Schools these days offer a mediocre education at best. Many of the subjects taught are no longer practical, were never practical or are only practical for people pursuing a specific track in life (advanced trig I am looking at you!).
I am currently following a personal reading plan to systematically get smarter and wiser. (Interestingly enough, I found that I am not the first to come up with this concept. See this brilliant post from Ted Gioia that does an excellent job explaining the value in having a personal reading plan).
This blog will be a distillation of that knowledge and anything else I want to pass on to my kids that they won’t learn in school.
“I never let schooling interfere with my education” -Mark Twain-
The great Jewish sage and Philosopher, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto said:
“When one knows a great number of subjects, and understands how they are categorized and systematically interrelated, then he has a great advantage over one who has the same knowledge without such systemization. It is very much like the difference between looking at a well-arranged garden, planted in rows and patterns, versus seeing a wild thicket or forest growing in confusion.
When an individual is confronted by many details and does not know how they relate to one another or their true place in the general system, his intellect is given nothing more then a difficult unsatisfactory burden. He may struggle with it, but he will tire and grow weary long before he attains gratification. Each detail will arouse his curiosity, but not having access to the concept as a whole, he will remain frustrated.
The exact opposite is true when one knows something in relationship to its context. Since he sees it within his framework, he can go on to grasp other concepts associated with it and his success will bring him pleasure and elation.
Therefore, when one studies a subject, he must be aware of the place of each element within the general scheme…. It is also important to realize that the number of individual details are so great that it is beyond the power of the human mind to embrace them and know them all.
One’s goal should be attaining knowledge in the general principles.”
(Ramchal, Intro to Derech Hashem)
Ramchal is pointing out the importance of learning and distilling your knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1) Without doing so, true mastery is elusive because you don’t have the clarity to recognize gaps and errors. Structuring your knowledge will bring those gaps and errors to the forefront.
2) Structured learning inherently makes learning associated subjects and concepts easier because of the prior knowledge base.
3) It is beyond the capability of the human mind to know everything. Therefore, attaining knowledge in the general principles should be ones first aim. When you master the general principles, you will have a good grasp on many subjects. Structured learning gives the ability to identify common principles and patterns that seem to show up in many disciplines.
“If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything.” -Miyamoto Musashi-
My perspective on learning and teaching has always followed Luzzato’s blueprint. Learn subjects in depth and try to identify and organize it into core principles.
After doing so, plugin the rest of the subject in flow chart fashion.
My Blog will therefore follow this methodology.
We will take deep dives into subjects, organize them and provide links and reading recommendations for further reading.
This Blog will delve into many different disciplines.
Some of them are: Philosophy, Fitness, Science, Psychology, Gender, Mysticism, Art and Culture.
I will try to clarify these topics and plug it in to a broader worldview.
What is your opinion about school learning versus self-educating?
Do you believe in a specific method of codifying knowledge?
Do you have any books or subjects that I should add to my reading list?
I would love to hear your feedback!
I love self education but thrive in lecture and discussion. It's important to have both. It really starts with curiosity.
Great post, Yosef! I remember when you were workshopping your curriculum a while back, and thinking you were really onto something then :) I'd have to mull this over a bit more to see if I had any further useful feedback, but just wanted to say I love the post and to keep it up!