How To Learn

I've been watching some videos about learning. A lot of the time, these sources say the same thing: Learning takes time, that is, learning something and getting pretty good at it. There was a specific video that talked about how long it takes us to learn something and get it down  relatively well. Not becoming an expert, necessarily, but knowing a subject enough to have a good foundation on how to do it, whatever it may be. It really caught my attention.

Josh Kaufman talked about how it is widely thought that 10,000 hours are needed to learn something relatively well. However, this is actually only true for if you want to become a legit pro/expert at something that is in a highly competitive field, requiring you to be one of the best in the whole world. But Josh said that in order to get good enough at something so that you're not bad at it (in other words, have a solid foundation on it), you only need twenty hours. He gave four main steps that you need to take in order to do it:

1. Deconstruct the skill

This means taking apart the skill you want to learn and focusing certain aspects of it at a time. Our brains have a harder time getting stuff down (usually) when there's more to be doing at once. Therefore, when we focus on little things at a time and have those things accumulate on top of each other over time, it gets easier in the long run, and ultimately save a lot of time. This makes is possible to fit everything in twenty hours and still be pretty good at the skill overall.

2. Learn Enough to Self-Correct

In other words, know the subject enough that you can realize when you mess up as you go, and are able to correct the problem then and there. It makes sense. I understand that we have to go through trial and error, but what's the point of going through the process of trial and error when you don't even know you've made an error? This also where step one comes in. Once you make an error, because you will have deconstructed the different parts of the subject or action, you'll already know the best way to fix whichever part of the process you messed up on.

3. Remove Practice Barriers

I cannot stress how important this is. I myself can attest to how much of a distraction things can be, whether it be social media, video games and TV, food, or even friends and family. There have been many times that I have sat down to write music or practice the piano or violin and get distracted by a notification that pops up on my phone, or even the thought of anything that can give me something to do when I'm out of ideas for music, or don't feel like trying as hard. These distractions give us a very poor excuse to stop and play a HUGE role when it comes to hindering us from achieving our goals in good time.

4. Practice at least 20 Hours

This, of course, is a step that has to be in here. That's what this is all about! Get those twenty hours in. You can do all the past steps, but there's no point in doing them if you're not going to put in the time. I was very intrigued by what Josh said in the video, and I really want to test his theory. Twenty hours. I think I'll try doing twenty hours of something over the summer. Probably music-related. Maybe I'll make blog posts about it. 

I think what Josh talked about was a very clear explanation of some of the best conditions our brains need in order to learn well. It's all about focus. We deconstruct the subject so we can focus on the little parts that make up the overall picture, and make them easier to correct. Removing the practice barriers helps us stay focused on the goal at hand, and not straying away from it. 

- Christian

Studying My Girlfriend's Character

I’ve known my girlfriend, Kara, for about six months now, and over that period of time, I have gotten to know her pretty well. I have also learned a lot about her personal story, and how events in her life have played a role in her personality and how she views certain aspects of life. Kara is kind, caring, quiet, can be very funny, but also very serious. While these are only just a few of her many traits as herself, and as a human being, I will mainly be focusing on these for the sake of this project.

Kara has always been relatively shy. She wasn’t one of those children that could just go up to someone and start talking to them. She was the child that usually hid behind her parent’s leg, you could say. I understand this, as I was the same way. Throughout her older years, going through school, and many other social situations, she learned to be around new people, but still finds it hard most of the time to just be automatically interactive with people of whom she has never had any affiliation with before. That being said, sometimes she can be quite social if she feels the atmosphere given off by the new people she is with is a good one, a safe one. Again, I can attest to this for myself, so I know it is a plausible thought process. And, since I am familiar with that thought process, I can safely assume that she is an introvert. Not only does it take her awhile to adapt to meeting new people, being around people for a long time (people she is familiar with or not), can exhaust her. After spending a long time with others, she needs to spend some time alone or with one other person in order to recharge.  

I have met Kara’s parents and have gotten to know them well enough to see that they brought her up to be a very kind and thoughtful young lady towards others. Being brought up in church has also played a huge role in her life when it comes to being caring, and putting others’ needs before hers. She is always ready to listen to other people, and I know she has been this way for a long time. There were many times in school that people would come to her, asking for advice. While she sometimes feels like she struggles with the right words to describe her thoughts and ideas, she is usually able to show what she feels for others in her actions, and that’s what matters the most. Because she cares so much about the feelings of others, it becomes one of the most important things to her when making decisions that can affect other people. So, I can safely say that feelings are one of Kara’s most valued values. However, Kara will not sacrifice the truth and fact for someone’s feelings, which is good.

