&gt; I seem to have missed the part of university where we were learning things not yet in published books.<p>You had an access to the teachers, who are all supposed to be active, well-connected, bleeding-edge researchers. You had a fair amount of their time allocated for you solely and more of that time for your class.<p>Now, it was 100% <i>your</i> responsibility to extort all the bleeding edge knowledge from them, to loiter around their laboratories, to get a summer job as a lab assistant, and all that. This is what universities are for.<p>&gt; like society has done for every other field of human endevor?<p>What? When did it happen, exactly? The master-apprentice model is still alive and kicking in <i>most</i> of the professions. There are no alternatives to it. Dedicated pedagogues can teach you to read, write and count your fingers (on one hand). The rest must be passed on by the <i>real</i> professionals.