It's not just libertarians/right wing idiots.
I'd say the average problem with Tumblr is lots of classes and theory, and too few brain cells. And that's leftist idiots.
How do you boost your intellect?
-
-
@Print:
I have a photographic memory, and honestly? It feels like playing through life with a cheat mode. So many tests of prowess are predominantly tests of memory in disguise, such as the multitude of school subjects where exams are based around simple regurgitation of facts already learnt. Even analytic disciplines tend to do the analysis in advance and ask you to remember that for the exams themselves - such as where your English Literature teacher will walk you through Hamlet with the aid of guide books and then come the actual written exam, you're required to repeat back what those guide books taught you.
Is memory intelligence? Certainly by many hallmarks of our culture, it'd seem to be. I'm taken for a supergenius or something just because I can remember maps in great detail and navigate around the world from inside my head, but that's not smarts, that's simply remembering in detail something I looked at before. Ditto general knowledge - pub quiz champions aren't considered to be Einstein, but they're still taken to be intellectual powerhouses when they're just good at recalling facts.
It's always bothered me, even though I've benefited from it. Seeing friends study for weeks to recall the same amount as I'd get from long-term memory and a cursory read over my notes the morning before the exam made me feel rotten, to be honest.
I do think that having a crazy large memory can actually be somewhat of a crutch for me sometimes. I'd been good enough at remembering facts to be able to ace tests with barely any studying up until like 9th grade, but that's meant that I had to start learning actual study skills much later than everybody else when I couldn't rely on memory alone any more. There are a bunch of other things that I can say about how having SUPERMEMORY isn't completely like cheating through life, but that's the first that comes to mind.
Also wanted to address this way back on the second page about IQ.
@Carmilla:Or the speed of thinking.
Actually, I think I've had a separate IQ score for that whenever I've done neuropsych testing for school accomodations. My regular
irrelevant and artificial measurement that may or may not have much to do with anything depending on who you askIQ score is fairly high, but my processing speed (if that's the right term for it) is around the 17th percentile. I like to think that's why I don't have the reflexes to play competitive sports to save my life but I digress. -
@Print:
I have a photographic memory
I used to have visually-oriented memory, but due to spending most time in class doodling and listening to the teacher instead of reading the subject material, my memory changed to a listening/kinesthetic one.
I can't concentrate that well while reading various literature anymore as well unless it piques my interest.But photographic memory is a gift from the devil, I tell you what!
-
@Mr.:
I do think that having a crazy large memory can actually be somewhat of a crutch for me sometimes. I'd been good enough at remembering facts to be able to ace tests with barely any studying up until like 9th grade, but that's meant that I had to start learning actual study skills much later than everybody else when I couldn't rely on memory alone any more. There are a bunch of other things that I can say about how having SUPERMEMORY isn't completely like cheating through life, but that's the first that comes to mind.
Also wanted to address this way back on the second page about IQ.
Actually, I think I've had a separate IQ score for that whenever I've done neuropsych testing for school accomodations. My regular
irrelevant and artificial measurement that may or may not have much to do with anything depending on who you askIQ score is fairly high, but my processing speed (if that's the right term for it) is around the 17th percentile. I like to think that's why I don't have the reflexes to play competitive sports to save my life but I digress.Haha, I was around the 20th I think? But my verbal ability was in the 99.9th, and it was one of the things that led to my formal dyspraxia diagnosis. I'd always put my relative suckiness at sports down to having poor dexterity but I suppose that could certainly play a part too.
And as for the other detriments of having a really strong memory, I am probably familiar with them myself. The study thing is certainly true - doing languages at university helped with that because you can't just cram a list of facts and hope to get by. Though by that stage, exams would usually throw curveballs at us meaning that even for literature and history, we'd have to do analysis then and there and the facts we had were only there to support our answers, not be the answers themselves.
It's a really complicated picture! Certainly far moreso than IQ tests can hope to measure.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I used to have visually-oriented memory, but due to spending most time in class doodling and listening to the teacher instead of reading the subject material, my memory changed to a listening/kinesthetic one.
I can't concentrate that well while reading various literature anymore as well unless it piques my interest.But photographic memory is a gift from the devil, I tell you what!
