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Don’t Go Back to School: How toFuel the Internal Engine of Learningby Maria Popova

“When you step away from the prepackaged structure oftraditional education, you’ll discover that there are manymore ways to learn outside school than within.”

“The present education system is the trampling of

the herd,” legendary architect Frank Lloyd

Wright lamented in 1956. Half a century later, I

started Brain Pickings in large part out of

frustration and disappointment with my

trampling experience of our culturally fetishized

“Ivy League education.” I found myself

intellectually and creatively unstimulated by the

industrialized model of the large lecture hall, the

PowerPoint presentations, the standardized tests

assessing my rote memorization of facts rather

than my ability to transmute that factual

knowledge into a pattern-recognition

mechanism that connects different disciplines to

cultivate wisdom about how the world works and a moral lens on how it should

work. So Brain Pickings became the record of my alternative learning, of that

cross-disciplinary curiosity that took me from art to psychology to history to

science, by way of the myriad pieces of knowledge I discovered — and

connected — on my own. I didn’t live up to the entrepreneurial ideal of the

college drop-out and begrudgingly graduated “with honors,” but refused to go

to my own graduation and decided never to go back to school. Years later, I’ve

learned more in the course of writing and researching the thousands of articles

to date than in all the years of my formal education combined.

So, in 2012, when I found out that writer Kio Stark was crowdfunding a book

that would serve as a manifesto for learning outside formal education, I eagerly

chipped in. Now, Don’t Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything is

out and is everything I could’ve wished for when I was in college, an essential

piece of cultural literacy, at once tantalizing and practically grounded assurance

that success doesn’t lie at the end of a single highway but is sprinkled along a

thousand alternative paths. Stark describes it as “a radical project, the opposite

of reform … not about fixing school [but] about transforming learning — and

making traditional school one among many options rather than the only

option.” Through a series of interviews with independent learners who have

reached success and happiness in fields as diverse as journalism, illustration,

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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labors of love and molecular biology, Stark — who herself dropped out of a graduate program

at Yale, despite being offered a prestigious fellowship — cracks open the secret

to defining your own success and finding your purpose outside the factory

model of formal education. She notes the patterns that emerge:

People who forgo school build their own infrastructures. Theycreate and borrow and reinvent the best that formal schoolinghas to offer, and they leave the worst behind. That buys themthe freedom to learn on their own terms.

[…]

From their stories, you’ll see that when you step away fromthe prepackaged structure of traditional education, you’lldiscover that there are many more ways to learn outsideschool than within.

Reflecting on her own exit from academia, Stark articulates a much more

broadly applicable insight:

A gracefully executed quit is a beautiful thing, opening upmore doors than it closes.

But despite discovering in dismay that “liberal arts graduate school is

professional school for professors,” which she had no interest in becoming,

Stark did learn something immensely valuable from her third year of

independent study, during which she read about 200 books of her own

choosing:

I learned how to teach myself. I had to make my own readinglists for the exams, which meant I learned how to take asubject I was interested in and make myself a map forlearning it.

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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must-reads

The interviews revealed four key common tangents: learning is collaborative

rather than done alone; the importance of academic credentials in many

professions is declining; the most fulfilling learning tends to take place outside

of school; and those happiest about learning are those who learn out of intrinsic

motivation rather than in pursuit of extrinsic rewards. The first of these

insights, of course, appears on the surface to contradict the very notion of

“independent learning,” but Stark offers an eloquent semantic caveat:

Independent learning suggests ideas such as “self-taught,” or“autodidact.” These imply that independence means workingsolo. But that’s just not how it happens. People don’t learn inisolation. When I talk about independent learners, I don’tmean people learning alone. I’m talking about learning thathappens independent of schools.

[…]

Anyone who really wants to learn without school has to findother people to learn with and from. That’s the open secret oflearning outside of school. It’s a social act. Learning issomething we do together.

Independent learners are interdependent learners.

She critiques the present boom of massive open online classes, or MOOCs, for

their tendency to attempt replicating the offline experience online rather than

building a new model for learning from the ground up:

Simply put, MOOCs are designed to put teaching online, andthat is their mistake. Instead they should start putting learningonline. The innovation of MOOCs is to detach the act ofteaching from physical classrooms and tuition-based

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE AND DO

WHAT YOU LOVE

FAIL SAFE: COURAGE AND THE CREATIVE

LIFE

FAMOUS WRITERS ON WRITING

HOW TO STAY SANE

CULTURAL ICONS ON THE MEANING OF LIFE

enrollment. But what they should be working toward is muchmore radical — detaching learning from the linear processes ofschool.

