Best Approach To Become an Autodidact

[CrayZee]

What, in your opinion, is the best strategy/approach to become an autodidact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism) ?

How does one with wide interests select areas of knowledge to dive into beyond the superficial dilettante?

Does one devise a consistent study cirruculum and stick to it until arbitrarily satisfied, rinse and repeat?

What should be considered the threshold of study that differentiates the dilettante vs. autodidact?

Would it do good to discuss this with professors of a noted university?

[Bill Haywood]

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Would it do good to discuss this with professors of a noted university?

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These are all "which girl should I marry" questions. They can only be answered by your personal preferences.

[AdamL]

Desire!

[GoodCallYouWin]

You spend a lot of time obtaining information, it's pretty simple.

[reup]

How about this? Say you've just had your mind wiped clean by a mind wiping machine, and none of the unhealthy judgements and bitter thoughts that you've accumulated through life remain, yet you are not naive. You've regained an innocence but now also have a healthy knowledge of mis-steps that led you down the 'wrong' path.

You are innocent, humble, and wide-eyed, and like a sponge, and have 1 year to read only 10 books, that should encapsulate mans' knowledge about the nature of existence up to this point, in whatever way shape the author manages to do that.

Which ten books do you choose? Or five if you're lazy. Or one if you think this is stupid. What's your favorite book goddamn it.

[Peter666]

I think the practical approach is to seek the oldest known knowledge and works of man, and work your way up chronologically.

For example, if you want to study literature, start with the Gilgamesh, followed by the Old Testament, followed by the Greek Classics etc.

In art, start with the drawings of cavemen, followed by the sculptures of the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, etc.

So basically, start with History. An autodidact should start as a dilettante and then eventually specialize.

I think it would be useful to discuss this with professors of the Classics or Liberal Arts.

[Peter666]

The Dawn of Civilization edited by Stuart Piggot
History of Philosophy by F.C. Copleston SJ. (9 volumes)
So there's your ten.

If I can throw in a few more, I would add:

The Bible
The story of Art by EH Gombrich
The Aeneid by Virgil
The collected works of Shakespeare

That should make one well read.

[iversonian]

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The collected works of Shakespeare

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That's cheating. I choose, An Overview of British Literature, Unabridged.

[tshort]

Step One: Take a class on becoming an autodidact.

[CrayZee]

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These are all "which girl should I marry" questions. They can only be answered by your personal preferences.

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Meh. Assuming marriage is beneficial to you, or if you are the romantic type, then a good feel for probability theory (in conjunction w/ personal preferences) helps your decision here. So that's a lot more tractable than one might think.