Learning from Nuts (AKA Lessons In Life)

The course I'm currently doing is led by a self-confessed nut (I think the words he used to describe himself were "an arrogant jerk that behaves like a bottled spider"...among other things).

Back to my rant - he's quite possibly a brilliant nut (verdict is still out).  But a nut. Along with being a arrogant jerk/bottled spider/nut, he is also highly amusing.  Want some idea? Watch the intro to the latest unit.

The instructions are chaotic and for most challenging to understand at best.  The grading criteria is random.  The expectations unclear.  Ambiguity and challenge seem to be the order of the day.

And I'm learning faster than a cat video goes viral.

Quite possibly the most important thing I've learned so far is that this course is like life.

• Sometimes people give you instructions, you rise to the challenge and give your very best, and then you're told you missed the mark.  
• Sometimes, you have leadership that seem to be drinking heavily while making decisions that affect the rest of your life.  Their decisions impact you and make you gnash your teeth in great despair. 
• Sometimes you fail hard and fast.  Sometimes no one tells you why, if you're lucky you figure it out, or you simply brush yourself off and carry on. 

If you haven't experienced this yet in your life you will.  Give it time.

I appreciate that I'm being treated like an adult who is capable of handling a little ambiguity and disappointment.  I have to figure stuff out, this nutty professor is my new challenge... how can I unravel his riddles, can I follow his trail of breadcrumbs?

I'd like to do well on the course, but at the end of the day I'll happily take a limbo dance into the land of a passing grades and walk away from it with a solid understanding of the topics in tow.

After less than two weeks, I feel well on my way.  My head is a little sore from all the gnashing, but my mind is spinning with possibilities and opportunities.  As I dig into this exercise in research I'm not only discovering knowledge, but who I am.  That is fantastically awesome.

Dear Nutso: Bring it!