SELF-EDUCATION

"No one can build you the bridge over which you must cross the bridge of life, no one but you alone. It is true that there are innumerable paths and innumerable bridges and innumerable half Gods who want to lead you to cross the river; but the price they will ask you, will be the sacrifice of yourself; you must pledge yourself and lose yourself. There is only one path in the world that no one can follow except you. Where does it lead? Don't ask. Follow it"


Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

(Schopenhauer Educator, p6)

School isn't the only place where people can learn stuffs, if for whatever reason (financial, health, rejection, unable to adapt) you can attend traditional school, don't worry about it, just remember that many people have accomplished tremendous things after dropping out from traditional school. But don't be fooled by the idea that being autodidacts is choosing the easy way. Being a successful autodidacts required to follow some principles. Here are two basics things to have and to know before deciding to become a autodidacts: willing to learn and do not forget that your realizations will be your diploma.
Whit the invention of internet being a autodidacts is easier than ever. So we will call autodidacts who lived before internet autodidacts 1.0, and those who lived and are living after autodidacts 2.0.
For the autodidacts 1.0 the only mean to access knowledge was mostly through Nature and Books, so we can imagine how complicated it could be for them to learn; but todays a autodidacts 2.0 can have access to a vast amount of information every where and fast just by owning a "small" computer called phone that is connected to internet and many of us have one; without forgetting that online learning is also a real opportunity.
This observation leads us to three interesting philosophical problems, what the famous Linguist and Philosoph Noam Chomsky has named during a conference (Grand amphitheatre 'Marguerite de Navarre' au grand college de France: "pourvu que Birnbaum ait apporte ses sanwiches ...") :

  • Plato's problem: "How is it that humans, while having such partial information about the world, manage to know so much?"
  • Orwell's problem: "How do human beings with a vast amount of reliable and available information yet know and understand so little?"
  • Descartes' problem: "concerns the freedom of choice and action, unique to human beings according to him. Which is the noblest thing we have. It is illustrated by Descartes and his followers in what is called the creative use of language."

We are here to try to solve the Orwell's and Descartes' problem.

Here are some autodidacts stories to motivate and inspire you.

Autodidacts 1.0

Frederick Douglas

"Self-made men are the men who, under peculiar difficulties and without the ordinary helps of favoring circumstances have attained knowledge, usefulness power and position and have learned from themselves the best uses to which life can be put in this world, and in the exercises of these uses to build worthy caracter."

Frederick Douglas
(Speech : Self-made Men , p4)

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.
After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography. (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, 1845)
Without his permission, Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket.
When Douglass was about 12, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet. Hugh Auld disapproved of the tutoring, feeling that literacy would encourage slaves to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard.
"'Very well, thought I,'" wrote Douglass, "'Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom."

Source : Wikipedia

Henry Ford

"No man can say anything of the future. We need not bother about it. The future has always cared for itself in spite of our well-meant efforts to hamper it. If today we do the task we can best do, then we are doing all that we can do "

Henry Ford
(Today and Tomorrow , p4)

Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan. Ford finished eighth grade at a one room school, Springwells Middle School. He never attended high school.
His father gave him a pocket watch when he was 12. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman.
Ford was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to take over the family farm eventually, but he despised farm work.
He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm, it was the mother on the farm I loved."
Ford stated two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12. He received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine, "...the first vehicle other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen". In his farm workshop, Ford built a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam car, but thought "steam was not suitable for light vehicles, " as "the boiler was dangerous." Ford also said that he "did not see the use of experimenting with electricity, due to the expense of trolley wires, and "no storage battery was in sight of a weight that was practical." In 1885, Ford repaired an Otto engine, and in 1887 he built a four-cycle model with a one-inch bore and a three-inch stroke. In 1890, Ford started working on a two-cylinder engine.
Ford's 1908 introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized both transportation and American industry. As the Ford Motor Company sole owner, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism", the mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford was also among the pioneers of the five-day work week. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout North America and major cities on six continents.

Source : Wikipedia

Thomas Alva Edison

"My meeting with Edison was one of the memorable events of my life. I was amazed by this admirable man who had accomplished so much, with no wealthy background and no scientific training"

Nikola Tesla
(My inventions , p84 & 85)

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.
The great inventor, whose iron endurance and stern will have enabled him to wear down all his Associates by work sustained through arduous days and sleepless nights, was not at all strong as a child, and was fragile appearance. He had an abnormally large but well-shaped head, and it is said that the local doctors feared he might have brain trouble. In fact, on account of his assumed delicacy, he was not allowed to go to school for some years, and even when he did attend for short time the results were not encouraging. His mother being hotly indignant upon hearing that the teacher had spoken of him to an inspector as "addled" . the youth was, indeed, fortunate far beyond the ordinary in having a mother at once loving, well-informed, and ambitious, capable herself, from her experience as a teacher, of undertaking and giving him an education better than could be secured in the local schools of the day. Certain it is that under this simple studious habits were formed and a taste for literature developed that have lasted to this day. If ever there was a man who tore the heat out of books it is Edison, and what has once been read by him is never forgotten if useful or worthy of submission to the test of experiment. p15 & 16
At the age of 13 he became deaf , and the origin of Edison's deafness may be told in his own words :
"My train was standing by the platform at smith's Creek Station. I was trying to climb into the freight car with both arms full of papers when the conductor took me by the ears and lifted me. I felt something snap inside my head, and my deafness started from that time and has ever since progressed". p37
Although this deafness would be regard as a great affliction by most people, and has brought in its train others serious troubles, Mr Edison has always regarded it philosophically, and said about it :
"This deafness has been of great advantage to me in various ways" . p38
In fact many of his inventions was because he didn't see and hear the world like others.
One night in 1867, he was working with a lead–acid battery when he spilt sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.
His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, U.S. Patent 90,646, which was granted on June 1, 1869. And many others will follow.

