Blog Engineering

After a twitter discussion between myself @wburris and @ thzatheist I was thinking I should write a blog about some of the topics that came up.

Part of the discussion was about applying scientific & engineering techniques to solve a wide range of problems in society. While thinking about what to say, I realized that I don't even have the skills to engineer a blog. In high school English, I spent the time thinking that this was a waste of time, because physics & math were a lot more interesting and useful. Looks like I was partially right, because I faild first year university Physics & Calculus. This was partly because my high school preparation in those areas was inadaquate, but also because I had no study skills.

The problem was not that English class was a waste of time, because it was English and not Physics or Math. It was a waste of time, becuause there was no discussion about the purpose behind it. There was no talk about critical thinking and how to organize ideas. I hope that the education system has improved some since the sixties & seventies, but it probably hasn't.

Throughout adult life, I have often thought about how to learn these skills, and often start working through a book to teach myself, but easily get distracted. My work life is made easier by learning more about computer programming and electronic circuit design, so working through a writing book, still feels like a waste of time.

I think that the reason my communication skill have been somewhat effective, is because of the number of books I have read.  In grade 2, I ignored the librarians suggestion that "The Secret Garden" was too advanced and took it out and read it cover to cover.  I haven't stopped reading since.  See Spot Run style books in grade one were very boring.  I have lost track of how many books I have read, but 1 book per month since 1964 would be a good estimate.

Since the theme of this blog is about finding ways to enhance the ability of my mind, its time to get busy on learning how to learn, how to think critically & how to write.