Belief systems you've dismissed and why

Peregrinus · 09-03-2021 2:43am

magicbastarder wrote: »

he focuses entirely on the entrance exam, not the ensuing education; that it rewards people who can think extremely quickly, which might be an advantage if law was practiced the way it is in the movies.

Yes, well. That's a general characteristic of closed-book exams, and it's true for many professions besides law that, for the most part, problems do not have to be solved instantly, and without recourse to reference materials or any opportunity for discussion or collaboration with colleagues.

magicbastarder · 09-03-2021 9:10am

of course, but the exams being discussed are incredibly time pressured - the advice given, for example, in the comprehension section, is *do not reread* the piece or any part of it, you simply don't have time. and you don't have time to revisit questions you think you might need to modify or tweak. it's a real 'get it right first time and don't look back, or fail' ethos.

if you want to listen to it:

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush

smacl · 09-03-2021 6:16pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

of course, but the exams being discussed are incredibly time pressured - the advice given, for example, in the comprehension section, is *do not reread* the piece or any part of it, you simply don't have time. and you don't have time to revisit questions you think you might need to modify or tweak. it's a real 'get it right first time and don't look back, or fail' ethos.

if you want to listen to it:

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush

Must have a listen when I get a few minutes. Reminds me in way of an old BBC documentary "The wrong stuff" which looks at the downside of this type of ethos.

Interesting in the pandemic that all the third level exams my daughter and her friends are currently doing are open book with more emphasis on longer assignments that reward applying knowledge rather than retaining and regurgitating it. Seems closer to what is required outside of academia albeit at the risk of higher levels of cheating.

Bannasidhe · 17-03-2021 12:40pm

smacl wrote: »

Must have a listen when I get a few minutes. Reminds me in way of an old BBC documentary "The wrong stuff" which looks at the downside of this type of ethos.

Interesting in the pandemic that all the third level exams my daughter and her friends are currently doing are open book with more emphasis on longer assignments that reward applying knowledge rather than retaining and regurgitating it. Seems closer to what is required outside of academia albeit at the risk of higher levels of cheating.

I can only talk about my little area of academia but even with open book assignments ya can tell if the person knows what they are talking about fairly quickly.

I always liken it to this assignment:

"Describe the process and experience of driving a car".

The Fails:

There will be a few answers that describe driving a scooter/moped/truck, sometimes well written and all round excellent but sadly not answering the car related question.

Not clear if the author knows even what a car is.

The Middle Rank (can go from barely pass to just not at the first level):
Some experience of car driving, obviously has the book open and is referring to it a lot. Mentions things the book says to do but in reality no experienced driver actually does (always turn head to look around rather than use mirrors when reversing/ do the whole mirror check thing before taking off etc).

The Firsts: Someone who knows how to drive and has been driving for years. A warts and all description. The may refer to the book to refresh their memory but are quite likely to preface whatever they quote with "in reality most people never do that, they do this".

By the end of the first paragraph it is pretty clear which category an assignment is likely to fall into then.

antiskeptic · 24-03-2021 10:30pm

There's probably a label that can be attached to the views I held before conversion to Christianity... but I'm not sure what it would be. I didn't think about God, didn't think about where the world or all the things in it came from, didn't think about my nominal Roman Catholic 'faith'.

That 'faith' was worked around as many in Catholic Ireland worked around it - albeit at the very lowest end of the input scale in my family's case. I went to church for weddings and funerals and preferred that extra Christmas Eve pint to the Churches attempt to meet us half way with their Midnight Mass. I sensed the scowls of the few devotees in our estate as we played outside on Sunday morning. I missed my pre-confirmation mass/forgiveness/instruction or whatever it was, in order to watch a good football match on the telly. Religion, as experienced in school and in the odd brushes with the Church (leaving aside the violence and the odd nice brother), generally had a "damp handshake" feel to it. Kinda Creepy .. which is what it turned out to be. About all I liked about it, and like still, is the smell of the incense that they swing around on that ball and chain.

Nor did I care about these weighty things. antiskeptic was antiskeptic and lived his life as he saw fit. The prime thing that concerned me, was me. And that was, by and large, the view that seemed to be shared by people I came in contact with - so there was no reason to think there was anything inappropriate/invalid about it.

A constant throughout my life had been a tendency to live it intensely. As a kid it was the string of hobbies; entered into with relish, then developed to deep levels. Not for me, the casual picking up and discarding of interests once the initial novelty had worn off. Additional to a strong drive to seek fulfillment and enjoyment however, was a parallel companion called boredom. Whatever it was that gave initial satisfaction would eventually (even if it took years) lose it's lustre and I'd start to see the activity as being...well, a bit pointless really. There was always a void behind the surface satisfaction and pleasure. Something that remained untouched - no matter what I tried to fill it with: childhood hobbies, juvenile delinquency, drugs, industrial levels of sex and then, when I came to my senses a little, university, work, success-seeking, homebuilding.

This satisfaction-seeking had, for me, the characteristic that I needed more as I went along. Yet for all the new thrills I could access, they never ever approached the peaks of childhood ones. The shiny new motorcycle I could now easily afford, not a patch on the beat up old first Suzuki X5200 I'd scraped my pennies together for and tuned up to to scrape my first 100mph.

Neither did anything ever seem to pan out as expected. The promise always had a downside. The bosses, to think of one example, I had so respected for their confidence/abilities/power when I was climbing up the ladder, were the same folk who had non-marriages/70 hour weeks /no relationship with their kids - once I had climbed high enough to get a view of things myself. You might be able to buy or sell a €10 million project, but you can't raise kids working the 60-70 hour weeks that are required to do so.

I couldn't have vocalised it so at the time but to me, life had to be about something and everything I looked to and worked at for meaning was transparent. Nothing had substance - they were just beautifully packaged illusions.

Mild disillusionment with it all set in at 30. By the time I passed my 38th birthday that disillusionment had cranked up to despair. I was trapped and I knew enough to know it. I had tried innumerable things to fill the void and although there were many things as yet untried, logic and experience told me that the results could only be the same eventually. The itch was getting worse, the attempts to scratch it more desperate and damaging. I was an object moving in a straight line and no exterior force was having any effect. The covers were off and the only direction I could go in, was the one I had long being going in. Down.

It was at that point I turned to an unseen, unbelieved and unknown God and cried for help.

He did...and although I've looked sideways more often than I'd like to admit, I haven't looked back since.

Belief systems you've dismissed and why

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