Autodidact...and thank you

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kccc
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Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Autodidact...and thank you

Post by kccc » Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:49 pm

Reinhard has written several times about how he uses his recorder. I finally decided to take the plunge. I don't have the urban ranger time that he does (alas), but I have a long drive in and use some of that time for thinking. And I remember things-to-be-done and have to hold on to them mentally until I get to where I can write them down.

So, I decided an audio recorder would help. I bought a cheap one, paying attention to ease-of-use (since I'm driving - want to be safe), and used it for the first time today.

I'm impressed. Yes, I captured several tasks that I need to do, which is good in itself. If that's all it did for me, I'd be happy.

But I also thought aloud into it about a topic that was bothering me, and found my thoughts went to a deeper level. Often, when I'm thinking about something while driving, my mind will go around and around on the topic without getting anywhere much, sort of like a hamster on a wheel. (That happens especially when I'm stressed.)

You'd think that talking aloud into a little stick wouldn't make that much difference, but it did. My reflection on a book where the characters annoyed me by doing something that I considered so wrong that they lost my sympathy ("good guys" don't do that!) led to me pondering forgiveness in daily life. A much more profound level of reflection.

This was the one system I hadn't really tried. But I'm sold.

Thanks, Reinhard, for sharing all the systems you've developed. Your offerings have made a very positive impact on my life, and I am grateful.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:32 pm

Dear KCCC,

Thank you for your post -- I'm so happy audiodidact is working for you. It's been a great help to me over the years and I keep finding new ways to practice it (including some more social ways: recording books with the kids, interviewing them about profound metaphysical subjects, etc).

Sorry it's taken me so long to comment -- it's been (and continues to be) a crazy week. That darn mobile programming course I'm taking for the habitcal is tough!
Often, when I'm thinking about something while driving, my mind will go around and around on the topic without getting anywhere much, sort of like a hamster on a wheel.
I'm all too familiar with this awful churn, and audiodidact is brilliant at nipping it in the bud. I think because it's harder to TALK in circles than to think in circles. You force a kind of linear progress on it by speaking it out loud, partly because it's just embarrassing to repeat something over and over again "on the record" (and boring, if you know you're going to be listening to it) and partly because speaking is just ever so slightly more expensive than silent thought and so you're less likely to indulge the urge to give vent something that's already been adequately expressed and instead become absorbed with trying to come up with something deserving of verbal attention (which really breaks the loop).

Get it on the tape recorder in your hand to get it out of the tape recorder looping in your head.

Reinhard

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