Why Introverts Build Their Own Education (There Is a German Word for It)

#bildung #selfeducation #lifelonglearning #introvert A slow essay for anyone who teaches themselves things late at night that nobody asked them to learn, and who has been asked, more than once, what it is actually for. If you are looking for study hacks or a list of books that will make you a genius, this is not that video. This is a long, cited piece meant to be listened to properly. A warehouse night manager spends four months teaching himself how medieval cathedrals stay standing. There is no course, no exam and no certificate. At a family dinner someone asks the obvious question: then what is it for? He has no answer. This video is the answer. We follow Michael Faraday, a bookbinder's apprentice who read the books he was paid to stitch and became one of the greatest scientists who ever lived without a single degree. We follow Frederick Douglass, who traded bread for reading lessons at a time when teaching him was against the law. We look honestly at the weaknesses of teaching yourself. And we end with Wilhelm von Humboldt, Goethe, and a German distinction that English lost. German has two words where English has one. Ausbildung is training for a job. Bildung is the slow formation of a person. One of them has to justify itself. The other never did. WATCH NEXT The other half of this video, about the books we buy and never read:    • Why Introverts Buy Books They Will Never Read   SOURCES Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (written 1792) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96) On Faraday: the Royal Institution archives, and his bound notes from Humphry Davy's lectures (1812) A NOTE ON THE WORD Bildung comes from the German verb bilden, to form or to shape, and contains the word Bild, meaning image. It describes education as the formation of a whole person rather than preparation for a job, which German calls Ausbildung. The idea shaped the founding of the University of Berlin in 1810 and gave its name to the Bildungsroman, the novel of formation. TELL ME What is the subject you have taught yourself, completely outside of school or work, that nobody asked you to learn? I suspect the comments on this one will be a stranger and more wonderful library than any university could put together. This channel makes slow essays about reading, learning and the quiet life of the mind. New ones regularly. Subscribe if that is what you are here for. #autodidact #selftaught #humboldt #goethe #faraday #frederickdouglass #introvert #videoessay #introvert