Deschooling yourself is a long psychological, emotional, and spiritual process for somebody who has spent 12+ years in traditional schools. You come to view the world, incentives, and success in a very different — but very subtly different — way than somebody with a deschooled mind. Breaking out of that mold, viewing the world as an open system, and deschooling yourself is a process.
The process works best when you have a support network of people who understand and are behind your goal, (a) project(s) to work on and build, and a vision of what you want to achieve through this process.
These are some of the books that I have perused through my deschooling journey and that I recommend to anybody looking to take control of their lives and be in the driver’s seat of their education and success.
- Antifragile, Nassim Taleb
- “Cosmos and Taxis,” from Law, Legislation, and Liberty, FA Hayek
- Envy, Helmut Schoeck
- The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler
- The Psychology of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden
- Outwitting the Devil, Napoleon Hill
- Please Understand Me II, David Kiersey
- Free to Learn, Peter Gray
- Weapons of Mass Instruction, John Taylor Gatto
- How to Find Fulfilling Work, Roman Krznaric
- How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
- Zero to One, Peter Thiel
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz
- The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
These books can be read independently or as a reading list. I challenge myself to read 3 books every month, and try to vary the topics. As you can see, this list comes from some disparate, and broad genres. There’s economics, psychology, self-help, business, education, and some combinations of the above. There is a constant theme throughout these, though: you can take control of your life, create order from it, and manifest yourself and your values successfully in the world.