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InvisibleZanthius
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BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION
    #10597130 - 06/30/09 10:50 AM (14 years, 8 months ago)



In our modern society we tend to get more and more specialized in a specific field as we grow older. This might be good for our society, because there is a need for people with specialized knowledge in our society, and progress is most often made within different fields by individuals that are highly specialized in those fields.

However, it isn't necessarily good for the individuals themselves to become too specialized, as our growth tends to stagnate within a field the more specialized we get. A person learning to play the violin advances in a logistic growth curve, where the individual is learning a lot in the beginning, but advances more and more slowly within the field after a while. Just like a person learning a new language learns a lot of vocabulary in the beginning, but advances more and more slowly after a while, as the individual becomes more familiar with the language.

If however we start to learn within a new field as soon as we are beginning to stagnate in another field, we will continue to advance at more or less the same speed as before. This however will give individuals a broad understanding, rather than make them highly specialized within a specific field. Our society might prefer to have highly specialized individuals, but individuals will advance at a higher speed by starting to learn in a new field, as soon as they start to stagnate in another. This might be better for the individuals themselves, especially if there is an inherent value in knowledge.

Edited by Zanthius (06/30/09 11:01 AM)

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InvisibleCorrie
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: Zanthius]
    #10597212 - 06/30/09 11:09 AM (14 years, 8 months ago)

Good point :smile:.
Maybe if more people reverted to being well-read and 'accomplished', like they were back in the renaissance to regency days, we would all have a better lifestyle.
I mean, a lot of people get this, but it's nice to see it in print AND with illustrations :tongue:.


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Offlineteeter
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: Corrie]
    #10597508 - 06/30/09 12:15 PM (14 years, 8 months ago)

I agree with Corrie that if we became more well-read and accomplished, we wuld have a better lifestyle. However, I disagree with Zanthius fora couple reasons. First, experts in a field are a requirement; our lifestyle would definately decline if there were no more "experts." For example, there would be no more doctors because to be a good doctor, you need to be an expert on medicine, you can't just "dabble." Secondly, without people dedicated to one field, there would be no new discoveries. If everyone just learned a little bit about physics, nobody would be knowledgable enough to make new discoveries. Finally, I think that not only would our knowledge stop growing, it would effectively shrink.  Basically if we all just learned the basics of a topic and moved on before we covered the advanced more difficult material, we would actually never learn the advanced knowledge. After a few generations of this learning style, things learned after "stagnation" would just be forgotten.

Basically, I think everyone should learn as much as they can and be well rounded, but if we all (by all I mean a huge majority of us) don't specialize, I think society will crumble and our base of knowledge will stop growing and eventually shrink.


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"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." - William Blake

"Psychedelics helped me to escape.. albeit momentarily.. from the prison of my mind. It over-rode the habit patterns of thought and I was able to taste innocence again. Looking at sensations freshly without the conceptual overlay was very profound." - Ram Das

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InvisibleZanthius
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: teeter]
    #10597542 - 06/30/09 12:22 PM (14 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

teeter said:
Basically, I think everyone should learn as much as they can and be well rounded, but if we all (by all I mean a huge majority of us) don't specialize, I think society will crumble and our base of knowledge will stop growing and eventually shrink.




Well, I have already raised this point, but I am not completely sure if you are right. If we become smaller and smaller compared to the total knowledge of our society, nobody really understands the whole. This might generate increased amounts of chaos in the society as a whole. It is also possible that less problems are generated in our society, if the individuals have a broader knowledge themselves.

In any case, I might consider individual growth to be of a greater importance than technological growth in our society. Humans are too immature for the technology they have today, and we are in a great danger of destroying ourselves with our technology due to our immaturity as a species.

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OfflineKickleM
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: Zanthius]
    #10597590 - 06/30/09 12:35 PM (14 years, 8 months ago)

Stagnation? Huh...
How can music ever become stagnant? You're focusing on the skill of the individual, and sure, the skill may stagnate, but when it does, they can then turn their full attention to creating new music. The complete opposite of stagnation.

If they simply dabbled in playing the violin, I suppose it would be possible for someone to create, by chance, a new piece of music using basic knowledge, but it seems far less likely than someone who has mastered all the techniques currently available. Especially if, as soon as they learn the basic techniques, they move on to learning something else. We only have so many cognitive resources available, and to learn a new task while trying then to create music from the previously learned skills, is going to end up causing interference in one or the other.

Just my take on it.


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Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction?
Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain

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InvisibleZanthius
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: Kickle]
    #10597628 - 06/30/09 12:46 PM (14 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

Kickle said:
How can music ever become stagnant? You're focusing on the skill of the individual, and sure, the skill may stagnate, but when it does, they can then turn their full attention to creating new music. The complete opposite of stagnation.




Well, if you were previously just learning the techniques of the violin, then starting to compose music would be to start learning in a new field. In any case, if you composed music for many years, you might also come to a point where you are stagnating there.

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OfflineKickleM
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Re: BROAD LEARNING VERSUS SPECIALIZATION [Re: Zanthius]
    #10597690 - 06/30/09 01:02 PM (14 years, 8 months ago)

I don't really see how.
To me, this stagnation of which you refer, is mastery.
Can one ever master composition?

And who JUST learns how to play an instrument, and upon stagnation, continues JUST to play the instrument?

This concept of stagnation does not sit well with me. I don't think anyone would be content with stagnation, and as a result, will always find something more to build on.


--------------------
Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction?
Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain

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