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How to Learn New Things as an Adult

theatlantic.com

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Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#21

Post by mbrumlow »

dozzie wrote: post #16
mbrumlow wrote: post #2

It's not that we are getting dumber. We are just changing our skill set. Remembering where to find a set of information or how to find a set of information is more effective​ than remebering each item in the set. Search engines have changed us so we don't have to remember trivia and can focus on larger ideas that can't be searched.

Except that without knowing those useless trivia you won't even have the chance to draw connections and associations between them, which is essential for working with these "larger ideas" of yours. No, search engines won't make up for simple lack of knowledge. You have to know what to search for in the first place.

I see your point, and I feel you have unfairly made my comment mean something much more than it originally was intended to be. I want to make it clear. I am not advocating not knowing things. I am advocating that some things are "trivia" and some things are not. I feel from your post that you have put more things in the "trivia" category than I would.

This article opened up asking a single question; "what’s the capital of Australia?” -- in an attempt to make the reader feel dumb. The name of a capital of a country you don’t live in is just the sort of data I would classify as trivia. Knowing that there is something called an atlas, or even more precise that there is a book that organizes this sort of information, or even more recently a website that you can ask this question to and receive back reasonable answer is far more important to know than knowing Canberra is the capital of Australia. Without knowing where to find or how to find the answer you would just have to answer “I don’t know”, but knowing these other concepts would allow you to answer “I don’t know, but I am reasonably sure I can find out”.

It should also pointed out that countries have capitals -- is the "larger idea" -- and the fact that Canberra is the capital of Australia is triva. A good way to look at this; things that have unique names but can be categorized in groups are often trivia and the groups they make are the knowledge. The article actually picked a excellent topic to illustrate this notion. The big ideas are countries, states, provinces, territories. Learning the unique names of these things teaching you nothing new -- other than the name. No new ideas are conveyed by learning a new name. Learning that there are states and provinces, how they work, and what their differences is far more valuable than the names of each of the individual states and provinces. So yes, not knowing the triva can still allow you to work my “larger ideas”.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#22

Post by taneq »

dozzie wrote: post #16
mbrumlow wrote: post #2

It's not that we are getting dumber. We are just changing our skill set. Remembering where to find a set of information or how to find a set of information is more effective​ than remebering each item in the set. Search engines have changed us so we don't have to remember trivia and can focus on larger ideas that can't be searched.

Except that without knowing those useless trivia you won't even have the chance to draw connections and associations between them, which is essential for working with these "larger ideas" of yours. No, search engines won't make up for simple lack of knowledge. You have to know what to search for in the first place.

Yes, but what we're learning now are increasingly 'bread crumbs' rather than full data sets. For instance, once upon a time I knew of most Win32 API functions. I couldn't tell you the arguments but I could tell you there's a function called X that does Y, and maybe give a couple of tips for using it that aren't in the API reference. That's all I needed to know because it was enough to bring up MSDN with the full details of the function.

It's no different to, 30 years ago, knowing that when a piece of equipment is having a problem with its anterior doohickey, the troubleshooting guide is on page 25 of the manual. It only plays up every 18 months and you always have the manual on you, so you don't need to remember more than 'doohickey problems, page 25'.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#23

Post by pmoriarty »

sotojuan wrote: post #14
pmoriarty wrote: post #7

Motivation and perseverance are the keys. If can somehow keep those fires burning in the long run, you'll do well. My problem is that I tend to get really interested in learning something, work really intensely at it for a while, then get bored and move on to something else, leaving dozens of unfinished projects in my wake.

> My problem is that I tend to get really interested in learning something, work really intensely at it for a while, then get bored and move on to something else, leaving dozens of unfinished projects in my wake. This isn't necessarily bad, just that the thing you learned wasn't actually something you needed to learn. I don't mean that negatively though. For example, I use JavaScript and Python at work. I recently re…

It's not a complete waste, at least not all of the time, though I do forget much more than I remember. It's just frustrating to know I could achieve something but miss out again and again and again due to lack of discipline and perseverance.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#24

Post by glandium »

mbrumlow wrote: post #21
dozzie wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that without knowing those useless trivia you won't even have the chance to draw connections and associations between them, which is essential for working with these "larger ideas" of yours. No, search engines won't make up for simple lack of knowledge. You have to know what to search for in the first place.

