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Shamus Young

How I Learned Paperback – December 7, 2011

by Shamus Young (Author)

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This autobiographical account traces the author’s journey from a “learning disabled” child to a successful author, pundit, and software engineer. It allows the reader to see classroom education from the point of view of one of the many “abnormal” kids who are demonstrably bright but dysfunctional in the classroom. It’s also a story of a kid who wanted to learn about computers about ten years before the school system was prepared to teach anything on the subject.

Print length

306 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 7, 2011
Dimensions

5.98 x 0.64 x 9.02 inches
ISBN-10

1468015907
ISBN-13

978-1468015904
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shamus Young is a programmer specializing in old-school graphics techniques. He's the author of the blog Twenty Sided. He's the creator of the webcomics DM of the Rings and Stolen Pixels. He's one of the hosts of the videogame commentary series Spoiler Warning. He's tired of writing about himself in the third person.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 7, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1468015907
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1468015904
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.64 x 9.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #269,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,801 in Memoirs (Books)

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Shamus Young

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Shamus Young is a programmer specializing in old-school graphics techniques. He's the author of the blog Twenty Sided. He's the creator of the webcomics DM of the Rings and Stolen Pixels. He's one of the hosts of the videogame commentary series Spoiler Warning. He's tired of writing about himself in the third person.

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Excellent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 23, 2011

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This book is excellent. I saw my own "misfittedness" and all the frustrations I had with school handled in such an unique manner ~ eloquent, raw, heartbraking, uplifting, hopeless, and with the occasional coffee-spit.

I enjoy that he honors that public education has it's place, but that it is.not.for.everyone. It's also interesting how the flaws of one-size-fits-all seep into the corporate world because...well that's where most of "those people" were educated.

Even better, you don't have to agree with his conclusions (or understand all the "techie speak") to appreciate his outpouring.

I'd add more, but I'm not a writer ~ so just get the book.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Peter200lx

A fascinating read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2011

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This book is an interesting delve into the mind of someone who doesn't fit with the norm. If I was trying to write about my (admittedly not-normal) childhood story, it would be a dreary read. However, Shamus is able to expound upon details and anecdotes in a very gripping manner.

Shamus is someone I believe could tell you the tale of painting a wall and waiting for it to dry in such a way as to make it hard for you to stop reading. He wrote a fan-fiction novel called Free Radical a few years ago that I still hold as one of my favorite science-fiction books on artificial intelligence. Reading this autobiography gave additional insight into the story that made the man.

34 people found this helpful

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Nikola Pecik

A glimpse into Shamus' younger years

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 9, 2014

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As a long-time follower of his blog I simply had to pick up this book and get a glimpse of his younger years, more than the education aspect of the book. Reading some stories I've seen some similarity with my passiveness (or rather efficiency) and lack of focus in my academic pursuits, which Shamus put nicely into words.
Eagerly awaiting his next book.

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Anne M. Arnholt

but still a few good lessons in here about how to handle kids with ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Interesting look at how education was handled while I was growing up. Schooling has changed some (at least in my area), but still a few good lessons in here about how to handle kids with "different" learning needs.
Note: "different" does not equal "special". Plenty of normal kids learn better in unconventional ways.

Helpful

Mike Jasper

fascinating life story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

I'm amazed at the details in this memoir of one person's long struggle with the educational system for 13 long years. Honest, unflinching, and sometimes heartbreaking. A great memoir.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 15, 2014

poignant

The Exception or the Rule?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2011

I was one of those front-row kids in school, happy to take tests (since I did well on them.) I didn't have much respect for the kids in the back who shot spitballs at each other and carved doodles into their desks. I never gave a thought to the "special ed" kids except to be glad I wasn't one.

It would never have occurred to me that there were smart kids like Shamus, full of curiosity and doing interesting hobbies, who had no interest at all in doing well at school. It also never crossed my mind that all the note-taking, test-taking and homework I did without much complaint was a nearly useless imitation of education.

I discovered this when I tried to teach myself computer programming at age 13 (this was in 1971, before there were high school classes in it.) I had been told I was good at math, I had gotten A's on everything, and yet I couldn't solve the kinds of unstructured problems you run into when you write a program. Homework had trained me to expect all the relevant information to be stated in the problem, with nothing missing and nothing extra. I didn't know how to experiment or test theories of what was wrong with my programs. I didn't know how to do research or organize what I knew.

I realized my entire education was like that -- a museum tour of knowledge behind glass, not a hands-on training to actually do things with that knowledge. Due to his stubborn temperament and resentment for authority, Shamus seems to have realized this much earlier than I did!

The book will take you down twin paths -- private exploration and learning, developing real competence with computers and writing, and public frustration with schooling, to the point of hating the entire system.

There's plenty of tension and surprises too. I'm constantly wondering as I read this, "How did this kid turn out alright -- even successful?" He seems to have the odds stacked against him, with resentment and failure the most likely result. It just shows how a few key breaks here and there can make all the difference in life.

Most kids never have such a difficult time fitting into the system. Instead, they do what's expected of them, jump through all the hoops, and end up with a nearly useless education. Shamus struggles the entire way, fighting against all of this, but ends up doing exactly the job he always wanted to do, and doing it brilliantly.

It shouldn't have to be this way.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Carma

This is why I homeschool ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 15, 2011

This. THIS is why I homeschool my kids. I did not have a terrible school experience as Shamus did; in fact I skated through pretty easily and without attracting too much attention except for my good grades. Most people would point to me as a great example of how well school works, but even so, school was not a good "fit" for me. I was rarely challenged and got the grade without having to study; I was bored out of my mind for most of every day and only my low-key personality and good home life kept me from getting into trouble. The questions Shamus so cogently asks cast my own feelings about school into sharp relief:

"Did school help this person to reach their full potential?" No, it absolutely did not.

"Could they have learned more on their own?" Oh yes, and most of what I did learn came from my own extra-curricular reading and exploring.

"Could they have learned faster using some other system of instruction?" Absolutely. I can't begin to count the times I had to sit while the class went over and over and over a point of instruction that I knew before the teacher opened her mouth, or I got on the first explanation.

Industrial factory schooling is not a good fit, in fact, for most kids, not just the obvious misfits such as Shamus. Kids like Shamus are the canaries in the mine of the public school. They're the first ones to show that there is a problem, and we need to read his story with the understanding that when the most susceptible children react so very visibly to experiences in a "normal" school, then we need to be seriously worried about how it is affecting all of our children.

13 people found this helpful

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