“Learning makes your brain happy”
So learning is fun. Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?
Archive of posts filed under the Thought and Learning category.
Topics about how people think and learn (especially children), and various tricks and techniques for teaching — not just school learning, but *life* learning.
Know Thyself: Goals, Context, and Purpose
A few months ago, I thought I’d found the answer to my motivation problems. A tweak to my purpose, thought I, and all would be well. As usual, things weren’t that simple… it helped, but after the initial surge of enthusiasm wore off, I discovered that it didn’t make enough difference to keep me moving. …
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Know Thyself: Enthusiasm
This week, after more than six years of effort, I finally solved what seems to be the last theoretical problem to Project X. I have the entire high-level design now. Parts of it may still need some tweaks, but the whole thing hangs together remarkably well. It’s both a lot simpler overall, and a lot …
“Nobody Hates Software More Than Software Developers”
Ploni Almoni sent me this link recently. I read it, amused and agreeing with almost everything — until I got to the end: In short, I hate software — most of all and especially my own — because I know how hard it is to get it right. It may sound strange, but it’s a …
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“Neatolicious Fun Facts: Chess”
I’ve been working on my chess game lately, in an attempt to improve my logic skills. It has apparently worked… previously, any computer chess game would mop the floor with me on any but the absolute lowest skill setting (and sometimes even then). Now I can beat the Caissa Chess program on my iPod Touch …
“Baby pictures in lost wallets increase the chance they will be returned”
Interesting psychological information, but an even more interesting practical application: put some baby pictures in your wallet, even if you don’t have any children. 🙂
“Caring for Your Introvert”
As a member of this “little-understood group,” I have to recommend this article.
“What Makes Us Happy”
There are so many nuggets of gold in this article that I don’t know where to start. For example: What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major …
“25 Traits Of The Not So Well To Do”
Sadly, I’ve known a few people like this. I even had a few of these traits myself at times, though thankfully I’ve grown out of most of them. (Via CreditBloggers)
Basic Skills
As a child, I was very easily bored. As such, anything that had to be learned by rote repetition was anathema, and I would go to insane lengths to avoid it. (This may be because I learned English that way… my mother tells me that when I was three or so, and would learn a …