damn you grad school people

[lilamp]

being back at a dayjob plus knowing so many people starting grad school is making me wistful about school again... except i already kind of tried that and decided i couldn't hack it now. although it wasn't until i was required to do actual work involving original thought that i started having trouble. what i really want to do is just be an eternal college freshman. two years ago when i was doing the sortofschoolthing i so loved just sitting outside in the sun at the library doing my portuguese homework and my linguistics reading. i didn't even really mind the syntax problem sets. i love just reading and learning stuff and doing silly busywork homework. my ideal life would be as a dilettante, taking intro level courses in everything and learning lots of languages and traveling half the year. is that so much to ask for? why can't someone make me magically independently wealthy...

Comments

[censorydep.livejournal.com]

I have always said that if I ever won the lotto, I would probably become a perpetual student, studying a little bit of this and a little bit of that for the rest of my life. I can totally empathize!

there's always PBS

[oryp.livejournal.com]

i learn so much there!
then you can go and fuck off. you aren't responsible for it.
learning isn't about being in school. it's about an
attitude you have all the time. school just makes
you be responsible for what you learn and it hopefully
allows you to earn a living from it. for this reason,
school can be at odds with learning.

Re: there's always PBS

[censorydep.livejournal.com]

Good point, there are a ton of other resources to learn from other than school. However, for reasons personal to me, I have found that the classroom environment tends to be my best way of absorbing information that I want to retain (probably due to the slow pace, lots of repetition, and the needing to be responsible thing).

However, PBS (and The History Channel, and the Discovery Channel, and...) are all awesome and do contain a wealth of good stuff.

[jilflirt.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the life of the Victorian upper-middle class lady. I always aspired to that, myself. Accomplishments for no particular reason except they are creative or interesting. Nothing to do with making money...

However, I've discovered there is something to be said for learning to deal with the daily grind, too. It makes you stronger or something.

[mersh.livejournal.com]

werd to that.

three cheers for dilettantism!

or as I like to euphemistically refer to it, "being a renaissance person"

[pfloide.livejournal.com]

Sorry.

If it's any consolation, I find doing grad school can get ennervating for exactly the same reason: I want to learn a BUNCH of stuff, in LOTS of areas, and I just don't have time.

Reminds me of the John Brunner novel "Stand on Zanzibar", where the one character is a professional paid dilettante who's also a reservist spy: "We'll pay you to learn whatever you want, so long as you learn to speak THIS language, and a certain amount about THAT."

If anyone offers you such a job, however, turn it down immediately.

[lilamp]

but but... that sounds like the perfect job! except maybe the people probably trying to kill you part.