[crawfordcomeaux]

Learn how to learn what you want so you can learn what you need that they're trying to gatekeep from you. The certifications/degrees are mostly meaningless. Yes, the academic setting can be helpful, but comes with so many toxic cultural components, it makes more sense to craft one's own learning environments outside of academia that are geared toward the science of learning.

You're not alone. I'm without a degree and conducting pioneering work as outsider science. We don't need the approval of or support from academia to do meaningful and impactful work. Learn how to creatively present what you can do so you can bypass standard funnels for things (like hand-delivering something you've made to demonstrate your skills to a hiring manager, bypassing whatever their hiring process is...people will poopoo this and try to tell you it's arrogant...let them sit in their own discomfort, as it has everything to do with their issues, not yours; if they ask if you think you're better than people using resumes, you can always say "everyone's better off leaving resumes behind because they'relargely bullshit. This is how it starts for me" if you believe it).

The metrics suck. Every human is infinitely valuable and anyone saying otherwise has a colonized mind. Also, seek out decolonization practices & therapeutic ways of being to protect from the self-harming thoughts/practices these systems naturally indoctrinate people into.

Remember: the moment you orient toward tearing down academia, they're locked in there with you, not the other way around. You become the torturer simply by being in a way they have no control/impact on. You are enough to liberate yourself from the torture by refusing to value harmful cultural norms and by speaking out against them. You are not alone in this. If you need support, my contact info is in my profile.