Too much to learn

I have been listening to various stuff on the TED app.  I’ve found a couple that I like, and a lot that are boring.  On the like factor are Peter van Uhm: Why I Chose a Gun; Paul Kemp-Robertson: Bitcoin. Sweat. Tide.  Meet the Future of Brand Currency; and Gary Vaynerchuk: Do what you love (no excuses!).  So TED has some interesting stuff.  It’s just a matter of finding time to examine it all.  I still have another 10 from my initial round of examination. 

The TED app has some problems, though.  I’ve talked about my problems with iTunes before.  The platform is good, but has glaring problems that keep it from being monumental.  TED is the same way.  You can’t seem to close the app and go looking at other things while listening to the talks.  I usually listen, not watch them.  So there’s that problem.

I also looked into iTunesU.  Which could be really, really great if you have an iPad.  I don’t.  iTunesU offers lots of free courses so you can effectively teach yourself almost anything.  Kind of like constantly auditing college courses without going in to debt to do so.  The only problem is you’re trying to take a class by staring at a really tiny screen.  And that leads to eye strain-o-vision.  Might be cool if you could use a regular web browser to view the classes, and that might be a possibility.  I haven’t looked.  I haven’t even had a chance to look at any of the classes I selected. 

The biggest problem I’ve found with the iTunesU app is courses are organized by university, and can’t be searched by subject.  So if you want to learn something, say… like computer networking or advanced pottery making, then you have to dig through hundreds of universities to find what you want to learn.  A subject wise search would really make this a great app. 

Combine all the education stuff I’ve found with Khan Academy, and it makes me think I need a lot more time in the day.  I wish this kind of information was available ten or fifteen years ago.  Maybe then I would have finally passed that computer science degree.  Doubtful.  Calculus still haunts me.  But it makes me realize that even though the technology has changed, and understanding what is going on to any extent requires advanced study, the knowledge is much more readily available. 

Fifteen years ago, if I wanted information I would have to head to the library and dig through the stacks until I found what I was looking for, and then read a completely out of date book in hopes of learning how someone else did something and then figuring out a way to apply what was taught in an out of date book in a modern setting.  Now, I can sit at the comfort of my kitchen table in my boxers and watch lectures, completely free of charge, on everything I want to learn.  But I don’t have time.   And it’s mostly because I made a lot of bad choices in my early adulthood.  But… I guess it’s time to play catch-up.