No, you don’t need to rent a campus, hire professors and start charging tuition. Setting up a personal university means taking your self-education as seriously as any schooling you manage pay for. While regular university is expensive and stops when you get a degree, your personal university continues indefinitely and can be run for free.
I’ve always been educating myself. From learning basic programming languages in my pre-teens through to reading about quantum physics and world religions in my spare time today. But it has only been in the last few years that I’ve gotten serious about my self-education. In that short time I went from reading a handful of books each year to over seventy.
But forming your personal university isn’t just reading a lot of books, just like getting a degree isn’t the result of taking random classes. Taking a more well-thought approach to what you learn in your spare time can give you an edge over the haphazard learner.
Getting Sold on Self-Education
If you don’t read a lot outside of work or school, the reason probably isn’t a lack of time. Lacking time might slow you down, but even with fifteen minutes a day you could chew through two or more dozen books a year. The problem is usually that you aren’t sold on the benefits of investing in educating yourself.
Reading and self-education takes effort. While this effort can have big short and long-term payoffs, those gains aren’t always easy to see. If you’re already spread thin between other commitments, it might seem like too much to throw reading a book or two per week on top of everything else.
Here are just a few of the benefits I’ve noticed from a literary gluttony:
- Improved Grades. Reading more outside your classes broadens the base from which you can learn material inside your classes.
- Improved Work. Every idea you learn can help improve your craft, whether that’s being a rock-star programmer or the world’s best manager.
- Life Improvement. Every idea, in the end, is self-help. Even if you aren’t reading books from the personal-development aisle, you are still gathering ideas that you can eventually connect down to improving yourself.
- Hacking Reality. The more you know, the better you are at decrypting reality. This is the biggest benefit of self-education because the more you learn, the greater your ability to sculpt what you want from the world.
Building Your University Curriculum
The best way to start any self-education is to start writing down what you would like to learn. I did this recently and wrote down dozens of different subjects from card counting to South American history. Write down important books you would like to read. I made a list that included everything from fiction such as Shakespeare and Vonnegut to non-fiction works by Aristotle or Adam Smith.
If your list looked anything like mine, chances are you’ve got enough material to keep you booked for the next few years (okay, bad pun). The next step is to whittle down this massive library into something you can learn over the next few months. Here are a few tips for thinking through your book list to take with you on your next trip to the library:
Pick 2-3 books per topic of interest. Taking only one book on a subject only gives you a single author’s perspective. If you find a subject interesting, you owe it to yourself to pick out two or three books to get contrasting views. Picking out more than three books in advance might be repetitive if you want to cover other subjects.
Read unusual and unusually good books. With every batch of new bestsellers, it is easy to jump on the latest book with the flashiest title. I strive to balance my portfolio by looking for more unusual books and unusually good books that may not get as much buzz today. This gives you a creative edge over the people who only read from the front of the bookstore.
Mix fiction and non-fiction. I used to read almost entirely non-fiction. Lately, however, I realized that great works of fiction can have even more value than non-fiction. Rather than unloading information, fiction gives you an opportunity to rewire how you think.
Use a T. The T-Model is one of the best theories for learning I’ve come across. Basically, it suggests you should focus on building a lot of skill in a select few areas (the shaft of the T) and know the basics about many areas (the top of the T). Using this approach, you can split up your learning between new areas and focusing on your expertise.
Use Wikipedia as a Start Point. Not sure whether you want to read a few thousand pages about a new subject? Just wikipedia a few topics within that area and see whether it spikes your interest.
Diversify. Stock pickers diversify so that the chances one devastating negative event or missing a great opportunity won’t hurt them. Diversifying your knowledge helps as well by focusing your attention on learning things far away from your current understandings.
Make Use of OpenCourseWare. Although online learning still has a ways to go to compete with your local library, OpenCourseWare is very close. Check out MIT’s selection of free online courses. These can help provide the structure of a formal course with the low costs and flexibility of self-education.
