@_thegeoff i'm sure it's been said/studied, but could this be an active learning vs. classroom learning thing?
@avatastic Oh totally. And we have a very active learning setup on average, hell, my job as a high school science technician isn't really a thing in many countries, cos it's not that practical.
But even then, take certain students out of the formal curriculum and school system and they flip into fascinated self-drivers.
Another thing to think about is how much your motivation depends on presence and properties of company (does it help significantly if you have people trying to learn the same thing, or maybe people who will be at least somewhat interested in what you're trying to figure out and will ask nontrivial questions?).