Agreed, but whether or not someone is capable of accurately self-assessing how well they've learned a topic depends on how well they've actually learned the top

Agreed, but whether or not someone is capable of accurately self-assessing how well they've learned a topic depends on how well they've actually learned the topic. This means someone can do a bad job of learning a topic on their own, but still believe they're an autodidact. I think that happens a lot.