Look into your wallet or purse

[coberst]

Look into your wallet or purse

 

If you find no library card you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

 

A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.

 

Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.

 

After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.

[Drip Curl Magic]

there are many ways to learn.

 

I believe you are neglecting the infinite knowledge that can be discovered on the internet.

 

ebooks are a good source of knowledge.

[Chacmool]

"Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,

And where we are our learning likewise is."

- William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost

 

You are right, DCM, there are indeed many ways of learning. But I also have to agree with coberst that a library card is a most valuable tool in acquiring knowledge and broadening one's horizons.

[GAHD]

Most librarys let you read inside without a card ;)

The really good books you can generally only get to by buying them from (University) bookstores.

[Kriminal99]

I completely disagree.

 

A) Every piece of information that was written by someone was initially inspired by the world

 

;) Most people do not study reason itself, which makes all their efforts much less efficient. Perhaps for these the only way to gain knowledge is to read many books.

 

C) Since the subject of reason has not been explored to its full potential by the general populace, there is no way you can know just how efficient someone can become in gaining knowledge from the world itself.

 

 

I went through most of school without ever cracking or looking at a book. I also learned much from the world on my own such that many things I was told in class I already knew and/or fit perfectly with what I already knew. I did however listen to the teachers, and thought about what they said, and its implications and I questioned what they said etc. What they said they might have read in books, but it was reason that allowed me to gain infinitely more knowledge than any information they gave.

 

In high school I never cracked the physics book yet ended up with a better grade on a final then anyone in the class.

 

Statistics was an exception for me, mostly because we were allowed to use our books on exams. I used the book and reason to ace my final and had never looked at the subject outside of class. I still remember my teacher walking up to me at the half hour mark and commenting that time was ticking (he knew I never studied and expected me to run of time) and then seeing his face when I turned in an exam with all right answers on it at the end of the class. In the time allotted for the exam I had developed an algorithm to solve any problem by reducing it into some given formula and book marked all relevant formulas in the book.

 

Geometry, calculus, computer programming, probability theory, psychology (somewhat), all manner of philosophy are all examples of classes that I not only passed but excelled at while doing virtually no reading.

 

Of course some classes I had trouble with like english where I refused to do things like write about the teacher's home town to get a good grade. And classes like history where you simply had to memorize events and had some similar elements to english also provided a problem... at least until I developed really good memorization algorithms to memorize events, maps etc in a few minutes.

 

The point isn't that I am smart, but that the study of reason allowed me to recreate knowledge from the world with extreme efficiency. Deductive reasoning used with everything I already knew, knowing when one subject could teach me about another (by knowing when relating situations by similie was valid or not) formulating general algorithms to solve any problem, being able to entertain multiple coherent belief sets and then reconcile them with each other into one, are all tools I used to do this.

 

I didn't just pass the classes either, I excelled at them. I used knowledge of how computers function physically to develop a coherent belief set regarding how computers "think" which allowed me to finish my assignments and help my friendly classmates debug their programs with 30 minutes to spare every day. Those few people willing to swallow their pride and recieve help from someone who never cracked the book recieved help from me regarding how to better understand math and physics topics. I left professors dumbfounded or extremely frustrated (depending on the professors level of objectivity) with counter arguments in philosophy.

 

Some examples being replacing mill's utilitarianism with a belief set that recognizes that people are hardly compentent judges on what makes themselves happy much less others so perhaps people should retain ownership over some resources and use it how they see fit and reduction of deception and increase of knowledge should be the main goal of ethics so people can know how to get the most out of their resources.

 

Another example being related observed mental phenomenon to other experiences such as use of visual brain matter to process sounds when deaf to translating languages to english, and rebutting that the association of colors with feelings does not disprove inverted spectrum argument because a person could simply have learned that blue things are cool from the enviornment and so if for example water was red instead of blue then red would be a cool color to that person.

