Today I learned...

Too many people in this thread fail to differentiate between learning factual knowledge and realizing an experience. If a man trips and falls in front of you, you did NOT learn that a man has tripped. The reason why this derails the thread is because the purpose of the thread is to share your discoveries for mutual benefit. Understanding how fast you can ride your bike or that you had spyware on your computer is merely self-serving, and is therefore pointless. :mad:

A more appropriate example would be something like this:
Today I learned that rough objects create less drag than smooth ones. Hence the reason why golf balls have dimples.

Today I learned that you should always spread the thermal paste out when applying it to naked GPU dies. The "dab in the middle" method used for CPUs doesn't always work for naked GPU dies.

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Originally Posted by Assertn

Too many people in this thread fail to differentiate between learning factual knowledge and realizing an experience. If a man trips and falls in front of you, you did NOT learn that a man has tripped. The reason why this derails the thread is because the purpose of the thread is to share your discoveries for mutual benefit. Understanding how fast you can ride your bike or that you had spyware on your computer is merely self-serving, and is therefore pointless. :mad:

A more appropriate example would be something like this:
Today I learned that rough objects create less drag than smooth ones. Hence the reason why golf balls have dimples.

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I think either kind of learning is beneficial for the masses. Oftentimes experience can be a greater teacher than factual knowledge. Self-actualization is also a form of learning. Sharing your own life experiences, though they may seem mundane or thread-derailing, can help others learn something about themselves, which in turn can help the poster learn something about himself.

Taking your golf ball dimples example, even though it is interesting in its seemingly illogicalness, how will that tidbit of information help me in my daily life? Whereas complich8's post had me thinking about the last time I was on an exercise bike doing 32mph at low-medium resistance, and how I will test my endurance the next time I'm on an exercise bike, since it would be shameful to lose to a pudgy sysadmin.

Your argument is in itself a contradiction. Any knowledge worth learning through experience should be, well, learned through experience. It's self-directed and has holds no context from the perspective of anyone else, and certainly holds no context within the purpose of this thread. If you want to create a "Today I experienced" thread, then go ahead.

To say that learning of other peoples' personal experiences through a textual medium derives greater benefit is laughable, although I commend your attempted ludic fallacy, using selective comparison to create some sort of value. This is also irrelevant to the thread, however, since the topic is not "Real-world skills I obtained today".

It's like the Snapple bottle caps. If you twist off a Snapple cap and the underside says "A brown-out corrupted my 10 page term paper," does that enhance your knowledge via proxy of a hypothetical experience? Is it supposed to? At least with objective facts, you can find some degree of amusement.

I didn't understand all those big words, but learning can come from many forms beyond objective facts. If you want to limit the scope of a thread, it will have limited usage and purpose and fade into obscurity.

So why not let this thread encompass all forms of learning? Even self-directed musings can hold lessons for others, but they can also be a means of self-reflection for the poster by way of considering word choice and recalling events while posting as well as receiving feedback from other posters.

If you want to limit a thread called "today I learned" to "interesting factual tidbits", then that's your choice too. But don't blame everyone else for interpreting the thread title to encompass more than just factoids.

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Originally Posted by Animeniax

But don't blame everyone else for interpreting the thread title to encompass more than just factoids.

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There's no interpretation whatsoever. The opening post in this thread by KitKat specifies that this thread is for posting "something that's new to you, that you learned today," whatever that may be. I agree with Assertn that "experiencing" something isn't the same as "learning" it, but this thread is for posting what you learned, regardless of who benefits from that knowledge.

Of course everyone would prefer people to make better posts that contain information and lessons for the benefit of others, but doing otherwise isn't derailing from the purpose of this thread at all.

Edit: Today I learned how to play the main riff of a Smith's song on the acoustic guitar. My goal is to be able to record both guitar and bass parts, then overlay them. That would be really fun.

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Originally Posted by KitKat

Often in a day I'll pick up a random bit of trivia that I find really cool, or I'll learn something at school that I find fascinating, or I just have something random that I want to say. I'm pretty sure there are some of you who feel the same, so let's have a thread for this!

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I do love the random. Making this thread completely factual would make it somewhat boring and restrictive. Any others of you go back to the first post in the thread as a result of this discussion and burst out laughing at basey's diagram in the second post?

This summer I'm learning a lot about how to interact with people who have mental disabilities and visual impairments. I came into my cabin yesterday to find a guy lying on the floor in the middle of the hall, wearing a helmet, in his pyjamas. It does take some getting used to.

