[9fans] How do you teach people to think

[9fans] How do you teach people to think

[Laura Creighton]

One way is to stick large amounts geometry and other reasoning type
math tasks down the throats of 10-13 year olds.  Hours of extra work
every day.  Pack it in until they are exhausted and demand something
that is real hard physical exercise.  That was my father's recipe for
me.  Worked great as far as I can tell.

I have had a certain amount of success with simply telling people that
`i expect you to do a certain amount of thinking' ... and then refusing
to do their thinking for them. In other words, actually expecting it.

Laura

Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think

[Boyd Roberts]

i'm not sure you can.  i think i'll leave it at that.

Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think

[Barry]

"Natural Selection" (a la Darwin)

oh, I'm sorry. That merely _Eliminates_ the non-Thinking members of a
species.....

WARNING: Do not place tongue in light socket.

WARNING: Pouring hot coffee down front of own trousers may cause extreme
discomfort.

    You can't MAKE someone think..... Our Constitution accepts stupidity as
right. Conversely, [nasty, bitter comments deleted]. Making Nazi-like Death
Camps for Stupid People (including those which are too lazy to think) is less
than politically correct.


==================================================================
  Once a proud programmer of Apple II computers, he now spends his days
     and nights in cheap dives fraternizing with exotic dancers.

Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think

[Boyd Roberts]

> "Natural Selection" (a la Darwin)

à la darwin

> ..., he now spends his days
>      and nights in cheap dives fraternizing with exotic dancers.

gee, just like feynman.

Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

Barry wrote:
> You can't MAKE someone think..... Our Constitution accepts stupidity as
> right.

Not really.  The US Constitution imposes structure on the federal
government.  Assuming you mean the principles on which the
Constitution is based, it would be much more accurate to say that
they include the right to make one's own decisions insofar as they
don't involuntarily impact on others.  That implies stupid
decisions as well as smart ones; the mitigating factors are (1) it
keeps others from deciding for you what is stupid or smart and (2)
so long as you get to suffer the consequences of your decisions,
it is a self-correcting system.  To the extent that there is
currently a problem, it's mostly due to attempts to violate (2).

Re: [9fans] How do you teach people to think

[presotto]

WARNING: do not look into laser with remaining eye