Quote of the day: “Although I have readily fallen in with the idea of assisting you in your learning, yet [there] is in reality very little that a person who is seriously and industriously disposed to improve may not obtain from books with more advantage than from a living instructor… Masters and mistresses are very necessary to compensate for want of inclination and exertion: but whoever would arrive at excellence must be self-taught.” — Thomas Young, letter to his brother, 1798
I agree. My friend Richard disagrees. Anyone else?
I think it’s a mix of teacher / your personal dedication. Books are a good resource, but when a particular field of knowledge has a lot of information, or even information that isn’t documented (e.g., not in books), you definitely need a teacher. One definite example of this is programming – yes, people can self-teach themselves to do simple stuff, but they’ll never advance beyond a certain level without some help from someone who has been using it longer. Also, books can never replace the teacher-student verbal interaction that (at least in my case) helps to clarify how things work when a text’s wording is unclear (a frequent occurence with many of today’s professionally produced documents).
Why did you agree?
In purely philosophical terms, I agree.
But in real life, I’m more in line with David’s thinking: it’s the interplay between the questions of a good teacher (because learning occurs in the interstitiae of Socratic questioning) and the evolution of one’s own thought process, in which self-realized excellence is attained.
In my experience, a good mentor who asks the right questions at just the right moment is invaluable.
I agree with Young in purely philosophical terms, namely, “whoever would arrive at excellence must be self-taught.” Yet, my agreement has its roots in practicality too: There are few classes without materials to read. In my experience, I find that too many teachers are merely regurgitators and thus arises my tendency to agree with Young. A good teacher is invaluable, but rather hard to find. Books too are invaluable, but they also have the virtue of being abundant. However, I agree mostly with the second part of Young’s statement and not so much the first.