Wisdom, or mental trimming?

[IJesusChrist]

I am a college student, and prior to being accepted to college, I found myself as the most intelligent person in my school (don't we all?)

I often glorified myself that I knew every topic that my chemistry, physics, and sometimes even my math teacher was talking about as it was being taught. I rarely needed to take notes, and rarely studied for exams.

Thusly, I was a B+ student, I lacked initiative to get A's, and I didn't have motivation - I just didn't see how much my grade point average would matter.

Then I got to college. I began to (kind of) study more, and my grades stayed relatively the same, slightly higher. However, now - after some time in college I have found myself stupid. I study endless amounts of reactions, equations, and theories, often my notes take up 10's of pages. I do not grasp concepts as well anymore, and I do not find myself ahead of even the top 20% of my class.

I drink weekly and I have no doubt that that has impaired my cognitive ability somewhat, and so I have considerably cut down my drinking habits (atleast half of what I used to). Unfortunately this is a semi-permanent damage.

Secondly however, I have realized that college is the memorization of repetetive tasks. I have often come to the quotation "I was smarter before college" because I was able to study my interests. I had time to evaluate what did and didn't interest me - what was and was not important. Now I cannot, I simply am shuttled througha bottle-neck of knowledge, attempting to take as much as I possibly can, in order to correctly answer questions on paper that may never be asked again in my life time.

I know the quality and infrastructure of education in america has long been under scrutiny, but this really has begun to knock on my door. I am looking right now at 6 pages of back to back, completely condensed mathematical formulas that may possibly dictate my future, whether or not they are useful.

I have found that upon ending a lecture, or whole of lectures that I do not understand the concept - if I would like to, I would GLADLY read it myself, and figure it's theory. However, I cannot - since I am asked to also study a set of 30 or 40 reactions ontop of this wishful thinking. Do I take my own initiative to study my interests? Or do I rather study what will determine the possibility of gaining a position in a company that pays me some salary I can admire? I cannot attempt to become part of a company if all I have done is simply researched everything I can pertaining to the position I desire - no, I must 'broaden' my horizons and learn who developed the radio, what advertisement was like in the 1920's, and how I would compute the minimum value for a double integral in a triangular region.

Am I becomeing dumber because of my abuse of a damaging substance I often wonder, or is my continually enlarging stupidity due to repetitive tasks of pencil and paper that are meaningless?

Sorry... I'm a bit fucking pissed off at my college for more than one reason.

 

[Brugmansia]

Great Alcohol + LSD trip report. I converted your encoded figures to a visual running framework in order to go through your subjective channel in lucidity. Must say I understand how you're tumbling between red and blue, it almost killed me back in days, but I have turned integrally Blue since two years. Dare to make a decision. Dive through the glass, smash the circle of duality by choosing either one of the two.

Let us nourish our brain processor its memory space, it fucking makes the quality of our life after our 30's.

 

[Kapono626]

I once read in a book called Coming To Our Senses that our bodies are great indicators of what we need if only we knew how to listen to them. an analogy used in the book is when you are studying a particular subject in school, and you can't stop fiddling and twitching, can't focus on the subject being taught. this is your body screaming out "don't listen to these lies, they are detrimental to your health and well being"

schooling is not in place to enlighten us, but to make efficient employees out of us in a world of businesses and consumers.

I tried college for a bit. even just taking classes i thought might interest me. quantitative reasoning, astronomy, philosophy and ethics.... but i didnt find what i was looking for. the standard was not in place to further my patterns of thought or to challenge my views. The standard was a constant stream of "facts" and banter. needless to say, i lost interest quickly and dropped out.

I read on another forum once a saying that went something to the effect of

"when i was 5 years old my mother always used to tell me that happiness was the key to life.
when i started school and was asked what i wanted to be when i grow up i said 'Happy.'
The teachers told me i didnt understand the assignment, i told the teachers they didn't understand life"

As long as i have time to read my books, go hiking, and take week long camping trips i am content

 

[trick]

i know a great website that will get you any degree you want for $250..

im getting a high school diploma through them

 

[_Avatar_]

Great Alcohol + LSD trip report.

I don't get it. LSD? Trip report?

I converted your encoded figures to a visual running framework in order to go through your subjective channel in lucidity. Must say I understand how you're tumbling between red and blue

You're a wonderful person Brugmansia, but your sentences are becoming more and more obscure. Don't you want us to understand what you're trying to convey?

 

[IJesusChrist]

You're a wonderful person Brugmansia, but your sentences are becoming more and more obscure. Don't you want us to understand what you're trying to convey?

I wasn't going to be the first to say it

 

[trick]

i think the red and blue has something to do with the matrix

 

[Jeniger]

You're a wonderful person Brugmansia, but your sentences are becoming more and more obscure. Don't you want us to understand what you're trying to convey?

I wasn't going to be the first to say it

Please go on brugmansia, u should write a book one day.

 

[IJesusChrist]

i think the red and blue has something to do with the matrix

I think what he's talking about is making the decision between fun hell and blissful heaven, 'alcohol & lsd', red and blue. the rest of his post is pretty straight forward.

Jeniger, I agree he writes really fun, and interesting, but I would like to communicate a historical variable upon your computer in with which your grace would gladly parallel with; the tangents of these two minds may be forever interchangable, but is the purpose of abstract lucidity and variable arbitrary loves and loathing to simply express an over due amount of adrenaline, or the pineal possibly? Such is the case with all the great oaks, but do the oaks speak to each other in latin, or oakish?

