by compound complex 21 Replies latest jw friends
Fellow Autodidacts:
Okay, okay! Narrow down the topic a bit ... I know that! I just did by adding "New Things."
The WT shackles dropped to the floor, I can't get enough learnin' myself. As a kid, I was tearing through the pages, taking notes ... as an adult, the same....
How about you?
Do you find practical use in any of the heaps of information you wade through?
Do you ever suffer from so-called sensory-overload?
Are you merely better informed now or truly wiser?
Thank you,
CoCo Copious Copies
Yep, I don't read as much as a I should but I do enjoy educational programs on PBS, NPR, TLC, Discovery, etc. And I've seem to have instilled the same joy in my children. Also the internet is a big help too. Sometimes when my kids have a question about something and I'm not sure about it we go google. It's a lot of fun.
I am currently on the University of The Internet. If some topic interests me, I type it into Professor Google and get a bunch of material on it. The best thing is that I do not have to worry about the big tuition bills (it is paid for with advertisements).
One thing I like learning about is the ridiculous programs and rules at the Grand Boasting Sessions. And the waste of paper distribution campaigns that show up here months before anyone at the Kingdumb Hell even finds out about them. And (I hope) the empty Kingdumb Hells, the paltry turnout for field circus, and the numbers of S-77 forms they have to fill out.
That's why I'm here at JWD...damn my brian to hell!
I enjoy learning all sorts of new things. New cultures, new experiences, new words, new people. There is so much out there - even new things about me.
100% yes! And I just learned a new word thanks to you - autodidact! Never heard that one before.
I am a real bibliophile - must have 2000+ books at home on all kinds of topics, but mostly on early Christian development and thought, gnostic gospels and the like, and a lot of European history as well. And yes, I suffer from sensory overload ALL THE TIME! A lot of the stuff I read about has more or less zero practical value, but it transports me to another time and dimension, and I wish I could live there permanently. My books are my buddies!
I enjoy learning new things and teaching my g'kids to explore all avenues of knowledge, but they're lazy and will google for an answer instead of looking it up in a book.
As a kid, I had an eidetic memory. I could recall, effortlessly, pages of material, dates, persons, etc.
I was always given the longest part in school plays, plus I could pinch-hit for others!
Now that I'm older, I do suffer from sensory overload at times. When that happens, I retreat to a quiet place, have a spot of tea, and let my mind go blank.
Life itself is a learning experience!
Sylvia
Most definetely!!
If only I had "woken up" earlier from my over thirty years WT slumber.
I am in college now, but don't entertain hopes to finish as I am working and can only take one class at a time. I am 56 years old. I make an "A" in every class I take (except algegra-made a B) and enjoy learning history. I am taking Texas History right now....soooo interesting.
i recently had a young woman
tell me she thinks i am smart
(really young... 19 YO)
i asked her why she would think that
and her reply was that i "knew a lot of things"
( she was a guest in my town and i took her around
on the nickel tour, with all manner of historical, anthropological
and geological tidbits that always fascinated me!)
at any rate, my response to her was
"knowing things doesn't make you smart...
it like being a crow that is attracted to shiny things....
for me it is information....
smart happens when you
understand how to use what you know....."
so to answer your question..... YES!
according to recent revelations about
long term memory, newly formed brain cells
require community or they atrophy... so stray
little bits of information will disappear from memory
unless there is a collection of similar or related
information to support the developing brain cells
neurogenesis .....research findings that indicate the number of neurons lost and new neurons generated
in adult rats might be related to the degree of cognitive challenges an animal encounters
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/99/0405/brain.htm
Eidetic memory, photographic memory, or total recall is the ability to recallimages, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume. The word eidetic (pronounced /a?'d?t?k/ ) means related to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images, and comes from the Greek word e?d?? (eidos), which means "form". [1] Eidetic memory can have a very different meaning for memory experts who use the picture elicitation method to detect it. Eidetic memory as observed in children is typified by the ability of an individual to study an image for approximately 30 seconds, and maintain a nearly perfect photographic memory of that image for a short time once it has been removed--indeed such eidetikers claim to "see" the image on the blank canvas as vividly and in as perfect detail as if it were still there.
Although many adults have demonstrated extraordinary memory abilities, before this finding, it was previously unknown whether true eidetic memory can persist into adulthood. [2] [3] [4] [5] While many artists and composers such as Claude Monet and Mozart are commonly thought to have had eidetic memory, it is possible that their memories simply became highly trained in their respective fields of art, as they each devoted large portions of their waking hours towards the improvement of their abilities. [6] Such a focus on their individual arts most likely improved the relevant parts of their memory, which may account for their surprising abilities.
The first time I heard this term was in the movie THE DA VINCI CODE. Princess Sophie asked the prof (Tom Hanks) if he had one.
I love learning new things; likewise, it's my ticket to another world and time.
Thanks for all your wonderful comments.
CoCo
