A Fresh Look

[Ann]

What you already know can be a great help to you in learning new things. Yet at times, it can also get in the way.

It can be difficult to clearly and objectively see something when you think you already know everything about it. In such cases, you will usually see only what you expect to see and nothing else.

Think of the wealth of detail that you notice when you go to a place where you've never been before. Then consider all the many details in your familiar surroundings that you never even think about because you have seen them so often.

The world is constantly changing. And some of your long-held assumptions about the things most familiar to you could be woefully out of date.

It's likely that there are many valuable treasures all around your life, hidden and at the same time within plain sight. A good way to see them is to temporarily disregard what you already know.

Every now and then, make it a point to look at the world with eyes untainted by expectations, assumptions or past experience. You'll be amazed at what you can see.

-- Ralph Marston

[equus]

It can be difficult to clearly and objectively see something when you think you already know everything about it. In such cases, you will usually see only what you expect to see and nothing else.

LAST NIGHT!!! D and I talked about standard deviation and natural distribution curves, like this:


If you measure birth weights and numbers of people within a large enough group one of these will pop up! It's how things naturally distrubute with lager numbers falling near the average and smaller numbers further away from the average.

They were one of the first things I grasped and loved when I went back to education. This beautiful fluid shape appears over and over again, from human sciences to maths and physics - there it is.

Last night for the first time I contemplated the area outside the curve, the area outside of natural distribution. I changed the shape over and over in my head and imagined what that would mean in real terms, I challenged myself to think in terms of exceptions and whether exceptions truly do only remain within a certain distance from the average. I thought in terms of diversity, evolution and mutation - then in how similar we are in structure to even a fish!

I revisited an old friend and found a new pot of treasure. I also learned that standard deviation can be measured from the graph as well as from equations.

I know how dotty this sounds but I loved it! It was a perfect flower of a thought!