Photographic doesn't necessarily imply visual, afaik, it just means that it's abnormally high. Eidetic is probably a better term for that reason. Though my memory is predominantly visual, even if I'm able to remember things like songs for a ridiculously long time - I once remember thinking a song playing on the radio was quite pretty when I was 11 and when I was 18 and the Internet was more of a thing for me, I recalled it by chance and looked it up - turned out to be "Paper & Ink" by Tracy Chapman.
-
The by far worst part of having a good memory is that i can't help but remember the stupid things i've done or said.
Remembering it so vividly and just having it wash over you like a cold shower is such a crap experience.
-
The by far worst part of having a good memory is that i can't help but remember the stupid things i've done or said.
Remembering it so vividly and just having it wash over you like a cold shower is such a crap experience.
Ayup XD
I have it like a list in my head, every time I majorly screwed up. Plenty of fuel for a depressive spiral right there. There are also the bad experiences that weren't directly my fault but were still hell to go through (and you tend to get more than a few of those, being trans) and which I can recall like the taste of a bad takeaway the morning after.
-
I've got crap memory. All of my knowledge is scattered somewhere in my brain and gets called on by key words, phrases or contexts. It doesn't help keep back bad or embarrassing memories, either; they just get brought up at random times with the right stimulation. Practical knowledge mostly sticks in generalities than specifics, which I have to build up. It's bad enough that on some exams, I've had to re-derive equations or concepts before using them.
-
I've got crap memory. All of my knowledge is scattered somewhere in my brain and gets called on by key words, phrases or contexts. It doesn't help keep back bad or embarrassing memories, either; they just get brought up at random times with the right stimulation. Practical knowledge mostly sticks in generalities than specifics, which I have to build up. It's bad enough that on some exams, I've had to re-derive equations or concepts before using them.
Well if you can recollect things with that little stimulation your memory must be quite good no?
I've always assumed that everybodies mind works like that, that you have to know what to search for and once you've opened the right folder there you have it.
But maybe some people just walk around with a head full of direct access information. I doubt it, but who knows.
-
Well if you can recollect things with that little stimulation your memory must be quite good no?
I've always assumed that everybodies mind works like that, that you have to know what to search for and once you've opened the right folder there you have it.
But maybe some people just walk around with a head full of direct access information. I doubt it, but who knows.
It's far more disorganized than that, though. If your mind is a filing cabinet with everything labeled alphabetically, mine is like a bunch of scattered piles separated by shape.
-
Possibly? I'm not familiar with Brain Age.
The ads calls it a personal trainer for your brain.
!
I see. Brain Age was a series of Nintendo DS games produced in a similar vein of simple exercises to keep the brain awake with simple exrecises, which shares with lumosity a trait of being developed by some doc working in neuro stuff thinking along the lines of simple games. Some years back, it was lauded as a good way to keep the mind active in elderly patients (although it might be somewhat controversial, those results), and it seems lumosity was research in similar games done in parallel with the release of Brain Age.
Check out how it works in this sample lol:
!
-
I remember a lot of weird things. Like specific numbers, for example phone numbers and addresses and numbers on signs and license plates and periods of time and specific dates and amounts of money.
And I can do this weird thing in banks and anywhere that people spend money, where I can kind of "analyze" what people are going to do. Like, in the waiting room for my therapy sessions, I can immediately pick out the people who don't have money from the people who don't have enough money from the people who do.
I also confess that I have Notepad open all the time, and I sometimes convert my posts (on AP and elsewhere) into these sequences:
2 2 3 4 2 3 3 2 5 4 6 2 2 5 4 1 2
4 2 3 6 3 4 4 1 3 6 3 5 8 2 2Like this would be one of my posts in Confession Session. I wasn't too pleased with this one because there is only one "8", it kind of bothers me, but if I recall, this post "lined up" decently enough.
