Self Study or Autodidacticism is when you learn on your own using textbooks and other materials. This means no class and no teachers or professors. I am writing about this subject because I recently started a mission to teach myself quantum field theory (QFT).
I have also spent much of my life teaching myself various subjects. The most notable was when I had to start teaching myself math because I went from a school with a high standard of education to a school with literally the lowest standards in the state. I was handed a math textbook and told to teach myself. The short term effects have been a stunted math education that I have had to work hard to recover from, but the long term effect is I have learned how to teach myself difficult subjects.
Nowadays I prefer self study because I like to choose my own materials and go at my own pace. The internet has a ton of free resources that you can use such as arxiv.org which is an eprint/preprint server where you can see a bunch of physics, math, and other papers in almost their final form. Usually, you don’t see the final draft, but it is normally complete enough for use. Be careful in the Physics section (the one that just says physics) as I have heard that some of the less legitimate theories get posted there. I normally go to inspirehep.net first to look up papers or authors and use the arxiv paper in the link.
Now when I go about learning a subject on my own I take two different approaches. The first is I study what I like, and this is what I tend to do for subjects I am learning for fun and do not care how far I progress. The second is I look at the order a subject or a group of subjects is typically taught and follow this order in my own study. An example is that one should study single variable calculus before studying multivariable calculus.
One of the biggest things one must do if they teach themselves a subject is to make sure to practice and test your knowledge or skills if you want to retain the material. A lot of people put up tests and solutions for a variety of subjects that you can use to reinforce your knowledge and see where you fall short.
The pros of learning on your own are that it is self paced; you can learn what you want and in what order; and you can choose the materials that you want to use. The biggest problem with self study is self discipline. This is something that I still struggle with, and I will continue to struggle with maintaining self discipline. The biggest thing that helps me overcome self discipline is going to a quiet private location with just my materials and taking as little as half an hour to focus on my work.
Let me know on twitter or the post on Ppatreon what you think of self study!
This post is part of a series on my journey through teaching myself Quantum Field Theory.
