By Daniel G Taylor
Many children of famous parents want to distance themselves as they claim their space in the world. Not James. "[My father's] book is deeply influential in my life. I'm very proud of my father. I wish to impress my father by showing him that his ideas work."
James—who dropped out of school and then went onto become the youngest technical manager at Apple Computer by the time he was 20—has done that in The Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar, a book that snubs the traditional approach to learning and encourages people to learn what they love.
"I am Jonathan Livingston Seagull," says James Marcus Bach, son of Richard Bach, author of inspirational classic, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. "I didn't realise that until I was writing [my] book," James continues. "I'd lived the plot of Jonathan Livingston Seagull in a metaphorical sense."
He left school because his teachers wanted him to learn subjects that bored him, while they wouldn't reward him for learning more about the subjects he loved. Part of the plot of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is about Jonathan's choice to fly apart from the flock, who are calling him to conform. Needless to say, Richard supported his son's choice.
The Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar by James Marcus Bach
If you've ever heard that successful people give themselves an ongoing education, what have you done about it? Would you like to know an easy system that turns learning into an adventure? James Marcus Bach's story is that you don't need to conform to the requirements of formal education to succeed. Instead, be an intellectual buccaneer-scholar: "Buccaneers… were bold and aggressive, they lived free, and they lived by their wits. That's how I want to be as a thinker."
Bach looks at 11 elements of self-education, under the acronym SACKED SCOWS. An example of such thinking: once I would have learned to spell words I may never use. Now I learn spelling relevant to my current writing project, like 'buccaneer.' Explore freeform learning and make it an adventure.
-- Reviewed by Daniel G. Taylor
A choice that led James to live his passions. "I had a kind of obsession with computers from the moment I first touched one, from the moment I first saw one in a magazine," James says. "I looked at all the keys and I thought, 'Each key does something different.' I guess I saw a computer as a portal to alternate realities, worlds that I could imagine and control, and I wanted to control something in my life."
After Richard bought him his first computer, James taught himself how to program. In a serendipitous video store encounter, a manager from Apple Computer hired him. "Why would someone hire me over people with college degrees? I was a lot cheaper. Whether you're schooled or not, if you can solve a problem, someone will hire you."
"Unlike other books about learning, I don't say, 'Well, just buckle down and study.' I don't say, 'Just do it.' My book is an approach to learning for people with very little self-discipline. I don't use selfdiscipline [to learn] in the classic sense.
When I say self-discipline, what I mean is I don't have the ability to force myself to do things that I don't want to do. What I do instead is my mind loves to wander. "I wanted to learn Homeric Greek once, and then I kind of lost interest and went and did something else. And that happens to me over and over and over again. I used to think that was a bad thing, and it certainly prevents me from doing certain kinds of things, however, it turns out that it's also a tremendous asset. I've adapted to having a mind that wanders and I end up doing things and pursuing things that people with wandering minds are able to do better than people who are highly self-disciplined about what they think about."
Sometimes an authentic problem will draw him back to a subject, perhaps years later, with a deeper understanding and appreciation. An authentic problem is best illustrated with an example: James asked me why reading his book had inspired me to learn some more math skills. Since high school, I hadn't needed anything beyond basic math, but now my business and personal finances would benefit from knowing multiplication, division and percentages.
"You have what I call an 'authentic problem,' James says. "You need to know to do certain math better and if you're able to do that then you will feel that you're able to solve problems that are important to you, and now that you have that feeling, you'll find it easier to learn math than it was before."
The Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar gives 11 elements for self-directed learning. "Not only do I have the elements, but I have a whole set of heuristics and those heuristics are basically patterns and guidelines. These patterns define and describe the form of learning that I engage in." James also teaches how you can create your own syllabus, to learn what will be most useful to you now.
The book was 26 years in the writing, with Richard prodding James to write it. "My father was dealing with me according to the ethos of Jonathon Livingston Seagull. He wanted me to live a free life. He didn't want me to be doing things just because he wanted me to do them, but he wanted me to follow what my passions are in life. He's always asking me, 'What's the most important thing in your life?' Or, 'Why aren't you doing it?' "I feel that having Richard Bach for my father, I am a product of his ideas. I think I've demonstrated that you can leave the flock of formal education and develop your own ways of working and thinking and learning and you can find success there."
Visit www.buccaneerscholar.com and follow James Marcus Bach on Twitter @jamesmarcusbach.
