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Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: londonlondon on September 29, 2013, 10:25 am

Title: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: londonlondon on September 29, 2013, 10:25 am
hello my wise, friendly roaders,

i am still in my early 20s. through my college years i became a bit introverted as a result of weed. i feel this social isolation has greatly affected me intellectually, and even worst, socially, even though i am a very bright, capable, outgoing person. i feel the conversations i have sometimes are too shallow, sometimes and i dont really have much to talk about. i think i lost motivation to go out and became introverted because it's many times hard for me to carry conversations for long.
i feel i really 'lost' my path, as now, after daily working and exercising, i just like to come home smoke weed (i did stop smoking for 4 months to see what's up, and i still did the same thing everyday :/ ) and read articles online on random stuff.

i feel that i pursue my curiosity in all subjects simultaneously, reading article after article, causing a sort of information overload that does not allow me to really retain anything!

i have come to realize that i need to 're-learn' several things. such as history. for some reason my memory has not wanted to hold on to anything ive learned, even though i find it very interesting, and the majority of it i cannot recall. also political sciences, economics, and a few of these subjects that one needs to understand how the world works.

my question is, what's a good approach to enter into some of these topics? where does one start in order to re-educate oneself? for example, with history, should i start with a history 101 book from college? what's the most effective way to retain the info?
is/are there any subject(s) that you would recommend i start learning before, in such a way that they may lay foundation?

i pretty much need a back to school and beyond course on several topics. i am dedicated to pursue this as thoroughly as i may, and i know it will not be an easy task.

i very much appreciate you taking your time to read this :), thanks
LL
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: Rocknessie on September 29, 2013, 02:30 pm
Chomsky.

Start with Chomsky.
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: Cornelius23 on September 30, 2013, 03:21 am
Reading fiction might help stuff stick in your mind. Historical fiction, political fiction, philosophical fiction (e.g. Jostein Gaarder), possibly accompanied by Web searches for anything you read within that intrigues you. Reading bare facts can be boring but finding stuff out within a context that engages you can be fun :)
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: modziw on September 30, 2013, 03:30 am
First of all Holy Shit! The fucking weed is killing your memory!

Stopped smoking weed for 4 months! That's a joke Stop for 4 years and you will BEGIN to get your memory back.

You need to quit weed immediately and permanently.

You will unloack your storehouse of knowledge and stop being a dumbass.

All the info is there but you are blocked from access.

Then start asking people questions about themselves, their jobs, their opinions. Listen listen listen. Then they will open up and you will gain confidence. They will like you.

Go out into the world every day. Compliment everyone you see.

Find another drug if you must but weed is not it.

Modzi
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: Cornelius23 on September 30, 2013, 04:21 am
Good point, modziw. THC can significantly screw up the memory.
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: modziw on September 30, 2013, 04:50 am
Good point, modziw. THC can significantly screw up the memory.

+1 dude. I like people who agree with me :)

Modzi
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: fiendish on September 30, 2013, 10:17 am
Check out "The Story of Civilization" by Will Durant. Quite a few volumes but that'll get you up to speed.
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: weok83r8fd on September 30, 2013, 02:25 pm
Every single big college out there has lecture series on youtube like harvard, yale, stanford, MIT etc.  Watch those videos.  Go to khanacademy.org i think.  You can learn as much to be as smart of a human being as you want from those two sites alone.
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: londonlondon on September 30, 2013, 08:08 pm
thanks guys :)
definitely absorbing all of this advice and starting to go apply it right away

feels like my brain has been in a rather 'idle' mode for a while. im not even close to stupid, it just seems like ive lost my sense of processing information and filtering junk from substance. need to get those neurons firing again :).

anyone have any experience with that 'Lumosity' software?
really, thanks again , you're all A+ in my book :)
LL
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: BTC4CASH UK on September 30, 2013, 09:19 pm
First of all Holy Shit! The fucking weed is killing your memory!

Stopped smoking weed for 4 months! That's a joke Stop for 4 years and you will BEGIN to get your memory back.

<snip>



I thought exactly the same as I was reading it....
Title: Re: Educating myself on education, philosophy, etc.
Post by: Cornelius23 on October 01, 2013, 07:06 pm
Good point, modziw. THC can significantly screw up the memory.
+1 dude. I like people who agree with me :)

Ah, I might now have reason to disagree with part of the post I agreed with :)

I've started reading DoctorX's wonderful advice thread and found the following:
Short term memory is the neurocognitive ability most affected in chronic cannabis users. Chronic cannabis users forget more easily and learn less quickly concepts related to short-term/operative memory
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12901774

This effect is not neurotoxic (irreversible) but neuroadaptative. One month of abstinence (aproximately) is needed to revert these changes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22731735

So it would appear that four months should be much more than enough time for one's memory to recover.
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: TheJolllyRoger on October 01, 2013, 09:30 pm
Welcome to Freedom! Good to see a young person interested in more than their damn iphones and facefuck!


Become a socialist, seriously! Its logical. The SWP are great in England!



And your country really needs to get the fuck out of ours :)
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: BTC4CASH UK on October 01, 2013, 09:47 pm
<snip>

And your country really needs to get the fuck out of ours :)

Agree 100% with this!
Title: Re: Educating myself on history, philosophy, etc.
Post by: TheJolllyRoger on October 01, 2013, 10:54 pm
+1 A Chara!