Interesting to see your ideas change

[blike]

I find it interesting how much my beliefs and world view have changed since I started this forum. Reading through some of my older posts is like reading a completely different person. I guess it's just easy to see the change because everything is documented. For most people, they don't realize how much they've changed. It was only after reading some old school posts that I realized how different I am.

 

Anyone else have similar experiences here or elsewhere?

[Obnoxious]

I dunno, I'm kinda of new here, but I, being the internet-ual embodiement of all that is human, fear change, and thus must condemn you for changing for fear I myself will change.

[Phi for All]

Anyone else have similar experiences here or elsewhere?

I originally joined to learn more science after years out of school. I came from a brief stint at PhysicsForum, where I found many members at the time looked down their noses at me, the noob. Since I was more interested with their ties to Michio Kaku's forum, I found it easy to jump ship over to here.

 

And to this day I read more than I post, especially about science. I'm forever impressed with our members. My political, philosophical, religious and ethical views have not changed so much as they have gained focus. I've learned that the difference between convictions and beliefs can be staggeringly large.

 

The most important thing I've picked up here is that it is more important for the student to learn than to expect the teacher to teach him.

[blike]

The most important thing I've picked up here is that it is more important for the student to learn than to expect the teacher to teach him.

Indeed.

 

I dunno, I'm kinda of new here, but I, being the internet-ual embodiement of all that is human, fear change,

I always think of myself as pretty static as well. It's sort of like growing up. You don't notice all the changes that take place because they happen gradually. Likewise, there wasn't a single day where I said, "to heck with that idea, now I think this." Only now, looking back on things, do I realize how much they've changed over the course of 3 years.

 

I think a large factor in my change was my college education. Although I learned a great deal about specific subjects, I learned how to learn. I think that's one of the most important things college can impart you. It kind of goes back to what Phi was saying earlier about the importance of a student learning, rather than expecting to be taught everything.

[Hellbender]

I think a large factor in my change was my college education. Although I learned a great deal about specific subjects, I learned how to learn.[/i'] I think that's one of the most important things college can impart you. It kind of goes back to what Phi was saying earlier about the importance of a student learning, rather than expecting to be taught everything.

 

i agree. If anything, college is teaching me to absorb information and think aobut it, rather than rote memorize it. high school was mostly about memorizing (something I have no problem with), but it gets boring. Questionin something and thinking about it is the best way to really learn something. I remember sometimes asking my high school biology teacher questions, and him giving quick, short answers becasue we had to continue our 45 minute note taking session.

[Johnny5]

I dunno, I'm kinda of new here, but I, being the internet-ual embodiement of all that is human, fear change, and thus must condemn you for changing for fear I myself will change.

 

 

There is nothing wrong with changing, as long as it's for the better.

[swansont]

I think a large factor in my change was my college education. Although I learned a great deal about specific subjects, I learned how to learn.[/i'] I think that's one of the most important things college can impart you. It kind of goes back to what Phi was saying earlier about the importance of a student learning, rather than expecting to be taught everything.

 

This is what I got out of my undergraduate experience, too. Plus the transition from thinking I knew everything (typical teenager) to the realization that, despite having learned a great deal, I still knew very little.

[Phi for All]

Plus the transition from thinking I knew everything (typical teenager) to the realization that, despite having learned a great deal, I still knew very little.

A transition that seems to be the true beginning of our creative lives. I forget where I heard it or who said it, but I'll never forget the words, "Now that you realize you are nothing, perhaps you can become something."

[ydoaPs]

i only started this last summer and i can already see a lot of change. when i read some of my early posts, i can barely believe that they were mine.

[Phi for All]

i only started this last summer and i can already see a lot of change. when i read some of my early posts, i can barely believe that they were mine.

Am I remembering correctly that only our last 500 posts are kept in queue? Bummer. It would be interesting to see our first posts.

[Pangloss]

Online discussion has changed my political and moral viewpoint vastly over the years. I've been involved in online discussion since the early days of CompuServe and The Well. I've gone from a conservative (libertarian and conservative radio shows were the first entities that made me actually think about politics) to a liberal and back to the middle again.

[ecoli]

Online discussion has changed my political and moral viewpoint vastly over the years. I've been involved in online discussion since the early days of CompuServe and The Well. I've gone from a conservative (libertarian and conservative radio shows were the first entities that made me actually think about politics) to a liberal and back to the middle again.

 

Wow...I've had very similiar experiances.

[coquina]

I find it interesting how much my beliefs and world view have changed since I started this forum. Reading through some of my older posts is like reading a completely different person. I guess it's just easy to see the change because everything is documented. For most people' date=' they don't realize how much they've changed. It was only after reading some old school posts that I realized how different I am.

 

Anyone else have similar experiences here or elsewhere?[/quote']

 

I'm going to broaden this a little to include the internet as a whole. Back in 1996, my husband decided we should be online. I thought it was silly. The first day I had access, there was a new website highlighted called the "Why?Files", that had been built by the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a research project to explore how people learn about science. It had a science discussion forum associated with it and from day one, I was hooked.

 

My friends could not believe I had become an "internet junkie". At that point, I hadn't talked "scientific" to anyone in years. My friends didn't even know I had once been a biology major. We were into boating, and anything seriously scientific made their eyes glaze over.

 

It was from a geologist on the Why?files that I became interested in geology. The Chesapeake Bay crater had recently been discovered and he gave me a link to it. I've been learning about geology ever since, and still have so much to learn.

 

I learned to love science again at the Why?files. I made true friends there. Unfortunately, after a couple of year's the research project was over and the forum portion of it closed down. This is the first site I have found that equals it - a place where you can ask questions and have them answered, as well as help people who ask questions to which you know the answer.

 

If you had known me in 1995, you would have known a person who could only discuss the advantages of various types of bottom paint, and how to repair rotten spots in a wooden hull. I cannot believe how much broader my life has become. When the Why?files discussion forum shut down, I had serious withdrawels. It took me forever to find a similar site.

 

FYI - The "Science Behind The News" part of the Why?files is still here:

http://whyfiles.org/

[srh]

I'm only new to the forum, so there hasn't been much chance for my views on specific subjects to evolve in particular. However, I can say that already, from reading through backlogs of posts and threads, I've spied the tip of the iceberg, in the distance, through super-zoom binoculars, attached to a telescope, how very little I know on certain topics...I mean, I knew I had a lot to learn, but this forum's really rubbing it in!

[ed84c]

I guess i have changed a bit, looking back.

 

Just had a thought whilst reading this thread, i hope by the time i go to uni, some people off here will be going to the same one...........