But that, Stark found, is missing the point. When she interviewed people who

did go to school and asked what they most liked about the experience, they

“unanimously cited ‘other people’ as the most useful and meaningful part of

their school experience.” So, then:

Given the primacy of community in the experience of learning,the question of how to take the auto out of autodidactic is thefirst and most central question for learners.

Much of the argument for formal education rests on statistics indicating that

people with college and graduate degrees earn more. But those statistics, Stark

notes, suffer an important and rarely heeded bias:

The problem is that this statistic is based on long-term data,gathered from a period of moderate loan debt, easyemployability, and annual increases in the value of a collegedegree. These conditions have been the case for college gradsfor decades. Given the dramatically changed circumstancesgrads today face, we already know that the trends for debt,employability, and the value of a degree have all degraded, andwe cannot assume the trend toward greater lifetime earningswill hold true for the current generation. This is a criticalomission from media coverage. The fact is we do not know.There’s absolutely no guarantee it will hold true.

Some heartening evidence suggests the blind reliance on degrees might be

beginning to change. Stark cites Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh:

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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ALBERT EINSTEIN ON THE SECRET TOLEARNING ANYTHING

THE BEST BOOKS OF 2012

THE DAILY ROUTINES OF FAMOUS

WRITERS

5 ESSENTIAL BOOKS ON FEAR AND THE

CREATIVE PROCESS

10 TIPS ON WRITING FROM DAVID OGILVY

I haven’t looked at a résumé in years. I hire people based ontheir skills and whether or not they are going to fit our culture.

Another common argument for formal education extols the alleged advantages

of its structure, proposing that homework assignments, reading schedules, and

regular standardized testing would motivate you to learn with greater rigor.

But, as Daniel Pink has written about the psychology of motivation, in school, as

in work, intrinsic drives far outweigh extrinsic, carrots-and-sticks paradigms of

reward and punishment, rendering this argument unsound. Stark writes:

Learning outside school is necessarily driven by an internalengine. … [I]ndependent learners stick with the reading,thinking, making, and experimenting by which they learnbecause they do it for love, to scratch an itch, to satisfycuriosity, following the compass of passion and wonder aboutthe world.

So how can you best fuel that internal engine of learning outside the depot of

formal education? Stark offers an essential insight, which places self-discovery

at the heart of acquiring external knowledge:

Learning your own way means finding the methods that workbest for you and creating conditions that support sustainedmotivation. Perseverance, pleasure, and the ability to retainwhat you learn are among the wonderful byproducts ofgetting to learn using methods that suit you best and incontexts that keep you going. Figuring out your personalapproach to each of these takes trial and error.

[…]

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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9 BOOKS TO HELP YOU READ MORE AND

WRITE BETTER

JOHN CLEESE ON THE 5 FACTORS TOMAKE YOUR LIFE MORE CREATIVE

JOAN DIDION ON KEEPING A NOTEBOOK

100 IDEAS THAT CHANGED GRAPHIC

DESIGN

7 MUST-READ BOOKS ON THE ART &SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS

For independent learners, it’s essential to find the process andmethods that match your instinctual tendencies as a learner.Everyone I talked to went through a period of experimentingand sorting out what works for them, and they’ve becomehighly aware of their own preferences. They’re clear thatlearning by methods that don’t suit them shuts down theirdrive and diminishes their enjoyment of learning. Independentlearners also find that their preferred methods are different fordifferent areas. So one of the keys to success and enjoymentas an independent learner is to discover how you learn.

[…]

School isn’t very good at dealing with the multiplicity ofindividual learning preferences, and it’s not very good athelping you figure out what works for you.

Echoing Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has argued that “every child is a scientist”

since curiosity is coded into our DNA, and Sir Ken Robinson, who has lamented

that the industrial model of education schools us out of our inborn curiosity,

Stark observes:

Any young child you observe displays these traits. But passionand curiosity can be easily lost. School itself can be a primarycause; arbitrary motivators such as grades leave little roomfor variation in students’ abilities and interests, and fail toreward curiosity itself. There are also significant social factorsworking against children’s natural curiosity and capacity forlearning, such as family support or the lack of it, or a degreeof poverty that puts families in survival mode with little roomto nurture curiosity.

