In K-8, I was a poor student. So, in 9th grade algebra, a subject I liked and found easy, I didn't have the usual school study habits so just taught the stuff

In K-8, I was a poor student. So, in 9th grade algebra, a subject I liked and found easy, I didn't have the usual school study habits so just taught the stuff to myself from the book. Next year was plane geometry, and I liked it so much I was in heaven. The teacher was the nastiest human I've even known, so I ignored her, slept in class, and never admitted doing any of the homework. In fact, I did all the non-trivial problems in the front of the book and then ALL of the more challenging supplementary problems in the back of the book. I totally loved the subject. That was a good start in teaching myself that did me a lot of good. Maybe the best part was I was able to do publishable research. So, in grad school I took a problem I'd seen in a course, a problem with no obvious solution, and asked for a "reading course" to attack it. Well, I did more, got a clean solution and also proved a nice, surprising theorem. That was two weeks, and I was done with the "reading course" and the last I needed for a Masters. It looked publishable and it was -- later I published it. Doing that research gave me a nice halo that served me well for the rest of my grad school time. So, that independent study/research ability totally saved my tail feathers. For music, once I heard a little Beethoven, I fell in love with classical music. Later at Indiana University, with its terrific music school, I took a beginning course in violin. So, I had to start with how to hold the violin and the bow, tune the violin, etc. I got through the A major scale in first position! Later I continued on my own. I got through about 3/4 of the Bach E major Partita, in time and in tune! Then I got through most of the Bach Chaconne also in time and in tune. Really liked the central D major section. Then I went for some lessons: Conclusion, I needed more practice! But the self teaching seemed to work again! And, yes, at one time I taught several sections of computer science at Georgetown University. Taught it? Yes. Had ever taken it? No. Sure, like no doubt nearly all of the HN audience, I had taught the stuff to myself.