 

The most important factor in the search for knowledge is not how you approach it but where you start to increase your efficiency. Studying reason itself allows you to learn much more much faster than starting anywhere else. Someone else might do it at first by reading, I started by listening. To be honest I can't even sit down and read a book that isn't fiction (and can hardly sit down and read those) without quickly losing focus. Though I can get alot out of the short time I do read before that.

[TheFaithfulStone]

Must. Not. Respond.

 

So.... DIFFICULT.

 

TFS

[CraigD]

As I was preparing to post a complaint about how my local (Washington DC metro area) library system had declined so badly I no longer found it useful, I ran a couple on titles from my “books I’m looking for” list thought an online catalog, and discovered that several of these books are waiting for me barely a mile from where I sit.

 

Searches for ebook versions of them – some taking longer than 2 mile round-trip walk – have turned up nothing, nor has a search on the occasion that I found myself in a large chain bookstore.

If you find no library card you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

While I wouldn’t put it in quite such scathing terms, coberst is right, I think, to emphasize the value of public libraries. Seems I’ve been lured into thinking the almighty internet had rendered them dusty relics, and needed to be jarred back into reality – thanks ;)

[arkain101]

You better go to the library and read up on what your talking about :beer:

 

eh? jk.

[Turtle]

My local library system is rather extensive over a wide geographical area and a number of local libraries including a college library. One card fits all. We also have a library computer catalog accessible from the web which allows users to conduct library business without coming in; they even mail the books you want to check out to you free of charge.

[arkain101]

I dont even have a library in my town.. lol.

[InfiniteNow]

I dont even have a library in my town.. lol.

So, perhaps self-actualization is contingent upon one's location... :beer:

[Kriminal99]

It's fallacious reasoning. I like libraries therefore only people who use libraries are smart. Yeah... I don't think so.

 

@TFS if you had anything logical say you would have said it rather than implying you had something to say. If all you were going to do was to express frustration it wasn't relevant anyways.

[coberst]

So, perhaps self-actualization is contingent upon one's location... :beer:

 

What, no libraries in Austin?!

[InfiniteNow]

What, no libraries in Austin?!

 

We have a bar called The Library. Does that count? :beer:

 

 

You seem to have overstated your argument. Information is no longer limited to the shelves of a library, so the card is no longer the sole passageway to self improvement. Then again, there were always other ways to improve oneself outside of the library...

[Turtle]

Then again, there were always other ways to improve oneself outside of the library...

 

I recommend a shooting range. :Guns:

[Drip Curl Magic]

I believe I need to embellish upon my original post.

 

Not to say that I don't read books. Books are amazing. I read as often as my schedule will let me. But do I need a library card to do that?

 

I've never really needed one to aquire as many books as I want. The combination of internet, exchanging books with friends, buying books at bookstores, buying used books online, and college have always been enough to keep me content.

 

Besides, I hate having a time limit on how long I can take to read a book. Some weeks are just too busy for me to be able to sit down and read. it would get far too frustrating to have to go back to the library everytime I needed to renew a book check out. Just more to add to my schedule.

 

not to degrade the beauty of any business that carries such an extensive source of knowledge. But I believe the idea of a proposed "self-learner" could actually imply quite the opposite of someone who memorizes and follows, word by word, the information layed out in a text book.

 

combine book knowledge with actual experiences, and I think that is the first step to having a healthy mind.

 

I know a few characters who value books a little too much. These people rarely get out of the house. Instead, they read other people's experiences. Other people's adventures. They read opinionated text, and have nothing to relate it to in their own lives. So, they copy the opinions of the book writers as if they were their own. When in reality, this person has never EXPERIENCED anything in their own life to prove or disprove any of the notions presented to them on a daily basis.

[TheBigDog]

I do not have a library card. I have not had one in years. I have tended to buy books at used book stores and keep. I have an extensive and growing home library. I just bought two books this week. I am half way through the first one, and the other is a book I have read already when it was loaned to me by a contractor ("The Goal" by Goldblatt). The library is a valuable resource that people should take full advantage of. But there are plenty of alternatives to the library that exist today.

 

Bill