These kinds of claims are common; G Harry Stine in his "The Hopeful Future" wrote, "A self-taught person is usually deficient in one or more areas of his learni

These kinds of claims are common; G Harry Stine in his "The Hopeful Future" wrote, "A self-taught person is usually deficient in one or more areas of his learning expertise." There are several problems with the claim, but the most important is that if a self-taught person discovers he or she needs to know something that they missed earlier, they simply need to go find it out, since they have avoided becoming dependent on others to tell them what to learn and when.