College
Been thinking a lot about school and learning lately.
As you may or may not know, my college career has been characterized mainly by fits and starts. I was kicked out of U of I's College of Engineering computer science after a semester. I had many false starts at Joliet Junior College. I've been frustrated with academia, and not a little bit angry with it in the past. I still do not hold a degree beyond a high school diploma.
Despite the lack of a degree, I'd like to believe I do pretty well. I've found, though, that I've come up against a wall in my career. I can either go do something else in the computer field, or I can move up the management ladder.
Lately, I've been reading a lot of treatises and essays on two topics: the Internet and religion. These may be two topics with nothing in common, save for the fervor present in each domain, but I've come to appreciate how focused and precise critical thinkers can be on either topic.
I've become acquainted with the ideas and thoughts of people doing research for Internet protocols, people like Brian Carpenter from IBM and Randy Bush from IIJ, and all the people active on the Regional Internet Registrars' public mailing lists. They may be highly critical, even irascibly so at times. However: I see that their participation in Internet community discussions so often focuses the debate that shapes the Internet.
Recently, also, I've been reading essays on religion. (Or, more properly, the lack of it: atheism.) Whatever position these thinkers take, they share the same critical thinking alive and well in the Internet community.
In many aspects, I never really understood the importance of critical writing until now.
I want to be a part of that. I want to provide the input to the Internet community needed, and so often absent, from enterprises. To do that, I need to think critically and clearly. I need to evaluate and process ideas better. That is what I want to do when I grow up.
I realized a while ago that I'm often so distracted by the Next Big Thing, so much that I abandon the topic of the moment for something new. I wonder whether I would succeed at a 4-year or even a 2-year program because of that. It must be genetic because my father is just as distracted, and similarly failed at college.
So, to some lesser extent, I also want to prove that I'm not as distracted as I seem, that I really can do this. It's almost a standing joke in the family: "So when are you going back to school?" Y'all aren't helping! :(
I'm awfully hesitant to jump in again. But I feel focused now. This is something I want. And I think I'm starting to "get" the point of college.
To the readers of my humble entry: What did you do to prepare for college? For what reasons did you go to college?
As you may or may not know, my college career has been characterized mainly by fits and starts. I was kicked out of U of I's College of Engineering computer science after a semester. I had many false starts at Joliet Junior College. I've been frustrated with academia, and not a little bit angry with it in the past. I still do not hold a degree beyond a high school diploma.
Despite the lack of a degree, I'd like to believe I do pretty well. I've found, though, that I've come up against a wall in my career. I can either go do something else in the computer field, or I can move up the management ladder.
Lately, I've been reading a lot of treatises and essays on two topics: the Internet and religion. These may be two topics with nothing in common, save for the fervor present in each domain, but I've come to appreciate how focused and precise critical thinkers can be on either topic.
I've become acquainted with the ideas and thoughts of people doing research for Internet protocols, people like Brian Carpenter from IBM and Randy Bush from IIJ, and all the people active on the Regional Internet Registrars' public mailing lists. They may be highly critical, even irascibly so at times. However: I see that their participation in Internet community discussions so often focuses the debate that shapes the Internet.
Recently, also, I've been reading essays on religion. (Or, more properly, the lack of it: atheism.) Whatever position these thinkers take, they share the same critical thinking alive and well in the Internet community.
In many aspects, I never really understood the importance of critical writing until now.
I want to be a part of that. I want to provide the input to the Internet community needed, and so often absent, from enterprises. To do that, I need to think critically and clearly. I need to evaluate and process ideas better. That is what I want to do when I grow up.
I realized a while ago that I'm often so distracted by the Next Big Thing, so much that I abandon the topic of the moment for something new. I wonder whether I would succeed at a 4-year or even a 2-year program because of that. It must be genetic because my father is just as distracted, and similarly failed at college.
So, to some lesser extent, I also want to prove that I'm not as distracted as I seem, that I really can do this. It's almost a standing joke in the family: "So when are you going back to school?" Y'all aren't helping! :(
I'm awfully hesitant to jump in again. But I feel focused now. This is something I want. And I think I'm starting to "get" the point of college.
To the readers of my humble entry: What did you do to prepare for college? For what reasons did you go to college?