Still Learning and How to Still Learn

As some of you may have noticed, the illustrations in Monday’s (30 April, 2012) were incorrect.  For those of you who didn’t notice, that’s OK – because I didn’t either.  It is interesting how much more thoroughly you understand something once you’ve tried to convey it to someone else.  Regular readers will know that I, to my surprise, scored very poorly on the pronunciation blog some time ago.  I only noticed the errors in the blog referenced above when I started to write what was to be today’s blog about double sweep.  Somehow things just didn’t “fit” which led me to re-examine the drawings.  Now that the corrections have been made, I can re-address writing that blog which will appear as the next in this series.

As I take a breath here, it’s probably worth suggesting that we all take a little time now and then to assess our understanding of certain things we think we already fully understand.  One good way to test your understanding is to try to convey your understanding to another person.  It doesn’t matter if the person already has knowledge of the subject or not – I can almost assure you that both parties will have a better understanding of the subject once the discussion has ended.  I know that writing this blog has led me to many unexpected revelations as, basically, it is a conversation with myself.  It has also made me realize that mis-understanding something can be forgiven while leading others to the same mis-understanding is unforgivable.  Maybe there’s some kind of message here or I may just be babbling (as usual).  That’s a question best answered by a philosopher, not an engineer.

Have a GREAT day!

–  FJF  –