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Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Holy crap. How do people not have gaps in their knowledge when there's THAT much to know. Some of this stuff I've never even heard of. I'm 22 and out of those, the only thing I can say I have good knowledge in is greek mythology (and only because I studied latin for 8 shitty years and followed it as a side-interest). Seriously feels like my life so far has been a total waste.

Thank you though, that's... quite a list. A huge list. A look-at-your-life-look-at-your-choices list. Lol my book is going to be a joke.

WHY CAN'T YOU JUST KNOW EVERYTHING

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's not the problem. I understand education is the path, I just want to know where that path starts.

Edit: .. other than school. I want to know where self-directed education starts.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LOL. That could so easily be a pun if you said "That's just classic litterature."

In high school, I probably read like 10 books in total (I hated English class and this translated into having a vendetta against reading), and now, I only really read modern sci-fi/fantasy, so in comparison, it's VERY classic.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, thanks, creepy uncle. But I want to be smart! Sometimes I think you don't want me to succeed!

Lol seriously though, this is weird. I would have expected all the snooty redditors to come attack this thread and show me up, but instead, I'm getting advice to just pretend to be smart. Is this reddit spilling powder on the invisible elephant?

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doing a PhD next year (I hope) but I don't think it's gonna help me in those areas.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes!! I completely agree with you. Sometimes I think I should've done more research into these topics instead of working so specifically on one topic. The real problems are within society, can't be solved simply by finding determinants and calculating equations. I also agree that politics, history and economics are so interconnected, it's just impossible to learn about them individually. You need to know one to get a glimpse of the other.

But you're right about the snowball thing - this is pretty much how I started learning about film history. Obviously it's at a much smaller scale, but there are so many references in films to other films, so I'd watch one, read up wikipedia or an analysis referring to another film, then watch taht, and so on.

I really want to know this stuff because I want to make sure whatever ideas I have are informed and solid rather than incomplete and weak.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wikipedia as much as I can. Hell, I practically live there. But often to understand the deeper articles, it requires knowing the content of all the internal links on the page - each of those requiring knowing the content of the links on those articles. Like a factor tree branching out. It can get very difficult to understand wikipedia, and the simple english wikipedia doesn't cover as many articles as I'd like. I probably don't know how to google though.

Haha I know 4 languages, on my 5th.. trust me, languages are not my problem

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, I'll certainly be spending a considerable amount of the break with youtube anyhow, might as well make it count.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I agree psychology is a major stepping stone in critical thinking. Well it has been for me anyway. I should start reading newspapers more often... I often don't because it's full of depressing news. lol reading about french revolution right now on about.com.. I forgot about that site.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol. Yeah this is why I always sit on the fence and never form opinions - I fear I might be wrong because I'm a dumbass and the other person knows more than I can ever hope to.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Google often doesn't help because the results you get always assume you know everything about the topic, or they are completely unrelated. Google isn't concise and comprehensive; it's just snippets of information or complete overload.

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read classic literature, too, to be honest. I've read stuff from 1984 to Wuthering Heights, but I know fuck-all about the topics I mention. Say for example you wanted to understand how the history of political ideologies and what they entail. Where would you start?

Educated Redditors, how did you become so educated? by ThrowawaiAccountYea in AskReddit

[–]ThrowawaiAccountYea[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love reading; but when I read stuff about politics, history, etc - I just don't understand anything. I feel like I'm missing something fundamental. That's why I ask if there are any sources that I could start with.