open source knowledge

My buddy is about to start her part time degree in Finance, and I have the open invitation to join her for lectures anytime. I'm kind of disappointed, however, that the other friend who was supposed to do Psychology has decided to go Down Under instead. Because universities offer a wealth of information- for free - to anyone who looks beyond the mere paper qualifications in the quest for knowledge.

And ultimately, it's what you know and can achieve that counts in life. Those few pieces of paper only help open the door to the first job.

In my student days, I visited many lectures. Law in NUS, Computer Engineering at CMU and even Nuclear Deterrence at Stanford, to name a few. I was also utterly intrigued touring the MIT Media Lab and a friend's robotics lab. Freed from the worried of exams, refreshed because I was on holiday, and motivated because I was there for interest and not credit, I gained a lot more from my visitations than my own classes. Steve Jobs made a similar point at his commencement speech at Stanford. The beauty of the system is that most colleges don't care who attends their classes, only who attends the exam. And since I attend mostly intro classes with large enrollments, the visitor does not really stand out.

Of course you need friends to help you navigate the system. How else would you know the interesting classes and the good professors? And since I started work, I could no longer drop in on the normal classes. But now with friends starting night school, a whole new world of opportunities is opening up, and I'm really looking forward to being a pseudo student again. Of course you might ask why not just read a book? But the best part about classes are that they spoonfeed you, and they usually give you a bibliography of interesting further reading to boot.

Everybody should go back to school for free.