See Also: The Independent Scholar’s Handbook. Published in pdf format, this free resource provides a guide for independent learners.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience on this very important topic Scott. I’ve enjoyed reading the post.
Can you recommend literature for learning about the T-model?
I think Scott has described an excellent process for teaching yourself a new subject. Very similar to my own self education experience.
People are too dependent on others for their education. They want be told what’s right instead of thinking for themselves.
The only time I learn well is when the motivation comes from within.
You should also get the Independent Scholars Handbook, out of print, but available for free from Simon Fraser University at http://www.sfu.ca/independentscholars/isbook.htm
This book, and the independent scholars networks, are great for learning support.
Unschoolers approach learning this way every day throughout life. Self-education works for all ages, not just for the college-age student! Great article, Scott!
Thanks for the link, Glays. The Independent Scholars Handbooks looks awesome. I just checked it out and added it as a resource to the original post.
I had no idea such a document existed.
Great post, Scott! Thanks for reminding people that our education belongs to each of us–and we take it with us wherever we go! I appreciate the tips and will send my blog readers your way!
[…] U: How To Create Your Own University Jump to Comments This great post from Scott Young over at PicktheBrain.com reminds us that we have the ability to educate […]
Very useful article. A lot of people are discovering that learning doesn’t only take place in the classroom.
[…] Young from PickTheBrain.com recently published an interesting article about setting up a personal university. He gives several thoughtful suggestions for how to start learning on your own. The article may not […]
Great article as always Scott.
When I think about the learning I have done in my life, it is the areas that I have been most proactive in educating myself that the information has really “stuck”.
My two tips:
1) Join a library. I love walking out of a library with 10 books in my bag. Of course I don’t read them all, but it is nice to have lots of books around the house that I can pick and choose at whenever I please.
2) Make friends with other people who also love to read and learn. When I think about my absolute favorite books, they have mostly been given to me by friends/ family.
I’ll put a plug in here for learning on audio. While books are great people nowadays spend a lot of time in the car or at the gym and audio books and lectures are a great way to turn that time into learning time. A while back I started LearnOutLoud as an attempt to give more people access to the best audio learning materials on the web.
http://www.learnoutloud.com
Thanks for letting us know about learn out loud. It looks like a great inventory of educational audio material.
Great article! I definitely agree that reading fiction is better than non-fiction. I read about thirty non-fiction books last year, most of which were quite boring. Now I’ve started reading the 100 greatest fiction books of all time and it’s been so much more rewarding!
I wouldn’t say fiction or non-fiction is better than the other. They are both good for different things. Everyone should read both.
[…] » I’ve always wanted to see an article like this. I’m such a fan and advocate of self-teaching but I thought I was primarily alone on the topic. It turns out I’m not. Pick the Brain shows you How to Set Up Your Personal University. […]
Mainly for fiction - have a look at this site: http://www.bookcrossing.com
“n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.
(added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in August 2004)”
You can also create a wishlist. And join their forum.
Plus, it is a great way to dispose of your ‘old’, dusty books!
This is something I could definitely use. I have more used books than I know what to do with … the only problem is that I haven’t read many of them yet.
I know - it’s a weird disorder: buying books, but never reading them - what would make it worse is if you then start giving them away - but I have an (unread) book on that too
I actually read something interesting about our disorder, we go on streaks of accumulating books, but then lose interest and never read them. The funniest part, the books still remind us of the time when we were really excited about books, so we develop an attachment to them and won’t throw them out.
That was exactly what I was referring to (although I didn’t know some scholar spent 5 years researching it) - but this is proof it is universal! (same goes for eBooks, actually).
I have books I got in my schooldays that I only opened once: to put my nametag in… In a sense I even feel guilty for never reading them…
The next survey will be: how many unread books do you have in your library? Be honest!
[…] I just read a great article from John at Pick The Brain, called how to set up your personal university. […]