4 ms·

OK, I'll bite. What do you consider "useless things"?

guard-of-terra 14y ago
Everything I learned in school and can't remember today is useless. There goes most of history, math (I do remember some math but most of the school math is pointless), language & literature (I like reading, I just never liked the selection), physical education and lots of other subjects. It's not that they aren't interesting per se, it's that school ruins them for you. By reading wikipedia for half an hour I understand more than from a month of a subject in school. I could have better use for the time spent on this.
- angersock 14y ago
  Or, maybe, you have a bad memory? Or never found an application for this "useless" knowledge? You sound like a person throwing away a can opener because they can't use it to bludgeon open a tin. I do remember some math but most of the school math is pointless Such as?
  - guard-of-terra 14y ago
    I eagerly remember everything I read in wikipedia. Because I read what interests me, because I have grown-up context and know how to remember things. I sound like a person who don't want to buy that expensive and useless can opener, but I'm forced to. http://math.info-servis.net/59.jpg http://math.info-servis.net/59.jpg <-- this is almost useless (knowing about them are fine, memorizing is useless) http://shkola.ua/web/images/uploads/algebra8klass_merzlyak_-_0118-1.jpg http://shkola.ua/web/images/uploads/algebra8klass_merzlyak_-... <-- this is an example of totally useless math
    - angersock 14y ago
      Your second example is practice--think of it as training the ALU in your brain. In the first example, learning those trig relations is useful later for doing calculus and other things. You may forget them over time, but to have never been exposed to them would be a loss. The answer that "Well, I can just Wikipedia them later!" assumes that you know what to look for later. This turns you from being a thinking person into a glorified cache for the internet. I'm not sure that's a good thing. How old are you, anyway?
      - guard-of-terra 14y ago
        What if I don't want to train any TLAs? The problem with trig relations is that school math makes a whole lot of grindingly huge excercises out of them; and then grade you by your ability to do the mental clownade. I'm so not into this. I'm 27.
- BashiBazouk 14y ago
  If you like reading, is it worthless for the authors who will write the books that you will read to have studied history, language and literature? Or in other words, do you use/consume stuff that are the product of what you can't remember from school? And if so, does that make [edit] the knowledge behind them less useless?
  - guard-of-terra 14y ago
    No. I know my native language pretty fine. I never liked literature they reach in schools. I don't remember anything from the history course in school, it was boring. I mean, they just can't make it interesting. Because it's not their (textbook authors) priority. So it tends to bore to death. Everything I know about history is either from books I read by myself or from wikipedia/internet.
    - BashiBazouk 14y ago
      But would Wikipedia be worth reading if it wasn't for those who did find history classes interesting and wrote/fact checked Wikipedia articles?
      - guard-of-terra 14y ago
        Well, why not confine history classes to those people? Because, I mean, you don't have learn programing to use facebook. And we still have those people who wrote it.

Everything I learned in school and can't remember today is useless. There goes most of history, math (I do remember some math but most of the school math is pointless), language & literature (I like reading, I just never liked the selection), physical education and lots of other subjects. It's not that they aren't interesting per se, it's that school ruins them for you. By reading wikipedia for half an hour I understand more than from a month of a subject in school. I could have better use for the time spent on this.

angersock 14y ago
Or, maybe, you have a bad memory? Or never found an application for this "useless" knowledge? You sound like a person throwing away a can opener because they can't use it to bludgeon open a tin. I do remember some math but most of the school math is pointless Such as?
- guard-of-terra 14y ago
  I eagerly remember everything I read in wikipedia. Because I read what interests me, because I have grown-up context and know how to remember things. I sound like a person who don't want to buy that expensive and useless can opener, but I'm forced to. http://math.info-servis.net/59.jpg http://math.info-servis.net/59.jpg <-- this is almost useless (knowing about them are fine, memorizing is useless) http://shkola.ua/web/images/uploads/algebra8klass_merzlyak_-_0118-1.jpg http://shkola.ua/web/images/uploads/algebra8klass_merzlyak_-... <-- this is an example of totally useless math
  - angersock 14y ago
    Your second example is practice--think of it as training the ALU in your brain. In the first example, learning those trig relations is useful later for doing calculus and other things. You may forget them over time, but to have never been exposed to them would be a loss. The answer that "Well, I can just Wikipedia them later!" assumes that you know what to look for later. This turns you from being a thinking person into a glorified cache for the internet. I'm not sure that's a good thing. How old are you, anyway?
    - guard-of-terra 14y ago
      What if I don't want to train any TLAs? The problem with trig relations is that school math makes a whole lot of grindingly huge excercises out of them; and then grade you by your ability to do the mental clownade. I'm so not into this. I'm 27.
BashiBazouk 14y ago
If you like reading, is it worthless for the authors who will write the books that you will read to have studied history, language and literature? Or in other words, do you use/consume stuff that are the product of what you can't remember from school? And if so, does that make [edit] the knowledge behind them less useless?
- guard-of-terra 14y ago
  No. I know my native language pretty fine. I never liked literature they reach in schools. I don't remember anything from the history course in school, it was boring. I mean, they just can't make it interesting. Because it's not their (textbook authors) priority. So it tends to bore to death. Everything I know about history is either from books I read by myself or from wikipedia/internet.
  - BashiBazouk 14y ago
    But would Wikipedia be worth reading if it wasn't for those who did find history classes interesting and wrote/fact checked Wikipedia articles?
    - guard-of-terra 14y ago
      Well, why not confine history classes to those people? Because, I mean, you don't have learn programing to use facebook. And we still have those people who wrote it.