The Road To Smartness (Fiasco Mondays)

[Slim Fiasco]

I'm real tired here, had a lot of work to do through out the day, but it's Monday and I don't want this project of mine to go AWOL on the 2nd week of showing. However, I'll have to keep it short because my concentration is on the verge of committing a suicide.



I think that, first of all, the word stupid should be swapped with ignorance. For a normal human being, what makes the biggest difference between being smart and stupid (from now on - ignorant) is curiosity. Of course this is just my personal opinion, but curiosity is a driving force that leads to doing a lot of research and thereby learning.

Our brains pretty much have the same potential and processing power. Let's use the analogy of having a PC. If you give 10 equally powerful PCs to 10 different people, the difference between them will be in the way those people use them. Someone may have 100 GB of music, movies, may work with many programs, or may play many games, while some other guy may only use it for checking his e-mail. What I'm trying to say is that all people have more or less the same (cognitive) potential, it's just what they do with it.

Understandably, we all have different tendencies and are interested in different things, and a lot of that may not be a conscious choice, but the key point to remember is that wanting to learn is perhaps more important than the act of learning itself.



Think about it, if you want to learn something, be it a specific field such as singing or drawing, or just some general information like politics, that desire to learn about it will take you to the place of looking up relevant info and if required practicing what you learn. But, if you don't have the desire to improve and learn more, you'll most likely settle down for what you know already or what you learn "by accident", and the result of that is wasted potential and mediocrity.

If we consider that state of being smart, knowledgeable and just able to do stuff in general, you can only get there if you work at it. It's something that comes as a reward for your efforts by default. If you start working on your rapping skills for example, you will inevitably become better at it. And the more you work the better the result will be.

So if you let's say want to increase your knowledge in politics, the more you research material about the field, the more you'll know about it.



I guess what I'm trying to say is this - you shouldn't be afraid of becoming something great. Something that you most probably would like to become. You only need to put in the effort and the results will come by themselves. Of course, you need to stay open-minded, you need to question and criticize things, but if you have the desire to learn you're good to go. Remember that, just by wanting to improve and looking for ways to do it - you've already won.

The problem with most people, as I said, is that they don't even look for ways to improve, and that's something that is hard to "repair". And just to summarize, and make sure that I haven't contradicted myself or something, I have two main points:

One, the desire to learn is extremely important. Two, the consequence of this is that if you have that desire you will inevitably learn what you want to learn so the only thing you need to do is go for it.

Bonus hint: Don't be afraid or mad at failure. Failure is just one way of sorting things out and finding out what works and what not. At the end of the day, it only helps you to get where you want to get, and you just need to be patient and keep going.g

[Slim Fiasco]

That was dope Slim, great lookin' out. I used to be like that, not really interested in expanding my horizons but I grew smarter and I've been on a roll ever since.

[PAINKILLƎR]

lol that was a great read Slim. I would say I was kind of like that when younger, around the age of 11-12 I was introduced to Rap music and only listened to 2pac, Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, etc. I was so caught up with hated the East Coast for no apparent reason, I wrote off all the East Coast rappers without giving them a chance. Until finally one day I heard Black Star, and then illmatic and so on. I of course now know better and I'm aware of how important it is to learn more, and improve. The example I gave is not quite exactly what you meant, but similar enough to mention haha.

Good looking out Slim

[Slim Fiasco]

lol that was a great read Slim. I would say I was kind of like that when younger, around the age of 11-12 I was introduced to Rap music and only listened to 2pac, Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, etc. I was so caught up with hated the East Coast for no apparent reason, I wrote off all the East Coast rappers without giving them a chance. Until finally one day I heard Black Star, and then illmatic and so on. I of course now know better and I'm aware of how important it is to learn more, and improve. The example I gave is not quite exactly what you meant, but similar enough to mention haha.

Good looking out Slim

Haha, yeah, and that analogy actually works really well. Thanks for the feedback!

[the real slim shady]

I like it but..

Our brains pretty much have the same potential and processing power. Let's use the analogy of having a PC. If you give 10 equally powerful PCs to 10 different people, the difference between them will be in the way those people use them. Someone may have 100 GB of music, movies, may work with many programs, or may play many games, while some other guy may only use it for checking his e-mail. What I'm trying to say is that all people have more or less the same (cognitive) potential, it's just what they do with it.

If im honest i wouldnt say this is true. First off there are pleanty of physical / biological differences that will affect the brain's ability to learn or understand things (eg. Autism), then there are factors such as IQ which arguably can be changed over time but not by large amounts.
Yes the way people use their minds will change how effective they are, but i think you should look at it as one person with a top spec pc for emails in comparison with a medium power pc being used for a variety of applications; how much people use them is more important than their potential to an extent, however to say that people dont have differing potentials for intelligence would be an... unjustified thing to say.
Some people naturally can comprehend things far better than others, whether this be down to different capacities of Short Term Memory or just different understanding of things / a wider variety of schemas, the ability to learn is not entirely dependant upon how much you want to learn. This is proven by the people who dont revise at all for exams and pass in comparison with the people who put in far more effort and just scrape a B.
You could say, however, that people have the same cumulative potential but it is distributed differently, that is far more likely to be the case.

