As You Grow Older, Are You Still Interested In Learning New Things?

Discussion in 'Education & Learning' started by Ken Anderson, Sep 23, 2022.

  1. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    You were lucky, we only had the shows at The Atlanta Civic Center, Fulton County Stadium or Fox.
    I did see a live performance of Mitzy Gainer at the Civic Center only time I wore a formal gown. Lots of bands of the 60s 70s.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    TED Talks was not off-topic here but since we have a dedicated TED Talks thread, I have moved the extensive discussion of TED Talks there. I have also moved the more off-topic discussion of religions, philosophies, or whatever to a thread by that name, in the religion category.
     
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  3. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Being as curious as I am, yes I am. Before the internet I would always read about something that I was curious about and always was learning something new along the way. Now with the internet I have a wealth of knowledge that I have no use for :rolleyes:.
     
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  4. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Yes and no!

    No, I am tired of learning about all the diseases and disabilities that plague seniors, because that is forced on me if I want to be informed and not fall for unscientific information.

    Yes, I want to learn more about all kinds of things. Recently I studied a guy's plans that makes old-time hurdy gurdy's. I have no plan to ever make one or would even enjoy cranking one and watching a monkey dance, but I was intrigued by how the rotating crank works the action that plucks the strings. Useless knowledge but interesting.
     
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  5. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Thanks; now I've got Donovan singing "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in my head. :p
     
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  6. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Now thanks to you what was buried deep in my memory has been forced to the surface. What is next, "Mellow Yellow?"
     
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  7. John West

    John West Very Well-Known Member
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    When you're younger, you probably wanted to learn new things about almost everything; however, the scope of that desire was narrowed by having to focus on school, work, sports, etc. Some of the new things I wanted to learn turned out to be sufficiently boring (or low perceived value) to the point that I didn't want to learn any more (e.g., flying a plane - went so far as being able to fly SEL solo but found it expensive and boring). Then, there are all those things you've learned to some level of proficiency or understanding that the desire to learn more fades and/or dies. This and infirmities of older age can dull the learning desire. However, searching for new things to be interested in can keep your brain young and the desire to learn alive. Personally, I've tried nourishing the old brain in the last few years by learning to (1) cook, (2) program and operate a CNC machine, (3) fly a drone, (4) process and publish videos, (4) use new photo editing software, (5) find new adventure book authors, (6) attract birds and critters into the back yard, (7) join a camera club and participate in a few more online forums, (8) look into the history of some of the things I photograph, etc. It seems to be working.
     
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  8. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Lois, we saw " The Sound Of Music' at the Fox Theatre aka Fabulous Fox downtown Atlanta. Took the 4 oldest granddaughters, their first formal type event.
    Starring Marie Osmond and a couple other great singers. I was really surprised what a great job Marie did playing the part of Maria.

    I was teaching the grandkids how to sing with the CD at the time of that movie. I must have heard 'So Re Me' 1000 times.

    Mostly I'm "still" learning about gardening or raising animals.
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Some of the things you might want to learn to do require you to devote the rest of your life to that one thing if you want to continue to be proficient. When I bought a computer in the mid-1980s, I learned to program. I learned a couple of programming languages, both for programming in DOS, and, at one time, I had programs selling throughout the country. However, while I went on to other things, the computing world moved on to Windows and other graphics-based platforms and, since I had already learned to program, I didn't want to start over learning to program for new platforms. While I sometimes miss it, and even briefly consider learning to program again, I actually wanted to learn to program more than I wanted to be a programmer.
     
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  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I came across Burt Mustin's bio and thought it to be appropriate for this thread.

    [​IMG]

    We've all seen Burt in the movies & TV, but never as a young man. That's because Burt began his professional acting career at the age of 67, and subsequently appeared in over 150 film and television productions. He last role came in 1976 at the age of 92. He passed January of 1977, just a week shy of his 93rd birthday. That's not bad, starting a 25 acting year career at that age.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 21, 2022
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  11. Jane Carlson

    Jane Carlson Well-Known Member
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    That's very interesting. I've never heard that before. Out of curiosity, what makes that work? I will definitely give this a try since I've always had to slice off the top of cakes to make them level and then get crumbs in the frosting! Ugh.
     
    #56
  12. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    i just saw this...very useful info..
     
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  13. Leigh Petty

    Leigh Petty Active Member
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    I have enrolled in Wondrium. It offers, like youtube, videos about, well just about anything under the sun. I have a fascination with dinosaurs and Pompeii. Something to check out. I've really enjoyed it.
     
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  14. John West

    John West Very Well-Known Member
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    You might also enjoy the TED Talks (TED = Technology, Education, Design). Also, welcome to the forum!
     
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  15. Thomas Windom

    Thomas Windom Very Well-Known Member
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    Yeah, absolutely. However, I have never liked classroom environments. I much prefer doing it in my own. As one bit of evidence that it might work much better for me, I was taking a plant morphology class but I had a conflict with the lab period. The prof. said he could leave the material out with instructions on what needed to be covered and I could come in afterwards and do it on my own. I told him no problem. Fast forward, the lab exam was a big part of our final grade. I got a 96% on it. Unfortunately, the next highest grade in the class was in the low 60s. I had totally FUBAR’d the grading curve. So we had to have a second “final” exam to get things back on track.

    I have been trying to work my way through a Virology class that a prof. at Columbia has put on line for free. I had looked up the class and normally it would be $2,400 just to audit it, and he posted posted all of it on YouTube for free. There are about 20, 1 hour lectures and here’s the first one, which is very general and entertaining, in my opinion. This is just an opener to get folks involved.

     
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