knowledge meme from fiannaharpar

[cellio]

If you could have 10 knowledge modules installed in your head right now, what would they be?

(I will assume that these are modules that could currently exist, rather than things like "cure for cancer". :-) )

1. Hebrew. All flavors -- biblical, classical, modern, dilects... written and spoken.

2. Music theory. All of it -- medieval, renaissance, modern.

3. That combination of psychology, sociology, political science, and whatnot that would allow me to determine what someone means and what he's trying to do, rather than what he says.

4. Cooking technique, particularly meat, particularly red.

5. Update to current CS technologies -- design patterns (catalogue), concurrency, N-tier/peer-to-peer/client-server/other architectures, performance without sacrificing design, and much much more. (Do I have to expend a separate slot on encyclopedic knowledge of Java?)

6. Names, faces, and key facts about everyone likely to ever be relevant to me, indexed for quick and reliable access.

7. Handyman 101, including carpentry, plumbing, and electricity.

8. Playing bowed strings (viola da gamba, cello, etc -- ok, violin is ok too :-) ).

9. Literary and historic classics, indexed for retrieval by quote, obscure character name, plot point, miscellaneous factoid, and so on.

10. Photography.

Comments

[siderea]

Ten slots seems awfully generous. Correctly phrased, I expect I could get most of human knowledge into a 10-item bullet list. Like, item 1, "Music. All of it. Ever."

[cellio]

True. I was trying to at least somewhat honor the spirit of the question, at least, by focusing on things I'd like to magically know -- which is not the same as things I would like to learn. :-) (For example, aside from the language item there are no religion items on the list -- because the process of learning is rewarding in and of itself. I don't want someone to just wave a wand and give it to me.)

[siderea]

Yeah, I'm torn about exactly that issue. If I feel strongly enough about a domain, well, I've already started learning it and would prefer to do it the hard way. This leaves topics like "A comprehensive understanding of Cambridge, MA politics" and that seems like such an utter waste of a wish.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Have you ever studied something that didn't stick in your head no matter how you tried? I think I like this meme because there are some things I've studied (most notably languages) that just won't stay with me.

A.
off to meme.

[gregbo.livejournal.com]

Do you have an opportunity to practice speaking the languages you learn (preferably with people who speak those languages regularly and well)? I think learning languages is something that needs constant practice and reinforcement.

I found computability theory (Turing machines, NP-completeness, etc.) difficult in that way. I will write some more about that in my LJ, perhaps.

[cellio]

Some areas of knowledge seem to require this kind of reinforcement and some don't. (Language does for me, too.) I wonder what characteristic they share? And I wonder if "language" is too broad in this case; I suspect that grammar can be internalized with little maintenance in a way that vocabulary can't. I have no relevant knowledge here, but now I'm curious.

[gregbo.livejournal.com]

There are also aspects of learning diction, dialect, etc. For example, when I went to France last summer with my chorus, I could understand my other choral members' French better than our hosts'. Granted, my choral members were speaking slower, but I was also able to understand them better due to being used to their speech patterns.

As to your original question, I could use a shot of #5 right now. A few years ago, I would have asked for #8 (applied to piano and voice).