Aug 12, 2023·edited Aug 12, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
I was a college trained (Ph.D.) chemical engineer, had a career as an applied scientist, and am now retired. I think my formal education was very useful for my career.
I am also autodidact in the social sciences, wrote a book, and started a substack as a retirement hobby. A disadvantage of being self-taught is that I know a lot about those elements I chose to study and little about other elements of the field. This can give one tunnel vision, creating a risk of becoming a crank.
An advantage of being an autodidact is the interdisciplinary approach one is free to take. But the very interdisciplinary nature makes it hard to get peer review as a check against becoming a crank. One of my objectives of starting a substack is to try to bring my work to the attention of someone with the chops to critique by work.
I was a college trained (Ph.D.) chemical engineer, had a career as an applied scientist, and am now retired. I think my formal education was very useful for my career.
I am also autodidact in the social sciences, wrote a book, and started a substack as a retirement hobby. A disadvantage of being self-taught is that I know a lot about those elements I chose to study and little about other elements of the field. This can give one tunnel vision, creating a risk of becoming a crank.
An advantage of being an autodidact is the interdisciplinary approach one is free to take. But the very interdisciplinary nature makes it hard to get peer review as a check against becoming a crank. One of my objectives of starting a substack is to try to bring my work to the attention of someone with the chops to critique by work.
Excellent points Bruce!
This was encouraging. Thank you.