[Trentamj]

H.L. Mencken, along with Eric Hoffer, was one of the most amazing 20th-century American thinkers, on par with Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin in 19th and 18th century, respectively. The thing that all four men had in common, which is uniquely-American, is they were all autodidacts, or self-made men, instead being factory outputs of some college or university. Unfortunately, America has no use for self-made sages anymore.

[poconopundit]

Interesting. My Dad was a big enthusiast of Eric Hoffer.

I had to look up the term autodidact and I found an interesting article about it: The Self-Taught Master: How To Become An Autodidact.

It's much easier to self-educate yourself these days with all the resources on line. I learned object oriented programming without taking a course on the subject. But I ran into an international forum and people at the other end were more than happy to give advice. You could ask questions and get replies very fast. So it's not just the text, but also the support networks are out there.

And as I think back on it, I actually didn't learn that much in my college courses because it was something I had to do -- not something I wanted to do.

So I am working today at the library and just picked up a book by Eric Hoffer. Thanks for the recommendation :- )