How Many DUers Consider Themselves to be Autodidacts?

[MineralMan]

By that I don't mean that you just learn new things from time to time, but actually have taken on a new subject and learned it thoroughly without classes. For example, when I started a business selling mineral specimens to collectors, I gave myself the equivalent of a degree in mineralogy in the process.

I'm just curious how many others have learned an entirely new discipline one or more times in their lives. If you have, could you post something about it?

[Warpy]

1. I have

I'm self taught in computer maintenance and repair because I was too poor to hire anybody else to work on the stupid thing when it would conk out.

I was notorious in nursing school for reading the book and testing out of any subject that looked like it was going to have too many papers attached to it. I also tested out of chemistry.

[MineralMan]

6. Cool. That sounds about right. I taught myself to program,

and actually had some software on the market for a few years. Again, I did it because I wanted to write a couple of programs for my own use.

[htuttle]

31. Did the same thing for the same reason

Then ended up turning it into a career about 15 years ago. I seem to be able to learn different computer languages very easily. But human languages? -- not so much.

[MineralMan]

34. I found that my interest in language and linguistics made

learning computer languages fairly simple for me. The logic all worked out, too, without too much struggle. My company was a shareware publisher, called OsoSoft. I still have quite a few dedicated users of a couple of my applications, and still support them.

[friendly_iconoclast]

24. +1. It's the same way I ended up with Bender (the computer I am posting with)

Couldn't afford a "ready made"- so I assembled him from parts

Our first computer was a gift, lo these many years ago, and after paying too much for repairs and upgrades I learned to
do it myself. Did the same thing with audio equipment- I built the Frankenspeakers from a pair of Advent Baby II bookshelf
speakers someone had tossed due to a torn cone in one of them. Got a new pair of drop-in mid-woofers online and replaced the sound
deadening with polyester pillow stuffing from a fabric store. They sound great.

I think you will find that a lot of DUers are autodidacts to a greater or lesser degree.

[Warpy]

58. I also taught myself to weave then knit and then spin out of books

Books are full of amazing stuff for anyone who wants to learn something new.

[IDemo]

78. Taught myself Spanish well enough to challenge into 3rd semester

And came up only one point short of making it into upper division Spanish. Also taught myself enough programming to create database utilities used at a major corporation.

[MADem]

2. I am interested in everything, but I don't obsess over any one topic. nt

[MineralMan]

12. Another interesting approach. I understand what you're talking

about.

[dtexdem]

3. When I was in the the Peace Corps, I taught myself calculus.

But after I went back to the university, I took a formal class in the subject.

[MineralMan]

15. I've not had a lot of luck teaching myself math.

I changed my major from Engineering to English after my first differential equations class. I was doing OK until then with math. Very frustrating, and I haven't seemed to have been able to continue studying math at any higher level on my own.

[tridim]

4. I taught myself web development, 3D CGI and music production

[MineralMan]

9. There you go...

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

[tridim]

16. Unfortunately I can't find a job in two of those fields..

and I don't think I want to do web development ever again. I got shafted by that industry for too long.

[MineralMan]

19. Yeah. I closed down my software company in 1999.

It made me some money for a few years, but it sort of became impossible to compete after a certain point. Just too many people doing it.

[Nye Bevan]

5. Does HTML and CSS count?

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has learned these from a book.

[MineralMan]

7. Yeah, that's the kind of thing I mean. But, I imagine you didn't

just read the books, but also put what you were learning into use.

[Rabblevox]

8. Twice that I think qualify, I taught myself Spanish from books and tapes, and learned how to build..

a computer from a library book.

There are many other areas I've "self-educated" on, those are the two that I approached mastery on my own.

But even on those two subjects, it didn't really "lock-in" until I was doing real-world stuff with it.

[MineralMan]

10. Perfect. You taught yourself because you wanted to learn

something. I'm just curious how many people take that approach to new areas of interest, rather than taking classes or something.

[Capitalocracy]

11. Well, I hope I'm autodidact

otherwise I'd just be uneducated

Translation, transcripts, captions, subtitles, Spanish language, all without classes

[MineralMan]

13. Thanks. I appreciate your posting.

[guitar man]

14. I think I am

I'm a self taught guitar player that learned well enough to play professionally and semi pro for the last 30 years or so.

Same with studio recoridng, I decided I wanted to make records so I started buying recording equipment and teaching myself the disciplines of making master quality multitrack recordings. I've actually gotten rather good at it over the last 5-6 years or so, the latest recording I worked on wound up on a various artist compilation album that was put out by Shooter Jennings on his Black Country Rock record label.

