No Degree, No Problem: How to Learn Anything

The acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino once said, "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'No, I went to films.'"

The co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, taught himself how to design personal computers. Wozniak didn’t have formal computer engineering or programming education. To learn computer engineering, he read computer manuals and studied how other chips worked. To learn computer science, he read photocopied pages from coding books.

Elon Musk is famous for teaching himself rocket science by reading textbooks and talking to experts.

Henry Ford had no formal schooling in engineering. Through his work experience, he gained practical knowledge in engineering and manufacturing. He also read extensively on technical subjects and studied scientific principles to better understand the workings of machines.

John Carmack, often regarded as one of the best 5 programmers in the world, taught himself how to code, build rockets, and develop AI models from books, textbooks, and research papers.

Palmer Luckey, the billionaire founder of Oculus, taught himself engineering and coding from books, textbooks, and research papers.

James Dyson had no technical training at all. He used the Edisonian approach (trial and error) when designing the first bagless vacuum.

Key takeaway: Anything can be self-taught by (1) reading books, textbooks, and research papers and (2) practicing.

This is a great accompanying video: