Learning outside of school

[Super Cyborg]

It's been a little over a year since I got my undergrad degree and started to work in my field. During my free time I like to play games, work out, and read. One thing that I want to be able to do is learn new things or old things I forgot about. After spending 4 years focusing on one subject (Marine Biology), I forgot a number of things, and there were subjects/events that I wasn't able to study.

So Escapist, what kinds of things do you do to learn outside from school work? I want to learn as much as I can, so it can be anything, whether is various sciences, history, politics, religion, humanities, etc. Any websites, books, magazines, etc. that you can suggest will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lilikins]

I actually noticed after finishing up school back then that I do spend alot of time learning things that interest me.

Personally speaking Im very interested in Religion and Mythology, so if I find something 'new' in those areas Ill gladly take my time to read up on it and research it thoroughly.

Then theres every day things, for instance (as a waiter, this normally isnt 'part of my job' but I still wanted to learn it) drawing things into cappucinos etc. At the moment after taking 2 courses that my employers were kind enough to pay I can draw hearts into cappucinos and Im getting to the point where I can draw leaves etc.

Im learning to speak Norwegian at the moment and even though its very 'broken' and by all means I probs dont sound authentic at all, if I were in a position where I 'had' to use the language I could get my point across at this point. This was actually done via just watching shows with norwegian undertitles and playing games in norwegian haha.

Think thats about it really, besides of course the 'learn stuff for work' that is in your field. I once read something somewhere and cant remember for the life of me from where but it said -The second you stop learning in life is the second you die- and in my opinion that statement is very true, seeing as most folks learn something new every day even though they may not really know that they do.

 

[Esotera]

I have been learning programming for the last 5 years or so, and am continuing with that even though it's part of my job now. This is the number one thing that I would recommend for anyone to learn by themselves, as it's an amazing feeling solving your own problems, you gain a lot of knowledge about how computers work in the process, and it's a very employable field if you're good at it.

The best entry route into programming is probably installing Python or Java, as they're powerful but relatively easy languages to work with. Their websites also have a ton of tutorials & documentation, so you can just work through them and then solve some of your own problems. It's well worth looking into the basics of how computers work even if you're not interested in programming - e.g. how memory works, how a CPU works, what is machine/bytecode.

 

[Thaluikhain]

IIRC, all of MIT's online stuff is available to anyone.

Also, there's an awful lot of declassified US military manuals around if you are interested.

 

[Super Cyborg]

I actually noticed after finishing up school back then that I do spend alot of time learning things that interest me.

Personally speaking Im very interested in Religion and Mythology, so if I find something 'new' in those areas Ill gladly take my time to read up on it and research it thoroughly.

Then theres every day things, for instance (as a waiter, this normally isnt 'part of my job' but I still wanted to learn it) drawing things into cappucinos etc. At the moment after taking 2 courses that my employers were kind enough to pay I can draw hearts into cappucinos and Im getting to the point where I can draw leaves etc.

Im learning to speak Norwegian at the moment and even though its very 'broken' and by all means I probs dont sound authentic at all, if I were in a position where I 'had' to use the language I could get my point across at this point. This was actually done via just watching shows with norwegian undertitles and playing games in norwegian haha.

Think thats about it really, besides of course the 'learn stuff for work' that is in your field. I once read something somewhere and cant remember for the life of me from where but it said -The second you stop learning in life is the second you die- and in my opinion that statement is very true, seeing as most folks learn something new every day even though they may not really know that they do.

I was looking for a place to learn about religions, and BBC has a nice section dedicated to different religions. I was looking at Hinduism, and read a lot of neat stuff, such as their different beliefs, history, holidays, and various tidbits of information. It's not super in depth but it's a start. I only looked at the Hinduism one so far, but I know they have it for various other ones.

Agree with you on the learning all through your life. I learn something new everyday, whether it's big or small, and I know at some point it will help me in life. I know traveling is a great way to learn stuff if you have time and money, because you can learn about various cultures and many other things in one trip. I'm hoping to be able to go somewhere new at least once a year, whether locally, or internationally.

