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We are pretty much in the same shoes.

I'd suggest entrepreneur too. More specifically, an entrepreneur who can integrate different fields together to create new field. And at some point you will have to become the specialist of that new field. So you gotta throw away the jack-of-all-trade mentality.

I'm a musician too. So let's use music analogue. Good musicians often can play in many different musical styles. (a jack-of-all-trade) However, great musicians experiment with various styles and create new ones. (e.g. Duke Ellington for early jazz) Here's the critical part. Plenty of musicians "experiment" but they don't master these new styles or techniques. The work is lost and they will be forgotten. But the one who do master them will move music into a new era.

Being a jack-of-all-trade means you can learn very well. So use that ability to learn something very well.


Great article, though my day-dreamed educational system would be a little bit different. But who is to say which one's better until you implement them.

On the same note, High school and middle school are pretty much a waste of time. In fact, any kind of system that categorize kids into homogeneous age groups are socially and psychologically unhealthy. How can kids learn form their peers if all of them have just about the same exposure and experience in the world? That's why we have all these angsty kids, because no knows better.

I've been teaching on the side for a few years. And from my experience, when I mix kids of different ages, they assume instinctual responsibilities (almost tribal). Older kids become more authoritative and care-giving. Younger kids become more attentive and respectful. This kind of social learning is both top-down and bottom-up.

I understand the importance of school as a social environment. But if it's going to be homogeneous and unrepresentative of the real world, no real social skills will come out of it.

Don't take my word for it. I'm sure we all have interacted with college grads who are clueless about the real world.


Reminds me of Montessori classrooms with mixed age-groups.


I'm gonna quote Bruce Lee and apply it to everything here.

"Take what's essential, discard the unnecessary, and make it your own."

That's the point I got from Steve's post.

And that's how I dealt with his rambling.

Meta-great post.


I agree it is very dorky. But having worked with CERN before, I find it rather cute and hilarious.


Here's my situation. In no way am I trying to say I'm doing better or worse.

I graduated with Physics BS two years ago. I work 4 hours a week as a teacher/mentor. ($30-40 an hours) And I code AI the rest of the time. I live in a van on a co-op property to illuminate rent money so that I can work less for money and code more.

This is just temporary, but I do love the lifestyle. I have never learned as much and as more efficiently as I do now. So if you have a specific project to do, do it yourself or find other bright people to partner with. If not, it's time to network.

You will get a good job lead either by having a lot of accomplishment, or lots of good networks. And the latter seems to work for most people.

It sounds like you have done a lot of good work for other people. Have you exploited your network yet? Email friends of friends, past co-workers of co-workers, find out what they are doing. I'm sure if you dig hard enough you will find someone interesting that needs your help.


I didn't fully understand meta-learning until I started reading neuroscience books. Find some introductory text book on neuroscience (Amazon). Then read a book that explains extensively on various forms of neural plasticity. Developmental neuroscience also provides crucial insights Once you understand the fundamental mechanism of how the brain learns, all the methodology behind meta-learning can be derived. (e.g. practice science) Because the brain is a complicated machine and only recently has evolve more complex types of learning, so I personally think it's more important to understand its limitations, (e.g. when you are not learning, or why you can learn physical skills faster than mental skills etc.)


This is a fundamental lesson in quality testing. Nothing new, but always good to be remind of. Plus, it will be more interesting to study the human biases that often mislead us, and create a paradigm that minimize such biases.


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