Educating Yourself

The Paraducers know that if they control education, they control society. But they only control education for some dozen years (which is bad enough), and after that we are on our own.

Producers use their brains in the pursuit of their art, whether scientific or pottery. There’s something going on in that gray matter that is special, inspired. Formal education is important for Producers, but you must know that Producers should never stop learning. Twelve years are not enough. You never graduate!

The spirit in the chest of every Producer drives him or her to learn almost involuntarily, but I want to focus on planned, determined learning. Paraducers and Consumers graduate high school and college and think that their education is over, except perhaps studying for that real estate or insurance license. Producers are capable of learning at a level and pace way beyond that.

When was the last time you read about the leading edge of your area of expertise? Producers are pushing the limits out all the time, and you should know where those limits are. In my work in electronics, chips are getting smaller and smaller. Every year I read articles speculating that chips are about as small as they can get due to physics. But every year, the chips get smaller because Producers like you make new discoveries and push the limits out a little further. Knowing the extent of my Producer world is important.

How can we educate ourselves properly? Here are a few ways.

Read – Read everything you can get your hands on. I sometimes go to the library and pick up a magazine at random and flip through it seeing what I can learn. It only takes a few minutes, and there is some really amazing stuff going on, all of the good stuff sourced by Producers. You don’t have to read everything in depth, but just pick from the salad bar of knowledge and avoid what you already know.

Blue Sky - I like to close my eyes and think about some discipline I know little about, but that interests me. For example take botany. As an engineer, I have little training in biology, but I can certainly understand an introductory college botany text. Learning about nature and the wonder of life is amazing. My wife took a course in field botany and the whole family participated, searching for and identifying plants in the wild.

Some years back I spent some time studying the stock market. I learned how the markets work, opened a brokerage account and traded some stocks. I studied the mutual fund industry and learned how to make informed investment decisions. I learned how a lot of people lost money in the crash! This has nothing specific to do with my occupation, but makes me a well rounded Producer because I can apply some of the general principles from any discipline to my work.

Distance Learning - My wife and I both have taken advantage of a distance learning program from an accredited college in our State. I studied mathematics and she studied marketing, subjects that interested us. Colleges now understand that they do not have to invest in additional brick and mortar infrastructure to expand their student bodies. Independent study and Internet courses allow Producers like you to expand your horizons from home, without having to drive to class but every few weeks, or perhaps not at all.

Every course you take can be integrated into your toolset as a Producer, increasing your value to your family and society.

Off the Job Training - Have you considered the learn-by-doing approach? When I was a teenager, I was trying to learn about electronics. I went to an electronics store and bought some parts and supplies, and spent hours soldering together simple little circuits to explore how electronic components work.

In your work as a Producer, can you learn-by-doing, at home? Auto mechanics are notorious for working on cars by day, and by night out in the garage under a naked 100 watt bulb. Scientists and engineers conduct small experiments (safely!) at home to prove or disprove the basics of their theories. Artists doodle on every surface that will take pencil lead. Cooks try new recipes on their families before risking them on their customers. Computer programmers learn new languages and operating systems in their spare time.

My point is that you can learn an entirely new skill in your off time, and then apply that to your day job as a Producer. As an employer, I look for that kind of spunk in the candidates I interview.

Online - There is so much information online today that just about any question of an academic or everyday nature can be answered with a Google search. The multimedia Internet experience makes it fun to learn new things with our children. I was looking for fossils in the sandstone formations found on our land and came across an odd looking tooth. It had several roots and I could not imagine what it had come from. Seeing that we have more deer than any other type of animal, I did an Internet search for “deer tooth” and within seconds was viewing a picture of a tooth exactly like the one I was holding.

Producers must make use of every resource and every minute to enjoy the gift of learning. In doing so, you will become a broader, deeper Producer, harder to control, worth more and having more fun in the process.