One thing that I've always wanted to ask you, but for some reason never have, is what kind of form your autodidactism took. Did you just read books (if so, what kind? Textbooks?), did you get a tutor, did your parents help?

Comment author: wedrifid comment score below threshold [+] (5 children)

Comment author: CronoDAS 03 November 2012 12:44:10AM * 3 points [-]

"Homeschooled" is what you say to college admissions people.

"Dropout" implies that you're not interested in continuing your education.

Comment author: Epiphany 03 November 2012 01:18:03AM * 1 point [-]

If you consider the ideas of John Taylor Gatto, the 1991 New York State teacher of the year, regarding schooling, you might hesitate before using the word "schooling" to mean something credible.

His perspective is that schooling is not education and can help or hinder learning (explained under the heading "Learning, Schooling, & Education"). The criticisms he provides in "Dumbing us Down" are pretty nasty. I gave the gist of it and linked to an online book preview here. I highly recommend reading at least the first chapter of that book.

Comment author: CronoDAS 03 November 2012 02:07:17AM 1 point [-]

Yeah, I've read some of what he says. He's right and he's wrong; American public education is indeed designed to produce workers, but we still have far more entrepreneurs per capita than, say, China.

Comment author: Epiphany 03 November 2012 04:50:04AM * 0 points [-]

Hmmm. Not to ignore the fact that this essentially sidesteps my point that school should not necessarily be associated with credibility, but you've succeeded in making me curious: what do you think the difference is between the US and China that would explain that?

Comment author: CronoDAS 03 November 2012 11:30:16PM 0 points [-]

Actually, I think I'm wrong on the facts here; The GEM 2011 Global Report has some tables about this, but they don't copy/paste very well. The U.S. is ranked first in "early-stage entrepreneurial activity" (percentage of the population that owns or is employed by a business less than three and a half years old) among nations characterized as "innovation-driven economies" (a category that includes most of Europe, Japan, and South Korea) at 12.3%, but "efficiency-driven economies" (which includes China, most of Latin America, and much of Eastern Europe) tend to have higher values; China is listed at 24.0%,

CronoDAS comments on Proofs, Implications, and Models - Less Wrong

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