I'm pretty good about researching and finding the pertinent information I need to know to learn a craft. The internet has been a huge help but before I was online, I made good and frequent use of the public library. :hi:

[MineralMan]

17. Cool. I taught myself Oboe, although I had played clarinet before.

The library was my second home until the internet came along.

[guitar man]

25. I played trumpet in school band for a few years

But when it came time to teach myself guitar, the two seemed about as similar as flying an airplane and riding a bicycle. :silly:

[MineralMan]

27. I'll bet. I never really tried a stringed instrument at all.

I'm a wind guy, I guess.

[guitar man]

66. In some ways they are easier to play

On the guitar, there are patterns that once learned, can be moved up and down the neck to transpose keys. You can't do that with a wind instrument .

[tridim]

48. Sounds like you and I are on the same track

No pun intended.

I've been playing guitar on and off since childhood, but only recently did I decide to REALLY learn how to play. My dad is losing his hearing, so I figured I had better learn now before it happens to me. Jimi Hendrix is my teacher. :)

I have also been interested in music production since the first time I heard a Led Zeppelin record in 1974. I was ping-ponging with two tape decks before I knew old studios did that too. Worked my way up to 4-track stuff and basic sequencers in college and am now using Cakewalk Sonar for everything. It has only been during the past 5 years that I have been able to produce music on a shoestring budget that sounds professional.

[guitar man]

63. I haven't used Sonar

But the guys I know that use it speak highly of it. I'm using an adat hd24 hard disk recorder then dumping it to my Mac to mix and edit in Logic. I like it pretty well, it does everything I need it to do.

This is some of my stuff here. The hd24 is in the rack underneath the mackie 1604 mixer. The mackie is the input mixer for the recorder and the big yamaha mixer on the table is the playback mixer. I shot this pic in the middle of moving the studio location from one place to another so it's pretty helter-skelter looking lol

[lunatica]

18. I taught myself Photoshop and got pretty good for a non-professional.

I taught myself photography and married the two together. I did end up going to short classes to finish up learning some difficult things, but never took any courses to learn the basics.

I also taught myself basic HTML and created three websites. I manage one now for a Classical Concert Site. I can go into the html side and correct errors in the codes that you can't do on the front side.

[MineralMan]

20. Good example.

[Bonhomme Richard]

21. I do that all the time, but then I'm a Sagittarius and that's what we do.

If I find some thing interesting I learn it until I am proficient then get bored and move on to something else.

[MineralMan]

23. Sounds familiar...

[EFerrari]

37. Ditto. Except a few things I circle back to

when a little time has passed, like cooking or painting or writing.

[lob1]

22. I taught myself photography, photoshop and art.

Check out my website at dalemcraven.com. It covers all those things. Critiques appreciated.

[MineralMan]

26. Nice site. Nice work!

I like what I saw a lot.

[lob1]

28. Thank you, MineralMan.

[lunatica]

43. From one artist to another, that's great work!

You're quite talented.

[lob1]

53. Thanks, lunatica. I read upthread that you are into

Photoshop and photography, so your compliment has extra meaning.

[lunatica]

76. I'm an artist also, but it didn't occur to me to say I taught myself since

I don't remember ever not being one. Here's a sample of my work

[Fumesucker]

29. I've designed and built/retrofitted my own CNC machines..

Taught myself CAD, CAM, CNC machine design, building and operation which is a combination of power electronics, computer programming and electromechanical actuation design.

I'm currently on my fourth generation of machine, a 1982 Bridgeport Series 1 Interact retrofitted with a complete new computer/electronics and motor package. A lot of these old machines are just fine mechanically, they were built like an Abrams tank, but the electronics and computer systems have long since given up the ghost.

[MineralMan]

33. That's really interesting. I had a neighbor in California who

did custom machine work for the aerospace industry. He converted his garage into a CNC machining center. He specialized in titanium. UPS stopped there every day, picking up and delivering. A very patient guy. He let me sit and watch, and made a set of specialized tapered reamers I needed when I was experimenting with making baroque oboes. He really seemed to enjoy what he did, and apparently was in demand.

In return, he used to come over to my workshop and watch me do woodturning on those instruments. He was always quizzical about freehand turning, and never could quite get the hang of it. He thought in terms of .0001, while I thought in terms of shape and contour visually. It was an interesting friendship. He was always trying to figure out how he could make oboe sections on his equipment. But, he enjoyed seeing what came off my lathe anyhow.

