I skipped university and spent decades ashamed of it, until I started adding up the hundreds of books I'd read and realized I'd given myself a better education than the degree ever would have - Silicon Canals

"I spent forty years telling myself I was less than. Less educated. Less qualified. Less worthy of having an opinion on anything that mattered. All because I didn't have a piece of paper with a university seal on it. Started when I was eighteen. Everyone else was heading off to college, and I was heading to a job site with a toolbox."

"I read everything. History books about the wars my father never talked about. Biographies of people who built things, failed at things, figured things out. Books about electricity and engineering that actually explained the work I'd been doing for decades. Philosophy books that made me think about questions I'd never asked."

"While I was beating myself up for not having a degree, I'd been giving myself an education. A different kind."

A person who chose vocational training over college spent forty years feeling inadequate without a university degree, avoiding conversations and doubting their opinions. This changed when they recognized the extensive self-education they had accumulated through decades of reading and practical work. Starting with bedtime stories for their children, they developed a passion for reading across diverse subjects including history, biography, philosophy, and technical books related to their electrician career. After accumulating approximately three hundred books, they realized they had gained substantial knowledge and expertise through this alternative educational path, challenging their long-held belief that formal credentials determined intellectual worth and credibility.

Read at Silicon Canals