NationStates Jolt Archive

So, I've started working on my small business which is going well so far. I don't think I'll be going back to college for anything else, but ever since I took an Abnormal Psych class in the Fall of '07, I've been interested in learning more about psychology. I may even start picking up a few psychology books at the bookstore and just learning about it for the Hell of it. I doubt I'll get a degree and a job as a psychologist, even if I specialized in abnormal psych, but it's something that intrigues me.

So, has anyone else ever started to learn about something for the heck of learning about it?

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_problem_with_wikipedia.png

I learnt what this thread was about for the heck of it

But seriously, yeah, plenty of stuff, mostly from wikipedia.

Certainly. For fun I've learned,

to cook
to knit
to crochet
to spin yarn and thread
to do counted cross stitch
English Renaissance History
How to write a sonnet (badly)
How to paint with oils, acrylics and watercolor
About tarantulas, snakes, rats, various breeds of dogs (I like corgis) and cats (I like them all)

I'm planning to learn:

How to sew
Quilting
Calculus
German
Different kinds of needlework
Any number of other things that may present themselves.

Sometimes this involves taking a class or two (or more), sometimes reading several books, sometimes just doing it.

I don't think life is much fun if you're not learning something (as long as it's something you're in which you're interested - I really don't want to learn tax accounting - ew).

Sometimes this involves taking a class or two (or more), sometimes reading several books, sometimes just doing it.

I don't think life is much fun if you're not learning something (as long as it's something you're in which you're interested - I really don't want to learn tax accounting - ew).

I agree. The main reason I'm interested in psychology is even though I am a misanthropic person, I do want to learn how people think, their thought process, and why they do the things that they do, and I think that psychology will help me in that regard. I am always trying to figure people out.

I am currently studying, purely for my own amusement, Ancient Greek. I think this might count.

currently i'm learning to model in Google Sketchup and Kerkythea, but i do a see a use for it somewhere down the line at work. i don't really have time to learn for fun, much, but if i think about it, i learn stuff at work every day. not as a student, just because i'm usually tasked to do things i might not yet know how to do, so i have to learn as i go along. challenging.

Yeah, I learned ancient Greek in high school for fun.

Pretty much constantly. People who don't like learning for its own sake are boring.

I like learning things, like how a coilgun works. But I purposely try to learn things that have no effect on what I want to do.:D

tell me what you mean by learning

fuck knows I'm always picking up shit otherwise I'd be in school >_>

Most of what I have learned has been for fun.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_problem_with_wikipedia.png

Yeah, that activity for me usually goes about like this ^^^ lol

For fun I picked Japanese, learned curation, how to treat leather, drawing, painting, piano, French, Portuguese, poetry, oratory, political sciences (which I quite) and a few other things.

For fun I picked Japanese, learned curation, how to treat leather, drawing, painting, piano, French, Portuguese, poetry, oratory, political sciences (which I quit) and a few other things.

Im sorry, it just bothered the hell outta me to keep reading that as Quite (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quite)

Im sorry, it just bothered the hell outta me to keep reading that as Quite (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quite)

Damn it, those grammar mistakes keep happening.:(

Damn it, those grammar mistakes keep happening.:(

Did you ever figure out where you left the comma out of this:

I came corrupted already.

Damn it, those grammar mistakes keep happening.:(

lol, I hate to be the grammar Nazi, cause mine sucks....

But, damn, that just stuck me for some reason, I stared at it for like 3 minutes before I figured it out :p...



I want to pick up some Irish Gaelic for no real reason, lol..

Did you ever figure out where you left the comma out of this:

Nope. Why don't you show where said comma should be?

lol, I hate to be the grammar Nazi, cause mine sucks....

But, damn, that just stuck me for some reason, I stared at it for like 3 minutes before I figured it out :p...

No problem. Tbh, I am actually quite mortified for committing such a mistake.

I want to pick up some Irish Gaelic for no real reason, lol..

Ah, Irish Gaelic, that's such a beautiful language. I'm listening at the moment to Aoife Ní Fhérraigh, singing in Irish Gaelic.

I want to pick up some Irish Gaelic for no real reason, lol..

Same here. Well, that and Latin.

Pretty much constantly. People who don't like learning for its own sake are boring.

If I didn't like you and your presence, I'd politely ask you to leave my head. Things being as they are, I'll just ask you to shift over to the other side from time to time because otherwise my neck gets sore with the imbalance.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_problem_with_wikipedia.png

This. I can go from for example the USP and end up in the railgun article or the Type 45 destroyer article.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_problem_with_wikipedia.png

As an ardent fan, I've seen that picture before, and my most lasting and impressive learning outcome from it was that there actually is a Wiki article on "fatal hilarity", and it's even somewhat funny.
On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the Kung Fu Kapers episode of The Goodies, featuring a Scotsman in a kilt battling a vicious black pudding with his bagpipes. After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant.

Heh.

Also, is it just me and some nerdy friends who set up the challenge of who could go the way from "Tacoma Narrows Bridge" to "Lesbianism in Erotica" with the least number of articles/clicks?

As an ardent fan, I've seen that picture before, and my most lasting and impressive learning outcome from it was that there actually is a Wiki article on "fatal hilarity", and it's even somewhat funny.

I know! (althoguh I usually get there from, ironically enough, The Funniest Joke In The World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funniest_joke_in_the_world).)

I'm what you might call a "compulsive learner", and go out of my way to learn new stuff all the time. I've always been like this, as far back as I can remember, and the advent of the Internet has made most of the world's knowledge available to me for free, which is just too cool for words.

is it just me and some nerdy friends who set up the challenge of who could go the way from "Tacoma Narrows Bridge" to "Lesbianism in Erotica" with the least number of articles/clicks?
I'm intrigued... how many clicks did it take?

I've learned to bead for fun.
I learned to make my own arrows for fun.
Learned archery for fun.
Am teaching myself to cook for fun.
Studied wolves (through books) for fun.
Painting lead miniatures, and vinyl and resin figures....
Cross stitch.....

I learned to make my own arrows for fun.
Learned archery for fun.
Studied wolves (through books) for fun.

remind me never ever to upset you *runs off with your bows*

I will out of the blue suddenly pick up and learn a little bit about something simply for the experience of doing so. I really can't point a a single example because frankly.. I kept going to school as a kid because it was fun.

So, has anyone else ever started to learn about something for the heck of learning about it?I learn about flying just to do it! :D

If I didn't like you and your presence, I'd politely ask you to leave my head. Things being as they are, I'll just ask you to shit over to the other side from time to time because otherwise my neck gets sore with the imbalance.

Sometimes I could say the same to you but for the fact that it actually puts something in my skull.

That's how I got into linguistics, and eventually conlanging and conworlding.

I picked up badminton a few summers ago, and got good enough that I was the intramural men's singles champion at the last tournament (my big advantage is I have the speed and stamina to wear 90% of my opponents down).

Quite a bit more, too.

Only a little. I took a semester of intensive Latin a year or two back, for instance. But not very much, mostly because I'm awfully lazy.