[Fumesucker]

50. I actually started off in computerized controls with telescopes..

I was building a stepper motor actuated german equatorial mount "for" Halley's comet, after I learned the basics a friend of mine who is a top shelf machinist got me started on applying the same technology to a couple of his manual machines. At that time CNC machines were even more expensive adjusted for inflation than they are today, my current machine was built in that era and the control box looked like an ENIAC inside, a box the size of a refrigerator just packed with wires, transformers, inductors, relays, thyristors, circuit boards and so forth.. A total nightmare to troubleshoot without accurate schematics and intimate familiarity with the systems.

I'm not a particularly skilled machinist but I find the robotic aspect of CNC fascinating, it's magical to watch a part you designed from the very idea get whittled out of some kind of cool unobtainium. That first part is always a crapshoot though, CNC programming is every bit as difficult as stuff like FORTH or PASCAL but has the added fillip of moving thousands of pounds of spinning metal around too. Keep your hand on the emergency stop button for the first iteration of any part I found out quickly.

[EFerrari]

30. When I was in grade school, I used to play hooky

by sneaking up into the attic with a pile of books and reading stuff I was interested in because school was boring and slow. It became a lifelong habit except for the part where I hide from my mother. lol

[MineralMan]

35. That sounds familiar, too. LOL!

[EFerrari]

39. I think in my case, having to learn English on my own at about 4

led me to the conclusion that you can learn anything if you just try hard enough. It isn't always true but was true enough to become a habit. Really little kids have no sense of proportion which is probably merciful.

[Rabblevox]

32. I just don't consider this an either/or question. Self-teaching and group learning both have...

their place.

Libraries might just be the single most important defender of freedom and democracy on the planet. I have learned, and learned a lot on my own. (though kudos have to go to the teachers and librarians who pointed me in the right direction.

Small-group discussions, and classroom arguments, are probably how I've grown the most, though. There really is no substitute for a sharp debate between bright students and a brighter teacher.

Call me all "Dead Poets Society" if you will, but I swear that there is a magic when smart young minds engage.

[MineralMan]

36. I don't consider it that, either.

[MedicalAdmin]

59. I agree. Synergy is magical when it works.

The best classes I ever taught were when let the students set a goal and got out of the way except to poke, prod and nudge every now and again. The socratic method is brilliant IF it is given the time to work.

[babydollhead]

38. I am a self taught master glass mosaic artist.

[MineralMan]

42. Nice! The arts were never my thing, and I have always envied

people for whom art is something they do and learn.

[handmade34]

40. When I was young

my grandmother took me shopping for a sewing machine and said "learn to sew!" She had made all her own clothing and hundreds of quilts over her lifetime: all by hand. I learned to sew and many times throughout my life have supported myself with my craft. I had a custom design business (and store) for a bit until my husband got ill.

I taught my self to work on automobiles back when I didn't have any money and up until my current job, did almost (only couldn't if the correct tool was not available to me) all my own mechanical work on any car I had (brakes, oil changes, partial tune-ups, etc) of course I learned on a 1971 F-100 and it was a joy!

I had to be involved in legal dealings a number of times and studied endlessly to be able to represent myself in court... (all legal people make fun of me)

one thing I haven't done and want desperately is to learn Spanish... hopefully I will soon

[MineralMan]

41. I'm sure you'll do fine learning Spanish!

[SoDesuKa]

70. Spanish Subtitles

One way to improve your comprehension of written Spanish is with subtitles on English-speaking movies. You know what's going on because you speak English, but you see the translation in front of you. You select the subtitles when you load the DVD into the player.

Another way to improve your ear is by watching Spanish movies twice - once with English subtitles and the second time without.

[handmade34]

77. thanks for the tip

[pipi_k]

44. Not sure how useful my knowledge is...

but everything I know about wolves I learned on my own, because I love them. There isn't much an expert could say that I don't know already.


Also, I've done a lot of reading on the Tudor period in England.

[XemaSab]

45. I know a lot about birds

I'm not an expert by any means, but I know more than most professional biologists I've met.

Like, I know enough to work as a biologist, even though my degree is in something totally unrelated.

[The Straight Story]

46. Taught myself sex, still can't get a job in porn industry

:evilgrin:

[Rabblevox]

52. keep practicing! (hopefully with others) (and find a good camera-person!) /nt

[gratuitous]

47. Both hands north of the equator at all times

And any of the nuns who told you I was auto-something is just lying!

[shraby]

49. I've taught myself ceramics..enough to teach others,

and have a shop, poured molds, fired the greenware and glazed ware, learned on my own how to cane chairs, put rush seats on chairs, refinish furniture, make miniature dollhouse furniture (with drawers and doors that open and shut, taught myself how to make pysanky eggs, learned how to make a website and maintain it which I do now..several gigs of info on it, taught myself how to run a computer and fix problems I might have with it.
Never took classes to learn any of what I know..just dove in an learned what I wanted to learn..also could teach any of it.

