Larks comments on Rationality Quotes: January 2011 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: wedrifid 03 January 2011 05:24AM

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Comment author: billswift 03 January 2011 07:50:53PM 2 points [-]

We can add new methods to our lives regardless of age, circumstances, situation, or anything else. It simply requires a willingness to learn. A learning methods that can radically improve our lives doesn't necessarily take a lot of time.

Imagine the difference between a newborn infant and a two-year old. An infant cannot walk, talk, coordinate its body, control its bowels, eat solid food, understand language, or see very well. By two, the child is well on its way to mastering all these. That's how much learning a human can do in two years.

That same transformational amount of learning can take place in any similar period of time. In fact, as an adult, we can learn even faster. All it takes is commitment and willingness.

-- Peter McWilliams, Do It!: Let's Get Off Our Buts

Comment author: Larks 03 January 2011 07:57:17PM 11 points [-]

Evolution has been optimising humans to learn to walk as babies; it hasn't selected (directly, or anywhere near as strongly) for ability to do Topology.

Comment author: ShardPhoenix 04 January 2011 10:29:18AM 2 points [-]

That's true, but an adult will still learn topology a lot faster than a baby :).

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 06 January 2011 01:09:24PM 0 points [-]

I guess whether "adults learn faster" depends on how you look at it. Adults can learn any given thing faster than babies, but babies are getting the low-hanging fruit.