You aren't wrong, but I think you underestimate yourself. I'm "basically lazy" about a bunch of stuff... but if it's in an area of interest, or someone or something gets me interested, I'll steep myself in it, and I suspect that you're much the same way.

I think a combination of the two methods would work best, myself -- again, you need the discipline, you need the structure, and you need the basics. But you also need to get why learning is cool, so you don't just go so far and then stop.