Some of what I learned in college I remember, because I used it. And I remember a few other bits and peices, but mostly, 42 years after I earned my last degree, I remember frameworks of knowledge, not the details themselves. Some of those frameworks are obsolete (genetics has undergone a revolution) and others were incomplete to begin with. I noticed the effect before I'd graduated; wrote a poem about it to mark graduation.(*) I gather from others that this is normal, colleges are for forgetting. Unless you found your spouse there. (I didn't: she and I were in the same icecream store in a Chicago blizzard.
That I
remember.)
One of the things I do remember was the habit of trying multiple hypotheses on an observation: What confounding factors are there? Once you get in the habit it is kind of fun, though it can make you a bit of a nuisance sometimes. And it probably gets in the way of making prompt decisions. And it opens you to squirrel attacks when you're trying to work through a problem from beginning to end. At least I think that's what those squirrels are planning. Oh look, another one!
I think some of the "creativity exercises" do pretty much the same thing. You don't need four years for them, though.
(*) No. Be grateful.
1 comment:
I tend to remember what has been reinforced by later use. So literature in general, because even if you don't reread things directly, you see references to works indefinitely. Fortunately, I forgot the psychology which was useless professionally. I still know some of the math, none of the physics, odd parts of the anthro. I majored in theater and still remember a lot of the plays and tech info even though I never used it (except reading Tom Stoppard). The linguistics I remember.
Quite a bit, actually.
Post a Comment