Eric Hoffer and the Power of Self-Education

I recently read The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. It’s a book about how mass movements evolve. With a lot of historical examples, the book explains the patterns and common threads among them. It’s an insightful book and reading it was a great learning experience for me. What I’d like to share with you here is not the content of the book, though. Instead, I’d like to share with you about the author. You see, I didn’t know about Eric Hoffer before. But I imagined he must be a famous professor from a well-known university. I mean, what else could explain the depth of his insights? The True Believer is an influential book. Here is how Wikipedia put it: The first and best-known of Hoffer’s books, The True Believer has been published in twenty-three editions between 1951 and 2002. He later touched upon similar themes in other works. Prominent leaders and social commentators who have remarked publicly about their interest in the book include American President Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as American Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary R. Clinton. Hoffer was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983! With that kind of impact, it’s safe to assume that Hoffer was a famous professor, right? Well, I was stunned when I learned who he was. Far from being a professor with a doctorate, he didn’t have any formal schooling! That’s right, he had no formal education at all. Guess what his occupation was? He was a longshoreman. I...
Source: Life Optimizer - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Learning Source Type: blogs