I'm even more displeased if my post doesn't line up, which is sometimes difficult because I work from multiple computers with different screen sizes. Another parameter I have is that it bothers me if I end a word with a certain vowel sound, and then the next word starts with the same or a certain vowel sound. For example, in the sentence "Like, in the waiting room for my therapy sessions, I can…", I originally had written down "Like, in the waiting room for my therapy, I can…" which bothered me IMMENSELY, so I scrapped it, but then brought it back with the correction. And I really can't deal with words that end in the æ sound getting followed up with words that BEGIN with the æ sound, for example "banana acquired" (it's okay if I put it in quotes) like WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
I'll also make lists of things when I'm watching series online or reading a book. Sometimes numbers, sometimes the stuff that falls into a specific category. It's kind of time-consuming but it makes things "right" for me, like it's easier if I do that. It's also easier for me to do art if it's from math. I remember in 2D design class, some folks would (I had "people" written down, but "folks" allows for a "4 5 5" which is better than a "4 6 5", and this stuff in parentheses seems harmless enough) ask "why sign up for an art class to do math?" There was so much mental math on my scratch paper.
-
I've got a bad memory. Like, obnoxious anime character sort of bad memory. Except instead of being a cutesy trait I'm a real person so it's awful to deal with. I remember important things about my interests, like histories of music and all kinds of really developed theory. But as far as my life goes? If you're my friend on any personal one-on-one level you will find me frustratingly sad. I will forget promises, I will forget things we meant to do later, you'll probably have to jolt my memory a lot. You will remember my life for me. I was all excited to play Ys I for the first time since I've wanted to play Falcom games and it was a good starting place, only for other people to remind me I did this exact same thing two years ago.
So I don't really put a lot of stock on the past!!!! HUrray the future!!!!
-
I covered the topic of having an eidetic memory a while back. (Not me obviously)
The idea of knowing you have that gift, and being able to apply it to all kinds of interesting fields of work…it's just brilliant. Cryptography, art, maths, languages, music etc. to be able to suddenly stumble upon one of these and find you are a natural must be a real boost in self esteem/confidence. And yes I understand you might only excel in one or two things. but just knowing you have something that you have such little limitations on...
-
to be able to suddenly stumble upon one of these and find you are a natural must be a real boost in self esteem/confidence.
feels good yeah. i basically never practice music or anything and just masturbate all day while watching anime lol. i'm pretty set for life. i am smart as hell, which is how i can allocate so much time to cumming. some people are just, born for greatness lol
-
@Holy:
I've got a bad memory. Like, obnoxious anime character sort of bad memory. Except instead of being a cutesy trait I'm a real person so it's awful to deal with. I remember important things about my interests, like histories of music and all kinds of really developed theory. But as far as my life goes? If you're my friend on any personal one-on-one level you will find me frustratingly sad. I will forget promises, I will forget things we meant to do later, you'll probably have to jolt my memory a lot. You will remember my life for me. I was all excited to play Ys I for the first time since I've wanted to play Falcom games and it was a good starting place, only for other people to remind me I did this exact same thing two years ago.
So I don't really put a lot of stock on the past!!!! HUrray the future!!!!
Seems more like a problem of attention and interest than a problem of memory to me.
I have eidetic memory and still get the same problem. I get absent-minded and absorbed in my own thoughts too easily. -
@Holy:
feels good yeah. i basically never practice music or anything and just masturbate all day while watching anime lol. i'm pretty set for life. i am smart as hell, which is how i can allocate so much time to cumming. some people are just, born for greatness lol
I know that this is a joke but it still seems plausible if I assume you're telling the truth.
-
Seems more like a problem of attention and interest than a problem of memory to me.
I have eidetic memory and still get the same problem. I get absent-minded and absorbed in my own thoughts too easily.Yeah, working memory is quite different to long-term memory. It often takes me several hours to eat meals or make a cup of tea because unless I set alarms, I will completely forget I put the kettle on, or am preheating the oven, or made pasta or whatever.
-
I covered the topic of having an eidetic memory a while back. (Not me obviously)
The idea of knowing you have that gift, and being able to apply it to all kinds of interesting fields of work…it's just brilliant. Cryptography, art, maths, languages, music etc. to be able to suddenly stumble upon one of these and find you are a natural must be a real boost in self esteem/confidence. And yes I understand you might only excel in one or two things. but just knowing you have something that you have such little limitations on...
If life was an anime you'd be that guy being beaten down by his awe of the genius guys like Sasuke, Miyata and such.