 

[Brugmansia]

Haha. I honestly liked JC's written composition of its mind in touch with college. I said Alcohol + LSD because to me it felt as there was too much of a psycho analytical edge in it which keeps the author partly in bondage. Alcohol has that element of intellectual dissection as well but keeps the mind occupied instead of an entheogenic let go feature with imagination as hydrogen. College numbs imagination, it's intended to program individuals to stones so that they adapt to the object oriented world which is a physical shut down. The doubt about what to choose and being stuck means red and blue. I have turned blue, and everything red I taste or sense is as dry and tight as rubber.

Sorry, can't help it, shall try to be more luminous like the old days. If not, I blame myself and not the sacred cactus.

 

[ophiuchus]

that means re-taking the blue pill every day. there are too many pills for me to choose from for me to pick the blue one every time. i suppose if one were smart, they would bring a knife with them, to cut each pill in half, that way, you still only take one pills worth, but you may also hang onto them, and you get more pills, more chances choices and oppertunities. :wink:

 

[Brugmansia]

Come to Europe then. :mrgreen:

 

[ophiuchus]

that's funny you mention haha, i plan on it. soon as i get a solid job/career/company rolling, im out. many steps in the process though. it's a strategy that if executed close to properly, cannot fail.
first i must move to a place that can accomodate my needs as well as wants to allow elbow room for creativity.
biggest need(to move)is money :evil: , to establish a solid foundation i need as much as i can get. location is key in making money. upper west coast is beautiful, so move there and then reap the benefits of the plant kingdom by growing my own everything. selling my vegetables (and weed) as well as working a job out there, give that some years and i should have a nice and comfy bed of green to land on when i get to europe. location is key though. find some nice land not too far from city bustle, set up a bigger farm there and let the plants carry my weight. ill give them so much love.. now where to go...

 

[tryptonaut]

(...) prior to being accepted to college, I found myself as the most intelligent person in my school (don't we all?)

I often glorified myself that I knew every topic that my chemistry, physics, and sometimes even my math teacher was talking about as it was being taught. I rarely needed to take notes, and rarely studied for exams.

Thusly, I was a B+ student, I lacked initiative to get A's, and I didn't have motivation - I just didn't see how much my grade point average would matter.

Hehe, I had that too... not having to learn in school but getting good grades anyways. Not seeing the point in learning to get A's when you can get a B+ without wasting time. I once had a A- (actually it was a 1- but never mind) in my English class from my test results, but the teacher would give me a B+ in the report card. Upon my protest he told me that my attitude wasn't worth an A. Asshole. But somehow he was right...

Secondly however, I have realized that college is the memorization of repetetive tasks. I have often come to the quotation "I was smarter before college" because I was able to study my interests. I had time to evaluate what did and didn't interest me - what was and was not important. Now I cannot, I simply am shuttled througha bottle-neck of knowledge, attempting to take as much as I possibly can, in order to correctly answer questions on paper that may never be asked again in my life time.

I had that too when I went to university for a few semesters. I was studying philosophy and American literature - two things I was really interested in. But somehow these university seminars managed to stuff so many books down my throat (it sometimes felt like it...) that I totally lost interest in reading. I quit after a few semesters because I was becoming depressed and I didn't get enough work done.
It took me a while before I started reading books again and up to the day I totally lost all interest in philosophical books.

Learning things the university way is not for everyone - and even a lot of people who finished with a degree say that in the last one or two years all they wanted was to get away from university.

 

[IJesusChrist]

To me, universities are a way of finally stamping you as "Ok, this guy can do repetitive shit, he can work for you, he won't quit."

It's well known and even spoken proudly in universities that you learn 90% of what you need to know in your job AT your job.

I find my interest in my studies like that of a delta function, for you math nerds out there...


nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing HOLY SHIT I NEED TO READ THIS nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

 

[ophiuchus]

learning in any way shape or form is beneficial to your brains overall function and in extending it's lifespan, not to mention social benefits. if you greet all the information with negativity then you have made it pointless

 

[spice]

That's an excellent point.


The social aspect of college is the 'secret' thing about it which is so great. THIS is the part worth experiencing, get a girlfriend (or boyfriend, who cares) and live and experience things.

My daughter goes to college in a few months, but I already told her to go into sales with her personality (and mouth) :x . She'll probably love going to college, though.

It's gray, like everything, actually.

 

[IJesusChrist]

My daughter goes to college in a few months,

WHOA DUDE. Pulled a fast one on me there spice.


I'll say this, adrian, all things in moderation.

I cam across some interesting findings today. Every subject in school requires it's own frame of mind in order to absorb the information being spewed by the professor. Whether that is a direct casaulity of the professor his/her self, or if it actually is the subject matter, filtering upon your neurons, is not my expertise, however I was sitting in quantum and noticed rather than trying to deeply understand the subject matter, in order to really excel in the class, one must simply take the professors word, bit by bit as what needs to be learned.

That is to say, look at a graph and understand it. Don't try to relate it to anything.

For psychology however, in order to really do well, you must pull in concepts from all over. Understand many ideas all pertaining to each other in the web of information in your cranium.

Also Adrian, your last thing I learned long ago;

"I hate math" Direct correlation to bad grades.

"I don't understand math" direct correlation to decent grades, but high stress.

"I can understand math - relate it to interest." Even to FAKE your interest will boost your academic performance.

 

[Sprax]

The idea of college is to teach you specific things, right? Not to teach you "to think". Unless of course you go for a postgrad in which case you'll be allowed to do research.

 

[ophiuchus]

hehehe