We visited a friend's house the other day and Sam wanted to play in the swimming pool. The temperature was in the 50's and the pool was not heated. We told Sam it was too cold but he insisted on going out there. It wasn't because he didn't understand what "cold" is. In the past, he had experienced snow, ice cream, ice cubes, refrigerators, and the Pacific Ocean. What he had not experienced before is a cold swimming pool. So after fighting with him to keep him inside, we gave up and let him go out there by himself. After 15 seconds he was back inside looking for a warm place to cuddle. This is learning and forgetting.
Understand a concept doesn't mean knowing it. I once worked with an Internal Medicine resident, who could quote the Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (12th edition) almost verbatim. It was truly impressive. Even after having extensive contacts with patients and their diseases, he would still explain medicine to us as if he was reading directly from the book. He was unable to talk about diseases in layman's term. This is learning without forgetting, which leaves little room for flexibility and revision. This way of learning also imprison you to someone else's words and methods. It will stand in the way of your mastery of the subject.
What is even worse is that learning without forgetting makes you lazy. If Sam thought that he already knew what cold was, then he would not even try to find out what a cold swimming pool is like. He would deprive himself of that experience from the very beginning. That is a danger of thinking that you are a master of a subject. You stop learning and start defending.
Learning and forgetting does not mean that you retain nothing of what you have learned. It does mean that you question everything in front of you and retain only that which resonates with you. If it sounds like selective learning, it is...because all learning is ultimately selective. What it isn't is learning with preconceptions and prejudices. It requires you to experience everything for yourself and not to accept other people's truth at face value.
Understand a concept doesn't mean knowing it. I once worked with an Internal Medicine resident, who could quote the Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (12th edition) almost verbatim. It was truly impressive. Even after having extensive contacts with patients and their diseases, he would still explain medicine to us as if he was reading directly from the book. He was unable to talk about diseases in layman's term. This is learning without forgetting, which leaves little room for flexibility and revision. This way of learning also imprison you to someone else's words and methods. It will stand in the way of your mastery of the subject.
What is even worse is that learning without forgetting makes you lazy. If Sam thought that he already knew what cold was, then he would not even try to find out what a cold swimming pool is like. He would deprive himself of that experience from the very beginning. That is a danger of thinking that you are a master of a subject. You stop learning and start defending.
Learning and forgetting does not mean that you retain nothing of what you have learned. It does mean that you question everything in front of you and retain only that which resonates with you. If it sounds like selective learning, it is...because all learning is ultimately selective. What it isn't is learning with preconceptions and prejudices. It requires you to experience everything for yourself and not to accept other people's truth at face value.
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