[Luminous Animal]

67. You could be my sister! She taught herself to do most of that (and has a ceramic shop, too!)

[TygrBright]

51. I taught myself copy editing using various style guides;

...also pretty much all of my computer skills, although I did take classes in Basic and Fortran back in Jr. High. I went to a "University without walls" program in the 1980s, and designed my own degree program in a field that had previously had no degree programs, including a mix of classroom programs, "independent study" credits, and practica.

Once I graduated with a Bachelors' degree in liberal arts, pretty much anything I really wanted to learn was more or less self-taught.

Interesting thread, thanks!

observantly,
Bright

[MineralMan]

56. it's great to hear people's stories. That's why I started the thread.

We really know very little about each other here.

[RebelOne]

62. Yes, I too taught myself copy editing.

I was a typesetter for outdoors publications and found myself correcting errors in the writers' stories. When there was an opening for a copy editor in my company, I took the copy-editing test and passed with flying colors. So, I went from typesetter to copy editor. There were four copy editors in my department. When the economy tanked, three were laid off and only I was left. I copy edited 30 outdoors magazines for a year until, in 2010, the company started cutting staff, and unfortunately, I was let go. But that was OK, I was already 70 years old and ready to retire.

[War Horse]

54. PC assembly and repair, I suppose

Although "everybody" knows that these days (well, except those who've only ever owned laptops ;)). Never made a living from that, as such, but it proved useful when I was a freelancer and having a working PC was essential.

I used to be a pretty good guitar player back in the day, entirely self tought. But you know, use it or lose it.

But since you asked about learning a new discipline: It's not an area in which I'm autodidactic, but more a combo of colleagues lending their expertise and intense self study:

During the course of a year and a half I went from never having even seen FrameMaker or any pre print/pre press tools before to being a trusted source of support for both, for Tech/Copywriters who were long-time employees with two of the largest cell phone manufacturers in the world, plus a major European car manufacturer.

If it sounds like I'm bragging about that last part, it's because I am :). Kinda proud of it.

Although the latter is a closed chapter, it gave me a lot of useful "ballast".

[KarenS]

55. I think I am.

In the 70s I learned several business type programming languages including COBOL ~ I taught myself by taking home program listings that worked and figured out why they worked like they did ~ made a decent living at it for many years,,, went on to systems analysis, systems integration and later business analysis mostly in the aerospace industry ~ I loved it and I had a knack for it. Formally I have a high school education.

Since I've quit working, I've taught myself to make quilts =)

[Blue_In_AK]

57. I taught myself photography.

With a little help from my friends.


Oh, and I also taught myself how to play improv flute. I had the basic musical knowledge, but developed the ear.

[Kali]

60. my crappy corrals and interest in animal behavior led me to work out

all the moves for gentle cattle handling techniques that became popular/fashionable/necessary in the last couple decades - for which people pay lots of money to attend seminars and workshops (google bud williams, temple grandin)

while I can be infinitely patient with animals I don't have the temperament to teach humans nor the desire to do marketing so I haven't ever made direct money off this skill

it has save much wear and tear on equipment, animals and myself that does translate to income eventually, though

[NYC_SKP]

61. CAD CAM

Just so I could make stuff.

Different sorts of math, too.

Worked out the value of phi without a textbook back in the seventies, I knew of the principle of the golden mean but not the value.

[seabeyond]

64. my husband does that. nt

[Luminous Animal]

65. I have taught myself

Accounting
Filemaker developing (and went on to create marketable full business tracking systems for graphic designers & photographers)
Excel (expert)
Wine production management
Bass guitar and learned to site read a bass score
Needlepoint

Currently, I am teaching myself how to be an independent movie producer

Next up is learning how to hook rugs and quilting

[Odin2005]

68. Linguistics.

If you can't define "Dechticaetiative" you are a poser! :evilgrin:


I'm sure you want me to tell you what "Dechticaetiative" means. It describes a language in which the sole object of a mono-transitive sentence (I see her) is marked the same way grammatically as the indirect object of a ditransitive sentence (I gave it to her}

This is the opposite of how most languages, called "Dative" languages, do it. English, and all other European languages, are Dative languages.

