Bullshit. Or, more politely, an overly broad generalization.
In my experience, some people learn very well by themselves and some do need a class/group/teacher. It’s just a personal characteristic and I know smart people of both kinds.
...people who routinely upload the contents of thick reference manuals into their brains. [During the production of the first book version of this document, for example, I learned most of the rather complex typesetting language TeX over about four working days, mainly by inhaling Knuth’s 477-page manual. My editor’s flabbergasted reaction to this genuinely surprised me, because years of associating with hackers have conditioned me to consider such performances routine and to be expected. —ESR]
Note: consider such performances routine. This is, of course, all lone-wolf.
I think only a small minority of people are “naturals” at their chosen activity, and even they often get support from other “naturals” somehow. For me, encouragement always played a huge role. All my attempts to learn stuff in a supportive setting worked very well, and all my attempts to learn stuff in isolation failed.
It’s not a function of activity, it’s a learning style (to use an overused expression) which applies to all kinds of activities.
All my attempts to learn stuff in a supportive setting worked very well, and all my attempts to learn stuff in isolation failed.
Right, but the typical mind fallacy is a thing. I’m your opposite—I learn best by myself and a class/group just gets in the way for me—but I know that people unlike me exist :-)
Fair enough. I guess my post is mostly addressed to the folks who keep trying to do stuff alone, fail, and blame “akrasia”. It seems like a typical story on LW, see Elo’s recent post for example.
Bullshit. Or, more politely, an overly broad generalization.
In my experience, some people learn very well by themselves and some do need a class/group/teacher. It’s just a personal characteristic and I know smart people of both kinds.
For example, here is a very old description of hackers:
Note: consider such performances routine. This is, of course, all lone-wolf.
I think only a small minority of people are “naturals” at their chosen activity, and even they often get support from other “naturals” somehow. For me, encouragement always played a huge role. All my attempts to learn stuff in a supportive setting worked very well, and all my attempts to learn stuff in isolation failed.
It’s not a function of activity, it’s a learning style (to use an overused expression) which applies to all kinds of activities.
Right, but the typical mind fallacy is a thing. I’m your opposite—I learn best by myself and a class/group just gets in the way for me—but I know that people unlike me exist :-)
Fair enough. I guess my post is mostly addressed to the folks who keep trying to do stuff alone, fail, and blame “akrasia”. It seems like a typical story on LW, see Elo’s recent post for example.
There’s also a strong selection effect. Guess what kind of people you’ll meet in classes!
I dunno. What kind? My first reaction was “normies” :-/