Bandrsnatch's comments

I am going to make a suggestion. Try speaking with the head of a math department at a local community college or at the nearest college. Explain what your goals are and ask for guidence in putting together a plan. I think you will be suprised. You may well find a mentor who can help you. Everyone learns at their own speed and many aren't ready for some subjects until later in life. For example, I was a C student in high school and college in chemistry despite the attempts of my teachers to get me interested. In my 40's all that learning that I didn't care about started to surface and I found that I now remembered and understood more than I actually thought I learned. The same thing happended with Calculus. I barely passed it but when I needed it for my work it became fascinating. I believe you are about to experience the same sort of revelation. I am in my 60's and I can't wait to learn new things. A completely different person than who I was when I was younger. Become curious, it will lead you to a life of wonderful fullfillment.

I have developed my own technique that has worked well for my children and myself. I ask myself after reading a chapter, doing homework or learning new information the following questions. What have I learned? How does this help me? What do I do with this new knowledge? The result is that by thinking about what I have learned I understand it better and it becomes lodged in my memory. I basically make the new information part of my thinking and observing life. When you think how can I use or apply this new information it becomes part of your working knowledge and is not easily forgotten. I have tried many of the other ways of memorizing but have found that if you come to learning with a joy and a willingness to immerse oneself you don't have to work that hard. Always asking questions puts your mind in a state to learn and remember. I hope that this is helpful.

I have found that I can focus intensely by wearing headphones while working on my laptop. I listen to non lyric music at https://somafm.com/dronezone/. I have found that this attenuates background noises and speech. I can still hear people talking to me but they tend to leave me alone unless the matter is urgent because I am wearing headphones. I have been doing this since 2005 and have found I get a lot more done with much less stress and the music tends to enhance my thinking, creativity and focus. I use this technique while working and my work is computer based. It's pretty much a soundtrack for working. I also use this technique while walking as it stimulates inner dialog in thinking and problem solving which naturally happens when taking 30 minute health walks. This may not work for everyone but has worked for me in high tech start up environments.

In the early 1990's I worked for a communications company and I recall saying that the cell phone was a game changer and that it would be used for more things than the current computer which was the biggest tech item being purchased at the time. Flash forward to 2022 and I am travelling across the world and I noticed that everything one needs to do requires a cell phone app from seeing a menu (QR codes) making reservations, to ordering tickets, ordering an Uber ride, to getting directions, getting on a plane, showing your vaccination status, checking your health vitals, face timing appointments. EVERYTHING! The cell phone became more important and powerful than I ever imagined and the cell phone has still not reached full maturity as a communications device.

Mastery in Software engineering is the ability to conceive and design a program or app in ones mind and then build it and have it work flawlessly. In my experience when a company wanted something done they set up a small team offsite with little corporate oversite. This is why small startups drive innovation. Simplicity is genius and is often seen by users as magic.

This would be like teaching slaves to read in the pre-civil war South. It would allow any child to rise above the worker bee status. Not something wanted by todays powerful businesses and institutions.

The answer is to put them into situations where they have to think on their own. Also, lots of board games, word games, and role playing games. Always ask the child why something happened the way it did and then give them hints to think about. Read to them and ask them questions about what is happening in the book.

I picked up a copy of Dune at the Harvard Coop as a teenager and I was amazed. I learned to develop an inner dialog of reasoning. It also started me thinking in terms of systems and the importance of efficiency. Loved it.

The best way I know to balance is by scheduling your time. Maybe keeping a log. When I read I usually read two or three books at a time with one book being very difficult and one being normal. I will switch books every 10 minutes to build my recall. I am extremely introverted so I don't talk to people unless I have to. I prefer to write.

Most likely no one is going to like this post. My father was a physicist and he had a large library of books. Growing up all of these books were over my head but I tried reading all of them. The more difficult the book the more determined I became to read and understand the content. I found this to be mind expanding. I began a life long quest to read the most difficult books and texts I could find. It sometimes takes several passes. Some things didn't make sense until years later. I recommend reading outside your comfort zone and above your comprehension. The book doesn't expand your mind it's the reading process and thinking about the reading that forces the mind to expand. I have done this for 50 years and I still do it every day It's not one book but the sum total of books that expand your mind. Read with curiosity and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. A man who reads one book lives once life while a man who reads a thousand books life experiences thousands of lives. I hope these word aren't wasted. I thought my fathers library was the library of Alexandria and it was until I got a library card.