Or epistemology Or logic We can thank Dewey and the Pragmatists for that But I digress While an autodidact notice the second d is defined as a self taught person it is not necessarily the case the reverse is true But we are also talking about connotation and a quirk about English grammar When you say a person is self taught because taught is in the past tense it gives the impression of being in the past It is also ambiguous as people are likely to say think ask self taught in what But if you say a person is an autodidact it maintains the present tense and does not suggest when the self teaching occurred It also implies a general sense of being self taught For instance I taught myself how to program computers But I don t go around claiming I m an autodidact With Langdon if you say he is self taught and mention his IQ and status as a bouncer well that hardly gives a meaningful impression For that reason it s as I stated earlier an approach to learning Langan is generally self taught or something like that but more critically I think his attitude seems to be why should I bother learning from someone who is my intellectual inferior That s the impression I got from the video interview Having said that I assume someone else did call him an autodidact right Because if not then the whole thing is OR