How learning is
 

My friend was one of those people who got through school by memorizing everything a few days before each test. He was really good at it.

--

Doug: I won the Physics prize in High School.

Me: What's that?

Doug: I was the best student in Physics in 12th grade.

Me: That's amazing, Physics? I wouldn't have expected that from you.

Doug: Why not? I scored 100 on almost every test.

Me: Okay, what's Ohm's Law?

Doug: What law?

Me: Ohm's Law. It's an extremely simple equation. The most basic law of electricity.

Doug: I dunno.

Me: So ten years after the fact, I got more out of a shop class full of drooling retards and future felons than you did being the top student in the most difficult subject they teach.

Doug: It got me into Penn State!

Me: But now you don't know why it's bad to stick a fork in an outlet!

Good one! I do this. I memorize and I forget.

I learn by 'doing' mainly and algebra holds no practical application for me.

I'll lose it. ...later.

but he knows how to "work the system"--an all-encompassing and lifelong useful skill

Not to mention, he probably still has his quick learning skills. Which means if Ohm's Law becomes relevant to his job or life at some point, he can pick it up again no problem. Sometimes it's important to forget stuff in order to make room for new stuff.

Next, Clodfoble's gonna tell us we don't need a spare refrigerator in order to have a place to keep all our grocery bags. Just watch.

Most likely he'll just tell his secretary, to tell the intern, to tell engineering to handle it... and make sure his private jet is ready at 2 PM, for his weekend skiing in Aspen. ;)

Some times I wonder if I will forget everything I learn and everything I do remember will be worthless. Then I think will be dead soon, and go back to work.

The decent docent doesn't doze
He teaches standing on his toes
His student dasn't doze but does
and that's how teaching is
and was

When I was in school my teachers use to be amazed by how good I did on test and I "Christmas treed" the whole thing... I'm surprised I got as far as I did...

I've never heard that expression before. What does it mean?

"Christmas tree" means putting in a pattern to the answers on a multiple choice test (with no regard for what the actual answers might be). If you imagine the rows of bubbles, selecting A, B, C, D, E over and over will create a zig-zag pattern -- like the side of a Christmas tree.

I think of it like a processor and memory usage. You defrag to get the files in order, delete entirely what is no longer needed, intentionally not storing your drive that you will not use,or deem irrelevant. I refuse to commit things to storage intentionally at times as I know I only have so much capacity. When it is imposed that I learn something I take this into account.
If I am forced to learn something trivial at work, I make a conscious attempt to dispose of the knowledge ASAP. I try to prioritize learning and memory usage....


I think this will be useful as I get older. I constantly learn new things so organization is useful to me. It is no full proof method as we can not always choose conscious input and there are portions of unconscious input or cues we commit to memory without being aware, or willed. But it is a method if you have limited storage.

PS.
At some point I will not edit my posts with this Droid and see what Droid autofill comes up with.
The Droid autofill mad lib posts. ;)