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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RICHARD DAWKINS ON EVIDENCE INSCIENCE, LIFE AND LOVE: A LETTER TOHIS 10-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER

CREATIVE CARTOGRAPHY: 7 MUST-READ

BOOKS ON MAPS

CARL SAGAN ON SCIENCE AND

SPIRITUALITY

JOHN STEINBECK ON FALLING IN LOVE: A1958 LETTER

7 OBSCURE CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY

FAMOUS AUTHORS OF ADULT LITERATURE

Stark returns to the question of motivators that do work, once again calling to

mind Pink’s advocacy of autonomy, mastery, and purpose as the trifecta of

success. She writes:

[T]hree broadly defined elements of the learning experiencesupport internal motivation and the persistence it enables.Internal motivation relies on learners having autonomy in theirlearning, a progressing sense of competence in their skills andknowledge, and the ability to learn in a concrete or “realworld” context rather than in the abstract. These are mostlyabsent from classroom learning. Autonomy is rare, usefulcontext is absent, and school’s means for affirmingcompetence often feel so arbitrary as to be almost without use— and are sometimes actively demotivating. . . . [A]utonomymeans that you follow your own path. You learn what youwant to learn, when and how you want to learn it, for yourown reasons. Your impetus to learn comes from withinbecause you control the conditions of your learning ratherthan working within a structure that’s pre-made and inflexible.

The second thing you need to stick with learningindependently is to set your own goals toward an increasingsense of competence. You need to create a feedback loop thatconfirms your work is worth it and keeps you movingforward. In school this is provided by advancing through thesteps of the linear path within an individual class or a setcurriculum, as well as from feedback from grades and praise.

But Stark found that outside of school, those most successful at learning sought

their sense of competence through alternative sources. Many, like James

Mangan advised in his 1936 blueprint to acquiring knowledge, solidified their

learning by teaching it to other people, increasing their own sense of mastery

14/12/2013 00:32Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning | Brain Pickings

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WHY WE LOVE: 5 BOOKS ON THE

PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE

7 MUST-READ BOOKS ON MUSIC,EMOTION & THE BRAIN

BERTRAND RUSSELL'S 10COMMANDMENTS OF TEACHING

5! TIMELESS COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES

TO TEACH YOU TO DEFINE YOUR OWN

SUCCESS

explore

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animation artbooks children'sbooks collaboration

creativity

and deepening their understanding. Others centered their learning around

specific projects, which enabled them to make progress more modular and thus

more attainable. Another cohort cited failure as an essential part of the road to

mastery. Stark continues:

The third thing [that] can make or break your ability to sustaininternal motivation … is to situate what you’re learning in acontext that matters to you. In some cases, the context is aspecific project you want to accomplish, which … alsofunctions to support your sense of progress.

She sums up the failings of the establishment:

School is not designed to offer these three conditions;autonomy and context are sorely lacking in classrooms.School can provide a sense of increasing mastery, via gradesand moving from introductory classes to harder ones. But asense of true competence is harder to come by in a schoolenvironment. Fortunately, there are professors in highereducation who are working to change the motivationalstructures that underlie their curricula.

Stark prefaces the interviews with a clear mission statement:

For those of you who have experience with learning outside ofschool, this book is a celebration of what you do. For those ofyou who haven’t, it’s a warm invitation to give it a try.

The interviews, to be sure, offer a remarkably diverse array of callings,

underpinned by a number of shared values and common characteristics.

Computational biologist Florian Wagner, for instance, echoes Steve Jobs’s

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culture data

visualization designdiaries documentaryeducation film food

happiness historyillustrationinnovation interviewknowledge letters

literature love musicneuroscience omnibusphilosophyphotography poetry

politicspsychology remix

science social web

SoundCloud

sustainabilitytechnology TEDvideo vintage vintage

children's books world

writing

famous words on the secret of life in articulating a sentiment shared by many of

the other interviewees:

There is something really special about when you first realizeyou can figure out really cool things completely on your own.That alone is a valuable lesson in life.

Investigative journalist Quinn Norton subscribes to Mangan’s prescription for

learning by teaching:

I ended up teaching [my] knowledge to others at the school.That’s one of my most effective ways to learn, by teaching;you just have to stay a week ahead of your students. …Everything I learned, I immediately turned around and taughtto others.

She also used the gift of ignorance to proactively drive her knowledge forward:

When I wanted to learn something new as a professionalwriter, I’d pitch a story on it. I was interested in neurology,and I figured, why don’t I start interviewing neurologists? Thegreat thing about being a journalist is that you can pick upthe phone and talk to anybody. It was just like what I foundout about learning from experts on mailing lists. People like totalk about what they know.