And then when the bumbling but hardworking hero who no one believed in beats him up you'd be all oh man this totally changes my world view.
Why not skip that step and just go be great at what you want to excel in instead.
-
I know that this is a joke but it still seems plausible if I assume you're telling the truth.
I practice very hard every day to be good at what I do and be confident that I can do it. Even being inherently drawn to something (like I'm a "natural" at music because I genuinely like it and want to participate in it, it is my primary intelligence if we go by the multiples theory), the genius delusion tells us people like this don't work at it and it's a bad mindset. Pretty sure artists across the board loathe the "talented people just pick it up and vroom away" mindset. Even fewer people just find themselves naturally able to practice something without learning proper mechanisms to keep motivation and the like. The people that naturaly do this also tend to be people who have the narroest of interests.
I'd say it goes the same for sciences, but these are the fields where that genius delusion is so heavily romanticized and populated.
Smudger's comment just really rubbed me bad, even if it was framed as a memory thing.
-
I used to do Sudokus cause people told me it's good for my brain, but shockingly it's not something that helped me develop anything useful.
Well not entirely true, it made the last puzzle in 999 not as tedious as it might have been.
I'm really sorry if things get repeated here that might have been mentioned throughout the thread.I've used to contemplate on "intelligence" a lot during my teenage years but I found it rather moot.
What people would generally deem as "intelligent" can depend on so many factors: general knowledge, memorization, intuitive smarts, aptitude, experience, being articulate, having an eye for things outside the box, etc..So having the goal just be I want to raise my intelligence seems rather odd to me. So for such a general goal I guess the somewhat disappointing answer is "be curious". Strong curiosity for many different things is a good drive to get your brain active in a variety of ways.
The rest is putting in the footwork to sate your curiosity.But yeah again with the amount of knowledge and fields of expertise far exceeding what one person could ever absorb saying one wants to be/appear more intelligent generally seems rather aimless and inefficient.
-
@Holy:
I practice very hard every day to be good at what I do and be confident that I can do it. Even being inherently drawn to something (like I'm a "natural" at music because I genuinely like it and want to participate in it, it is my primary intelligence if we go by the multiples theory), the genius delusion tells us people like this don't work at it and it's a bad mindset. Pretty sure artists across the board loathe the "talented people just pick it up and vroom away" mindset. Even fewer people just find themselves naturally able to practice something without learning proper mechanisms to keep motivation and the like. The people that naturaly do this also tend to be people who have the narroest of interests.
I'd say it goes the same for sciences, but these are the fields where that genius delusion is so heavily romanticized and populated.
Smudger's comment just really rubbed me bad, even if it was framed as a memory thing.
Eh I don't know. I agree with you,
but at the same time, the whole "you can accomplish anything if you work hard at it" thing seems like just as much of a romanticized fantasy to me. -
If life was an anime you'd be that guy being beaten down by his awe of the genius guys like Sasuke, Miyata and such.
And then when the bumbling but hardworking hero who no one believed in beats him up you'd be all oh man this totally changes my world view.
Why not skip that step and just go be great at what you want to excel in instead.
Eh I don't know. I agree with you,
but at the same time, the whole "you can accomplish anything if you work hard at it" thing seems like just as much of a romanticized fantasy to me.[hide]
[/hide] -
[hide]
http://i.imgur.com/oE6Ctvr.png
http://i.imgur.com/VDcfufp.png
[/hide] -
Oh my yes. I shall forever imagine Taytay as Aokiumra
-
Eh I don't know. I agree with you,
but at the same time, the whole "you can accomplish anything if you work hard at it" thing seems like just as much of a romanticized fantasy to me.Accomplish anything? Maybe not. Accomplish? Certainly. If you work at something long enough and have an open enough mind to accept new ideas and your own failures, then you'll get good at it.
-
Eh I don't know. I agree with you,
but at the same time, the whole "you can accomplish anything if you work hard at it" thing seems like just as much of a romanticized fantasy to me.Given from what I've seen, that statement seems closer to reality to me than the whole genius thing.
Every person I've met that has earned the crazy talented label did have high aptitude for the field they excelled in.
The thing is when you have aptitude for something it becomes rather easy putting the hours in.
