interests or hobbies, because studying eats up your energy, time and life.
- IT ROBS YOU OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FREEDOM!
You notice this bizarre phenomenon happening inside of you. Whenever you steal a few minutes or hours for yourself, you often feel guilty and edgy. As though, you were doing something illegal. Basically, your mind is craving to study, not out of free desire, but imposed fear that you are somehow slacking off, or not working hard enough. TALK ABOUT SERVITUDE.
- IT MOTIVATES YOU WITH FEAR!
Do you want to end up as trailer trash!?!?...No!? GET A COLLEGE DEGREE! Do you want to end up as a toothless, dug-addict with leprosy!?!?...No!? GET A COLLEGE DEGREE! Basically, we are taught from a young age that if we want to be special, successful or amount to anything important in life, we must SLAVE away for 3-4 years to earn a SLIP OF PAPER that entitles us to a "bachelor" or "master" title. Most people go to college either out of parental obligation or paranoia. BOTH ARE MOTIVATED BY FEAR.
- IT KILLS YOUR CREATIVITY!
Everything in colleges and universities are predetermined, from the syllabus, to the resources, set readings and excursions. College tells you what to do and expects you to implicitly follow. You must walk within their strict boundaries at all times, use their limited materials to answer their limited questions in their limited formats. Wild, unbridled curiosity is discouraged. Dull-minded conformity is encouraged instead.
- IT MAKES YOU NARROW MINDED!
Getting a college degree gives you bragging rights, and more often than not causes you to become unaccepting towards self-taught learning. This can easily be observed in the older and more traditional generations of people who believe that education you pay thousands of dollars for is the only legitimate "serious" form of education. This snub-nosed perception makes it hard for any autodidact these days to obtain reasonable positions in well-paying jobs. In the end, it's the formal way, or the highway. Freedom of thought is not allowed, instead, thought must be captured and monetized to be relevant and respectable.
- IT PREVENTS YOU FROM BECOMING AN INTELLIGENT, INQUISITIVE PERSON!
As Albert Einstein was recorder saying "one had to cram all this stuff into one's mind, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problem distasteful for an entire year." If even the famous and highly intelligent physicist Albert Einstein was turned off science by formal education, imagine what effect it has on us! Formal education crams a bunch of knowledge into our brain and expects to make a professional out of you. Sure, you have finally gained your socially acceptable degree, OH BOY!! but the years of stress and dutiful learning have created a rigid, institutionalized brain. Furthermore, those of us who have undergone the torture camps of education, will understand how-nauseating the word "education" becomes after graduating.
Self-teaching is a much different experience to institutionalized-teaching. It can be invigorating, absorbing, inspiring, enlightening and a captivating experience, and one that often requires very little, if no, money.
Not only can autodidactism make you smarter (sexier), more creative and more enthusiastic about life, but it can also give your life meaning, direction and the possibility to become a master of whatever your heart or mind desires. The autodidact is a person who is not restrained by lifeless, repetitive, fear-induced learning, but one who can freely explore the world with ingenuity, uniqueness and passion. They learn out of a deep inner desire to learn, and not just because they have to. In fact, the autodidact's approach to education is highly intelligent. Learn whatever you wish out of free-will nd you will absorb and retain much more knowledge than the poor college fellow. Plus, self-directed learning not only gives you the knowledge to deal with life's problems much more effectively, but it is also non-discriminative. Any person of any intelligence level with any amount of money can become one. Never think that you have to get into debt to learn anything. Knowledge should never be tied up in bureaucracy. Knowledge is free, and should remain that way.
List of Autodidacts
Ray Bradbury, Frank Zappa, Stanley Kubrick, Benjamin Franklin, Malcom X, Julian Assange, Helen Beatrix Potter, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Margaret Mead, Bertrand Russel, Henry David, and the list goes on...and on...and on...and on.