Norton speaks to the usefulness of useless knowledge, not only in one’s own

intellectual development but also as social currency:

I’m stuffed with trivial, useless knowledge, on a panoply ofbizarre topics, so I can find something that they’re interestedin that I know something about. Being able to do that istremendously socially valuable. The exchange of knowledge isa very human way to learn. I try never to walk into a roomwhere I want to get information without knowing what I’mbringing to the other person.

[…]

I think part of the problem with the usual mindset of thestudent is that it’s like being a sponge. It’s passive. It’s notabout having something to bring to the interaction. Peoplewho are experts in things are experts because they likelearning.

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The wonderful Rita J. King, whose diverse and prolific career spans investigative

journalism in the nuclear industry, a position as Futurist at NASA, and an

executive role in Manhattan’s Science House, recalls boldly defying the cult of

credentials:

After I graduated, I wondered if I’d be perceived as less capableor desirable because I didn’t have an Ivy League degree. So Itried an experiment. When I looked for work, I didn’t talkabout my education at all. I approached my career like anadventure, accepting work that led to other work and built onitself. I could have been a PhD from Harvard, or a high schooldropout, nobody knew either way. It was a fun experiment tosee the assumptions people made about my level of education,and also to see how much other people rely on having beeneducated at a prestigious university for social capital. Therehas never been a situation in which I needed to prove that Ihave a degree to get work. People never ask. I was ajournalist.

She makes a case for context over mere content:

When you’re learning something, it’s really important not onlyto understand the system and context in which that thingfunctions, but also to look ahead and imagine what the worldwould be like with or without this thing.

Ultimately, she sees learning as a continuum rather than a finite progression

with a defined beginning and end, something Susan Sontag touched on when

she proposed her radical model for remixing education. King observes:

My career now centers completely on science, art,imagination, and business. I’ve learned about these fieldsthrough years of immersion. I continue to live and work thatway. Life changes constantly, and flexibility is the best path tokeeping your skills and perspectives current. Formal education

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is valuable in the right context but it tends to be rigid, whichcan put students at a serious disadvantage when theygraduate from academia and enter the world. Each person isat a different stage in the learning process. We need to all takea step back and see ourselves on a continuum of the learningexperience.

Scientific researcher and Singularity Institute director Luke Muehlhauser

prefaces his advice with an important disclaimer:

Skipping school or dropping out of school is obviously adecision that should be made on a case-by-case basis. Youwant to come out of your education with certain types ofcompetencies and not a lot of debt. But it has never beeneasier to learn without school. There are so many resources tobecome a generally capable and smart person and there is notrouble doing it outside of the school system at all. Youreducation should amplify your curiosity by giving you theopportunity to pursue things that you actually care about,and learning outside of school is ideal for that. Try to learn asmany things as possible and not be afraid to fail quickly andkeep trying, or switch tracks. You’ll get experience andvaluable lessons in a variety of fields, and you’ll occasionallystumble across things that you thought you were going to bebad at, and it turns out you’re pretty good at.

[…]

Most people assume you need a PhD to publish in peer-reviewed books and journals, but it’s not true—I’ve publishedin peer-reviewed venues without even a bachelor’s degree,because I learned the material well enough on my own toengage at the cutting edge of human knowledge.

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Software engineer, artist, and University of Texas molecular biologist Zack

Booth Simpson speaks to the value of cultivating what William Gibson has called

“a personal micro-culture” and learning from the people with whom you

surround yourself:

In a way, the best education you can get is just talking withpeople who are really smart and interested in things, and youcan get that for the cost of lunch.

Artist Molly Crabapple, who inked this beautiful illustration of Salvador Dalí’s

creative credo and live-sketched Susan Cain’s talk on the power of introverts,

recalls how self-initiated reading shaped her life:

I was … a constant reader. At home, I lived next to this thriftstore that sold paperbacks for 10¢ apiece so I would go andbuy massive stacks of paperback books on everything.Everything from trashy 1970s romance novels to Plato. WhenI went to Europe, I brought with me every single book that Ididn’t think I would read voluntarily, because I figured if I wason a bus ride, I would read them. So I read Plato and Dante’sInferno, and all types of literature. I got my education on thebus.

Don’t Go Back to School is a stimulating read in its entirety and a fine addition to

these essential books on education.

Public domain images via Flickr Commons

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