memorization and creativity

I grew up in a communist country where the main (and perhaps the only) teaching style was memorization. I sometimes mention to people that somewhere in my teens I had to learn all capital cities. It wasn't fun at the time but it is fun to know it now.

I always claimed that memorization is such an important part of learning. I think that todays approach of 'we can find it on internet' is taking away our ability to be smart. My favorite example - historian must know his facts and a lot of them because to understand history one has to make connections and comparison to relevant historical events. In today mathematics the biggest breakthroughs are done when connecting two seemingly unrelated fields or sub-fields.

The other day i was listening to First Things podcast episode called 'The hardest course you will ever take' (link). They discuss a class that the famous poet W.H.Auden gave at University of Michigan. The most fascinating part for me was how important memorization was for Auden. How he would encourage (or force) his students to memorize large sections of text. and how much text he himself had memorized.

In conclusion, even to the most creative mind the way to succeed is to memorize.

THE HARDEST COURSE YOU’LL EVER TAKE

THE HARDEST COURSE YOU’LL EVER TAKE

on cleaning your house

i came across the "Tidying Up" a new Netflix series about the art of cleaning.

i just have a comment about her approach to books, the idea is to keep only what gives you joy. perhaps it si more nuanced but that is the gist of it.
my personal feeling is that books are not for joy, at least not only for joy. there are other reasons to buy, read, and keep books.
for me books have information, i'm more into non-fiction.


a quick link/s:
link 1

crocker rule

interesting way to blog comments

http://sl4.org/crocker.html

here is the full text:

Declaring yourself to be operating by "Crocker's Rules" means that other people are allowed to optimize their messages for information, not for being nice to you.  Crocker's Rules means that you have accepted full responsibility for the operation of your own mind - if you're offended, it's your fault.  Anyone is allowed to call you a moron and claim to be doing you a favor.  (Which, in point of fact, they would be.  One of the big problems with this culture is that everyone's afraid to tell you you're wrong, or they think they have to dance around it.)  Two people using Crocker's Rules should be able to communicate all relevant information in the minimum amount of time, without paraphrasing or social formatting.  Obviously, don't declare yourself to be operating by Crocker's Rules unless you have that kind of mental discipline.

Note that Crocker's Rules does not mean you can insult people; it means that other people don't have to worry about whether they are insulting you.  Crocker's Rules are a discipline, not a privilege.  Furthermore, taking advantage of Crocker's Rules does not imply reciprocity.  How could it?  Crocker's Rules are something you do for yourself, to maximize information received - not something you grit your teeth over and do as a favor.

"Crocker's Rules" are named after Lee Daniel Crocker.

book review of Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

relatively short book where the main topics are machine vs human decisions and totalitarian regime based on reason only.

the idea:
the book is set in the future and the USA has undergone a 2nd industrial revolution - this time it is automatization that increased the production and made our lives much much better but the price we pay is our individual freedom.
Each person undergoes an evaluation by this super computer (it is a funny scene where they visit this computer and it is so large) and then the government assigns him an career path. The result of such assignments is that the economy works very well but no-one can change it.
Of course, the book focuses on few individuals that undergo transformations with respect to how they perceive the system and its benefits.

Overall this is a nice science fiction that flows little slow for my taste.

econ 101 - high inflation

high inflation - increases prices

econ 101 - high interest rate

high interest rate - decreases sale of items that is bought on credit such as houses, cars. People buy less because they cannot afford the payments.

econ 101 - negative inflation

negative inflation - slows purchases in general, because price of item tomorrow will be less than today so it is smart to wait indefinitely.