Autodidacts

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Comment by Adam Blevins on November 9, 2009 at 5:36pm

Two other projects maybe some of you can advise me on...

1. Replacing hollow core doors with solid doors. Any chance I can just bolt em up and they will fit? lol

2. Painting the house. Do it in the Fall, or wait till Spring?

Comment by Nik Renshaw on August 30, 2009 at 11:38am

@Noah - "Can't say I know it all, but I'd like to get to that point" - Well, that's a hell of a goal. You are really setting yourself up for disappointment. Even though you and I will probably live forever, the sheer fact of the rate of production of information vs. the rate of consuming information means that this is impossible, even setting aside any possible physical limitations of the brain.

I mean, I'm sure it's obvious to everyone that no one is ever going to "know it all;" I just thought it was funny that you set that down as your goal, instead of "knowing as much as you can" or "mastering as many topics as you can." You're a bold man.

Comment by Noah Cain on August 29, 2009 at 5:03pm

Howdy, If I'm not learning, then I'm passing that knowledge on to someone new. Can't say I know it all, but I'd like to get to that point.

Comment by reese menard on August 1, 2009 at 11:28pm

hello, i belive we need to learn something new each and every day!
I have taught myself to play guitar, run a metal mini lathe, drive a manual trans, repair/ rebuild my harley, to list a few, there is a book for every topic.
my motto is how hard can it be? oh and im studying quantum physics

Comment by Alexander Aries on July 21, 2009 at 10:35pm

Hello everyone, I'm a 23 year old sailor in in the US Navy with an insatiable hunger for knowledge. I've been studying ancient world history and astronomy on and off for the past 5 years, but recently I have gotten into some of the thicker novels related to social/political philosophy. I'm slated to get out of the Navy in about a year and a half and I plan to go to college, where I'll be in a bit of a more intellectually stimulating environment. Right now, I think I'm just stretching my intellectual legs...

Comment by Stephen Farrar on June 12, 2009 at 8:56am

I am an 18 year old who just graduated from high school. For the past two years, I have been teaching myself history, politics, theology, and philosophy. Some of my favorite authors that I've read include C.S. Lewis, Joseph Ellis, G.K. Chesterton, David McCullough, and Dale Carnegie.

Comment by Michael Jones on June 3, 2009 at 9:07am

Someone asked about the word "autodidact."

The word "autodidact" comes from two Greek words (ancient Greek; I know nothing substantial of modern Greek).

"autos" (pronounced "ow-tahs") is a third person personal pronoun which can sometimes be used in a reflexive sense (“-self”).

"didasko" (with an "-oh" sound at the end) is the verb meaning "teach" (a teacher is a "didaskolos"; pronounced "did-ah-sk-oh-lahss").

Put them together and you get “autodidact,” a “self-taught” person. And, yes, it is a real word.

Hope this answers the question.

Comment by Joseph Freeman on May 12, 2009 at 2:00am

spelt != spelled

Comment by Nick Healy on May 9, 2009 at 9:52am

Mungo. I have a friend who attended Oxford and he went to the library one day to find, as luck would have it, the Oxford dictionary. He couldn't it and had to ask the librarian. She gave him a look that said "how did you get into Oxford" and pointed at a wall of books with the complete OE series. Here he was looking for a little pocket-sized dictionary.

Comment by Mungo Hossenfeffer on May 9, 2009 at 9:27am

Hmm... hopefully that last comment didn't seem as patronising to you as it did when I read it back to myself. If it did, you have my apologies, that wasn't my intent.

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