DIY Degree @ University of Planet Earth

Excerpts:

When I returned to Oberlin that fall, I realized that there were no courses
covering the things I most wanted to learn. No sex classes. No friendship
classes. No classes on how to build an organization, raise money, navigate a
bureaucracy, create a database, buy a house, love a child, spot a scam, ask
the right questions, talk someone out of suicide, or figure out what's
important. Those are the things that enhance or mess up people's lives, not
whether they know economic theory or can analyze literature.

So I quit college and enrolled as a student at the University of Planet
Earth, the world's oldest and largest educational institution. It has
billions of professors, tens of millions of books, and unlimited course
offerings. Tuition is free, and everybody designs his or her own major.

Here's my curriculum: Live in a different city every year. Attend a
different place of worship every week. Seek out hundreds of mentors to help
me find answers to my thousands of questions. Spend the rest of the time in
the library and on the Internet. Create lists, make charts, and undertake
the most ambitious projects I can think of. Create my own personal bible,
almanac, and telephone book. Live in the poorest neighborhoods in order to
learn how to get along in the world and to save money, so I can travel to a
different continent each year.