Comments on: The importance of feeling stupid

By: Harish

Harish — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:12:51 +0000

I am surprised there is a generalization that occurs to me now about what I posted a few minutes back.

Take care of the hardware you got- your body, (Thats all you got interfacing you with the physical world) and the dynamics that sustain it. All others may perhaps be changed at will.

By: Harish

Harish — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:04:30 +0000

Feeling stupid, or feeling important, both are voices in the head. Nothing has relation to reality. The magic, however, is that the human mind is so powerful that what ever it dwells upon, it makes real..

I have been a student of science, and learning somewhat loses its meaning, when other lacks start dominating, like for example, making money, selling, hyping, and pleasing important people.

Perhaps one value that remains is Health, proper nutrition, and what ever is required to sustain health.

A lasting knowledge inmy view, is about God, and Goodness. Science, technology are trasient, and may not give peace.

By: Ramya

Ramya — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:14:45 +0000

I really liked this post. It’s refreshing to see that someone who actually really likes science once felt like the men knew more than her. I think the stupidity problem can be more damaging to women simply because they’re traditionally not expected to excel in this arena, but, then again, things are changing rapidly, and that pretty much makes the stupidity problem generic.
I’ve been through it, I’m still going through it and it’s nice to see that stupidity can, in fact, lead to you learn more. Here’s to getting comfortable with that!

By: Jarrod Hart

Jarrod Hart — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:28:48 +0000

Great post, thanks.
I have been away from university for some time and see a similar confusion at the interface between technology and business:- the business managers (finance, sales, etc) want the R&D department to present black-and-white certainty and don’t realize that successful research requires people to work in a vacuum of certainty without becoming discouraged (or ‘thrive on chaos’ as I like to say).
These managers may well have been the students who were scared off science…
Anyway the result is that business rarely funds fundamental breakthrough research unless the management break through this misconception. Can you imagine telling your boss (possibly in the height of a recession), that you are mostly in the dark but have some interesting theories?

By: Captain Skellett

Captain Skellett — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:06:45 +0000

I really liked your post, it explains a lot of how I’ve felt after studying science at University – it really is like a change in focus from learning about what works to trying lots of things that don’t work. It’s a big jump.

I’m heading more down the road of science communication now, but I still think about how much fun scientific research could be, despite the frustrations that come with it!

By: sciencegeekgirl

sciencegeekgirl — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:23:26 +0000

Replace learn with exercise and “feel stupid” with get sweaty and sore.

Our geographic disparity is showing. We don’t sweat here in Colorado — kids’ tears evaporate before they hit the ground. Louisiana? Not so much.

Anyway. The discussion on PHYSLRNR continued on about just what you say — that confusion (and disequilibration, to be jargony) are necessary parts of the path to learning.

Still, we don’t want our students to feel *stupid*. “Productively confused,” is one thing. But so often if students feel dumb, they figure it’s because they’re not getting it, and can’t do it.

By: Rhett

Rhett — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:07:24 +0000

Replace learn with exercise and “feel stupid” with get sweaty and sore.

Same thing – right?

I hear students “I don’t like science because it’s confusing”. Confusion is just a way point on the journey to understanding.

What if someone said they stopped working out because they were always so sweaty?

I like the graph of challenges vs. skills.