And damn I guarantee that everyone of them that had that label did put their hours in.
Compared to the people that just are content with "yup that person is just better than me".But then this perspective is very much colored by what I've experienced from art/design students.
The person that people were "jealous"(not maliciously) of was also the person that had fun putting in 10-12 hours everyday into their creations.
And that doesn't even take into consideration when people have started to devote themselves to their fields. Someone that found their calling with 5 is probably going to be better at it than someone finding it with 18 even if they put in the same amount of hours every day. -
This thread is so far all over the place that I don't know whether I should try to somehow formulate an opinion, or just lock it.
-
Accomplish anything? Maybe not. Accomplish? Certainly. If you work at something long enough and have an open enough mind to accept new ideas and your own failures, then you'll get good at it.
Failures are unacceptable no matter who commits them. The fact that Taylor Randall commits quite a lot of them, is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Compared to the people that just are content with "yup that person is just better than me".
Well it's a good thing I'm not content, now isn't it.
But then this perspective is very much colored by what I've experienced from art/design students.
Don't bring up art/design, it triggers flashbacks.
-
Failures are unacceptable no matter who commits them. The fact that Taylor Randall commits quite a lot of them, is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Accept failure does not mean to just consider it alright and another part of life. It means to confront them to try and understand them. To say "I've failed" and then move on is to deny responsibility for failure. Just putting yourself down for it is no better, it just means you're shirking responsibility by pretending that there's nothing you can do to about it. Understanding failure is a big part of learning how to succeed.
-
Wagomu's right. Making up excuses for failures is delusion, but at the same time there is little to be had simply bringing ourselves down over a mistake. We're human. Mistakes happen. Learn from them, grow from them, and accept them, and move on.
-
Try this. It may help. Courtesy of the Joe Rogan experience podcast ;)
http://www.lumosity.com -
Just putting yourself down for it is no better, it just means you're shirking responsibility by pretending that there's nothing you can do to about it.
There is literally nothing I can do about it, because it happened in the past.
-
What makes someone dumb tho
-
-
Well I mean like how do you identify a dumb person. Stupid choices? Not knowing basic information?
-
There is literally nothing I can do about it, because it happened in the past.
Then it's pretending there's nothing you could have done. Pouting around doesn't make your problems go away, it just wastes the time you could have used to prevent them from coming back to bite you. I've come to see angsting as another form of masturbation. It's really satisfying and easy, but it doesn't get you anywhere. If you've really been hurt by your failures, then you should see just how important it is to learn from them.
What makes someone dumb tho
It's obviously those music videos.
Well I mean like how do you identify a dumb person. Stupid choices? Not knowing basic information?
My definition of stupidity is crystalized ignorance; when someone takes something wrong as true. Like believing that mathematics is a conspiracy to bias the youth towards liberalism.
-
Then it's pretending there's nothing you could have done. Pouting around doesn't make your problems go away, it just wastes the time you could have used to prevent them from coming back to bite you. I've come to see angsting as another form of masturbation. It's really satisfying and easy, but it doesn't get you anywhere. If you've really been hurt by your failures, then you should see just how important it is to learn from them.
I guess it is just beyond my capability to understand.
-
I guess it is just beyond my capability to understand.
Neither do I understand it. Whenever I remember failure I just get embarrassed and try to hide it in a dark closet of my brain again.
But it's really necessary. -
Talking about failure reminds me how there is one anecdote about one writer from the between-wars period in Paris. that had all his walls lined with the rejection letters of journals and literaty magazines. I don't remember if it was Hemingway, Fitzgerald or someone else. Of course, it 's an anecdote and may not be true.
-
Not knowing basic information?
I'd say that falls under the category of ignorant instead and is something which, while not a good thing, can be corrected without much trouble.
I've always thought of stupidity as being willfully or even proudly ignorant; like if you believe something that is demonstrably false, are presented with concrete evidence that it isn't so, and just double down on it rather than reevaluating your position.