 

[Foolery]

I obsessively read history books. Always have. I try to pick ones that have a bit of flair to them, or are written by an author that keeps me engaged. Currently reading a book by John Man on the decline of Japanese feudalism and transition to the modern world after 250 years of isolation.

 

[Rylot]

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

It's a website that collects different online courses from a lot different sources about different subjects. It's a really good jumping off point. I got the link from Extra Credits if I remember correctly.

 

[Amaror]

It's been a little over a year since I got my undergrad degree and started to work in my field. During my free time I like to play games, work out, and read. One thing that I want to be able to do is learn new things or old things I forgot about. After spending 4 years focusing on one subject (Marine Biology), I forgot a number of things, and there were subjects/events that I wasn't able to study.

So Escapist, what kinds of things do you do to learn outside from school work? I want to learn as much as I can, so it can be anything, whether is various sciences, history, politics, religion, humanities, etc. Any websites, books, magazines, etc. that you can suggest will be greatly appreciated.

If you want to learn geography i heavily recommend the Paradox games, aka Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Victoria 2 and Hearts of Iron (soon 4). They are great games and you just learn so much about geography from them, it's crazy.

 

[Super Cyborg]

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

It's a website that collects different online courses from a lot different sources about different subjects. It's a really good jumping off point. I got the link from Extra Credits if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the link. I browsed through some of the stuff, and I will be using this a lot. It has so much that it should keep me occupied for quite a while now. I'll listen to the stuff while cooking and doing other stuff where I can learn while doing other stuff. Once again, thanks for this amazing link.

If you want to learn geography i heavily recommend the Paradox games, aka Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Victoria 2 and Hearts of Iron (soon 4). They are great games and you just learn so much about geography from them, it's crazy.

I've heard good things about them, and I will have to play them when I get a PC that can handle them.

 

[Candidus]

I'm learning Japanese.

I started doing this a few months ago with the RosettaStone program, mainly so that I could circumvent censorship of JP games by purchasing imports. It's going very well. I know all the characters (most of the time... at any given moment there always seem to be a few that I won't be able to write down) and can sound out many words that I don't know the meaning of (which makes them easy to translate).

The amount of time I spend referencing is going down like a shot though, seriously!

I hope soon I'll be able to play these games smoothly without having to turn to my PC at all.

No more shitty English voice work! Fucking yes!
No more toned-down cleavage, missing lolis or other "sanitisation" BS (that word is so disgusting)!

I'm thinking, as my proficiency rises, that I might offer my help to scanlators. And casually translate some of the hentai doujin I've had forever and haven't understood. And in the future, who knows, maybe I'll get some real work of out it?

 

[Blow_Pop]

I like reading up on history and religion and cultures. Especially re-reading things that I've previously learned so I get a non american centric point of view on it. And the whole story.

I'm also working on learning French and German but until I can find dedicated people to talk to me in the languages I'm not going to retain them (which is why I've been learning French for 8 years now)

I use whichever free resources I can find online mostly. And I have some discs for the French from back when I had a cd player in my car and an hour drive to work.

 

[secretkeeper12]

Scientific papers are an excellent source of knowledge. And, thanks to the open access model, many journals can be accessed for free online. Consider what's available at Oxford Open [http://www.oxfordjournals.org/en/oxford-open/index.html], or (if you've got a particular subject in mind) consult the online Directory of Open Access Journals [http://doaj.org/]. If nothing else, you'll learn what it's like to work as a scientific researcher. Very educational!

 

[Batou667]

Has anybody mentioned Khan Academy yet? No?

Well, I've heard https://www.khanacademy.org/ is good.

In general I like reading textbooks - especially hilariously old and outdated ones - mostly for curiousity's sake. If there's something I need a pressing answer to I use Wikipedia, and end up going on fantastic multi-tab (and multi-hour) reading adventures.