Why do we have to learn on our own? 为什么我们必须自学？

Self-learning has always been a specialty of a minority.
自学一直是少数人的专长。
What we call “upgrading our own operating system” is actually the process of repeatedly self-learning. Why do people have to have the ability to self-learn? Everyone has different reasons. I will share my own reasons.
我们所说的“升级自己的操作系统”，其实就是反复自我学习的过程。为什么人必须有自学的能力？每个人都有不同的原因。我将分享我自己的原因。

Many years ago, I heard someone say, “Teachers are the engineers of the human soul.” This statement frightened me. From the beginning, I worried that some teachers were actually unqualified, and after many years of being a teacher myself, I confirmed that my suspicion was correct…Throughout history and across different cultures, most teachers are actually unqualified, and even for those who are, the qualifications are often issued without proper evaluation. The thought that my soul could be mishandled by them made me panic, and I knew right then that I had to learn to self-educate. I had to mold my own soul; I couldn’t trust anyone else with it- it had to be my responsibility.
许多年前，我听到有人说：“教师是人类灵魂的工程师。这句话吓坏了我。从一开始，我就担心有些老师其实不合格，而我自己当了多年的老师，我确认了我的怀疑是正确的……纵观历史和不同文化，大多数教师实际上是不合格的，即使是那些合格的教师，资格证书也往往没有经过适当的评估。一想到我的灵魂会被他们误处，我就感到恐慌，我当时就知道我必须学会自学。我必须塑造自己的灵魂;我不能把这件事托付给别人——这必须是我的责任。

How firmly do I believe in this idea? Almost from the beginning, I believed that teaching is the best method of learning. This principle will always hold true. However, when I was young, I was a troublemaker, often reckless and with senseless humor. At that time, I often joked that this was “purifying my soul by confusing others’ minds.” As an adult, I deeply understood how malicious this was, and even making that kind of joke should be unpardonable. Of course, many unqualified teachers eventually ended up “continuing to poison others’ minds with their own confused souls”…… I really don’t know how many levels better or worse they are compared to the reckless brat from many years ago.
我对这个想法的信念有多坚定？几乎从一开始，我就相信教学是最好的学习方法。这个原则将永远适用。然而，当我年轻的时候，我是一个麻烦制造者，经常鲁莽和毫无意义的幽默。那时候，我经常开玩笑说，这是“通过混淆别人的思想来净化我的灵魂”。作为一个成年人，我深深地理解这是多么的恶意，甚至开这种玩笑也应该是不可原谅的。当然，许多不合格的教师最终“继续用自己混乱的灵魂毒害他人的思想”……我真的不知道与多年前的鲁莽小子相比，他们好坏了多少级。

As time passed, I increasingly found that self-learning is actually very simple, so simple – to what extent? If a person still hasn’t mastered this basic skill in adulthood, they are destined to be no more than a primitive animal for the rest of their life. Self-learning is very simple; it is the continuous acquisition, accumulation, research, polishing, and upgrading of concepts and methodologies. Furthermore, self-learning ability is enhanced through accumulation. People who start self-learning, learn faster and faster. Self-learners are like opening a black hole in their brains: initially, it’s unnoticeable because the mass of the black hole is too small, almost like it doesn’t exist; but as time passes, the mass of the black hole gradually accumulates and another phenomenon will eventually emerge— many pieces of knowledge seem to “spontaneously” fly into their minds.
随着时间的流逝，我越来越发现自学其实很简单，简单到什么程度？如果一个人在成年后仍然没有掌握这个基本技能，那么他们的余生注定只不过是一个原始的动物。自学非常简单;它是对概念和方法的不断获取、积累、研究、打磨和升级。此外，通过积累提高自学能力。开始自学的人，学得越来越快。自学者就像在他们的大脑中打开一个黑洞：最初，它是不明显的，因为黑洞的质量太小，几乎就像它不存在一样;但随着时间的流逝，黑洞的质量逐渐积累，另一种现象最终会出现—许多知识似乎“自发地”飞入他们的脑海。

How to explain this phenomenon? A good self-learner will eventually develop an important ability: comprehensive understanding. And the premise of comprehensive understanding is… well, in “The Methodology of Surprise and Creating Surprise,” I have already discussed this: only when there is a certain degree of concepts, do they have the chance to produce “unexpected connections” – That is, the so-called comprehensive understanding.
如何解释这种现象？一个好的自学者最终会发展出一种重要的能力：全面的理解。而全面理解的前提是……那么，在《惊奇与创造惊奇的方法论》中，我已经讨论过这一点：只有当有一定程度的概念时，它们才有机会产生“意想不到的联系”——也就是所谓的全面理解。

Good self-learners are constantly learning and thinking, which greatly increases the probability of them “accidentally” discovering something, “suddenly” realizing something, “suddenly” reaching a new conclusion and so on. For them, even “accidents” are more frequent and more significant, and progress- continuous and substantial- is a steeper inevitable trend for them. When that apple fell, Newton happened to see it, and that moment of his “enlightenment” is a manifestation of this phenomenon- whether that falling object was an apple or not is not important, and whether the apple was there doesn’t matter because Newton would have eventually, at some point, seen something else, “suddenly” realized what he should have realized.
优秀的自学者不断学习和思考，这大大增加了他们“偶然”发现某事、“突然”意识到某事、“突然”得出新结论等的概率。对他们来说，即使是“事故”也更频繁、更重要，而持续和实质性的进步对他们来说是一个更陡峭的不可避免的趋势。当那个苹果掉下来的时候，牛顿碰巧看到了它，而他“开悟”的那一刻就是这种现象的体现——那个掉下来的物体是不是苹果并不重要，苹果是否在那里并不重要，因为牛顿最终会在某个时候看到别的东西，“突然”意识到他应该意识到什么。