LL #4- 10,000 Hours

So this week we've got a bit of a handle on the individual projects we'll be doing. I haven't mentioned this on my blog yet, but basically what's happening is that everyone in the class is taking on a project of their choice, where they either try learning a new skill or research a topic they're interested in. I'm really interested in psychology, so I'm going to be learning some stuff about that, but I'll probably go more in depth with that in another learning log.

This week, I wanted to talk a bit about Dr. Anders Ericsson's/Malcolm Gladwell's theory of 10,000 hours. This theory was brought up in class, and I instantly wanted to find out more about it. Basically all it is, is the theory that the amount of time it takes to master something is 10,000 hours of practice. Now that's a LONG time! I had to go and use the good old Google, and I found that 10,000 hours would be exactly 1 year, 56 days and 16 days. That's without doing anything else, and I mean humans have to eat, sleep, work, etc.
So it definitely takes a good amount of time to reach that 10,000 hour mark!

I found this cool visual presentation (http://prezi.com/jy2s8jsopl4k/10000-hours-theory/) and like I've talked about in a past learning log, I am a visual learner so this was especially interesting to me.

I just find idea of the 10,000 hour theory so interesting because it just makes me wonder if there is anything I would actually have the patience and passion to spend 10,000 hours doing. Like I said before, 10,000 hours is an extremely long time and takes a ton of dedication to accomplish, so I definitely give props to anyone who reaches that goal. 

LL #3- Fahrenheit 451

In class we have been reading the book called Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The main character of the book, Guy Montag is a fireman, who starts fires. Kinda twisted right? Even more twisted is the fact that fireman burn books and houses that contain them.

Fahrenheit 451 is an example of dystopian literature, in which the author takes a problem that they see happening in the future, and exaggerates that problem to help us see the error of our ways and inspire change.

The book has several different conflicts going on so far. (The tension between Montag and his wife, the fact that he has been taking books from the fires he has been at, etc.) I'm still not sure as to why books are illegal and need to be burned, but I'm sure that's something I will find out as I continue to read.

I did find this really interesting video by John Green, who is one of my favorite authors and vlogger. In it, he reviews the first section of Fahrenheit 451 and even gives a bit of background and history about Ray Bradbury and when the book was written.

I really like the part in the video where he talks about all the problems that Ray Bradbury had predicted that have come true. It's actually a little scary how accurate some stuff he predicted is. No, we don't burn books but things like the fact most households have more TVs then people are things that Bradbury wrote about in Fahrenheit 451 and predicted might happen in the future, and he was right. That kinda blows my mind a little.

John Green also poses some really thought-provoking questions at the end of his video. Especially, "Have we replaced intellectual engagement with superficial browsing?" That question really stuck out to me. I don't really have a good answer for it, to be honest but it's definitely really made me think. We use so much technology on a daily basis; texting, facebooking, tweeting, etc, and is it replacing actual human interaction for us? That's kind of a scary thought.