She will never admit it, but Kara is a very humorous person. Like most human beings, she finds joy in laughter. She’s always liked to watch funny movies and shows, whether it’s Hannah Montana from when she was younger, or The Office, which she still watches today… a lot. Another big thing that has impacted her in this aspect is social media. With the appearance of Vine and YouTube, Kara has found many funny videos to quote, reference, and reenact throughout… well, everyday. It’s being able to lightheartedly participate in funny things like this that Kara is able to socially connect to a lot of people, even if she doesn’t realize it. I’ve seen her laughing with many people that have seen some of the same funny videos she has, even if she doesn’t know them very well. This is yet another thing that contributes to her being able to connect with others, even if on a small level. Those first small levels of connection are so very important when starting a relationship with someone, no matter what kind it is.

Despite being very funny, Kara is very mature, being able to make good decisions about important tasks, such as assignments, or dealing with a situation that’s going on in her life. I constantly see her writing things in her planner, or just talking out her schedule to herself about what she needs to get done throughout the day. She is very easily able to remember things that are happening throughout the week and day (this something that Kara and I differ on, haha), and adjusting plans in order to appropriately fit with the events that are to come. She is a very big planner.

Taking all of these factors into account, and as I got to know her, I felt like she fit the personality of someone that is very warm and loving, mature and able to make important decisions, and very people-oriented, since her relationships with others she takes very seriously. I like to think of what her personality type would be in the Myers-Briggs test, and I know it would be pretty similar to mine, of not the same. I thought about this for a little while, actually, and felt that she was an INFJ or ENFJ. I was pretty sure she was more introverted than extroverted at the time, but wasn’t a hundred percent sure. I felt that she was similar enough to me that it was one of those two. I later had her take the test, and she took it more than once. She got ISFJ. I was pretty close. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Maybe her being able to recognize little things wasn’t a big as it was being able to recognize physical aspects of things in general. Overall, it was very interesting figuring out just who Kara was, and still is. I’m still learning more about her everyday.

Sensation and Perception

How our minds sense and perceive things can vary from person to person. Sometimes this is because of our brains directly and how they're wired, and others could have to do with our experiences. I read and watched some stuff about it, and I actually had a different personal explanation of how our brains could perceive things differently. I'll get to that in a little bit.

There was an article about "the dress." If you don't know what "the dress" is, it's a picture of a dress that was posted to the internet a few years back. Many people claimed that the dress was black and blue while others said that it was white and gold. I remember when it happened, people at my school were talking about it everywhere. I myself saw a white dress with gold stripes on it. I couldn't believe that others were seeing a black dress with blue stripes. Turns out the dress really was black and blue. To this day, I, along with many others, see the dress as white and gold.

The article explained what happens with the lighting and as it enters the eye, and if I'm completely honest, it didn't make much sense to me at all - it would be a lot easier to understand this (and many of these other things) if it was actually taught to me in person. Apparently, how we perceive the colors of the dress have to do with the time of day it is when we look at it. If we look at it during midday, it appears more white and gold, but if we look at it at night, it can look more black and blue. Depending on the time of day, it can play a role on what initial first burst of light goes through to our brain... or something like that. This doesn't make much sense to me since I've looked at the picture late, and it still looks white and gold, and when people that were seeing black and blue at my school, it was around noon. So I don't know. What colors do you see?

Here's a link to the article: https://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

Another thing I looked at was a video about Synesthesia. Synesthesia is the cross-blending of senses, such as saying that a certain number is a certain color, even thought numbers don't have any real color, or that a certain color would sound a certain way, even though colors don't really have sound. David Eagleman talked about how how we use synesthesia could be inherited genetically. I found that very interesting, thought I wasn't sure if that was always the cause. Of course, I don't think he thinks it's always the cause either. They're still doing research on it, but I have my own theory. I think a big part of it is little things that indicate certain colors for numbers or letters, or sounds for colors, when we are young, how we encounter them throughout our life, and what kinds of emotions we associate them. For example, when I was little, I had puzzle of the United States. Each state was one of like five or six different colors. Now, even when I'm 19 years old, I think of many of the states as those same colors that I associated them with though that puzzle. I still picture Texas being green, Missouri being red, Arkansas being orange, Illinois being yellow, Iowa being blue, and Alaska being purple. This is all because of how I perceive those states when I was young. Same goes for letters. I had flashcards of letters that I had to color. So now I picture A being red or pink, B being blue, C being red, D being brown, and so on.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTr1VnXKr4A

- Christian

The Brain and Music

I recently sat down and read an article about the brain and how it reacts to music. It was quite interesting, though it seemed to bring up more questions than answers. It was quite clear that it is known how our brain perceives music, but other than that, there wasn't much else. It talked about how it was interesting that we can find certain music sad, scary, or happy. After all, nothing truly tells us what to think about certain kinds of music. It is objective, overall. I explain my thoughts on the article more in the video, as does my friend Chris.

