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How to Learn New Things as an Adult

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Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#51

Post by nsomaru »

There's some value to be gained here from orthodox Indian philosophical schools. All roughly agree to three stages of learning:

- shravana (literally 'listening', as India's philosophical traditions were mostly oral, but more broadly may be understood to also be 'reading.')

- manana ('reflection' upon that which was heard. May include exercises, debate and such)

- nididhyasana ('meditation,' may be taken to mean experience)

Further, knowing is then classified into two types - jñana and vijñana. These correspond to mere apprehension of information ('knowledge') and integration of that into action, life and experience ('wisdom').

Knowledge is transformed into wisdom by a process of reflection which is active. Passively obtaining new information is unlikely to result in wisdom (which is useful) without reflection.

Thought this might be interesting to those in this thread who are looking to learn and improve themselves.

Questions? my_hn_username at gmail.

Disclaimer: Have studied Vedanta in India under a master (A Parthasarathy). This information may be found in his magnum opus, Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities[0].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/9381094160/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=...

EDIT: formatting and email address.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#52

Post by mbrumlow »

K0SM0S wrote: post #45
mbrumlow wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You're essentially arguing for an ontological approach to learning and knowledge in general and in that I 100% agree with you. It would make most people much more efficient (and feel safer intellectually) in this ever more complex world. However insofar as there's a limit to every principle, I would caution against a too-generic approach 100% of the time: it's often after a second step in which you learn, often by he…

I want to reply to you but I am too tired to make a proper well thought out reply. So I will keep it short.

I agree with you, and there is a whole lot of stuff to talk about with regards to this (far too much for me to type right now).

As pointed out in my previous reply on this topic, I have indeed stacked the table to one side to help illustrate my point.

I really want to talk more about schooling with regards to this subject of learning and assessing one's knowledge retention. But it is far too late :(

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#53

Post by lazyasciiart »

goldenkey wrote: post #37

Trick question. Australia has 8 capital cities. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_capital_c... That aside, the article is rather bunk and claims to have authority. Memorization isnt learning.

It's not a trick question at all. There is only one capital of Australia, the others are capitals of their respective states. This response is as though I asked where the US government is located and you said "trick question, there are 51 US governments!"

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#54

Post by 3131s »

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…

Who have you been listening to and what do you like so far?

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#55

Post by 36bydesign »

cgriswald wrote: post #44
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…

> 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. I am a 40-year-old full time student with a kid, but no job. I disagree completely. I've got the time. When I was 20, I remembered everything I saw or heard even once. I could recall it with ease. Concepts came easily when they were explained in text or in lecture. Now? I'm still plenty smart a…

You also might be remembering your skills inaccurately. In jr high and high school I also got top grades easily and rarely studied. In college I finally had to. I wondered where my ease of learning had gone, but eventually realized the most likely explanation was that the material had simply been much easier/more intuitive and that I was tricking myself with selection bias.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#56

Post by LoonyBalloony »

enraged_camel wrote: post #50
LanceH wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mid 40's now. It is significantly different than when I was 20 or younger. It was like I had more horsepower back then. I could sit down and do 200 vocabulary words 90% retention after a single pass. I'm nowhere close now. On the other hand, I can organize my attack on learning something so much better than I could before.

I'm the exact opposite. Back in my 20s I was surrounded by countless distractions: bar-hopping, parties, girls, video games, you name it. Sitting down and applying myself to learning something took tremendous effort. Now that I'm in my 30s though, I have way more focus. I can easily sit down and work on a project for hours at a time. On top of that, I have way more motivation, because I have a very good idea of what…

I'm there to man. Just got into my 30's and things seem clearer now to me.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#57

Post by kshitij_libra »

Because we’re all getting `dumber in the age of Google`

What's wrong with that ? I fail to understand ? If you start putting everything into your brain, you'll soon go mad. A regular cleanup of the information in your brain to retain only what's relevant for your survival is okay. It's best such things are left googleable. What is the use of keeping in memory the capital of australia, when that trivia contributes a total `0` to do what you do.

If you keep doing, implementing and executing stuff that you are passionate about, I think you'll keep learning. Only thing is that we become more focussed as adults about our interests, than we are as children (inquisitive about everything).

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#58

Post by DrScump »

cgriswald wrote: post #44
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…

> 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. I am a 40-year-old full time student with a kid, but no job. I disagree completely. I've got the time. When I was 20, I remembered everything I saw or heard even once. I could recall it with ease. Concepts came easily when they were explained in text or in lecture. Now? I'm still plenty smart a…

  I am a 40-year-old full time student with a kid
One big difference may be: how much quality, uninterrupted sleep can you budget now vs. then?

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#59

Post by untilHellbanned »

LoonyBalloony wrote: post #56
enraged_camel wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the exact opposite. Back in my 20s I was surrounded by countless distractions: bar-hopping, parties, girls, video games, you name it. Sitting down and applying myself to learning something took tremendous effort. Now that I'm in my 30s though, I have way more focus. I can easily sit down and work on a project for hours at a time. On top of that, I have way more motivation, because I have a very good idea of what…

I'm there to man. Just got into my 30's and things seem clearer now to me.

40s ditto.

Re: How to Learn New Things as an Adult

#60

Post by sriram_malhar »

mbrumlow wrote: post #49
sriram_malhar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't dismiss trivia so ... trivially. Trivia has value. Getting to know the capital of a country is like creating a tiny hook onto which other information accretes. It creates a sense of familiarity about a place, which sensitises you to other news about the area (for example, the #StopAdani movement which, tragically, is going to fail). Five years back, I started playing these trivia games at Sporcle (sparkle.…

While I did take my example to an extreme to illustrate my point I think we can agree that trivia will be learned along the way, it just not what should be the meat of the teaching or testing. Your example of #StopAdani made me smile (not because it will fail) But because it sort of proved my point. I did not know who Adani is or what they were doing. But I knew how to search and what sites to go to to get some conte…

That Feynman link was very good indeed. Your point is well-taken. There is not enough time and energy to be interested in everything. At the limit, one can say that being interested in everything is being interested in nothing.

At the same time, I must say that playing around with random Sporcle trivia quizzes keeps paying off in unexpected ways, both in my work and social life. As I think about it while composing this response, it seems like the payoff is in making connections with people, although I play without having an end in mind or make a particular effort to remember anything. It is not the individual trivia point; it is more the stochastic effect.

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