Knowledge for it's own sake

[ddubois]

When I was in high school, I enjoyed math, greatly. And I was very good at it, earning a 770 on my math SAT. When I went to college, I took a what now seems like a minimal number of math courses (given that I was a CS major), and the ones I took, I did as litle as possible to get by. Thus, I learned extremely little compared to what could have potentially been obtained. Amoung these classes, I vaguely recall taking a Numerical Analysis class and understanding precisely 0% of it. (That I passed is probably a sad commentary on the state of education.) This was over 10 years ago now.

Maybe I'm going through something of an early mid-life crisis, as I am having all sorts of nostalgiic, regretful thoughts and yearnings. Amoung these is the sense that I would have liked to have learned more math. Not because I perceive there to be much practical value in it (I know more than enough to do everything I need to do with regards to gaming, finance, work, etc) but just because I feel like I've lost some of my intelluctual self-esteem.

How strange/silly am I?

Anyways, one thought I had was that perhaps I could go sit in on some lectures 'on the sly' from the start of the semester without actually enrolling in any college courses. (I'm sure I could have gotten away with this in many of my lecture classes when I was in college.) Realistically however, it doesn't seem very plausible to commit weekly time out of my scehdule in such a manner given that I have job/wife/kids, and given that the practical motivation for doing this is absent. Another idea is that I could try to self-educate by, for instance, buying some text book, and just trying to plow through it. But I wouldn't suppose textbooks have gotten much more readily accessible over time, and again, there's no real driving factor to motivate me - it would probably be another book on my shelf that doesn't get read.

Have any of you ever had feelings similar to what I am describing? Did you ever resolve them?

[purnell]

I share your desire to keep learning new things. That's a big part of the reason I read/post here. I think if I stopped learning I would lose alot of my zest for life.

Fortunately for us, the www has come along and made new knowledge many orders of magnitude more accessible than it was just a few short years ago.

As for going back to math class on your own time/terms,

MIT's open courseware (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html) is a good place to start.

[chezlaw]

Knowledge for its own sake is the best kind. I went back and did a maths degree part time just for fun. One of the best things I've ever done.

I then went back and started a philosophy degree but that was much harder and I couldn't do it justice while working. Still very worthwile.

chez

[RJT]

I am being only somewhat facetious here when I ask (truthfully speaking not being facetious at all - depends on what we find out about the effects of religion - hopefully you have been following the other posts):

Has any religion gotten in your way?

p.s. I for one regret some of the time I spent partying (or simply being lazy) and not studying. I look(ed) on it as other type of learning. Looking back I was not wrong in learning what I picked up outside the classroom. Would love to go back and learn all I missed, though. Not sure if that feeling goes away.

[RJT]

If I can offer some further (advice?) experience. And I am sure you have heard this before. It is a lot easier to go back (continue) to classes when you are younger than older. Life gets in the way so to speak (and we get lazier or at least slower) . Especially if you marry, kids, careers, other “hobbies”.

Learning is never ever a waste.

The few grad courses I took for the “heck of it” I took more seriously and did a better job at them than my undergrad years.

Plus, practically speaking, you never know what might happen at or because of a class. You meet someone who might redirect your career - just perhaps meeting a new friend in life - whatever, see a posting for another class that leads to something else.


The journey is half the fun of life, I think.