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Anything you self-learn has a slightly higher chance of being correct, but a much higher chance of going uncorrected if wrong. So net you end up wrong about a lot. If you’re lucky you build on more-right learnings.
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Autodidactic learning is best where the subject itself forces you into a strong trial and error learning loop, like an REPL. Otherwise the sense of rediscovery creates too much identity attachment to what you know.
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This is a real thing. Even the most trivial learning becomes an identity thing if you discover it for yourself instead of being guided or socratically nudged there. In other news Socratic method is nudging libertarian paternalism and should be viewed with hostile suspicions.
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When you’re self-taught, you’re attached to every mistake that doesn’t obviously and immediately hurt you. What doesn’t kill you only makes you youer.
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But at the same time, and said it best, the only autodidacts who truly learn are the ones who cultivate a community of friends and mentors (perhaps even mentees) who challenge them & have expertise in areas the autodidact does not.
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The autodidact who goes it alone can end up intellectual deformed, horizons shrinking ever smaller even as they read great works. You need those ties, those two (or more) way relationships if you want to really grow.
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Gotta say, this is an uncharacteristically crappy take from you. Those taught in institutions are usually very invested in their elite status. Seems like the same thing that would prompt the 10-20 year realization works equally well for the autodidact.
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Intriguing thought, but one major factor is the individual autodidact's personality. Someone who doesn't experience cognitive dissonance (motivating them to perhaps update their beliefs), isn't very introspective, or is too protective of ego is less likely to avoid this trap.
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