[SoDesuKa]

69. Japanese

I learned Japanese out of a Teach Yourself book with a cassette tape. I got to the point where I could hear the sounds of the language and break them out into words. Japanese is not difficult in the sense that there aren't any unfamiliar sounds, the way Arabic has a bunch of different "th" sounds. The Japanese "R" is the same as our R.

I didn't follow up with it, and I've forgotten most of what I've learned. I'd love to live in Japan. I'd also love to live in Germany and speak the language with the natives.

[Art_from_Ark]

74. Actually, the Japanese "R" is confusing

As a native English speaker who has lived in Japan for what seems like ages, I can say that it can be very difficult to teach the English "R" sound to Japanese. They have a tendency to pronounce it like an "L", that is, with their tongue from inside their mouth, rather than with their lips. And English words with "l" and "r" sounds are transliterated into the same Japanese phonetic characters. For example, "led" and "red" would both be transliterated into Japanese as "レッド", "flight" and "fright" would both be transliterated as "フライト", and "rice" and "lice" would both be transliterated as "ライス"

[csziggy]

71. I taught myself how to repair and build computers

Starting with an old Pentium and working my way up. Along the way, all our family members decided we were the ones who should refurbish their old computers and dumped them all on us. That was actually a great learning experience - we rebuilt old PCs, everything from 286s to early Pentiums. We loaded operating systems, software (since along with the computers, we were given all the disks and documentation), and gave those computers to families who did not have one. This was over ten years ago and most of those families have gone on to buy their own computers and gotten experienced in using them.

I also taught myself HTML and CSS and created my own web sites. Although I ended up with more advanced software, I did most of the page coding on Notepad. While the pages are fairly basic - no flash or fancy stuff - I am happy with how they work.

As a child I was horse crazy but did not have access to horses or stables. I learned about horses from books from the public library. By the time I was ten I was allowed to check books out from the Young Adult Section and the librarian was asking me what books and magazines the library should order. Raising and caring for horses became my life's work - I have breed and raised horses since 1978 and ran a horse boarding farm for twenty years.

In college while I could not have my horses, I taught myself needlepoint from a little pamphlet given away by one of the thread companies. Over the years, I have stitched many, many projects, and designed my own pieces that won national awards. I've been asked to teach and to write articles on my needlework, but I am not interested in either.

[Th1onein]

72. I taught myself biochemistry.

I study ABC proteins. I was the first "scientist" to publish on the topic of the lack of a functioning lactoperoxidase system in the pathology of cystic fibrosis lung disease. I am working on a paper right now, on the fate of CFTR substrates in the periciliary layer.

[alfredo]

dupe

[alfredo]

73. I'll get into something and obsess over it until I get a handle

on the subject. Harps, drums, kites, bicycles, cooking, and photography have been my obsessions.

My current obsession is photography. I came back to it after several decades of neglect. I think this is something I will continue doing until my eyes go.

[renate]

75. well, I didn't learn the word "autodidact" in school, so I guess I would say I'm one

:)

[TBF]

79. Sure - I went to a very small school and refused to take typing class

my other choices for that hour were government and physics. I regret not taking physics ... at any rate I simply taught myself to type at home with my mom's old typewriter and an article in one of the ladies magazines (may have been woman's day or family circle - one of those). After you memorize the keys it's just practice exercises, and I got fast pretty quickly.

I've also been adopting dogs the past 10 years and have done quite a little bit of self study on behavior/training. I'm becoming very proficient at that but still learning. In this subject I've learned from talking to others, reading, videos, working with dogs myself.

[LWolf]

80. I have learned a few things independently, but

I don't know if I've learned them thoroughly to be an "expert" or to equal a college degree.

If I'm interested, I explore it until I've got enough to do what I wanted to do, or until time, energy, and resources have reached their limit.

In my young adulthood, I did that with organic gardening.

I've done that with raising young horses.

I tried to do that with playing the guitar, but that effort failed. After 40 years and repeated cycles of lessons for beginners every decade or so, I can still play 4-5 chords. Badly.

I've done that with various professional topics that weren't covered well, or at all, in classes and trainings. I have a better professional library in my home office than any school I've ever taught at.

If I want to know something, I've always been happy exploring on my own.

[Katashi_itto]

81. Lets see have 4 degrees, One in Respiratory Therapy, Computer animation,

Fail the "without classes" part.

Working on masters in accounting, would like my PhD in Behavorial Economics. I am all over the board for interests.

I shoot movies too, working on my 2nd full length one, self taught there.

I practice Kendo, aiming to go to Rome next August for the world Kendo championships. Learning Japanese and teaching myself Guitar (though I am really terrible at it)

Total nerd :)

[raccoon]

82. That's probably illegal in some states. nt