One of my heroes is John Adams, who read and understood a wide number of subjects. Was he considered “qual¬?i¬?fied” in each of them? Probably not. But I know he enjoyed reading and I’m sure he gained wisdom and insight from this diversity of knowledge that he must have certainly used in life.

I wasn’t really attempting to describe an opportunity for some to get a cheap degree or to get around some kind of “qual¬?i¬?fi¬?ca¬?tion” but for people to get a look at the most essential and basic books, tools, and resources used by different degrees. Some time ago, someone wrote an article called “The three things to know about…” which listed different rules of thumb for various fields as diverse as business, photography, psychology, writing, engineering, etc. (I wish I could find this article! It was great!)

I would like to disagree with your point that “through reading you cannot develop skills.” While there are some skills that cannot be acquired through reading, I believe that many skills can be. At a minimum, if this were true I don’t think myself and others would have bought millions of copies of books like “Cooking for Dummies”, “Blogging for Dummies”, or “Responding to Angry Criticism for Dummies”.

I’m kidding, of course. I didn’t buy “Blogging for Dummies”.

If you were ediucated toa post graduate degree (which I highly doubt it) you would realise that not all degrees are the same and not all degrees have the same skill requirements.

Not even the most basic learning (I call mastermind, regurgitating facts) can be done through arbitrary reading.

In an undergraduate and postgraduate field of study you not only learn but are assessed which gives you the QUALIFICATION.

qual¬?i¬?fi¬?ca¬?tion (kw?èl’…ô-fƒ?-kƒÅ’sh…ôn) pronunciation
n.

1. The act of qualifying or the condition of being qualified.
2. A quality, ability, or accomplishment that makes a person suitable for a particular position or task.
3. A condition or circumstance that must be met or complied with: fulfilled the qualifications for registering to vote in the presidential election.
4. A restriction or modification: an offer with a number of qualifications.

Right, so Mr ‘OMYGOSHIFOUNDSOMETHINGNEWIAMSOGREATDEGREESBYREADINGOHWOWOWOWOWOWOW’ the idea is so obviously stupid, despite the fact that through readin gyou cannot develop skills.

Plus you toilet paper (less than napkin paper) quote of people who do degree learn to read and right, post-grads go *to* read and right is also a bullshit bullshit idea.

Undergrads go to learn, skill up and qualify on a subject, postgrads (are more specialised) learn to add and exceed thier knowledge in an area, so that they are at the forefront of thier specialisation and can contribute. A PHD is a contribution worthy of recognition (which is why it is harder).

Yes knowledge can be gained form book. Yes there are ALREADY open universities that teach and qualify through this way. You are the type who would buy a $60 degree online.

Stop blogging you pretentious git! and don’t delete this comment either. You believe in freedom of speech don’t you? Isn’t it hypocritical to delete it?

PS: Don’t be too happy I found your blog, I was searching for some lyrics on google (be useful: why why why, why did you let us get this way… I think) and your crap blog with its overt google-fan links seemed to have a quote from genesis in the listings (like rank and I clicked, but the joy of ‘blogging’ and the shit software that drives it means that whatever it was was gone from the page. Blogs suck.