Quote:
Originally Posted by Perna
It is hard to be happy with what you are doing if you are comparing yourself to others or against an entire field of knowledge.
It is necessary to be more specific about what you want to learn. Wanting to learn about "astrophysics" is too general/broad. You have to "drill down" to something practical that you can hold on to: Kepler, Kepler's first law (law of ellipses), down to ellipses and how they work, as related to astrophysics, or math, or English, but not all three (or all three if that is what you want to learn)! It takes wanting to focus and practicing discipline to bring yourself back from "Oh, look, they have ellipses in English, too!"
You can never get ahead of everybody because everybody is on their own schedule and started sooner/later than you did or are faster/slower learners than you are or more/less concentrated in whatever subject you are studying. Maybe you become knowledgeable about Kepler, but someone else wanted to focus on the Doppler effect or Newton's Laws of Motion. You cannot learn "everything" or be ahead of "everybody" and trying to do either will make you crazy (crazier? :-)
If I were you, I would take a single text/book you like (I know you are not in school but all subjects have basic text/books) and take the table of contents and a piece of paper and pencil and list the one-word or very short phrase subject of each chapter. I would then spend a week studying that word/idea 1-4 hours a day, however I liked. At the end of the week, I would read the chapter and compare it to what I had learned, what information was now "mine" because I had been concentrating on it for a week, and take notes on whatever else I wanted to know. If you are not in school, memorizing stuff in the traditional way (that doesn't work for you) does not make sense.
If you are studying a math, science, computer or other business subject, I would, after I'd read the chapter, do a few of the problems in the chapter/at the end. Presumably, if you are studying such a subject (like accounting), you will have come up with examples and problems as you studied it each day for the week. You might have set up your own system and be using it in your own home/work so be getting practice using it.
A lot of university professors have online pages to help their students; for example, I used this one http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ugrad/341/ to look at what was involved in astrophysics and Kepler: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/u6l4a.cfm.
If you are going to be going back to school and want to be "ahead" (know what courses you will be required to take) and more comfortable with the material before you are presented with it, I would look for college/university pages on the subject and work through them that way, staying with one syllabus/one text and single word subjects, "drilling down" as far as interests you and practicing staying focused (Kepler has three laws, you do each in turn, the 1st is about ellipses and you stay on how they relate to Kepler's law, not math in general or English). Usually such university pages are a bit limited in what they contain but that is good; it doesn't require notes or listening to lectures and will be easier to start with one word only and drill down, not going too far in sideway directions. |
well, i already know the courses i need to take. 2 yrs ago, i got hired by a new startup non profit company who wanted to help me build up my web design skills (hence is why i was at another university for web design after comm college).
they promised they would help me but never did anything for me in return. long story short, the company was shady and i found out this year they went out of business...i wonder why.
i, my bf, and a few others were only there a week before they kicked us out because the company needed to speak to their lawyers it was a mess. none of us ever got our job back and there was no contract about anything i needed on my equipment that i had to lug into the bldg. they claimed they had this woman who would help me but she was a novice not at intermediate level which i felt was shady by how they phrased it.
anyway, it takes me months and months for me to learn something complex and difficult. i remember in k-12, i was told by teachers that i would never be successful and ahead of the game because i am just too slow of a learner and how i will be playing catch up with my life forever (im still doing that with personal issues). if it was complex/hard/difficult, i would cry like a baby as i was not used to doing anything hard academically in my life.
they also told me how am i gonna learn something in a short amount of time at a job if i can not keep up? if i can not keep up, then they will let me go and find someone better. i felt so small hearing that from some of my k-12 teachers and my parents.
the thing is i want to improve my math, computer, problem-solving/critical thinking, and creative skills. i have taken many different math courses over a decade in my life with no improvement. i got my first B in mat120 in college because the instructor is dyslexic and was able to understand the math better than someone who didn't have dyslexia.
i told some of these issues with my therapist and it's basically because i didn't get the important vital information from my parents on learning and being successful growing up. i want to stay up to date on technology and be able to provide technology advice to people as well as using my creative side. i haven't had a chance to do anything creative since i have done all technical my whole life.
my therapist and i are still talking about being compared to others and why i still feel that way. she is having me to access my parasympathetic side instead of my sympathetic side. i know she told me she doesn't want me to see the negative side.
all my life, my parents have told me to do it all for xyz, abc, this, that, these, and those because my "father did it." however, both parents were never great role models.
honestly, i hated the "Traditional way of studying here in america," because it just never fit well for me. they still talk on tv and other educators how the studying in this country has been always terrible and how the students can not seem to advance themselves among other students/foreign students.
also, with everything changing so rapidly, i do not know if i will be able to keep up since i was not able to get an entry level network admin position right after college. they say right now is a good time to do studying to keep my skills up to date (hence is why i wanted the gov to pay for my certs because it is too expensive for me its thru the stimulus money now its on hold again). it may sound like a good idea, but i am hurting so financially bad that i can not seem to sit here, study, without some kind of income. how do i study and be able to sit here with zero money? who is happy being broke?!
i do not feel i should "compensate" sitting here for nothing and not getting some kind of income. however, the job market in the state i live in, is super horrible ur lucky to get a job and i have a degree still can not get a job.
i am so scatterbrain and not sure where to start on any subject that will increase my knowledge for a job - any job. growing up, my parents didn't even want me to have a childhood it was always come here and do this program, learn this, learn that, etc without even asking me if i wanted to do it that day or not it was "forced learning upon all of us." now, im blamed for not knowing everything my dad and brother knows in IT how us daughters are so stupid worthless *****s.
having fun and playing didn't seem to be encouraged when i was a kid. the study methods i was taught in k-12 were not that great because my grades always suffered even if i changed my studying habits a bit, my grades still suffered. i sat there for 2-3 hrs studying still not understanding what i was reading either by textbook or note taking hence is why i always flunked tests but had no problems passing easy tests.
i was doing some javascript on this new site i found on the news which is so cool. i haven't been back on it lately because i have a law suit against me on a cc debt. its been eating me up plus i got a student loan debt too ahh such a mess. anyway, i'm still in pain from childhood issues right now to job issues now.
i dont know i feel as though within me something is emerging or gonna emerge like this guy i talk to at safeway whenever i see him he says i am gonna go so far in life. it feels as when i was 25 and now 26 that something is about to emerge i dont know what but something will soon...
i will take a look at those links. which subjects do i start with first? do i do things one at a time? technology is rapidly increasing/changing wouldn't it be smart to start on that first? i just need to get enough knowledge on some subjects in IT that will help me especially putting it on my resume. i never was a self taught person right now i am forcing myself to self teach myself as i have always been the kind of person who learns from doing and by other people. it's like i have no idea what to do for a career anymore since everything is just about outsourced, IT is outsourced and the jobs i find in the state i live in wants over 5 yrs experience with tons and tons of knowledge.