Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them.

Most people who are experts became experts independent of the formal educational processes.

 

Here are the backgrounds of some of the pioneer computer programmers I knew way back when, many of whom never finished high school, but all of whom showed the world how creative and competent people are when you give them the opportunity to be all that they can be ...

 

gold prospector

infantry sergeant

astrophysicist

fighter pilot

railroad office clerk

tail gunner

chemist

.

.

.

I could go on but you get the idea. The pioneers of any new field come from all walks of life, and from all educational levels. In a "missionary" situation, people care only about what you can do, not how you came to be able to do it, and not whether you have a "license" to do it, so to speak.

 

The pioneers figure stuff out on the job. Then the educators come in and codify everything, and make the rest of the world believe that the resulting degrees are somehow important.

 

I'm the chemist, by the way, and my master's degree in that field meant zero. Because of my own experiences, and because I saw who the pioneers were and what they accomplished, I don't give a rodent's rear how somebody became an expert.

 

I care a lot about what people know and therefore what they can teach me. I care zero about how they came by their knowledge, other than for my own curiosity.

 

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Like job descriptions, degrees are pretty much about what you're not allowed to do. Once you realize that these chains are an illusion, they can never make you a prisoner again ...

 

... And the feeling of true freedom -- intellectual freedom as well as economic and political freedom -- has no substitute. No wonder companies are reluctant to hire entrepreneurs. In the immortal words of Peter Townshend of The Who, "We can't be fooled again."

Edited August 12, 2008 by xxmikexx