The byline of my blog is “learning by doing.” After spending the majority of my life as an obedient pupil mindlessly advancing through the formal education system, being forced to read a multitude of boring textbooks and listen to myriad boring professors, I’ve come to realize that nothing spurs actual learning like doing. I guess the motivation behind this blog can be broken down into three — erm — sub-motivations:
- To share my successes and failures (and there will be more failures than successes) as I attempt to learn new concepts, acquire new skills, and master new technologies.
- To demonstrate that by setting a goal of constant skill acquisition through doing everybody can take control of their own career path and ultimately obtain their dream job (without going into crippling student loan debt).
- To show that formal education is much less effective than disciplined self-education.
All three of these sub-motivations involve huge, intimidating topics like Fear of Failure, Goal-Setting, Taking Responsibility for Your Own Destiny, Growing Up, Self-Discipline, the whole Passion vs. Practicality debate when it comes to making Career Choices, as well as the Formal Education vs. Self-Education debate.
Being 23 and fresh out of university, these topics fascinate me because I’m currently living through them. Until now I’ve mostly mulled through these topics on my own, up there in the ol’ brain. But, seeing as how every human being on the planet has to, at one point in their life, stumble through this time (usually in their early twenties), I thought, “Hey, why not talk about it.” I look forward to the discussion. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do.
KURTIS LOCKHART 