The Power of Self-Learning
Harnessing Independent Thought
Self-Education Starts with Independent Thought Habits
From my experience, those most capable of self-education have the following characteristics:
High-performing
Want to reach their highest potential
Insatiably curious
Committed to consistent improvement
Want to see their actions make a difference
Want to be leaders
If these characteristics don't fit you, don't worry. You can still access a prolific education, what matters most is training yourself to think independently.
In my opinion, the most important qualities to access high-quality self-education are to be insatiably curious and an independent thinker.
The best part is anyone can access a -The main barrier to learning anything is not physical, it’s emotional. Emotions can be changed with new perspectives or insights.
“To educate educators! But the first ones must educate themselves! And for these I write." - Friedrich Nietzsche (The Future of Our Educational Institutions)
Education is a fundamental layer of who we are, so we cannot risk putting the process on someone else.
Learning how to educate ourselves starts with learning how to rely on ourselves and think independently. There are many beautiful books on this topic, but one that I want to touch upon is Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Self-Reliance is a short series of essays that explain the significance and benefits of relying on oneself and how that plays a critical role in one's education.
“My life is for itself and not for a spectacle.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
Life is for ourselves, not for other people to watch. We must live for our own experience.
Thinking independently begins with living for ourselves and ignoring what it may look like to others.
“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
Emerson is saying that through education we discover three things:
Everyone has their problems and no one is worth envying.
Being ourselves is the only way to live.
Good comes to us through working for it.
How each of us gets to these conclusions is unique and incomparable. Our education is each our own. There are opportunities to learn all around us, but we cannot know anything until we take the time to plant the seeds and tend to the garden. A worthwhile education is an internal achievement brought about through work and sacrifice.
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
The only way to access the unique education we need for our lives is to trust ourselves.
We need to accept that there is a divine power in us, our society, and everything that connects them.
All great men trust themselves and commit to the genius within them.
The ancient Romans called the guardian spirit of a person or place a "genius". The word "genius" comes from the Latin word "gignere", which means "to give birth". The Romans believed that the genius was present at the moment of a person's birth and would stay with them throughout their life. The genius was responsible for a person's unique personality and disposition, as well as their talents and abilities.
That commitment to honor the genius advances humanity and makes life worthwhile.
“He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him; he does not court you.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
If a man can be over-cumbered with consequences and biases but still can provide an independent and genuine opinion, then he will never have to fight for other people's attention or approval because everyone else will be fighting for his.
Learning to provide an independent and honest opinion is a key goal of self-learning. If we are constantly fighting for other people's approval, we end up just thinking what everyone else thinks.
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
What we do is our business and not everyone else's, even though it's easy to fall into that.
People will always think they know what you "should" do better than you, but this isn't the case.
Only we know our lives and ourselves better than anyone else. It's easy to live in a world based on everyone else's thoughts and opinions, it's much harder to live for ourselves. Some people even lose this connection and don't know what their thoughts and ideas are.
However, we can find it easy to listen to ourselves by living in solitude. If you've lost access to your independent thoughts and opinions, spend some time alone and reconnect with this part of yourself because greatness is given to those who keep their independence of solitude when they are around others.
“Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
People tend to practice willful ignorance and intentionally blind themselves to independent thought by mindlessly adopting the opinions of the community.
Quite often, the opinions of a community are an ideology. These ideologies make our entire reality a lie.
By pursuing maintaining our independent thought connection to ourselves, we bolster ourselves against the dangers of miseducation and ideology.
“The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
We are scared to trust ourselves because we only have our past to go off of. People trap themselves into thinking "What we thought and did in the past is what we'll think and do in the future" We hold the past in such high regard because we have no other concrete evidence to go off of. If we can see that this is just a mind game, an illusion, then we can set ourselves free of the unconscious patterns of the past and create a new future. A future completely independent of thoughts and habits dictated by the community, a future of our design.
This is the first step of tapping into our divine powers as conscious beings.
“Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'—Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
Thinking independently is hard, especially because it makes us different from others. But is it so bad to be different? Greatness is only achieved by being different than others. Greatness is so separate from the crowd, that it's almost a different being entirely.
“Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities. —Ludwig Von Mises, Austrian Economist and Author of Human Action
When we are self-taught and driven by our internal desires, we tend to dive deeper and retain more information than in traditional settings. It's easy to fall into thinking that someone is incompetent because they are self-taught. While being self-taught cannot guarantee competency, neither can be taught from a traditional institution.
In my experience, self-taught students are masters in their own right. For me personally, I believe I have deeper competence in my self-taught endeavors compared to my formal training.
It is possible to have world-class skills and be self-taught.
“He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him; he does not court you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
When someone thinks independently, they have more control over what they are convinced by. When dealing with an independent thinker, we must be the one who convinces them. They are not concerned with trying to convince you that they are correct.
Being an independent thinker means that you will be free of trying to convince others of your position, instead, they will be the ones convincing you.
Additionally, we will build a different relationship with ourselves. We learn that we become the ones who are capable of building an accurate understanding when we are presented with new information without needing validation from authority. In a sense, harnessing independent thought can make us an authority. If not for others, at least to ourselves.
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
It is better to focus on what we need to do rather than the opinions of others. Many times people will tell us that they know what is good for us or what we should be doing, but those are just opinions of others.
Being able to keep our vision for ourselves and maintain our independence is what will make us great.
To not be swayed by the opinions of the world is a challenge worth taking on.
“Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
People will frequently practice willful blindness and attach themselves to other's opinions. They will intentionally ignore the flawed details of these opinions for the sake of "belonging" to the community.
This comes at a huge risk. This prevents us from seeing reality as it is, which prevents us from knowing what is true.
If we are to take independent thought seriously, we have to be able to see the flaws in collective opinions as well as the truth of reality. If we can't do this, self-education will collapse upon itself.
Being possessed by a community of opinion, also known as ideology, makes our reality a lie. All of the details become lies. This is the core of why identity politics and ideology lead to miseducation and struggle.
“The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
Self-trust is critical for harnessing independent thought. That being said, we have to act in a way that preserves self-trust and avoid actions that corrode it.
Consistently maintaining our word, and keeping promises to ourselves and others is critical for trusting ourselves.
Keeping our word to ourselves is the most important commitment we have. We are the only person who knows all of our experiences, what we have done, and what we have failed to do.
We keep our promises to ourselves, our self-trust stays whole, and we can properly harness independent thought.
If we break our self-commitments, we give ourselves evidence to not trust our perceptions, intentions, or instincts.
“Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'—Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
When we harness independent thought, we will often be misunderstood. We will not think like other people and when we share our thoughts, we will be met with confusion, misunderstanding, and judgment.
If being misunderstood was so bad, why were the best minds in history misunderstood?
Being misunderstood is not a sign that we are thinking wrong, it is a sign that we are thinking differently.
Taking the extra step of recognizing when people misunderstand us and being articulate enough to explain why we think the way we do can deepen our understanding of our independent thoughts.
Here are some more thoughts from other thinkers that I believe relate to this topic:
“Selection pressure is the mechanism through which animals evolve.” - Temple Grandin (Animals Make Us Human
Homo Sapiens have survived because we are wise. Our ability to know, to determine what is important, and to seek out and disseminate wisdom has been foundational to our survival.
Evolution is selecting more knowledgeable and wise humans.
Man is tradition or imitation. He is not born, but rather moulded. - Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation)
It is in our nature to not think for ourselves, so it is critical to pay attention to what we accept to be true.
If the only mechanisms for change are tradition or imitation, then we must identify why we are doing things.
Do we do things simply because it is what always has been done?
Do we do things simply because others around us are doing the same thing?
How much do we agree with these actions? Do they lead us where we want to go?
On the flip side, we can enhance our influence on others by providing them with something worthwhile to imitate. Over time, this can become a tradition.
“Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities." - Ludwig Von Mises (Austrian Economist and Author of Human Action)
The most comprehensive education is through self-education. It is guided with the help of others, but the responsibility of the learning is taken on by the individual.
When we are pursuing self-education, we are driven to learn more and learn deeply.