-
how can you question anything without studying the topic (ie: reading multiple books/papers) and gathering information in order to make a well informed judgement? not being well informed just leaves you vulnerable to propaganda
Hm, isn't that a bit backwards? Since birth child always looks at his environment at curiousity and keeps learning and questioning how the world around him works. At which point would someone stop questioning things and start taking everything as something set in stone? A lot of people are taught to not question their superiors. I think it's more like a problem for every individual whenever he gives up due to pressure and stops questioning things around to become obedient.
But if about books then they indeed are more credible than other mediums due to contructive logical structure of text, but I'd say that this medium is the most theoretical and the least practical source of information. Books usually have tons of pages just to reasonate some observations and prevent us from misunderstanding them, but in short we can summarize those observations in short sentences once we get that information through in our heads. All this trouble is for one reason - because it's hard to translate someone's whole tought process to another person, which is why it takes to write a book to convey something for everyone else to truly understand. I think that I'd rather form my own opinions and thoughts about my interested topics, all I need is information to process and come to conclusions. Well, of course, there are multiple ways to reach same goals, therefore I guess for others reading books might be a better choice, as long as they don't get suckered by the superior intelect who writes those books.
-
I'm not entirely clear on why the act of reading is synonymous with blind obediance
-
Hm, isn't that a bit backwards? Since birth child always looks at his environment at curiousity and keeps learning and questioning how the world around him works. At which point would someone stop questioning things and start taking everything as something set in stone? A lot of people are taught to not question their superiors. I think it's more like a problem for every individual whenever he gives up due to pressure and stops questioning things around to become obedient.
But if about books then they indeed are more credible than other mediums due to contructive logical structure of text, but I'd say that this medium is the most theoretical and the least practical source of information. Books usually have tons of pages just to reasonate some observations and prevent us from misunderstanding them, but in short we can summarize those observations in short sentences once we get that information through in our heads. All this trouble is for one reason - because it's hard to translate someone's whole tought process to another person, which is why it takes to write a book to convey something for everyone else to truly understand. I think that I'd rather form my own opinions and thoughts about my interested topics, all I need is information to process and come to conclusions. Well, of course, there are multiple ways to reach same goals, therefore I guess for others reading books might be a better choice, as long as they don't get suckered by the superior intelect who writes those books.
I think you completely missed Taboo's point.
Taboo is not saying that you should not question what you read. On the contrary, she is very much saying that being well-informed about subjects makes you less susceptible to manipulation.
-
Hm, isn't that a bit backwards? Since birth child always looks at his environment at curiousity and keeps learning and questioning how the world around him works. At which point would someone stop questioning things and start taking everything as something set in stone? A lot of people are taught to not question their superiors. I think it's more like a problem for every individual whenever he gives up due to pressure and stops questioning things around to become obedient.
do they though? How often have you rewatched a movie from childhood an suddenly understood it in a whole different way because you understood the context? As a kid you often wouldn't question the innuendo or the story, but you would later. For example I went about 18 years before I realized that Beauty and the Beast spanned about 3-4 days instead of months and months.
Kids will question why the sky is blue, or why a thing is a certain way, but often they are seeking information or context. They don't really question things like adults do. They learn a word, then a few years later maybe they learn the context and history of the word, and maybe after that they start to question why the word is actually used.
Also: what purple hermit said
-
This thread:
-
Failures are unacceptable no matter who commits them.
Oh dear. Oh my. This is… so, so troublesome. Let me see if I can help a bit.
To say that to fail is unacceptable is, in of itself, a failure, I'd think. And not necessarily a bad one either, but still, a failure. Failure is an inevitability. To fail is to be human. And to be human, is to constantly find improvements, to always look for a way to make things better. And I think it should be said, that you can't really make things right, until you know exactly all the ways in which you can go wrong. Don't think of a failed attempt as the end. Think of it as a lesson, as a means of getting to where you need to be. Let me assure you that there is nobody who gets things right all the time the first time. They simply don't exist. They say that there are those who are fortunate enough to naturally be good at things right away, but even those sorts never get anywhere without putting the work in, and taking as many chances and making as many bold choices as possible. While I do understand this mindset of yours, and have, in fact, embraced it at an earlier point in my life, I've come to realize that it was just an excuse to put myself down and not try again. Whatever it is you want to do, by all means, don't be afraid to not always amaze people with your attempts. Learn from them, find support where you need it, and soak in your failures with open arms. Mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of. Making the same mistake twice, on the other hand, is something entirely different. As a wise old cartoon monkey once said, "The past can hurt, but, you can learn from it."
