The best idea ever?

Alright, I've decided to start a blog, because I have such good ideas![/sarcasm] Anyway, I've had this for a bit and never wrote in it, and a friend suggested I blog something I was talking about. I'll throw in chat snippets so things don't seem completely random.

me: I challenge you to an academic decathalon
me: billy madison style
Jonathan: what's that?

I've always thought that the most noble pursuit in life was the ability to do anything, or the ability to adapt quickly. If you had a broad well of knowledge, you'd be able to pick up something in a fraction of the time that it would take if you had no idea what you were doing. There's certainly nothing wrong with specializing, but I always viewed it as the whole "giving a man a fish" vs. "teaching a man to fish" thing. Specialists can do some things very well. Sometimes I regret this path, because I feel like I could have been a really great pianist had I stuck with it every day. I mean, I would practice three days out of the semester and be as good as a lot of people, and I felt bad that a lot of people would kill to be that good. I think a bigger problem was that I always got bored. If I knew how to pick up the piano quickly, was my time better spent learning how to become amazing at the piano, or being decent at the piano and decent at something else, maybe the guitar? I decided on the latter, with the rationalization that I could always go back to the piano if I wanted to, but I'd never be able to get anywhere with the guitar if I didn't try it first. It's like having one ability vs. the option to have two.

me: you know what would be really interesting
me: having some sort of commune of people that excelled at various things
Jonathan: and they all specialize?
me: and everybody taught everybody else their best traits
Jonathan: interesting.
me: and it would be like a commune of superhumans
Jonathan: I'd live there.

I came up with this idea completely at random. I always thought that it'd be even easier to pick up a broad skill set if I had other people helping me along. Not that I'd just want to leech off of the skills of others. I also thought I'd really enjoy teaching people what I knew as well. A lot of people have really envied my talents, and I feel bad that I don't put them to great use, so why not let other people enjoy them?

me: the teacher would probably be more involved, because they aren't trying to teach different levels all day...plus, they are getting skills out of it (which I would argue is more valuable than a salary), and there's no pressure of failure, since it's not exactly a graded effort
me: it's a lot easier for a teacher to adapt when everybody has to start from the beginning...obviously people will progress at different paces, but it is something that they can do as they feel comfortable, and not have to feel suffocated by sticking to a syllabus
Jonathan: that is true.
me: the idea is that you teach concepts over specializations, to which the individuals would be better equipped to specialize on their own
me: for example, I think learning a broad range of music fundamentals and exposing myself to a broader range of instruments and musical styles allows me to pick up about any instrument in a fraction of the time that I might learn each one on their own separately
me: I feel the same principles are applied to schools, but more time is spent on specializations, and not enough on broadening one's knowledge of the general concept
we expect everyone to pick up math in the same order as everyone else in the same time frame, and those who can't conform to that are relegated to the lower math tracks
Jonathan: I think you should blog that.

I think this is the main problem with schools. There's too much pressure to conform to a certain teaching standard. One of the most famous example talks about how Einstein failed math. I don't have anything against my teachers. I just feel that I would have done a lot better had I gone at my own pace. I sometimes lament the fact that I was stuck in the confines of school, even though I'm certainly happy I got to make a ton of friends. I think I'd love to do some sort of group homeschooling...it works a lot like my commune idea, but it's a lot easier to expose my kids to different fields rather than my peers. Too bad I have that thing called a job.

[upon suggesting other members]
me: that would raise a tricky issue in doing this
me: making sure everybody was cool with everybody else
[...]
me: you're 2/2 on people to which I'd have a rocky time with
Jonathan: it'd be a good experience

Thinking about this idea in depth made me realize quite a bit about what kinds of people I connect with. I really don't think a lot of people agree with me, and certainly not to the point that they'd want to spend their free nights learning about Chinese or piano playing or programming or swing dancing or cooking. But it feels like there's a special brain wavelength, reserved for those people that think like I do. I feel like I can connect with them in a way that's absent from others (not to diminish my friendships with others, it's certainly not the case). In addition, I realized that in going through with my commune of philomaths, I don't know how I'd be able to deal with people who I wasn't on good terms with. It'd be hard to concentrate on so much when my mind wasn't focused, and I'd probably be in danger of losing interest.

Not to mention the other risks involved. It's a ballsy idea, indeed. But I'm still in my youth. Better to set these frameworks now, than when I'm 50. Nobody would take it seriously by then.

And how often does one come up with "maybe the best idea ever"?