A couple of days ago I posted Do It To Do It on my LifeMaximo blog. As I was reading Joe Robinson’s book Don’t Miss Your Life: Find More Joy and Fulfillment Now I was struck by how often the author mentioned lifelong learning as an important component of a happy and fulfilled life. In fact, he contends its a necessity for optimal living.

Not only does the author suggest that lifelong learning is important to a happy life, but the learning itself must be the focus of your intention, not some external payoff. “The learning itself has to be the goal…” says Robinson. This is so important. We must enjoy learning for its own sake to fully enjoy the learning process.

Check out the post and let me know what you think.

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success
By James Marcus Bach
Published by Scribner

I just finished reading this book and it was a joy. Bach employs the “buccaneer” analogy to describe his personal quest for a self-directed and personally meaningful education.

Bach never finished high school, yet rose to prominence in the software quality testing field at Apple and other technology companies. He now has a thriving consulting business in the same field. Bach considers his personal education journey and approach to be similar to the pirate-like 17th century buccaneers who preyed on Spanish ships. No, Bach isn’t condoning pirate activity, but he admired the independent nature of the buccaneers and believes everyone should adopt a similar attitude regarding their own education.

While the book is primarily a personal account of how the author approached his own self education, it is also a wealth of inspiration and insight into how anyone can create their own unique and effective approach to educating themselves.

Traditional educationalists are probably not going to like this book. Bach is no fan of today’s school system and he does not hold back in his condemnation of a system he feels lacks contemporary relevance. When so much of the current information and skills one needs to function optimally must be learned “just in time,” Bach contends a more independent and self-directed approach to learning can be far more effective than schooling. I tend to concur with Bach on this and am grateful to see another voice added to the call for a shift in our thinking about education.

Proving You’re Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees
By Charles D. Hayes
Published by Autodidactic Press

Ask a random sampling of people who are in successful careers how they learned to do their current job and a large percentage of them will say “I learned on the job.” I hear it all the time and I bet you do too.

If you’ve learned a lot on the job, or through other self-directed means, how do you “prove” to an employer or manager that you’re qualified to do something? All too often when someone is truly qualified from a knowledge, skill and experience perspective, but lacks a college degree, they’re passed over for a job, promotion or important project. Such situations are ridiculous and Charles D. Hayes knows it too. So he wrote this excellent book.

Proving You’re Qualified is less a set of guidelines and suggestions on proving your competency than it is a superb analysis of the illogical environment and attitudes that pervade the business community. Too often businesses elevate those with degrees over those without, even when someone without the degree is clearly more competent. It’s a stupid approach to managing a workforce and ultimately a bad business decision, but it’s a common reality.

It turns out the insightful analysis Hayes presents is great fodder for coming up with your own approaches to prove your competency for a job. And Hayes does offer some helpful strategies that you can use and that I think will prompt you to naturally think of additional strategies relevant to your own situation.

I’ll present some of my own ideas about proving your competency (and your self education) in my next few blog postings.

The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism
By James Geary
Published by Bloomsbury USA

Quotes and aphorisms have always fascinated me. There’s something compelling about short, concise wisdom that packs a punch that longer prose might not. For those people like me who worship these forms of writing, I urge you to read this book.

James Geary’s book is a masterpiece. It chronicles and expounds upon notable aphorisms from the ancient wisdom of Lao-Tzu and Buddha to the more contemporary Barbara Kruger. Along the way you learn a bit of history, biographical backgrounds and chunks of hearty information that satisfies in a way few books do. It is a self educator’s treasure trove.

This book has become a member of my own personal top 10 list. I highly recommend it.

For those unfamiliar with the Kindle, it’s the ebook reader created by the folks at Amazon.com and it’s my new favorite gadget. Since I bought my Kindle more than a year ago, I’ve purchased only a handful of paper books. For a book/reading junkie like me, that’s quite an endorsement. And I’m convinced that ebooks will be yet another valuable tool self educators can use for their learning endeavors.

The Kindle is so darn convenient and well-conceived that it’s become my default book reading mechanism. I can take it anywhere loaded up with dozens of books. I tend to read two or three books simultaneously to accommodate my changing reading moods and the Kindle is perfect for this style of reading.

I highly recommend the Kindle. I’m not going to extol all of its virtues here. There are reviews of the Kindle all over the internet. Adding my vote for the Kindle will hopefully move us closer to the ebook revolution that I believe is, to use Malcolm Gladwell’s term, at a tipping point. The Kindle may just turn out to be the iPod of ebooks. It sure has for me.

I own a first generation Kindle, but I’ve had the opportunity to play with a Kindle 2. It’s even better than the Kindle I own.

Training Yourself: The 21st Century Credential
By Charles D. Hayes
Published by Autodidactic Press

This tiny book is deceiving. When you first hold it you wonder if much wisdom can be contained in such a small volume. It can. I read this short work in a single session. The writing is to the point with a lot of good information and advice scattered throughout.

The essence of the book’s message is that education (learning) is something you “take” rather than “receive.” Rather than viewing education as a passive exercise of being taught as the only practical method of learning, education is viewed as an active undertaking. Along with fostering this refereshing approach to education, the author emphasizes the importance of self education in maintaining excellence and competitiveness in the modern workplace.

Anyone, and I mean anyone, can benefit from the information and advice in this book. Buy a bunch and give them to friends as gifts. I gave my entire corporate staff each a copy as a gift.