Despite the fact that this is only an “outward attribute of a smart character”, and not something rational, but I calculated that if you study for 15 minutes a day (in the morning, in the evening and at lunch, one lesson, 5 minutes), then for You can learn a language in 5 years, which is 12 languages in a lifetime, which is usually perceived as something incredibly big that only a polyglot genius can do. Yes, given the development of AI, languages are far from being needed, but it seems that constantly learning something new develops the brain and postpones Alzheimer’s, and this is a good way to achieve consistency. Also, the feeling of being able to understand many different languages, find relationships and so on, it’s just nice. It’s like asking why every Potter mage doesn’t reach the level of Professor Quirrell in old age if it’s just a matter of training. For exactly the same reason why now not every person who has a smartphone knows at least three languages. People don’t appreciate it and make excuses like it’s not that important, although it’s definitely better to know three languages than one. Studying for five minutes is not at all difficult, and almost always learning a language is more rewarding than what a person would otherwise do. And yes, I myself have been studying languages 295 days without any missed days, the main thing was to break the process into several stages, which, as it were, insure each other, at the same time making each specific lesson less difficult. And I managed to increase the level of German from complete ignorance to an approximate understanding.
I must say, I made the mistake of thinking that it was enough to make a habit to get a result. At that time, I was interested, so I did not notice that interest was required here. But now I realize that only some part of the crystallized intellect, and not dynamic, can be made into a habit, learning anything, including languages, is not the activation of already learned neural connections, but the creation of new ones, this requires straining the intellect and this cannot be to do purely out of habit, some kind of emotional motivation is needed, for example, interest. So now I don’t study any one particular language, but switch between English, German, Greek, Latin and Italian as my interest fades / grows, in order to constantly keep it at a high level for at least one language.
Maybe. I just thought that LessWrong doesn’t just turn into a standard site with “ten tips on how to improve your life”, on the other hand, explicitly posing the question gives at least two answers: send about ready-made to other sites, and here give non-standard / new tips, talk about things that no one has noticed yet.
just turn into a standard site with “ten tips on how to improve your life”,
The obvious upgrade is having ‘life improvement’ be more experimental. People try things out and see how well they work, etc. (I’m not saying there has to be ‘peer review’ but ‘peer experimentation’ does seem like a good idea.)
Another approach is grouping things together, and having tools so that those things can be filtered out. (This won’t be perfect because short form ‘posts’ don’t have tags.) Also issues around content sticking around, versus floating down the river of time.
There is a difference between “better than default option” and “the best of all moderately easily searchable options”. And I doubt I’ve done the second search at all, not just done first and congratulated myself. I definitely wasn’t asking “which language is more useful/pleasant to learn—English, German, Japanese, Greek, Latin, Esperanto etc” or “which exercises are the most useful/pleasant—language, mnemonic, speedreading, mental arithmetic etc”
Edit: actually, now I think it would be better to learn speedreading instead of German, then learn English at x5 speed and for read-writing only purpose, and even next learn some conlang, not German. And do it not in “an app which is better than school”, but in “the app which is the best from all apps I found”.
Despite the fact that this is only an “outward attribute of a smart character”, and not something rational, but I calculated that if you study for 15 minutes a day (in the morning, in the evening and at lunch, one lesson, 5 minutes), then for You can learn a language in 5 years, which is 12 languages in a lifetime, which is usually perceived as something incredibly big that only a polyglot genius can do. Yes, given the development of AI, languages are far from being needed, but it seems that constantly learning something new develops the brain and postpones Alzheimer’s, and this is a good way to achieve consistency. Also, the feeling of being able to understand many different languages, find relationships and so on, it’s just nice. It’s like asking why every Potter mage doesn’t reach the level of Professor Quirrell in old age if it’s just a matter of training. For exactly the same reason why now not every person who has a smartphone knows at least three languages. People don’t appreciate it and make excuses like it’s not that important, although it’s definitely better to know three languages than one. Studying for five minutes is not at all difficult, and almost always learning a language is more rewarding than what a person would otherwise do. And yes, I myself have been studying languages 295 days without any missed days, the main thing was to break the process into several stages, which, as it were, insure each other, at the same time making each specific lesson less difficult. And I managed to increase the level of German from complete ignorance to an approximate understanding.
I must say, I made the mistake of thinking that it was enough to make a habit to get a result. At that time, I was interested, so I did not notice that interest was required here. But now I realize that only some part of the crystallized intellect, and not dynamic, can be made into a habit, learning anything, including languages, is not the activation of already learned neural connections, but the creation of new ones, this requires straining the intellect and this cannot be to do purely out of habit, some kind of emotional motivation is needed, for example, interest. So now I don’t study any one particular language, but switch between English, German, Greek, Latin and Italian as my interest fades / grows, in order to constantly keep it at a high level for at least one language.
‘Spending time well’ is optimal.
Maybe. I just thought that LessWrong doesn’t just turn into a standard site with “ten tips on how to improve your life”, on the other hand, explicitly posing the question gives at least two answers: send about ready-made to other sites, and here give non-standard / new tips, talk about things that no one has noticed yet.
The obvious upgrade is having ‘life improvement’ be more experimental. People try things out and see how well they work, etc. (I’m not saying there has to be ‘peer review’ but ‘peer experimentation’ does seem like a good idea.)
Another approach is grouping things together, and having tools so that those things can be filtered out. (This won’t be perfect because short form ‘posts’ don’t have tags.) Also issues around content sticking around, versus floating down the river of time.
Self review 2
There is a difference between “better than default option” and “the best of all moderately easily searchable options”. And I doubt I’ve done the second search at all, not just done first and congratulated myself. I definitely wasn’t asking “which language is more useful/pleasant to learn—English, German, Japanese, Greek, Latin, Esperanto etc” or “which exercises are the most useful/pleasant—language, mnemonic, speedreading, mental arithmetic etc”
Edit: actually, now I think it would be better to learn speedreading instead of German, then learn English at x5 speed and for read-writing only purpose, and even next learn some conlang, not German. And do it not in “an app which is better than school”, but in “the app which is the best from all apps I found”.