Make as many failures as you can. Big, glorious, earnest failures. Consider them steps to the eventual win that comes later. I'm not saying to just take all the disappointments in stride, as many of them are painful, and I am certainly not saying the road isn't hard, exhausting, and painful as shit, but as long as you can look back on those less than great moments and recognize how they passed and how much you improved, I think everything should turn out alright. Maybe. Hopefully.
-
I see, sorry. I guess in my opinion a person should learn how things works on his own and that requiring a book to realize concept of propaganda just doesn't compute for me. I don't understand why would a book would be the main solution for that when books often contain very logical arguments whose are written in a way to make questioning and denying their contructive logic unlikely. Compared with books other media are are way less credible and inquires more suspicion.
edit: oh, right, I'm just being stupid. This concept of books giving more information doesn't translate for me well.
edit2: I can't deny fact that books indeed have a lot information in them, so I guess my biasness and stupidity in this case comes from my habit to make most of my observations and opinions myself and not taking books too seriously. -
Making the same mistake twice, on the other hand, is something entirely different.
I am master of it. When I make a mistake I definitely make it again, then again and again and again..
And I still don't care about it. :happy: -
Just out of curiousity, in which subjects are you making these observations?
I mean i'm having a hard time understanding how you advance yourself beyond a certain point, without using literature and hands-on teaching.
I mean lets say you are into physics. You go around doing little experiments and making observations. And then?
-
I see, sorry. I guess in my opinion a person should learn how things works on his own and that requiring a book to realize concept of propaganda just doesn't compute for me. I don't understand why would a book would be the main solution for that when books often contain very logical arguments whose are written in a way to make questioning and denying their contructive logic unlikely. Compared with books other media are are way less credible and inquires more suspicion.
edit: oh, right, I'm just being stupid. This concept of books giving more information doesn't translate for me well.
edit2: I can't deny fact that books indeed have a lot information in them, so I guess my biasness and stupidity in this case comes from my habit to make most of my observations and opinions myself and not taking books too seriously.First, limiting it to books is a large restriction. You can read articles and papers and many other things in order to become more informed. Second, text in no way is a more credible and less suspicious form of media simply by virtue of it being text. Always, always be cognizant of things that don't quite make sense. Information is not constructed logically simply because it is in the form of text, and a lot of times you can actually find it confusing to read academic papers because they lack readability unless you are familiar with the field.
Next, an examination of different forms of text based on primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, as well as fiction as it exists in the form of allegory.
1. Primary - Information that is published data straight from the horse's mouth. This stuff tends to be discussed, retried, etc. It's what we call peer-reviewed study, and it is that reviewing of it that gives science its strength due to continual reaffirmation of the data. Stuff tends to be difficult to read unless you are intimately involved in the field. If not science, then primary source tends to involve the least amount of hearsay.
2. Secondary - Information discussed as well as its implications. Things like review articles. These things may be less in depth but discuss in broader terms what information means.
3. Tertiary - books and shit. Like those heavy science textbooks you brought around in class in high school and stuff, even college textbooks. They're information laid out in a way meant to confer ideas to students as best as possible. Believe it or not, schools that work hard to service their students do make an effort to select books that best serve to teach the material. This being tertiary, though, the information will not be as blunt as the upper levels of sources, but watering certain aspects down can help students absorb information.
4. Allegory - Fiction of course can be used to confer certain ideas. Metaphors, similes, symbolism, etc. Things like Animal Farm are allegorical displays of what can go wrong in communistic societies. "Notes from Underground" is considered the first Existentialist novel. The ideas are thought provoking, but as with all ideas, you can agree or disagree to varying levels.
Generally, the closer to primary you are, the more pure the evidence, but even on the primary level, you must absolutely question it. But texts in general are essential because they are the easiest way for us to preserve, record, and transmit ideas and information, but that does not mean that text in and of itself is infallible.
But still, think about things like Global Warming. You simply cannot argue one way or another based on short term observation or without certain concepts like why people are making an argument for global warming and looking at the data that supports or disproves it.