say you are very interested in one particular topic or area of research?

fractal

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Jul 30, 2008
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and you wish to really explore and understand it, from every possible angle you can think of. how do you maintain a sense of perspective, a sense of balance and proportion? what i mean is, can you tell when you are being over-analytical (that's without going into the acquisition of additional biases), what's the risk of over-thinking something through study?

what's the price we pay, can instinct and intuition be compromised? does the part of us which understands and appreciates directly, very naturally, and very simply, the part that feels, suffer in the process (the intellectual endeavour)?

sorry if it seems a silly question, but it was inspired by the comments i got from one of the respondents, over at this post, and i would appreciate your sharing your experiences with me:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjJecvbs8_mwQnTId9qnnWnsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120829095851AAZIdSS
i just want to say that i am very grateful for the way you have responded, all of (((you)))
so many interesting points raised and in such a kind manner.

megalomaniac: your "bigger picture" reminds me that it's important to remember how knowledge can make a practical difference to our lives.

the cat: 'revisiting', is there anything more useful when we are trying to appraise our own progress and development?

mo: the value of other perspectives, of working in a team. i think that's partly the issue for me, isolation (academic or otherwise) is not healthy.

para siempre: your 'find a problem and turn it into a question to resolve and to focus on' that's how PhDs are born, lol! joking aside, to look at the work with a critical eye is, i have found, a great way to keep hold of myself, to stop myself from being entirely swallowed up by the thinking of others.

musing: you pick up on the importance of original thought tambien :)

it is interesting to
think about how different languages emphasize such different values or aspects of experience. the whole gender issue is fascinating to me also:

"Grammatical gender also shapes how we construe abstractions. In 85 percent of artistic depictions of death and victory, for instance, the idea is represented by a man if the noun is masculine and a woman if it is feminine, says Boroditsky. Germans tend to paint death as male, and Russians tend to paint it as female."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/20…

frou: sometimes it feels as if the weight of all these other voices - all clamouring with so much authority - are suffocating my own.

eb: putting ourselves in the path of those who would disagree with us. priceless. not only does it serve to thicken our skin and teach us a great deal about others and about ourselves but it's the one thing which can really propel us forward.

blue: the perils of mystifying or fuzzifying matters. indeed! that's the crux of what inspired
thank you canron4peace, ever changing and expanding i find easy to sign up for. throwing off the ego is a different matter - a much tougher challenge for me, especially since i am not sure i really grasp (in practical terms) how i do that, and have my doubts as to how committed to that i would be.
 
perspective...
]:)
this is why it helps to work with others,
says this hermit..

..preferably, others who disagree with us,
(those fools]:))

..and those whose ideas upset us,
we need especially.
 
To be 'educated' you need knowledge and understanding in depth and breadth. It's not enough to just know things but you have to be able to understand what it is you know. It's not enough to just focus on one area of knowledge (specialization) because you have to have some kind of context (breadth of understanding) to fit it into to have real insight.

That's the difference between being highly trained and being educated. A highly trained person might have a great deal of technical expertise in a given area but without depth and breadth of understanding (i.e. education) then it is not as valuable (well, valuable in the sense of being able to achieve things but less valuable in the sense of being 'educated', i.e. being able to grasp the proverbial 'bigger picture').
 
Hello (((fractal)) Its never easy especially as EB says in isolation and often there will be other subjects on the peripheral of the subject we are looking at, so there are influences both direct and indirect. I sometimes find these can be useful in setting boundaries (not sure if that is the right word). Playing the devils advocate can help too. I do think that there is something in sharing an understanding also with others who are studying the same.
 
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