Learning
I haven’t learned much in the past few weeks. I learned some things that turned out to be completely theoretical and totally untested. I gained almost no empirical knowledge. I did learn a little bit about how to set up a takedown on an opponent who is smaller than me. I also learned that the thing I look forward to every morning is a cup of black tea. I noticed this when I biked a few days this week: The thing I missed most was my cup of tea.
This week was really more of a loading phase: I set up judo practice, I figured out kick-boxing classes, and I found another sparring partner. I gained a lot of conceptual knowledge. This was simply mental masturbation. To quote Imam Gadzhi, “Conceptual knowledge is, at best, mental masturbation. The conceptual knowledge I gained this week was not even related to philosophy, which is the only time I think it is acceptable to actually teach yourself.
My conceptual knowledge this week had to do with electron configuration within an atom. Not only is this knowledge completely theoretical, you are obligated to learn this. While I am not completely against the education system, I think there is an obvious point of diminishing returns. Most education before highschool is very necessary. In highschool, there is a very clear point where the education system stops teaching people basic truths and starts focusing on conceptual knowledge. I think that, at this point of diminishing returns, children should begin to have at least a little choice in their future: whether they stay in school, get a job and so on.