“Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion” Naval Ravikant
This can only be achieved when you focus on what is important to you not to somebody else as traditional education teaches, and this can more easily happen when you are an autodidact. Only traditional education? What about traditional home upbringing?
Nassim Taleb says that in high doses formal education (that I will call “the system”) narrows your knowledge and kills your creativity, “it selects from those who don’t know how to handle uncertainty”. Something similar happens in some families when you behave “against” the system.
As always, I speak from my own experience so I will dare to say that that selection can be randomized by the energy around your life. Some people refuse the system because deeply internally they don’t feel according to it, and they do not necessarily know how to handle uncertainty, something simply does not match. I never thought about the system killing my creativity, but my freedom, I always complain about the long time it takes from your life to teach you what they think you need to learn. I tried the system, and I didn’t match with it, I thought I broke that chain when I became my boss, I knew I was able or permitted to be creative until I became an entrepreneur.
Does being an autodidact make me rebellious against the system?
I remember being labeled as “rebellious”, a word that my father uses frequently to refer to me when I reacted to a circumstance in an unusual way “outside” the system, which unfortunately used to happen often not only at home but at school as well. Don’t get me wrong, I am always respectful of rules. I firmly believe that rules can help us organize and make our lives easier. But following the system is quite different.
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” Mark Twain.
Here is when being an autodidact can give you the tools that you probably need.
What to be an autodidact can make for you? Can an autodidact handle uncertainty?
Well, the great scientists of all times like Einstein and Darwin are people who were not into traditional education. Even so, people who cannot jump out of the system or are not willing to take risks can’t understand why you do.
My daughter since she was three years old was passionate about ballet, I gave her three years of medium support, taking her to a ballet studio to see if she was sure about that to be her profession or lifestyle. When I noticed that she was committed to that discipline I committed myself to support her. When she was thirteen years old, I asked her the question: are you sure you want to become a ballet dancer? You must be sure due that discipline shall take you on a different route, nontraditional education. I wasn’t disturbed at all by her desire, as traditional education as I see it is not a requirement for life success. However, until today people who have been trained by her still ask; did you only do ballet? Don’t you have a university degree?
Then I am not sure if being an autodidact as an isolated personal quality can help you handle uncertainty successfully but for sure it can help you to become resourceful. Which can probably and indirectly help you handle uncertainty. How? When you are an autodidact, you believe that you can handle any situation just by acquiring the information you need accurately. It can open possibilities.
I remember when I tried to jump to my “freedom and growth” from my job at the Faculty of Engineering to the private industry, in this case, a Bank Corporation. That position required experience in CISC programming and all about mainframe expertise. When in the interview the operational sub-director asked me about my experience on those topics, I answered with honesty, I know nothing about it I even ignored what a mainframe is, but I am an autodidact, and you won't need to invest in me, just give me the manuals and tell me how fast you need what you need. That was bold, self-taught is not as easy when you need to learn something abstract in a foreign language. I got the job on the first try with a very good salary and with some special considerations as I was still attending the faculty for a master's degree, and I was negotiating my divorce, and those situations would require permission to leave the office from time to time.
Being an autodidact makes you resourceful
Due to life circumstances, my father only attended primary school for two years, enough time to learn the basics; read, write, and essential math.
If we define success as the fact of achieving what is far from being achievable for you then my father was a successful man. He was an autodidact, he learned a very good level of English, the basics of mechanical and electrical engineering, the cook basics, and many more, from courses that he received by post, and that allowed him to achieve job positions that could be literally out his reach. I grew up kind of confused as I got into the system because, for some reason, he believed it could be easier for me to get success doing so. But I learned from him to be an autodidact selecting and pursuing my genuine curiosity and passion by specific knowledge which eventually made me see as a rebellious.
¡So, yes! specific knowledge acquired when you become an autodidact can make you resourceful.
What inner part of you is not matching with the system? Does it have you stuck on your growth? What is the specific knowledge or ability you always wanted to acquire?
If you are interested in reading more, my blog “Zitrev The Alpha Blog” is ready for you now, I am still working on the subdomain so you will see the Wix label still there, but not for long. My podcast, "Zitrev Your Pass for a Better You” will be ready soon, hope you enjoy spoken English with a Latin accent and Spanglish as well.
See you in the arena…
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