Learning

Problem Solving

Wednesday 4/26/2006 10:39:35 AM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Among my best memories of school were mathematical word problems.  Why?  Because in a well-designed problem, there is more than one solution, and some solutions are better than others.  I especially enjoy problems which have non-obvious solutions that you tend to ignore.  Here's a good example;

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Quotes by Harry

Monday 4/24/2006 10:36:07 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.

(Particularly interesting as Truman was reportedly a well-known 33rd degree Mason.  But, a good quote in any context.)

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

-- Harry S. Truman

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Language, Thought, and Emotion

Monday 8/15/2005 4:26:37 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

I discovered recently (with absolute shock that it took this long) that my brain seems to use language as a central aspect of its filing system, and in a very specific way.  Ideas, concepts, even emotions seem to be attached to the intersections between vocabulary nodes (or more specifically, memes).  Picture this; if you take every word in your vocabulary, and write them on a piece of paper, then you draw a line connecting every word to every other word.  Then you bisect each of those lines, and draw another line from that bisected point to every other word.  Bisect those new lines, and repeat until (at least) every possible combination of 5 or 6 vocabulary terms is represented... it seems that thoughts and ideas are attached to the midpoints of those line segments.

If you say one word, like "Clinton", a collection of thoughts and possibly even some emotions come to mind.  If you say "Hillary Clinton", you get a different set, and if you say "Bill and Hillary Clinton" you get a third set.  "Bill and Monica" is a completely different set altogether, as is "Bill, Hillary and Monica".

The interesting thing is that there seems to be very little, if any, relationship between the simpler combinations and the more complex combinations.  Adding a single word can call forth an explosive reaction that you may not even have expected--and it's intensely personal.

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Macropsychology

Monday 4/18/2005 2:10:59 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

I've been thinking a lot lately about the poor development of certain areas of science, technology, applied solutions, medicine -- even society itself.  Even in areas of thought that attract scorching levels of human brainpower, creativity can be low, common-sense can be non-existent, stagnation can rule the day.

I've also been thinking about how much these "thought zones" or "mental nexuses (nexi?)" parallel the individual human mind.  Both the "multimind" and the "unimind" can suffer from identical problems; ranging from simple writer's block to pure schizophrenia.

So my thinking is this; there needs to be a psychology of the "multimind" -- not sociology or mob psychology, but rather a distinct science that analyzes, evaluates, identifies and solves issues related to the "multimind" using the "unimind" as a model.

Big expensive problems can be solved.  e.g. How do you increase creativity?  Well, it's almost certainly no different than increasing creativity in an individual, except that you scale it up, and can benefit from certain aspects of the multimind if you can harness them properly.

First off we'd need a distinctive vocabulary.  The zones themselves... something like unimind and multimind could suffice. 

Terms which relate to the unimind, like "mood", "aptitude", "intelligence", "attitude", "happy", "sad", "indifferent"... these probably need distinction when discussing the multimind as well.

A model of the multimind needs to be developed, as does an objective analysis of "health". 

Almost certainly, the same frightfully accurate aptitude tests can be applied to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the multimind. 

The key here is, the unimind is quite difficult to change, whereas the multimind can be continually strengthened to leverage the model.  Intelligence or creativity can be boosted simply by adding more of those resources.  This is immensely powerful.

 

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Make Every Moment Count

Monday 3/28/2005 2:18:14 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

It's difficult to do all the things you want to in life; it's difficult to be all that you want to be.  There's something missing from Western educational programs that's rather critical in this respect.  I vote for a life-skills curriculum in early childhood that emphasizes skills and techniques for better time management.  Certainly things like a good TODO list habit, and calendar management are useful, but I'm suggesting something deeper.

I think all humans need to be taught at least the skills (if not a complete doctrine) for the discipline of efficient time use.  A simple example is techniques that can merge complementary activities;

  • Prayer, meditation, and showering.
  • Working at your desk, and exercising.
  • Reading, and stretching.
  • Eating and meeting (hey, we all do this one).
  • Walking/running/rowing and contemplating.
  • Sleeping and problem-solving.

 

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Learning from the Best

Tuesday 3/22/2005 12:18:58 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Personal adage for the day;

When one wishes to learn quickly and well, one should always put aside all personal ego and spar with the best.  Winning against the worst is no substitute for being beaten by the best.  There is no better way to educate oneself.

As a personal test, spend some time playing the Windows Backgammon program against other players.  Once you know the basic rules and have a crude strategy, immediately up your level to Expert so that the system will find other experts to spar with you.  Learn well, grasshopper.

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Learning and Embarrasment

Wednesday 3/17/2004 1:26:06 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

It's rare, and usually catches us technical guys off-guard, but I believe there's an important emotional undercurrent in society that we need to recognize and learn to approach effectively.

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Raednig 101

Tuesday 9/16/2003 5:56:09 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Found caught somewhere in the 'net:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

And more information.

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Foundational Learning

Thursday 5/29/2003 7:03:27 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Although it seems trite, I like to consider the process of learning as a very simplistic system.  In this conceptual model, all learning is performed through the interaction of three systems...

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