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What is the point in learning things when they aren't new at all? If what you are learning is new to you, personally, then I can see the point. But if you're attempting to expand the horizons of human experience... why not at least attempt original thought now and then?
Educational dogma seems to be that if the student doesn't notice they are learning something new then more often than not the student's perception is correct. Its really hard to encounter an original thought these days, but this is a failure of educational practice and begins at the point children are taught to add apples and oranges, and are taught to accept only gradual changes in paradigms.
If people think that what you're doing is child's play, they won't value the effort you put into it however much learning and skill is involved. For instance, if you fix computers for a living, people think you just jiggle the appropriate wires after toking the crack pipe and reaching into the casing blindfolded while dropping live scorpions into your underwear for kicks, they won't think twice before ringing you at nine pm to inform you that their graphics card isn't sending any data to the monitor so it _must_ be because you didn't install a virus scanner the last time you did... you know, whatever it was that you did (you pervert). So obviously its your 'fault' and you should fix it for them at their earliest convenience; meaning drop whatever paraphernalia is your current weapon of choice and hightail it round there. Don't forget to leave your shoes outside and refer to your betters appropriately, you slavish dog. This is why people act all servile and submissive around doctors, because their pronouncements are often in your benefit to heed; even if it does come as an insult to be treated like a cretin. Mind you even doctors go home and de-stress from having to deal with people by getting completely mashed now and then.
People like intoxication, but just enough to keep the party people in motion without causing the kinds of mass seizures that get the party people carted away. I, for example, would enjoy a daily (if possible) tipple of wine. I don't like the fact that I would like it to be a daily indulgence and try to keep my units of alcohol down to two at maximum. I don't always manage to keep to this rule. I used to be more strict with myself when I stopped taking a bunch of other drugs and was at a maximum of two units of alcohol per night, only two nights per week, not on consecutive nights. In reality my elevated liver enzymes showing up in blood tests mean I have to go back to keeping this rule religiously. Nothing could make me unhappier. There was a time, long ago when the world was very young, dinosaurs ruled the earth, and my parents hunted brontosaurus for all the clan rituals when I would enjoy smoking daily. Those happy times are long gone now that the oxygen-carrying capacity of my lungs has been decimated, my bone density is shot all to hell, and my general aerobic fitness is barely a tenth of its peak. Its sobering itself to realise I've destroyed my health and didn't even realise until I started breaking my toes attempting to put my shoes on!
Educational dogma seems to be that if the student doesn't notice they are learning something new then more often than not the student's perception is correct. Its really hard to encounter an original thought these days, but this is a failure of educational practice and begins at the point children are taught to add apples and oranges, and are taught to accept only gradual changes in paradigms.
If people think that what you're doing is child's play, they won't value the effort you put into it however much learning and skill is involved. For instance, if you fix computers for a living, people think you just jiggle the appropriate wires after toking the crack pipe and reaching into the casing blindfolded while dropping live scorpions into your underwear for kicks, they won't think twice before ringing you at nine pm to inform you that their graphics card isn't sending any data to the monitor so it _must_ be because you didn't install a virus scanner the last time you did... you know, whatever it was that you did (you pervert). So obviously its your 'fault' and you should fix it for them at their earliest convenience; meaning drop whatever paraphernalia is your current weapon of choice and hightail it round there. Don't forget to leave your shoes outside and refer to your betters appropriately, you slavish dog. This is why people act all servile and submissive around doctors, because their pronouncements are often in your benefit to heed; even if it does come as an insult to be treated like a cretin. Mind you even doctors go home and de-stress from having to deal with people by getting completely mashed now and then.
People like intoxication, but just enough to keep the party people in motion without causing the kinds of mass seizures that get the party people carted away. I, for example, would enjoy a daily (if possible) tipple of wine. I don't like the fact that I would like it to be a daily indulgence and try to keep my units of alcohol down to two at maximum. I don't always manage to keep to this rule. I used to be more strict with myself when I stopped taking a bunch of other drugs and was at a maximum of two units of alcohol per night, only two nights per week, not on consecutive nights. In reality my elevated liver enzymes showing up in blood tests mean I have to go back to keeping this rule religiously. Nothing could make me unhappier. There was a time, long ago when the world was very young, dinosaurs ruled the earth, and my parents hunted brontosaurus for all the clan rituals when I would enjoy smoking daily. Those happy times are long gone now that the oxygen-carrying capacity of my lungs has been decimated, my bone density is shot all to hell, and my general aerobic fitness is barely a tenth of its peak. Its sobering itself to realise I've destroyed my health and didn't even realise until I started breaking my toes attempting to put my shoes on!
