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To challenge myself...
Oct. 9th, 2006 01:48 pmI seem to learn the most from trying to do absurd things. Taking on complex challenges that require new knowledge I don't yet have. In short, I seem to learn best by doing, and not by the small simple examples often found in instructional works. Those examples do help point me in the right ways, but I've gained the most from plunging straight in to the deep end of the pool and then looking things up whenever I got stuck. I assembled my own computer from parts (a feat I likely won't repeat). I learned Linux. I undertake large coding tasks in programming languages I've barely begun to learn.
And now I just installed my own MUCK (text-based virtual world thingy) on my laptop for the sole purpose of running my own RPG sessions on it using the customized dice-roller I coded (though it's grown beyond just that, and is becoming a complete implementation of FATE, easier to do for such a relatively simple system).
Something in my brain seems to crave those kinds of intellectual challenges, to try to do something I don't quite yet know and in the process learn it. I should apply this to more aspects of my life, it's a potentially powerful force when one thinks about it. Any suggestions, folks?
Frankly, it would be handy to turn this force toward the more practical things in my life that routinely stump me. Fortunately, my mother seems to have accomplished something similar. She used to have the same troubles I had with mundane practicalities, and she was someone who had once devised a way to automate her own job so that she could set it up in a few minutes and then have the rest of the day as leisure time while it ran. She used the free time to learn Japanese (and has since forgotten it). Anyway, she managed, eventually, to learn to handle those small practical details. She's still learning, really. But I could certainly do worse than take some inspiration from her.
It's also worth noting that I've sometimes grown tired of challenges beyond a certain point. The Linux computer that I built from parts? I switched to an Apple laptop and happily use OS X now.
And now I just installed my own MUCK (text-based virtual world thingy) on my laptop for the sole purpose of running my own RPG sessions on it using the customized dice-roller I coded (though it's grown beyond just that, and is becoming a complete implementation of FATE, easier to do for such a relatively simple system).
Something in my brain seems to crave those kinds of intellectual challenges, to try to do something I don't quite yet know and in the process learn it. I should apply this to more aspects of my life, it's a potentially powerful force when one thinks about it. Any suggestions, folks?
Frankly, it would be handy to turn this force toward the more practical things in my life that routinely stump me. Fortunately, my mother seems to have accomplished something similar. She used to have the same troubles I had with mundane practicalities, and she was someone who had once devised a way to automate her own job so that she could set it up in a few minutes and then have the rest of the day as leisure time while it ran. She used the free time to learn Japanese (and has since forgotten it). Anyway, she managed, eventually, to learn to handle those small practical details. She's still learning, really. But I could certainly do worse than take some inspiration from her.
It's also worth noting that I've sometimes grown tired of challenges beyond a certain point. The Linux computer that I built from parts? I switched to an Apple laptop and happily use OS X now.
