Eighteen years

This year I’ve completed 18 years of formal study. Right now I have spent almost 70% of my life running after degrees, institutional and social acceptance.

Having this fresh in my memory I will express some disjointed thoughts about the current situation of education:

• While I always considered myself a self-learner and parts of the formal curriculum comes to me as useless, I do believe that the mold of the education system was a good thing overall.
• There is an inflation of education. We learn more than ever but we remain far behind the progress of world knowledge. This made us more specialized in certain areas and insulated us from others. The idea of polymathy is as far away from us as ever.
• School costs a lot of money. I am not only referring to the direct costs of education but also to the cost of having a large part of the work capable population outside of the work market; theoretically not producing anything.
• I share Merlin Mann’s belief that you have to go to college just so you can show your future employers that you can finish things and put up with crap.
• The new wave of self improvement is here. iTunes U is a good example. One can view courses held at prestigious universities like Harvard, Oxford and Stanford. Or one can go on the route of Khan Academy which offers a ton of introductory videos in domains from maths, chemistry to finance. Knowledge is more accessible than ever.
• Teachers are highly important. There is a direct correlation between your affinity with the field you study and the bond that’s created between you and the teacher.
• Apprenticeship is under-appreciated. It enables learning and producing value at the same time.