Howard is an autodidact. He doesn’t have any degrees. Degrees didn’t exist until around 1213, so education in Ancient Rome and Greece was informal. Organized education remained rare.
In Ancient learnings, the parts of the human body were named after what they thought it looked like. The thick bone at the front of your lower leg, the tibia, was named after a similar-looking flute. What if we find out now that the tibia is the incorrect name? We have based our formal organized education on ancient teachings. This is not to suggest that ancient teachings are meritless, nor to imply that formal organized education is invalid; however, one does control the market on THOUGHTS and IDEAS. I have an issue with that because it seems to be financially driven. Explorative Thinking is part of Critical Thinking. Today, we have trained students to be monkey see, monkey do. Thoughts and ideas are to be welcomed and debated. This is how we engage and grow as a society. If we have guard keepers at the gates of conception, who are more interested in control (financial) than discovery then we become stagnant in progression. Imagine if in Ancient Rome there was a peer review, would the ancient teachings have withstood the consensus on thoughts? Imagine if the Wright Brothers were discouraged by reviews that suggested their ideas were invalid and silly. Einstein had his first brush with peer review, and it was not a happy experience. Einstein became used to the “market of ideas”.
In my opinion, we have lost the sense of enthusiasm to encourage explorative and critical thinking. I commend Terrence for his passion and interest. His passion and interest have brought him to a setting where he can have a “challenge and be challenged” discussion with a Harvard PhD alumni in mathematics and physics.

At first, I thought how amazing it might be if Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or MIT offered him a full scholarship. Then perhaps Terrence wouldn’t be allowed to have all these thoughts and ideas. It is possible that the ideas would be controlled or even worse Terrence would be discouraged.

Perhaps to later have these same institutions take his ideas and lay claim to a discover that was brought about from Terrence’s explorative thinking. At the end of the day, science/education is controlled by money. This greed has caused more damage to us as a society, as nations, and as a world.
Imagine a revolution in education, where we return to Ancient driven passion and interest, where new discoveries were being made by a person who simply loved an idea.

I wonder how much of Elon Musk’s inventions were brought about from his degree or his passion for explorative thinking?

My advice to Terrence, stop wanting acceptance from the “Boys Club,” like Eric Weinstein said…. “unless you have edu on your email address or a PHD” they won’t accept your ideas. The Harvard Doctorate Program didn’t even accept Eric Weinstein’s PhD thesis!

Instead, learn from the Ancient’s
Find yourself a mentor…… like Elon Musk!