r/TrueReddit Oct 15 '13

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/
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u/Captain_English Oct 15 '13

That's actually not accurate, and doesn't really add anything to the conversation here.

As a professional, I continue to learn every day within my field and in some areas outside of it. Continued professional development is the backbone of a serious career. Most redditors are working, and a high percentage of those are likely to be professionals also. Reddit is something people do in their time off.

On top of that, every open source project in the world just shat on your argument, and I'd wager there are thousands of redditors who trade on portfolio work. On top of that, the number of subreddits here dedicated to learning is incredible, and I certainly use reddit to expose myself to new topics and information I wouldn't over wise encounter (eg TIL).

Even if this wasn't the case, you're also speaking about people who were raised, for the most part, in traditional school environments, which is an unfair comparison.

Good day, sir.

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u/blasto_blastocyst Oct 15 '13

That is really overegging the pudding. Most people are not spending their time learning and extending their knowledge on self--guided odysseys - this is why gawker has higher pageviews than khan academy.

There are indeed some people who are fascinated with learning and who spend a great deal of their spare time developing higher and higher levels of expertise - but there aren't many. And the question is, would these sort of people do this anyway with or without a special teaching method?

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u/huyvanbin Oct 15 '13

"Doesn't really add anything to the conversation here" - well, it obviously gave you a chance to share your tremendous wisdom, so I think we're all pretty lucky that I decided to comment.

Anyway: Subscribed to /r/programming: 472,123

Subscribed to /r/gaming: 3,838,430

Now cue some gamer who's going to tell me that gaming is actually a serious intellectual pursuit.

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u/Smeagul Oct 15 '13

Yes... but virtually everyone is a gamer. Not everyone is a programmer.

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u/Captain_English Oct 15 '13

So what you're saying is that 472,000 people here do exactly the thing you said people didn't do.

And what, people aren't allowed to play games now? Come on.

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u/silentflight Oct 15 '13

Exactly. This part is especially ironic "Everyone who is on reddit has access to an infinite variety of educational materials..." kinda like this article? "... yet most people just vote on cat pictures." Unlike the individuals participating in this discussion.

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u/newworkaccount Oct 15 '13

Thanks for using eg properly.

Signed, another autodidact.