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Originally Posted by XanBcoo

There's no interpretation whatsoever. The opening post in this thread by KitKat specifies that this thread is for posting "something that's new to you, that you learned today," whatever that may be. I agree with Assertn that "experiencing" something isn't the same as "learning" it, but this thread is for posting what you learned, regardless of who benefits from that knowledge.

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Well for those of us who joined late and never back-tracked to read the first post in the thread, it's perfectly rational to see a thread called "today I learned..." and think it encompasses more than factual information. I saw it as a thread about reflecting on a day's events or about something you discovered about the world or yourself today. Seems I interpreted the thread starter's intent exactly.

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Originally Posted by KitKat

I do love the random. Making this thread completely factual would make it somewhat boring and restrictive. Any others of you go back to the first post in the thread as a result of this discussion and burst out laughing at basey's diagram in the second post?

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I guess you could also say the discovery channel is boring and restrictive, but it must have some redeeming qualities, if it survived the test of time.

If you just write about random things that happen to you today, then the topic becomes about as interesting as a stranger's livejournal (not very interesting). Random died with lolcats.

I actually think shows like Monster Garage were not appropriate for the Discovery Channel, but it was one of their most popular shows. If Discovery Channel had stayed solely with their factual programming, they'd have gone out of business. I remember the days when they'd show the same nature show over and over because of a lack of programming diversity. That's not to say I want them to stray as far as MTV has from its origins, but expanding the term "discovery" has helped it stay fresh and popular.

I learned today that I hate it when mommies and daddies fight :( .

Yeah, and I bet nobody would be interested in a series of videos depicting nature and natural phenomena in high definition released by a station such as the BBC, amirite?

Yeah but by the 5th airing in a week, people would change the channel.

But thanks for that. I learned today what I will be sending by Dad for a late Father's Day present: Planet Earth: the Complete BBC Series (not the blu-ray version)

Dude, if there's ever a reason to get anything HD, it's for the planet earth series.

Then I'd have to get him an HDTV for late Father's Day too, which I don't think he'd fully appreciate. I'll think about it.

Today I learned that a red panda is also known as a firefox. wiki

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Originally Posted by NM

Go go go! Working even in a retail pharmacy will help you out ALOT during pharmacy school dude. The only downfall is dealing with shitty customers who yell at you when their own damn insurance doesn't work. Its as if they think we have the power to change the copays on their prescriptions. -____-

But yeah, working in some area of pharmacy in the real world is highly recommended Buff. I'm thinking about trying an internship at a company next year if I can get into one. And its cool to know that I'm in the same forum with another pharmacist-in-training (although I've known this for awhile so I didn't really learn anything...). :)

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Thanks NM

I read a few days back on how Kojima likes to use the different versions of the name John for characters in Metal Gear, and even Jack is a diminutive form of John. It was all quite amusing to me.

Ironically I learnt today that my name is the irish version of John. :eek:

Today I learned that my roommate for this coming year will be a freshman. Wouldn't be so bad if he didn't move in days before me which means I will get none of the furniture I want/need.

Damn freshman...

This week I learned that if you encounter a bear in the woods, you should put your hands over your head to make you look as big as possible, and speak slowly and calmly. Unfortunately, I only learned this after my bear encounter.

I was hiking through the woods with my dad, and we spotted a bear in the distance, walking through the trees. The trail we were following was going in the direction of the bear, but it looked to be walking off the other way. We decided that we'd walk quietly down the trail, and hope to sneak past it. Afterwards we learned this was not the greatest decision because surprising a bear can provoke an attack (the best course of action would have been to back up a bit, start talking loudly, and then continue on the trail which would have alerted the bear to the presence of humans so it could make itself scarce). So, we crept along the trail for a bit, and rounded a corner, and suddenly the bear was right there in front of us in the middle of the trail. As we came around the corner, my dad stepped on a branch, and the bear saw us. It bellowed in annoyance and galloped off into the woods. I had a moment of panic where I thought he was charging us, but luckily he decided to go crashing and thundering away through the underbrush. Scary, but awesome. I've never been that close to a bear in the wild before. He was only a few metres away from us.

Trite but true, remember that when getting away from a bear, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other person with you :D

Why is it that we realize something is a bad idea, but we do it anyway and just hope for the best? Like driving yourself home after drinking because you don't want to leave your car overnight, or driving through a flooded street even though you're asking for hydro-lock or flooding the transmission? It's a weakness of the human existence I suppose. I'm glad you and your father (and the bear) survived the experience.

You should have taken a photo (just the bear, not necessarily you and your dad posing with it). This might have been the only time you will ever meet a bear in the wilds.