Shoulders To Stand On

The sooner you reach for life changing narrated books, that are loved by all the intellectuals around the world.

The easier your life ahead is going to become, because great books give you what crappy teachers fail to deliver.

This is rather obvious, of course, but what you don’t quite see yet, is that you will adopt the culture of great beings that wrote those books.

This means that you will begin to sense the betrayal of the teachers, you may even understand that being top of the class is a disaster.

Because by memorizing, by pushing too hard, you get the full dose of ineffective education…

And even the things you would have learned on your own, will be taken from you.

This one is actually scary, because you may not notice it is happening.

I wrote a little computer program in sixth or seventh grade, the teacher accused me of cheating and bullies laughed at me.

In my mind I accepted that as reality, I still felt that I was stupid, because now I was failing yet another subject.

Though by High School, I was smart enough to drop out, the moment the Biology teacher said with a smile “Weed is just an herb.”

I was grabbed by AdultEd few days later, I think the AdultEd principal might have been alerted of my protest.

She seemed to be glad to take me in, maybe I am just imaging things.

After I graduated I taught myself web design, and desktop application development.

My parents yelled at me that it took too long, and when I tried o work at Best Buy I was dismissed with prejudice.

The man yelled at me “What is the latest version of HTML”, it was 3.2, but even if I knew that, I wanted to leave.

Shortly after that I got what I would call a full stack senior developer position, in an office without windows.

It was the best time, and the most dangerous time of my life, it was just pure pleasure of programming every day.

Just out of the pleasure of constant programming, I knew it was all wrong, and I had to go – because a life is meant to be lived.

I made choices opposite of what was expected of me, because my bullies and the teachers taught me that majority was wrong.

The few thousand of tiny computer programs I wrote, taught me that real education gives us real abilities and tools relevant to our existence.

But it was the books written by Great Beings that helped me the most, they helped me stop feeling like my path was the wrong one.

I wasn’t memorizing quotes, I was befriending the philosophers, I was stepping into their world.

What is more, I now know that there is no other culture, or world to step into, the Human Culture is where the Philosophers who made lasting contributions are.

I only remember one wisdom from middle school Sam przeciw wszystkim, meaning “One Against All”, I pulled it out of a Funky Koval comic Book when the bullies started getting crafty.

And two from High School, “The choices you make today, dictate the life ahead of you”, That is from Renaissance Man, an ancient English teacher played the movie for us.

And of course the mandatory “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”, from “Ferris Bueller's Day Off”.

You have to learn to resist memorizing whatever you can easily look up... and focus on taking care of your own private constellation of curiosities.

Pay little attention to surface detail, and aim to learn from the architecture beneath.

You must not allow schools to convince you to memorize, they will use threats of ridicule, of being held back, or not being able to get a job.

You need to accept the responsibility for your own education, which can only happen when you follow your noblest curiosities.

When you learn on your own, at your own pace, and in the sequence that your mind dictates.

All the while surrounding yourself with all the Great Beings, that wanted nothing more, than to share their wisdom with you.

They ask for nothing in return, they just want to spare you what they have gone through, and perhaps, to make their hard won battles count some more.

This also happens to be the only way for our species to grow up, this is the only path out of war and towards a more peaceful and enlightened world.

Know that as a Human Being, you are charged with growing all the way up.

Until you too become a great being, and like others leave lasting contributions.. and a new pair of shoulders for others to stand on, as they begin their own journeys in life.