/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12790253]

What do you do when you're in your early 20s and fucking retarded? What do you do if you forgot just about everything you learned in school besides how to read and write, until your fund of knowledge reached pitiful levels? Can you escape from stupidty this late in the game, or are you merely putting bandage over a festering wound?

[Anonymous No.12790260]

>>12790253
How exactly would you like your mind to look?

[Anonymous No.12790316]

>>12790260
I'm not sure.

[Anonymous No.12790330]

>>12790260
Not OP but in situation like his. I would like to have knowledge of Calculus, but currently don't know how to add/subtract with efficiency. I would also like to have knowledge of philosophy, I'm on the first book reccomended to starting with the greeks, Mythology by Edith Hamilton. I would also like to get a solid base for natural science and world history. I don't know where to start though. Would it be a good idea to study an encyclopedia of some sort? If so which one? Is there a full online one that's more concise and ordered then wikipedia? What's a good way to start learning?

[Anonymous No.12790368]

>>12790330
>I would like to have knowledge of Calculus, but currently don't know how to add/subtract with efficiency.
This is simple actually. It isn't fun but you need to practice practice practice. Reading and videos can't hurt but practice is key.

>I would also like to have knowledge of philosophy, I'm on the first book reccomended to starting with the greeks, Mythology by Edith Hamilton. I would also like to get a solid base for natural science and world history.
Simple as well. Read read read. Take notes. Reread. Contextualize the information. Attempt to understand how all the different voices you read are going to connect in some way. Then read more.

Don't fuck with an encyclopedia. You'll just sound autistic. Pick a few topics you like and then focus on those. Try to keep one philosophy book, one nonfiction book, and a fiction book going at the same time. Since they differ in topics they are easier to keep separated in your mind.

[Anonymous No.12790387]

>>12790253
Nothing you learn in school (before the graduate level) is at all that important. Most people forget it unless they go onto the specialize

>>12790330
Entry level calculus (and entry level math of all kinds for that matter) is just a waste of your brain space. Divorced from its higher levels, it is an island onto itself with nothing to impart. Yes you should know addition/subtraction/fractions/decimals, but nothing apart from that. Unless you plan to advance onto graduate studies, it's just utter garbage, unlike a smattering of the humanities which can at least give you new insights into certain things

You should indeed start with the Greeks

[Anonymous No.12790418]

>>12790330
Before you tackle Calculus, you need to be good at algebra and trig. Before you start doing algebra and trig, you need to be good at arithmetic and geometry. Don't be ashamed to start from the basics, I'm sure you could go from the bottom to Calculus in less than a year. Math is often taught horribly in american schools and people manage to pass their classes without even mastering the subjects. For recommended textbooks you can go on /sci/. Khan Academy also works.

[Anonymous No.12790419]

>>12790253
Medical student here. You guys know normies have a lot of respect for this field and believe the school to be really hard, lack of sleep, etc.
I'm here to tell you that the extracurriculars and clinical side of it (publishing research, actually leading groups which get results, working within a clinical team to save lives or at least keep them from fucking tanking) is very fucking hard, but the "learning" we do is very fucking easy and would not be difficult at all if I weren't retarded.
It's memorizing. Just flashcards. Facts. Easy comprehensible little nuggets of information, except a lot of them. If anyone could effectively organize their schedule and life, it would be no problem and they'd get 10 hours of sleep a night while working out and blow boards out of the water. Nobody's like that though. I'm at a top tier school and the only ones doing what I listed above are the actual autistic kids who are going to go neurosurgery.
And the deeper I get into these facts and this supposed "intellectual" pursuit, the stupider I get about every other aspect of thinking and life. The more we specialize, the more general knowledge we lose. Penguins on an iceberg. Someone's gotta get pushed off.
I think the only answer is to unironically and earnestly appreciate everyone for the contributions they make. Right now if someone makes me a decent cup of coffee and a sandwich at a cafe and gets it to me quickly I realize just how difficult even that simple task is to do well and efficiently. I hope I don't lose this.
Shitty blogpost and probably doesn't support my central thesis so I'll make sure I get it out there plainly- the point is everyone out there is baseline fucking retarded and any achievement by any human ever is a fucking miracle. Even the most banal and simple of successes should be appreciated. Not celebrated cause they've gotta happen regardless but at least take a moment for gratitude.

[Anonymous No.12790539]

>>12790368
>Try to keep one philosophy book, one nonfiction book, and a fiction book going at the same time. Since they differ in topics they are easier to keep separated in your mind.
I have had this suggested to me before and I've always been curious as to how you juggle two or three books at a time. When I attempt this I find myself giving more time to one book, favoring it over the others. I suppose this is probably due to my own lack of discipline, but maybe you have some suggestions for how to juggle three books in a balanced way?

[Anonymous No.12790877]

>>12790539
Only read certain books at certain times. (EX: fiction before bed, nonfiction in morning, et al)

[Anonymous No.12790929]

>>12790877
Haven't tried that yet. I'll give it a shot, thanks.

[Anonymous No.12790954]

>>12790419
Good post

[Anonymous No.12790960]

>>12790253
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[Anonymous No.12790980]

>>12790419
Based fellow med student. Only autistic fags do what you say, most people just study everything the last day.