Learning = Making Distinctions

[GeorgeLawson]

I've recently watched Leo's episode on Learning = Making Distinctions and thought that it was a very useful method to apply to anything new you want to learn about. Here's the link if you haven't seen it: 

I tried out the apple exercise he mentions in the video. There's a local supermarket where I live in Hong Kong which sells a variety of apples, which I think are mostly imported from New Zealand. I bought three different kinds from there, tried them and noted down my observations here:

Normally I don't think about it very much when buying apples, but after trying this exercise I discovered a whole, diverse universe of sensations in the simple act of mindfully biting three different apples. 

Distinction-making is an extremely powerful tool, and one which has opened up my curiosity about life. Somehow life becomes a lot less boring and more diverse the more you appreciate its fine distinctions.

How about you? What distinctions have you made recently? 

[Value]

Inspiring! I have used it in music to define the differences between similar sounding chords. Very useful way to look at learning.

[blankisomeone]

Cool. I watched that video, too. I did the exercise with different types of music by listening to a little bit of many types and trying to draw distinctions.

I of course noticed that I’d enjoy some types of songs more than others. But then I tried to drop my biases by simply becoming aware of them, because I wanted to simply notice the distinctions and not pitch in with my own opinions.

Then I realized that I even started enjoying types of songs that previously I’d hate. At a certain point tears rolled out of my eyes because I became emotional when I thought “woah, this type of music is actually really cool. Why was I not allowing myself to enjoy this?” Not that now I’ve acquired different tastes just by doing the exercise. It was more like just a moment where my ego dropped and I was simply listening to the songs without judgement. And that was a beautiful moment. But then of course the part of my ego that isn’t a fan of certain types of music came back.

I realized that my mind was playing an ACTIVE role in drawing the distinctions and dictating my likes and dislikes.

It’s a pretty cool exercise. Not only does it help you learn about the world more consciously but also opens your mind to other possibilities.

Did you taste the Apple laptop too? (Sorry I just HAD TO...?)

Edited August 5, 2020 by blankisomeone

[Forestluv]

@GeorgeLawson Very nice ? ? 

[Leo Gura]

@GeorgeLawson  @blankisomeone

Good work

[GeorgeLawson]

13 hours ago, Value said:

Inspiring! I have used it in music to define the differences between similar sounding chords. Very useful way to look at learning.

That's a good idea. I love the fine distinction between an A major and A minor chord. There's a subtle change in mood from happy to sad. 

11 hours ago, blankisomeone said:

Cool. I watched that video, too. I did the exercise with different types of music by listening to a little bit of many types and trying to draw distinctions.

I of course noticed that I’d enjoy some types of songs more than others. But then I tried to drop my biases by simply becoming aware of them, because I wanted to simply notice the distinctions and not pitch in with my own opinions.

Then I realized that I even started enjoying types of songs that previously I’d hate. At a certain point tears rolled out of my eyes because I became emotional when I thought “woah, this type of music is actually really cool. Why was I not allowing myself to enjoy this?” Not that now I’ve acquired different tastes just by doing the exercise. It was more like just a moment where my ego dropped and I was simply listening to the songs without judgement. And that was a beautiful moment. But then of course the part of my ego that isn’t a fan of certain types of music came back.

I realized that my mind was playing an ACTIVE role in drawing the distinctions and dictating my likes and dislikes.

It’s a pretty cool exercise. Not only does it help you learn about the world more consciously but also opens your mind to other possibilities.

Did you taste the Apple laptop too? (Sorry I just HAD TO...?)

Yes, I can imagine it's harder drawing distinctions whilst listening to music than eating apples because we have so many more pre-conceived notions about what the differences in music 'should' be. As you say, the mind plays an ACTIVE role in drawing distinctions, and so through experiencing the distinctions we can redefine the conceptual lines we draw based on the reality of what we actually hear. This allows us, as you describe, to appreciate music a lot more because we replace our pre-conceived distinctions with those drawn from direct experience. Well done! And oh, yeah... I found the apple mac had a dry yet streamlined sensation to it - much harder to digest than windows, though! 

@Forestluv @Leo Gura @Value Cheers!

[Origins]

This is a great introductory video for people but for me this video is only a bit of the way there, there are levels of learning. It starts with (1) sense (2) perception (3) distinction (4) patterns (5) synthesis (6) remodelling potential / creativity (7) and ends with sending different biochemical cues and messages to our genetics to code for different epigenetic changes.

Our biology as a whole is in a continuous learning loop, this is another more holistic combined with distinctive understanding of learning that most people miss. 1-6 describes all we can do with self awareness, of which I contend most people don't have very high levels of, I'd argue most people are actually not much greater than the fly stuck in my room at the moment being stuck banging around my ceiling light and no where else because its attracted to the light. It simply doesn't have enough depth in its reasoning on these 7 levels/stages (i.e. to figure out how to navigate out of my room). Human beings do the exact same thing, they do this for literally any addiction or attraction they have, they feel compelled to masturbate, watch x movie, song, jump on Facebook, scan for their instagram like enhancements, etc, etc.

Work on these 7 levels/stages of the cycle, in particular self awareness in the context of those 7 levels and you'll advance incrementally overtime. 

Literally, so most people are not that much more self aware than an average house fly. That's a big deal. A fly might not be able to recognise itself in a mirror (that we know of) but humans have the exact same robotic behaviours they're not able to get any self awareness over beyond group think. Why do you think conformity is so high? Use a bee if its a better conformity analogy instead of a fly. 

It's a big revelation, to realise that most people around you are flies. Just bugs. It makes you more empathic if you're looking at it rightly, more self aware because you want to be aware of your robotic impulses but totally less attached to cultural narratives because you realise they're all just hovering around a bunch of cow dung telling off other flies that won't conform to that particular cow dung or cow dung in general.

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Origins

[Origins]

On an unrelate note, based on the last stage of learning I noted (and that's just my contention perhaps I'm wrong), I don't really see it as self actualisation anymore, and its because I haven't really perceived a self for sometime and in the actualisation part, I think its a bit technically incorrect though while at the same time a term that's totally more relatable to the general populace. Technically incorrect because when seen through the lens of existence, the biological lifespan and the subjective experience simultaneously in the end its just a recursive loop with the DNA structure and our consciousness is the thing that constantly feeds and mediates that function through our self aware experience. So for me I just see it as DNA Mastery now (that is, self actualisation), there's no self here exploring anything for me so you know, I just gotta call my experience as I see it. And DNA Mastery is symbolic of that whole learning process which is an ongoing feedback loop with existence. DNA just paints the picture of directionality rather than necessarily being a descriptor of what consciousness is or what its experience is like of course, its important that this point isn't confused with being to physicalist,  after all its not like the term self actualisation describes a more accurate picture or any picture there anyhow in relation to the nature of consciousness in the context of the reality we feel intimately bonded with, its just a word that points and for me DNA Mastery points a little sharper while at the same time sort of disowning and moving on beyond the incorrect perceptions I previously had about those two words individually and when put together. It also helps me bind my perceptions to an inner loop as opposed to me projecting too much onto the external that I'm only supposing I know anything about.