I see your point, and I feel you have unfairly made my comment mean something much more than it originally was intended to be. I want to make it clear. I am not advocating not knowing things. I am advocating that some things are "trivia" and some things are not. I feel from your post that you have put more things in the "trivia" category than I would. This article opened up asking a single question; "what’s the capit…

Plus, "what's the capital of Australia?" is the kind of trivia that changes (not often, for capitals, but that's definitely something that happens). In the end, you're better off knowing where to find it when you need the answer rather than knowing a fact that might as well be obsolete.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#25

Post by daodedickinson »

jacquesm wrote: post #8

The trick to learning new things as an adult is to never stop learning. For many people university (or highschool, for the slightly less fortunate) is the last time they will actively learn, after that they are 'done learning'. But you're never done learning! In a world that changes as fast as ours does you'll be learning until you die if you want to keep up and stay relevant in the near future. Even more so in the I…

I wish people would understand that such a world means that new children have less and less of a chance at success.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#26

Post by iaml »

SwellJoe wrote: post #19
criddell wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far along are you with the guitar? I bought mine in 1996 and have been trying to learn it on and off since then. I still don't know a single song, other than the little toy songs in the Hal Leonard books (and only if I have the books in front of me). It's incredibly frustrating. I bought a second guitar a few years ago to keep at work and I use it during times when I need a break. Even though all I do are scales…

I've played guitar since I was 12 (I'm much older than 12 now), but I've learned other instruments in adulthood (drums and bass, mostly), and I've taught guitar lessons to adults. I think I've got useful opinions on the subject. I believe there's a certain mindset that develops in musicians, that doesn't have much to do with the instrument or your age. The thing about being a musician is, you're always learning. I do…

>I noticed when learning to play drums with Rock Band that I immediately forgot the songs when the tracks weren't flashing by in front of me, so my "twitch game" skills were handling playing the game, while my "learning songs" abilities were seemingly switched off.

Rocksmith addresses this problem: when you reach a certain level of song mastery it starts making track invisible and if you make mistakes it puts it back on.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#27

Post by Mayzie »

valine wrote: post #3
mbrumlow wrote: post #2

It's not that we are getting dumber. We are just changing our skill set. Remembering where to find a set of information or how to find a set of information is more effective​ than remebering each item in the set. Search engines have changed us so we don't have to remember trivia and can focus on larger ideas that can't be searched.

I feel like academia will be much more efficient once universities start getting on board with this idea.

Out of curiosity, what do you think that adoption will look like?

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#28

Post by drvdevd »

peruvian wrote: post #15

I really don't think there's much difference between learning as an adult or a teenager. It's just that we have less time. A few months ago I wanted to learn to appreciate and listen to classical music. I woke up an hour earlier every morning and read a book, listened to an audio course (Robert Greenberg's How to Listen to and Understand Great Music), and listened to actual music then and throughout the day. A few mo…

This is one reason I want to make the use of some sort of spaced repetition software a habit for myself. I can't think of any better way to keep learning new things than structured practice..

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#29

Post by ftlio »

Mayzie wrote: post #27
valine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like academia will be much more efficient once universities start getting on board with this idea.

Out of curiosity, what do you think that adoption will look like?

Term projects. Those are what prepared me for getting paid to apply my academic knowledge more than anything. All the better when it was left up to me to create the spec. Most of the time I had to abide by some requirements, like 'Must use SPI for communication between two or more microcontrollers', but it was pretty obvious in these classes if you were actually applying what you were learning or not.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#30

Post by selimthegrim »

daodedickinson wrote: post #25
jacquesm wrote: post #8

The trick to learning new things as an adult is to never stop learning. For many people university (or highschool, for the slightly less fortunate) is the last time they will actively learn, after that they are 'done learning'. But you're never done learning! In a world that changes as fast as ours does you'll be learning until you die if you want to keep up and stay relevant in the near future. Even more so in the I…

I wish people would understand that such a world means that new children have less and less of a chance at success.

Do you think that every idea people have can be carried out with their hands alone?
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