HN is the cream of the high-octane tech intellectual powerforce out there so I have no doubts many and many will contradict my point: online self-education is a delusion because passive enthusiasts and desperate folks do not just really need tools but a purpose or a market. A purpose is needed to apply that knowledge in a domain (but few have a domain knowledge), a market is needed to get money from the effort (but remote work is actually not so easy & available). More in general, the very recent democratisation of knowledge opens the average joes and marys from marginal markets, minorities etc. etc. to a nice range of personal opportunities to climb the ladder but also to exploitation and depression, once they understand they are still where they started from. I want to say that the world still needs local hubs with real persons from different backgrounds with different needs to create and sustain a market, so possibly knowledge dissemination should come on top of other actions to make a real impact for a great number of persons.
Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
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Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#2(1) Learn something.
(2) Develop a portfolio (e.g. Github) leveraging #1
(3) Apply for jobs leveraging #1 & #2
(4) Apply for your next job leveraging #1, #2, and #3.
(5) Repeat
Honestly the route of a traditional college education is exactly the same, except replace #2 with "a magical piece of paper which asserts I know #1." People sometimes struggle because they jump from #1 to #3, and have no way of showing they can apply the knowledge obtained in #1.
But it really depends what you're learning. If you took a bunch of mechanical engineering self-taught courses, it is unlikely anyone is going to let you design a bridge. Whereas technology related fields are a little bit more flexible.
Going this route will always exclude you from some jobs, since they have hard requirements for a college degree. But there's plenty of small-medium businesses that only want to see you can do the work they want doing and will accept their low[er] initial salary.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#3Why the false dichotomy?
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#4Personally I think the issue is that we have come to accept and perpetuate the idea that college education is the main path to a high paying, well respected career. Higher education has essentially become a gateway to salaried jobs.
IMHO post-high school education should refactor to become more like a trade school system. 95% of the educational programs offered in university have little or nothing to do with real world job duties. For the few excepts (medicine, engineering, etc), the curriculum's are essentially split into theoretical knowledge and practical experience already (med school/residencies, lectures/internships, etc). I think that all colleges should become job training programs. Model it after already existing trade school programs where you spend two years split between real job experience and class room learning. This would give employers access to lower-cost labor in exchange for real-world experience.
Is online self-education delusion? Yes and no. A completely self taught education will never be held up to the same esteem as a 4 year degree. It's a bad filter, and I question any company who hires based on degree/no degree alone, but it's the filter that we've been trained as a society to use.
The quality of online education can be the same if not better than standard university. The difference rests on the education seekers ability to learn.
Online self-education is delusional in the fact that it is not a quicker/easier track to employment. But that's a symptom of a broken educational and workforce system, and not of online-education.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#5There is another class of people who seek online education and actually benefit from it: enthusiasts with the sole purpose of learning something new. I know a guy at work who, while being a software developer, happily does online biology courses on the side.
On another note, I think mentors and a strong network helps in extracting purpose out of online learning. As software developers, a lot of us tend to undermine the importance of networking, especially in finding new jobs or growing within a company.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#6I think it's useful.
Everything I've learned about web development over the last 20 years has came from a combination of personal experience and self guided education (assorted free content and paid courses).
Courses are fantastic because you get the benefit of having an entire curriculum planned out for you as well as support from whoever is taking or running the course.
Not only that but if it's a good course, it's usually filled with a bunch of context, real world examples and thought processes from the instructor. These things can't be learned without a ton of experience, so in a way you're getting projected in the future with knowledge that may have taken years for you to figure out on your own.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#7Personally I think the issue is that we have come to accept and perpetuate the idea that college education is the main path to a high paying, well respected career. Higher education has essentially become a gateway to salaried jobs. IMHO post-high school education should refactor to become more like a trade school system. 95% of the educational programs offered in university have little or nothing to do with real wor…
From experience, most of the coveted companies locally throw resumes without a four year degree in the trash as the first step of the hiring funnel.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#8Even if most people aren't cut out to be "Good Will Hunting" auto-didacts, it's hard not to see wider availability of learning materials as a positive development. When it comes to risks of exploitation, I'm more worried that universities will increasingly leverage online courses as a way to increase their profits at the expense of their students' learning experience.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#9You have the choice to make online education useful, this would be the same in a traditional education as well.
The only thing that matters between these two different approaches to learning is if you can create value with the knowledge you gained. That is the only thing people will pay for, value.
There is no clear path to demonstrate the value you can create from the knowledge you gained and this is where I think a lot of people get lost.
Re: Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?
#10Personally I think the issue is that we have come to accept and perpetuate the idea that college education is the main path to a high paying, well respected career. Higher education has essentially become a gateway to salaried jobs. IMHO post-high school education should refactor to become more like a trade school system. 95% of the educational programs offered in university have little or nothing to do with real wor…
In general I agree with your post, except the part about all colleges becoming job training programs. I think there is value in an environment that exists purely for academics, it just isn't what the vast majority of people look to education for.