Source : EDISON , His Life And His Invention . By Frank Lewis Dyer

Benjamin Franklin

"I was, from my earliest years, passionate about reading, and I was spending on books all the little money I could get"

Benjamin Franklin
(Life of Benjamin Franklin :Tome 1 , p25)

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States Postmaster General. Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1706, and baptized at Old South Meeting House. As a child growing up along the Charles River, Franklin recalled that he was "generally the leader among the boys."[17] Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"[18] for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught him the printing trade. When Benjamin was 15, Benjamin founded The New-England Courant, which was one of the first American newspapers. And he will accomplish more during his life.

Source : Wikipedia

Autodidacts 2.0

Julius Yego

"Have that self-believe, and you will be a champion"

Julius Yego
(Youtube channel : GoPro, 6:50)

Julius Yego (born 4 January 1989) is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. Nicknamed "Mr. YouTube" because he learned how to throw by watching YouTube videos of javelin athletes, Yego is the African record and Commonwealth record holder for the event with a personal best of 92.72 m.
He won the javelin title at the All-Africa Games in 2011 and at the African Championships in Athletics in 2012 and 2014; at the 2013 World Championships he placed fourth, losing a medal in the final round. In 2014, he became the first Kenyan to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in a field event. At the 2015 World Championships he won the gold medal with a throw of 92.72m, becoming the first Kenyan to win a World Championships gold medal in a field event. He won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Source : Wikipedia

Jacques Fresco

"Every kindergarten, elementary school, high school, and college in the nation should help students anticipate the changes that lie in their future."

Jacques Fresco
(Looking Forward, p119)

Jacque Fresco (March 13, 1916 – May 18, 2017) was an American futurist ,self-described social engineer, structural engineer, architectural designer, industrial designer, author, educator and lecturer . autodidacts , he worked in a variety of positions related to industrial design.
Fresco worked at Douglas Aircraft Company in California during the late 1930s. He presented designs including a flying wing and a disk-shaped aircraft. Some of his designs were considered impractical at the time and Fresco's design ideas were not adopted.[16] Fresco resigned from Douglas because of design disagreement.
In 1942, Fresco was drafted into the United States Army. He was assigned technical design duties for the United States Army Air Forces at Wright Field design laboratories in Dayton, Ohio. One design he produced was a "radical variable camber wing" with which he attempted to optimize flight control by allowing the pilot to adjust the thickness and lift of the wings during flight. Fresco did not adjust to military life and was discharged.
But he is mostly know for The Venus Project, resource-based economy ideas.

Source : Wikipedia

Kelvin Doe

"creativity is universal and can be found in places where we do not expect to find it; And perseverance and passion are essential to nurture this creative ability."

Kelvin Doe
(TEDx Talks: persistant experimentation, 10:30)

He is known for teaching himself engineering at the age of 12 and building his own radio station in Sierra Leone, where he plays music and broadcasts news under the name "DJ Focus."Doe would constantly use discarded pieces of scrap electronics to build transmitters, generators, and batteries.
As a result of his accomplishment, he received an invitation to the United States and subsequently became the youngest person to participate in the "Visiting Practitioner's Program" at MIT.
Doe subsequently was a speaker at TEDxTeen and lectured to undergraduate engineering students at Harvard College. In May 2013, Doe signed a $100,000 solar project pact with Canadian High-Speed Service Provider Sierra WiFi.
He has had the opportunity of meeting various leaders of the world including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. He has also been able to speak to young people in Africa on different platforms. In 2016, Kelvin Doe became an Honorary Board member of Emergency USA, an organization with a mission to provide free medical and surgical care to war victims and poverty victims. Doe now owns and runs his own company K-Doe Tech, Inc , where he designs and sells consumer electronics.

Source : Wikipedia

Wallace Chan

"if you wanna create, you cannot listen to people. You are responsible of you own Art."

Wallace Chan
(Youtube channel : Wallace chan (Wallace Chan “Winged Beauty” Book Launch at DIVA Museum, Antwerp) , 17:45)

Wallace Chan is a Hong Kong-based jewelry artist and sculptor. Chan was born in Fuzhou, China in 1956 and moved to Hong Kong at the age of 5. He left school after only two years of education, when he was 13, in order to support his family. Chan worked in factory, has sold T-shirt on the street, and worked as delivery boy. His uncle made him an apprentice sculptor in 1973, when he was 16 years old.
But by 1974 he had moved on to set up his own carving workshop, because he found the work at the former one static and boring. And he wasn't allow to do any change but his parents was really upset. Inspired by Chinese design, legends and believes, those became his masters. But something was still missing.
At the age of 20, walking past a bookstore he used to walk through everyday, but was afraid to enter due to his lack of education, but he overcame his fear and walk into it. And his eyes went straight to a book with a large letter "M" on the cover which was a book of Michel-Angelo, after reading the book he understood that, what he lacked was the technique and methode. After that and hard work his life and the world of jewelry will be changed.
He is known for creating intricate designs within carved gemstones. He is the mastermind behind the creation of what has been called the world's most expensive diamond necklace. Chan is also known as an innovator. He invented the Wallace Cut, an illusionary carving technique, in 1987; a jade cutting and polishing technique in 2002, and The Wallace Chan Porcelain, a porcelain five times stronger than steel, in 2018, after seven years of research. His first porcelain creation (A New Generation Ring), is in the permanent collection of The British Museum. He is the first contemporary Chinese jewelry artist to be part of the museum's collection. Chan is actually the best innovator in the world of jewelry. his work Wallace Chan's work

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To discover the common principles
that all the autodidacts share,
that will help you to follow
your own path in life.
"Never Stop Learning"