[Slim Fiasco]

I like it but..

Our brains pretty much have the same potential and processing power. Let's use the analogy of having a PC. If you give 10 equally powerful PCs to 10 different people, the difference between them will be in the way those people use them. Someone may have 100 GB of music, movies, may work with many programs, or may play many games, while some other guy may only use it for checking his e-mail. What I'm trying to say is that all people have more or less the same (cognitive) potential, it's just what they do with it.

If im honest i wouldnt say this is true. First off there are pleanty of physical / biological differences that will affect the brain's ability to learn or understand things (eg. Autism), then there are factors such as IQ which arguably can be changed over time but not by large amounts.
Yes the way people use their minds will change how effective they are, but i think you should look at it as one person with a top spec pc for emails in comparison with a medium power pc being used for a variety of applications; how much people use them is more important than their potential to an extent, however to say that people dont have differing potentials for intelligence would be an... unjustified thing to say.
Some people naturally can comprehend things far better than others, whether this be down to different capacities of Short Term Memory or just different understanding of things / a wider variety of schemas, the ability to learn is not entirely dependant upon how much you want to learn. This is proven by the people who dont revise at all for exams and pass in comparison with the people who put in far more effort and just scrape a B.
You could say, however, that people have the same cumulative potential but it is distributed differently, that is far more likely to be the case.

Thanks for the response.

I think the different tendencies and just brains in short, require a specific learning strategies that would work the best for the person in question, and of course, I would add that the affective needs are very important. So in other words, a properly motivated student with a well treated confidence should do great. In addition, having an emotional connection with the material at hand will help even further. With the correct techniques any brain that doesn't suffer from a serious disorder will be able to score an A.

However, that's more about studying and the educational system, and I was focusing more on people's personal interests.

As for the points you made, that mainly says that some people may be more efficient and do more in a shorter period of time. But, my main point was that people should pursue learning new things and when you learn something on your own i.e. expanding your general knowledge, you aren't preparing yourself for a test and you don't need to remember all the little details. You only need to remember the main points and get the idea, and any brain should be capable of that.

Also, as I previously alluded, if you're researching things out of a personal desire and not because somebody is forcing you to do it, chances are you're looking into something that interests you and you aren't facing any constraints and you have the motivation. If we take the notion of talent, it means nothing without hard work.

But anyway, I'm not saying that you're wrong or anything, I'm just trying to look at it from more aspects. Would you say that a more "powerful" brain may have something to do with the people's desire to expand their knowledge?

[the real slim shady]

Desire to expand knowledge might be because of a powerful brain; feeling that it isnt being used to its full potential, but i dont think it works the other way round. People who are naturally gifted at being able to work through things in their heads are more likely to go and try to learn things, but i dont think that because someone wants to learn they will increase their cognitive potential.
Of course it can increase, if you take IQ to be a measure of cognitive ability then it has been proven that over time it can change (more significantly while younger though), however i think the power of the mind influences the desire to learn, as opposed to the other way round.

When it comes to learning though, yes, only if you take an interest in something and enjoy expanding your understanding of a subject will you be likely to really apply yourself to learning about it.

[Slim Fiasco]

Desire to expand knowledge might be because of a powerful brain; feeling that it isnt being used to its full potential, but i dont think it works the other way round. People who are naturally gifted at being able to work through things in their heads are more likely to go and try to learn things, but i dont think that because someone wants to learn they will increase their cognitive potential.
Of course it can increase, if you take IQ to be a measure of cognitive ability then it has been proven that over time it can change (more significantly while younger though), however i think the power of the mind influences the desire to learn, as opposed to the other way round.

When it comes to learning though, yes, only if you take an interest in something and enjoy expanding your understanding of a subject will you be likely to really apply yourself to learning about it.

Nice way to put it, I guess a better brain may as well lead to that desire that I was talking about.

On a similar note, I think that being close-minded is part of the problem. A lot of people are just straight convinced in something and they would throw logic out of the window if you try to tell them otherwise. And without using (enough) logic and not looking for facts, one can limit themselves in a very bad way.

One thing that I've found to work great against this is the presence of a majority. Like, I have a friend who believes in aliens in a retarded way and when it's just me and this other friend questioning his reasoning, there's nothing we could do. Of course, we don't like to get offensive and start yelling and calling him stupid. But if he was to post in here for example, I'm pretty sure that he would quickly change his mind when 50 people start ridiculing him. But then again, the intelligence he has at his disposal may play a role. Would you say that the more powerful brain thing has a thing to do with people falling into this problem?

[the real slim shady]

One thing that I've found to work great against this is the presence of a majority. Like, I have a friend who believes in aliens in a retarded way and when it's just me and this other friend questioning his reasoning, there's nothing we could do. Of course, we don't like to get offensive and start yelling and calling him stupid. But if he was to post in here for example, I'm pretty sure that he would quickly change his mind when 50 people start ridiculing him. But then again, the intelligence he has at his disposal may play a role. Would you say that the more powerful brain thing has a thing to do with people falling into this problem?

I take it you are aware of the different types of conformity? He might change his mind to your face but his opinions wont be affected by it.

I kind of agree about being close minded though, the main example would be music. Everyone has a type of music they dislike; no matter what someone tells you, you wont just suddenly start liking it. If someone tries to tell me rap music is just a load of senseless swearing for example (which is wrong (which some might say is me being close minded, but imo im right anyway)) that would be a very close minded statement, but there is nothing i can say to them that will change their mind. The problem is that we are naturally tuned to do it, we find something which fits our theories of how things work or what is good / bad, and if something doesnt match that theory we disregard it. If it partially matches it, we will alter it in our minds to fit our theory. If it fits our theory, all is well and good.

[Slim Fiasco]

I take it you are aware of the different types of conformity? He might change his mind to your face but his opinions wont be affected by it.

Yeah, of course. But that's why the concept of agreeing to disagree is a great thing, neither side needs to conform and the discussion can be left at that.

I kind of agree about being close minded though, the main example would be music. Everyone has a type of music they dislike; no matter what someone tells you, you wont just suddenly start liking it. If someone tries to tell me rap music is just a load of senseless swearing for example (which is wrong (which some might say is me being close minded, but imo im right anyway)) that would be a very close minded statement, but there is nothing i can say to them that will change their mind. The problem is that we are naturally tuned to do it, we find something which fits our theories of how things work or what is good / bad, and if something doesnt match that theory we disregard it. If it partially matches it, we will alter it in our minds to fit our theory. If it fits our theory, all is well and good.

I agree but it works different with music, because it's about personal taste and a subjective thing. I was talking more about things that can be logically debated if that makes any sense. Like, that friend of mine thinks that there are aliens working with the US government, and he's so assured in it even though there aren't any hard evidence supporting the claim. He's big on conspiracy theories which come down to speculations rather than strong facts, and I've always been baffled by how can someone be so sure in something with the absence of proof. I'm not saying don't believe it, but to claim it as an absolute truth, you better have some facts at your disposal.

Not being able to distinguish facts from speculation, or perhaps not wanting to, comes as a weird problem to me, and since it's been great having this discussion with you, I'll once again ask you what do you think may be the core reason for that phenomenon?

I mean, you gave a great reasoning in your previous post, but given that there a lot of open-minded people out there, and some people do admit when they're wrong, it seems that it's about a certain and different way of thinking, and while I believe that way of thinking can be taught (preferably by the parents) or the person can get it by themselves in the case of there being a majority, you may think otherwise because of the more powerful brain thing and stuff, so that's why I'm interested in your theory.

[Guess_Who]

TRSS and SlimFi, I agree with things you both have said, but what it is really interesting is see 2 people arguing here about something and giving different views without disrespect or insult each other.

[Slim Fiasco]

TRSS and SlimFi, I agree with things you both have said, but what it is really interesting is see 2 people arguing here about something and giving different views without disrespect or insult each other.

Haha, yeah, we're just trying to compare our views and have a discussion. I'm looking forward to more thinking sessions like this in my future threads. Thanks for stopping by.

[the real slim shady]

TRSS and SlimFi, I agree with things you both have said, but what it is really interesting is see 2 people arguing here about something and giving different views without disrespect or insult each other.

Hey chicka, fuck you. Alright? Tryna keep the peace

And to answer your post Slim, people always bend facts to fit theories, not the other way round. Unless you tell someone something which is undebatable and conflicts with their beliefs, they wont change their opinions. They will just change what it is you say to mean what they want it to, so you say 'There is no evidence for those aliens' and they see it is 'No-one has seen the aliens (but that doesnt mean they dont exist)'.

[Slim Fiasco]

TRSS and SlimFi, I agree with things you both have said, but what it is really interesting is see 2 people arguing here about something and giving different views without disrespect or insult each other.

Hey chicka, fuck you. Alright? Tryna keep the peace

And to answer your post Slim, people always bend facts to fit theories, not the other way round. Unless you tell someone something which is undebatable and conflicts with their beliefs, they wont change their opinions. They will just change what it is you say to mean what they want it to, so you say 'There is no evidence for those aliens' and they see it is 'No-one has seen the aliens (but that doesnt mean they dont exist)'.

Gotcha, thanks for your input.