Does self-study leads to fast but shallow knowledge acquisition [closed]

Question

On another SE site i have read that

Self-study often leads to rapid but shallow knowledge acquisition.

I'm a software engineer and i spend a lot of time taking math and physics courses on different online platforms. And this sentence makes me worry. Is that true?

Answer 1

It largely depends on your approach to self-study. Answer the questions below:

• When you self-study, do you often test your understanding? Do you spend time solving exercises from the textbook? Do you apply what you learnt not only yo one problem, but to other similar problems?
• Do you summarise what you've learnt and reflect on the learning process and experience? When you are involved in larger and more complex projects, do you break them down to smaller steps and identify how what you've learnt can help you improve the way each particular step is done?
• Do you combine different methods you've learnt? Do you adapt them for new problems? When several alternative methods can be applied, do you know how to chose the most appropriate?

If you answered all questions positively, your adopt a deep learning style, and you should not really worry about the problems which come from shallow learning.

Answer 2

Most of the self-taught physicist I have met fall in different levels of the crank spectrum: from the ones that read the Wikipedia article on Einstein and feel qualified to assert that the whole field is wrong; to the ones that have a genuine interest in gaining knowledge, but are incapable of seeing their own misunderstandings.

There are exceptions, and these are, mostly, people that already have a scientific or technical background. They usually know what it takes to learn a complex, technical subject, and have the discipline to follow through. And more importantly, they are more likely to know that there is more to advanced physics than what they already know.

The main problem of shallow learning, in my opinion, is when you aren't aware your knowledge is shallow. This is related to the Dunning-Kruger effect:

(Source, sorry for the strange language)

Since you probably know quite a lot of software engineering, you know that that first peak of confidence is not real, and that you probably need a bit more than fist year newtonian mechanics to calculate a trans-lunar injection on your own.

I am not saying that already educated people are immune to the DK effect, but they are definitely more likely to be aware of it.