Learning is interesting
Nothing too special for this post. Just to get the ball rolling, I'm sharing a very short written text expressing what my education meant to me.
I studied Physics at the undergrad level. When I was studying, I didn’t know much about learning, let alone approaching learning how to do analytical work. Physics was a lot of applied math or at least that is how it appeared to me.
Studying physics was like learning NOT to trust your intuition on a topic. It meant that whenever I did read something and thought I understood it, I was wrong, because I was never so far away from understanding it than in that moment.
Learning anything was work. If I could explain what learning was, I’d say it’s 50% memorization/familiarization and 50% understanding.
(Even though it’s debatable whether or not memorization is a good method of learning, it certainly is critical. For example, I would not be able to write this sentence had I not learnt the alphabet by committing it to memory.)
With learning physics, memorization was not the problem - it was lack of context. It all needed time. For me, it was normal to be utterly confused or to grossly miss the mark. I realised it was because I couldn’t use my everyday language to convey any meaning to me. And repeating what a textbook says was not “understanding” until I could simplify that understanding in my own words, or explain it by example somehow.
Things changed when I went to work in a research lab.
I guess the difference is in the way(s) one learns math and one learns to do research. I also suspect it has something to do with the way the two are learned. Maybe it is that there are too many false ideas about learning your way around the two.
I guess,
I refuse to believe that people are supposed to just “get” Math. I’m sure there are some people that are gifted, but for those of us that aren’t, I think examining how we’re approaching a problem is a good place to start.
For me, that meant learning from multiple resources - literally spending a good time on the internet looking for explanations until I find one that makes sense to me. And then getting confirmation in practice.
The idea of being “right” that is drilled into us in school is wrong. If you have a natural inkling for a topic/subject, run with it. If you have an idea, make the mistake, say the wrong thing, voice your intuition.
Learning is a personal process. It’s supposed to mean that you got something right that you assumed was so-and-so (or wrong). That is fine.
Nothing we learn is the final word on a topic. It’s always open to updates; it’s always got caveats.
That, if anything, is what got me to ask more questions in public places of learning, where learning is supposed to happen. I used to think places of learning are places to show off how much one knows. I can now say I’ve even said - “I don’t really know anything. Here is what I think though…”
Helps me.