Category Archives: Education

PROMPT: Any Philosopher

Posted on by
2
Daily writing prompt
If you could have dinner with any philosopher, who would it be?
View all responses

Diogenes the Cynic would be a hoot. Alternatively, Zhuangzi (莊子.) Obviously, my tastes run toward a philosopher that could teach me about how to be free, rather than to teach me some sort of rigorous approach to thinking. I’m stocked up on the latter, but in deficit of the former.

(I’m assuming this to be a “living or dead” question scenario. Usually, I prefer to talk to the living, but I don’t think modern academia has been good to the crazy sage philosopher. I might be able to find a Daoist hermit in a cave somewhere or maybe a Tibetan Nyönpa, but I couldn’t say what his or her name would be.)

PROMPT: Motivated

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
How do you stay motivated when learning something new?
View all responses

That’s not so much my problem. I’m a learning addict and get hooked easily. My problem comes down the line at the point where the once blurred edges between what is of value and what is bullshit in a given discipline comes into focus. It is that point that my enthusiasm wavers.

PROMPT: High School

Posted on by
1
Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
View all responses

The one thing I learned in High School was that I really should have learned more than one thing in High School.

Meerkat Lecture [Lyric Poem]

Posted on by
Reply
Meerkats: Taken at the Mysore Zoo in Karnataka, India.
Please allow me a conjecture:
   One Meerkat stood to give lecture,
 But as with me, as a pupil,
   Other Meerkats lacked the scruple
 To make a show of listening,
   Finding the walls more interesting.

PROMPT: Colleges

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What colleges have you attended?
View all responses

Indiana University [IUPUI], Georgia Tech, and Georgia State.

PROMPT: Subject in School

Posted on by
1
Daily writing prompt
What was your favorite subject in school?
View all responses

Depends upon my age and phase [as in whether I wanted to be a cowboy, a doctor, a race car driver, Batman, or a misanthrope / rapscallion at that particular time.]

Generally speaking, I had the strange (not to mention unproductive) tendency for science to top of the list while mathematics was usually dead last.

PROMPT: Authority

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
On what subject(s) are you an authority?
View all responses

Absolutely nothing. I’m more of a mile-wide-inch-deep type than a mile-deep-inch-wide type, which is to say a generalist rather than a specialist. So, I do have some insight into how to think about thinking about matters diverse and sundry.

PROMPT: Teacher

Posted on by
1

What makes a teacher great?

If students choose the teacher, that is an excellent first indicator. In the typical top-down selection of teachers, it is easy to produce an abundance of shitty teachers. Of course, there is still the danger of charismatic bullshitters and easy people-pleasers, problems ever-present. But among students (as opposed to followers) they usually reveal themselves in time.

PROMPT: High School

Posted on by
1
Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
View all responses

A psychology teacher taught us about what he called “the gestalt of expectations.” It’s when one builds an alternative reality in one’s mind (typically a worst-case scenario) and then one acts as though it is a reality, when – in fact – it is not. (Though sometimes it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation, which — of course — triggers selection bias in people of the unexamined life.)

It was my introduction to what I would come to know as the most fundamental insight of human existence — i.e. that one’s experience of the world is not the world itself, and while one has minimal influence over the latter, one can have tremendous influence over the former. One can even train oneself to perceive difficulties and sorrows as learning and growth opportunities.

PROMPT: Don’t Understand

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What’s something most people don’t understand?
View all responses

Computational Fluid Dynamics. Also, Nuclear Lensing.