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Comment by sanderjd | Hacker News Reader

Here's an idea from a non-idea-guy: do for those of us who have no clue how to approach your list of non-technical skills what Codecademy has done for those with no idea how to approach programming. Start us slow, treat us like we know nothing, but give us the chance to prove otherwise. Allow us to work on our own time, and charge us orders of magnitude less than an MBA costs. I would pay for that.

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Probably not doable. Not good at this stuff myself, but at core it seems to be driven by recognition of emotional states and making emotionally intelligent responses. This sort of thing isn't beyond learning -- disciplines like art, music, sports develop the core skills, and we can all become more self-aware. But it doesn't lend itself verbally stated principles.

Obviously it can't look much like Codecademy and perhaps it is not about verbally stated principles. Maybe the bigger question is: how does the progress that has been made by people using technology to reduce the financial and social barriers to learning technical material translate to learning "softer" material? If we want to eventually live in a world where the university in its current form has been superseded (and I do), someone needs to answer that question. It sounds hard and uncertain but very valuable if successful - a winning combination if you ask me.

I am certain a world full of autodidacts would supersed the university system we see today. For these autodidacts the universe might truly become a "University of Life". I am also certain that the true barriers keeping most people from becoming autodidacts are not financial or social but rather built by the schooling system into our minds. This schooling system itself was probably setup to create obedient soldiers and weapons technicians so as to win wars. Can someone please queue Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" [1]?

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U&feature=fvwre...

That barriers are "built by the schooling system into our minds" is exactly what I meant by my "social barriers". Sorry for not being clearer, we agree on that point. I still think there are very real financial barriers to education, perhaps not for the true autodidacts who can learn everything from a book, but for everyone else who requires some structured instruction.

This is actually a solved problem. Start here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1643

Not one person is born with the skills listed. They are all learned through experience - Same as programming. If anyone has learned anything valuable from hearing "verbally stated principles" please send me a link to that podcast! However verbally stated instructions on how to pass through a specific educational experience are more likely helpful to the learning process.

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius

Nothing you say is wrong, but neither is any of it an argument against instruction. It is incredibly helpful to hear and forget before you see and remember before you do and understand.

It's called mixergy.

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