As I read the article, I felt like I was hearing information from a perspective of someone that really isn't invested in music in the same way a music major, like myself, might be. I felt that it was written from too much of a scientific standpoint. There is nothing wrong with that, but I don't think music is scientific as much as it is emotional. It was pretty easy talking about my thoughts in the video, and it was easy finding someone who is a music major to talk about it. I myself am a music major, so I know lots of people who are as well. I don't really like filming myself, so it wasn't that great of a time.

Here are my thoughts:




And here are my friend Chris' thoughts!




- Christian

Memory Experiement

I just did an experiment with my brother and my girlfriend in order to test their memory!

In the experiment, I had to read them two lists. The first list all had things that had to do with a needle. The second list had a bunch of things that had to do with sleep and doctors. After reading them the first list, they would have to write down as many words that they could remember from it. I would then do the same with the second list, reading it and them then listing words. What was interesting, though, was that the first list didn't have the word "needle" in it at all, and the second list didn't have the words "sleep" or "doctor" in it. If they wrote any of those words down, it would be a perfect example of how our brains can implant false memories when information we hear can logically point toward them.

My brother was first. I read him the first list. He wrote about four words down. I don't know if that's very good or bad, but if I'm honest with myself, I probably couldn't have done much better if I was taking the test. I then read him the second list. He wrote down a few more words. I then asked him if he had written the word "needle" down in the first list. He had not, but he leaned back as he said so, realizing that it should have been an obvious word to write down. He said that now that I had asked him, he remembered me saying the word. But I hadn't, which I told him. I then asked him if he had written the words "doctor" or "sleep" in the second list. He had written the word "sleep," but not "doctor."  Not bad. I then explained to him what the test was about (basically what I've written above). He felt stupid, but I told him it was a normal occurrence for everyone when they take the test, which it is.

My girlfriend was next. We went through the exact same process. She was having a pretty hard time remembering words too. In the end, the same thing happened, as far as words go. She had written down "sleep," but that was the only word she wrote down that wasn't on the list. I found it interesting how that was the one word that got both of them. As I thought about it more, I realized it made the most sense. "Needle" would have been in a shorter list, so it'd be easier to remember if it was in the list or not. But also, the things that were listed that had to do with sleep were listed before all the things that had to do with the doctor. Because all the things that were said about the doctor came last, after the things about sleep, it would make sense that those were the things that were most fresh in their memories. Because they were the most fresh, it would be harder to pick more details from the part of the list that came earlier, before the things about the doctor blocked them and made them harder to remember. Because of this, they would have only remembered something more general about the first portion of the list, and in this case, it was sleep, since that's what they all had to do with. It makes perfect sense how our brains can make these assumptions. They seem perfectly logical. I just wonder how often these kind of mistakes actually happen.

I discussed the impact this probably has on our everyday lives with my girlfriend. She said it could have a big impact when we're relaying things orally. Whether it's giving speeches, explaining things, giving directions, or just talking about something that's happened or that was said, many mistakes can be made. Who knows how hard it is to actually give an accurate eye witness account when on trial, especially when under the pressure of the court. It makes you wonder just how accurate those accounts are. That's why I think it's good to write a lot and take pictures and video. They can help keep our minds refreshed and our memories strong.

- Christian

Memory

I have been watching some videos on memories and how they can get really messed up, quite easily. In the first video, a man watched a picnic between a couple take place. He tried to remember as much about what happened at the picnic as he could. A couple days later, he was shown pictures from the picnic, only there were a few pictures that depicted things that didn't happen when he was watching. There were a couple things in the pictures that he said he remembers seeing happen at the picnic, when in reality, he had only just seen them in the pictures. This is an example of theories that talk about "false memories" that are created by our brains. A lot of times, we will see something (whether it be real or something in our head) and automatically associate it with something that actually happened, and we will think it was apart of it.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lisNg91_M0

There was another video I watched that had a classic "Whodunnit?" scene acted out. Since it's a classic scene, we all know what we're supposed to do: As the suspects are questioned, we have to listen to each of their stories and see which one doesn't add up. I watched and tired to figure it out. Soon, the correct person was arrested. I was unable to figure out who it was fast enough, but it turns out that that wasn't the point of the video. As the camera had panned from person to person, things in the background changed. Twenty-one things, to be precise. I didn't really notice any of them until they were pointed out. As the video then stated, it is easy to miss something you are not looking for. This is another example of how our brain can be tricked simply because of a pre-conceived purpose we have given it. Having a specific idea in mind can ultimately block it from noticing things that need to be noticed, or remembering things that need to be remembered.

Here's a link to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9QNEQLA

I don't have a very good memory, so I can only imagine how many memories I have that are incorrect. I've noticed that I do better at remembering visual things than numbers or words. But after watching these videos, I feel kind of helpless, haha. I think doing lots of these games to test your memory can help, though. It's important to have a good memory because memory goes right along with identity and purpose. What's the point of living if you don't know who you are or why you're doing what you're doing? Memory keeps us in check. Memory is the key.

- Christian