Comments on: Why Do We Learn And What?

By: Vivien

Vivien — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:24:25 +0000

Joseph, for some reason your comment was flagged as a spam by Akismet. I’m glad I was able to notice and recover it.
Yes, i do agree with you, that we’re curious creatures; some of us are more curious than others, and some of us are curious about certain things while other are curious about certain other things

By: Joseph Szymanski

Joseph Szymanski — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:14:03 +0000

I think we learn because we are by default curious creatures. We all want to know why, regardless if we realize it or not. Formal education seems to focus on cold facts and less on applicable knowledge. Perhaps this is why so many people, myself included, get burned out on school.

By: Vivien

Vivien — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:05:06 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, Brent. I’m far from being an introvert, although I’m not an extrovert either. I don’t usually learn to prove something to others. I learn because I like the actual learning process - it’s like traveling through the debris of possible unknowns, and discovering what my mind is capable of.

Kriz, no worries at all. I didn’t find your comment impolite, just wanted to clarify the points you’ve made there. One of the things I’m learning and still want to learn is like you, how to take better photos. So I completely relate to what you say.

By: krizcpec

krizcpec — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:06:20 +0000

Thanks Vivien! I look back at my comment and find it to be a bit impolite–Apology for that.
Too tired because of the increased workload - both in office and my photo selection - still quite a few to work on ~~
Well, I don’t really have any concrete idea who I want to be, I sort of just come along the way. I am in photography by sheer coincidence and if there must be a goal in my photoshooting, I hope to make the most of my current gear to take better photo each time.
Will try to be around more often

By: Brent

Brent — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:37:40 +0000

On one level, I personally think the human mind, more often than not, interprets things in terms of it’s human existence; hence the emphasis on metaphor in the human mind. More often than not, I find that while I am learning about something, on a certain level my mind is applying a sort of self-referential twist on what I am reading, and on another level it is actually deducing the information as pertaining to whatever it really pertains to (as opposed to just it’s narcissistic self;) Personally, many times I feel the mind seeks learning as a way of having those self-referential opportunities in order to mend and weave itself into a coherent whole, representative of it’s human existence. I’m a really introverted person though so eh this definitely holds true in my lil myopia, how about yours?

And yea on a more outward-facing level I think the mind just needs something to chew on! Anyone who has gone a couple weeks through intellectual doldrums surely knows the ache of having too-little to think about…or maybe not?

By: Vivien

Vivien — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:42:41 +0000

Joey, you posted your comment here while I was writing mine
Oh, I too can’t imagine the future when I won’t have some new things to learn. What I was trying to say there, is that sometimes it feels like my head is going to explode from all the things that I process on a daily basis, that’s why I’m wishing for just a short break even though I know that it will never happen

By: Vivien

Vivien — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:21:01 +0000

Simonne, you’re really something - you’re actually learning things “in advance”?! WoW. No wonder you’re such an erudite.

Hi Kriz, glad to have you back, and thanks for taking time to answer my questions.
You said you learn when you want to, but wouldn’t that form the actual purpose for you? In your case, don’t you have a specific purpose of taking better photos?
You do take some amazing photos, so good luck to you in your photoshooting endeavour.

By: Joey

Joey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:16:12 +0000

This sentence got me to thinking “Sometimes I get tired of learning, pondering why do I always have to learn something, will it ever end, would it be possible to one day just use the knowledge that I’ve already acquired in this life without having to learn anything else for at least awhile?”

I tried to imagine myself somewhere in the future without a thing to learn. I couldn’t do it. I just can’t imagine any time where I am not trying to process or grasp something. It doesn’t matter if it baseball strategy, copywriting, cooking or web building I think I will always be acquiring knowledge. I don’t know how well I will master and be able to utilize the things I work on but I will always be moving like a stream instead of still like a frozen pond.

Now if I could only make the physical side of me constantly in motion maybe I could lose some weight.

By: kriz cpec

kriz cpec — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:16:27 +0000

Hi, haven’t been here for a while…quite busy lately.
So, a short answer to your question: Why do you learn?
To be exact, I personally do not learn for specific purposes, I read when I want to. I read books on photoshooting techniques because I want to take better photos.
I read fictions because I have seen their TV drama or whatsoever adaptations which interested me.

What are you leaning about today?
photoshooting.

What do you want to learn about tomorrow?
photoshooting.

By: Simonne

Simonne — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:04:30 +0000

I learn out of curiosity. Many times, it’s done only for the sake of the learning process, I’m not seeking to apply the knowledge. When the appropriate opportunity comes, the knowledge is there, in my head, so I can use it. Some years ago, when I started learning programming languages, I never thought I might use those skills some day. Now I’m happy I have that basis to further build on, although there are days when I honestly hate the “unexpected argument on line 33″.