Benjamin Franklin had little formal education. What he did have was an extraordinary ability to teach himself.
In Part 2 of my journey through Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, we meet Franklin as a teenage apprentice in his brother’s printing shop, where access to books and ideas becomes the foundation for a lifetime of self-education.
We explore:
- How Franklin deliberately trained himself to become a better writer
- Why he studied, reconstructed, and imitated writing he admired
- How books became his teachers after formal schooling ended
- What the Socratic method taught him about argument and persuasion
- Why Franklin stopped presenting his opinions with absolute certainty
- How humility can actually make us more persuasive
- Franklin’s growing desire for independence—and his decision to leave Boston
One of the most striking lessons is Franklin’s approach to improvement. He didn’t simply read good writing. He took it apart, recreated it, compared his work to the original, found his weaknesses, and tried again.
Long before anyone called it “deliberate practice,” Franklin was doing it.
And he applied the same philosophy to conversation. Franklin discovered that winning an argument and influencing another person are not necessarily the same thing. Sometimes phrases like “I may be mistaken” open more minds than confidently declaring “I’m right.”
By the end of this section, Franklin has little money, few possessions, and an uncertain future.
But he has already acquired something far more valuable: the ability to teach himself.
This is Part 2 of an 18-part series exploring Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and asking what his life can still teach us about self-improvement, character, work, and living well.
Until next time, remember: the answers are older than we are—and just as relevant today.
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