I was a wee bit knackered this weekend and not up for any maths work, but I felt that I had to do something. So I decided to have another look at the wizard book [Structure and Interpretation of Computer languages].
I've dipped into this before, a couple of years ago [pre-degree], I didn't get very far then. Now I know why—I wasn't ready for it.
I didn't have the maths, a good handle on recursion, a knowledge of data structures or a grasp of abstraction. Amongst other lacks.
However hard I might have worked on it I wouldn't have been able to take much from it. And I wouldn't have worked very hard at it.
That's something else that I noticed, I work at things in a different fashion today and I'm no longer put-off because I don't grok things immediately. When the time comes when I do want to understand this book I'll have the discipline and work-routine to do it.
I didn't work hard at it yesterday, but I knew that I knew how to and I now know that I will someday.
I did a fast skim of a couple of sections to get a look at the thought-space. If I'd intended to work on it, then I'd have gone back, made notes, done the exercises, created my own exercises.
This book isn't beyond me anymore. I was slightly surprised by that, should I be? I suppose not.
Since I started my degree I've noticed that I'm mentally sharper, a lot less ready to rush to judgement, "is that really true?", more prone to think about concrete ways to support what I think.
I'm also more likely to leave things to the last moment, over-think simple stuff, have profound episodes of despair and I've become an expert at displacement activities. [For example this blog ]
Some students come the the OU with all the needed skills already in place. Most of us don't. And because we came for knowledge we're probably unaware that in our search for it we are developing our powers to acquire that knowledge.
We should also be aware that there is a social downside.
The other day I had to re-organize a room with a teacher. I explained my faces/borders conjecture of desk arrangement and suggested a layout. I was right [well, it worked], she was delighted with the result but there was something in her eyes. I will never be invited to her house for tea. She thinks I'm a nutter.
Swings and roundabouts.
Comments
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Great insight into the world inside an OU student's head - that drive for knowledge and the despair that goes with it! I do think that education is wasted, to a fair extent, not totally, on the young. I wouldn't have appreciated half as much of what I've learnt with the OU if I'd been straight from school. I was keen on a lot of things back then, but giving up evenings out to study wouldn't have been one of them. So much of learning any subject is about understanding the world around you and that's certainly easier and more fulfilling if you've lived in it for a while.New comment
Believe it or not Neil this sharpness of mind that you talk about is exactly what I am aiming for, and being called insane, well I am getting used to that know, but I must keep going.
Your friend,
Davie.
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Great post Nellie
.
Sue
Wizard book
Thanks, this looks interesting. Isn't Lisp just made up of a bunch of brackets?!? At least it looks logical and follows BIDMAS in a way...
I'll get back to it when I start Level3 courses
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Rejoice in your nutterdom.New comment
@all
Thanks for your comments. For all the woes we suffer on the road there are good bits. I do try to write about the good bits, but like a teenager writing poetry it's easier to write about the bad bits. Not least because when you are feeling good you are probably working.
@Marcus
It's really worth the effort, get's you thinking in a different way.
arb
neil
Wizard book
As you say Neil that book seems truly wizard especially as it's free. I think that the computability part of Number theory and logic gives an introduction to register machines and recursion so time reading this book is not wasted at all. Unlike my futile debates about the meaning or not of quantum mechanics on the fora
All the best Chris
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@Chris
I'm dead sure that they are not futile. For one thing they've got me interested in quantum physics. Have you done SM358?
arb
nellie
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No but I've done the equivalent (and a lot more besides ) in my first degree over thirty years ago and My MSc in particle physics. Despite not using it at all for over 35 years in my work, I still maintain an interest and try and keep up with the issues.
However the debates going on in the OUSA physics forum are just going round and round in circles. I need to get back to Topology and revise Block A (most of which I've forgotten) before embarking on Block C.