John Maeda tweeted this morning a quote from Patricia Phillips which must have came from an Architecture event at RISD (hash tag #remakingarchitecture). The quote was:

How does one teach someone … to be self taught?

It got me thinking about what it means to be self taught. Everyone learns in different ways. We do apprenticeships, we take courses, and we make mistakes. One of the most valuable things I learned while studying at The School of Visual Arts was self-discipline. I believe that the ability to want to learn or understand something can not be achieved without discipline. Therefore, how does one teach someone… to be self taught? I think the answer is through teaching discipline and instilling good habits.

The reason I find Patricia Phillips’ quote so interesting is because I think this is the exact struggle that creative people go through. Of course, practice is the common answer to getting better at any craft or skill. Discipline plays a big role in practice. What if the quote was changed to the following:

How does someone who wants to be self taught… be self taught?

Now the quote can be looked at from another perspective : A student. Many of the web designers that I admire are self taught. They learned a craft by way of trail and error. This can not be thought of being easy. However, trial and error does not need to always be done alone. Fellow designers should show compassion with each other because we are all on the same journey together.  If had to answer the changed quote it would be that we all learn from each other. Groups learn together and individual intuition grows. To me, being self taught comes from the discipline of listening to others and cultivating your own thoughts to share.