onepointfivetrillion-blog

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Introduction

In 2015, the University of Wisconsin endured numerous proposed changes to their mission statement as part of Wisconsin’s 2015-17 financial plan. Later referred to as a “drafting error,” the plan quietly (before it was reported) amended the university’s mission statement to reject such clauses as, “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for the truth,” in favor of embracing political clauses such as “meet[ing] the state’s workforce needs.” For many higher-learning institutions, the cognitive-economic landscape is changing too quickly, as evidenced by this anecdote (full revisions in Fig 1.1). Higher numbers of students are disenfranchised with the debt it would take to earn a college education, resulting in great economic loss in the present and the future. By examining how a shifted perspective changes the relationship between learning and the economic model that it is inextricably a part of, my research aims to identify valuable ways that colleges can embrace themselves as economic learning-support centers while adapting to this changing cognitive-economic landscape. Through embracing learning at higher levels as the self-driven discipline that it is, in concert with a supportive academic community with high expectations, students can embrace college as a result of better value-propositions resulting in lower opportunity-costs and more, complete with more high-quality options for students graduating high school. This can primarily be accomplished through analyzing self-learning tactics and how they are supported by available student resources. Then, through examining the avenues through which this research can be expressed, the self-learning model can interact and interplay on the community, resulting in greater economic success.

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LIVE: There’s a key vote on net neutrality and the whole Internet is watching

Starting at 10am ET today a key congressional committee will vote on the Save the Internet Act – the best bill we have to restore net neutrality.

Unfortunately Big Telecom shills on the House subcommittee voting today have already proposed dangerous amendments that could completely gut the bill or leave gaping loopholes for Internet providers to block, throttle, and charge Internet users new fees for access.

To get a clean bill that restores net neutrality passed need to show them the WHOLE INTERNET IS WATCHING.

Here are the best things you can do to help:

1. Reblog this post to spread the word. 📣

2. Embed our livestream widget into your Tumblr blog using the code here.

3. Call your lawmakers to demand they vote for a clean bill to restore net neutrality.

If we get the bill out of committee without any bad amendments, then we have a solid shot of winning the next big vote on the House floor in the week of April 8. Take a second to help out!

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Blog Post 4!

My work has two very clearly defined segments to it - the research side and the application side. As I deconstruct the complexities of this work and figure out how I want to present them so they will motivate people, my biggest challenge consistently is reminding myself that this is just the research.

Today I read about Apple releasing their own credit card and I think that’s largely what I’m trying to do here - take a bunch of ideas that already existed, and bring them together in a way that people (at least in North America) have never seen. Presentation is a huge part of my work, ultimately am I trying to create a secondary source here? Should my work take an APA or MLA format given that I will be conducting quantitative data studies too? And because I want to sell it, there has to be another form of it that is Tertiary. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a secondary source - unless it’s not, could I do a pamphlet/website on it instead? For presentation I want to have something that works to present at Culture Vultures.

Also, in terms of overall direction I cannot stand the thought of doing all this work for things that don’t excite me. The end results must be entrepreneurship, National Service (nsldc, ecocentrism, etc.) & Internships, lifestyle, Technology, or creating other results that challenge the systems in place through adding value and effectivity. I want the result to be overall better self-learning so that a consultancy can be run for helping individuals self-promote their own learning environments/needs/resources for the benefit of their own unique learning needs and situations (think flyboarding). These results should not be limited to just ways I think they should be applied. Use my principles and philosophy, sure. But in my own life, doing work that helps people live better, more exciting lives is energizing for me. Who’s to say I know everything about that?

SOURCES

Since I (think I) need to differentiate between research and application, the biggest challenge I face is determining what I want the final product to look like. Like I mentioned above, since I’m trying to largely attract a younger audience (although still be able to consult for an older audience in the future), I will probably want to make the final product accessible online. Other thoughts?

Actual research materials I’ve accumulated so far include work on growth mindsets, the structure of metacognition, the effect of teaching others new material, self-testing, relational note-taking, and what effects these things have on self-learning (others to add to FULL LIST?). In some ways it boils down to how to make the mundane more interesting, memorable, and usable with the least amount of effort (tools you will always have with you), but in other ways it is important to be able to adapt the material to the need at hand too. Motivation likely comes from creating a perceived need (combined with other sticks and carrots).

In my writing, I have an idea that I will string together ideas about growth mindsets, habit building, and grit, but everything else is kind of up in the air in terms of organization. Revisiting Dr. B’s organizational methods will help with that.

In order to start applying what I’m discovering and gain validity, I have taken steps to start a club by the end of this week to create situations where this research will be applicable. Without it I do not feel extremely motivated. In the club, I will use the tools I have found to create examples that people can use, and hopefully motivate them to think about how this works in their own lives too. Ultimately I want to create a way that a community can separate to foster more  impressive individuals while still staying together to utilize the culture of the environment. This translates to them being able to enhance their abilities in their work lives remotely, and through lifestyle hopefully open a path for learning throughout life too. Ultimately this also ties into being able to have more time, rest, and take breaks being proud of what has been done. This is also a skill that I want to provide more research on.

I am concerned that this will not leave enough room in my paper to put the sources into dialouge with one another, and that I am doing enough work for multiple papers here. Since I am not excited about how it works so much as I am about the results it gets, I need to reel my enthusiasm back in on the process that will make the system go. That is what my research should focus on.  

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Blog Post #3

I think the largest problem I’ve run into is the sheer volume of applicable information to my subject. As I work, basically everything I come across has implications for the broader implications of practical styles that can be used to help facilitate the development of metacognition in the presence of some practical field that it can be applied to.

Specifically, I’ve found a few books to be of great value, including Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown et al. It references many studies that allowed them to arrive at the conclusions they have come to, and they strive not to make unreasonable assertions while clearly stating for readers when they do. This has the added benefit of their perception open to my own judgement. Their definition of learning makes sense and relies heavily on memory, so in anticipation of other applicable styles relating to memory I am looking for other sources on improving memory. While I cannot say that Tim Ferriss has extreme academic credibility since he has financial interests, some of his work in The 4-Hour Chef has exercises that could be applied reliably.

Another book I am increasingly fond of is called Teach Students how to Learn by Saundra Yancy McGuire and Stephanie McGuire. It again lacks large amounts of research besides anecdotal evidence, but the exercises in her work again show promise, are backed by her experience and largely seem to make sense. Also, while there is not a ton of research, there is research that shows how her work has drastically helped improve the test scores of students in STEM related fields on several dozen occasions.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg has also provided some helpful, practical insights into the habits that will make these practices sustainable as students move on past the setting of a formal education. This does not mean that a formal education setting should be ignored or discounted because Angela Duckworth’s work on Grit provides good insight into the importance of persistence. Her book also gives some insight into the importance of grit in a community setting and how to develop it for the benefit of everyone. This trait is especially important in developing sustainable habits in autodidactic learners so they can maintain their capacity to keep learning throughout their lives. It is also important in being able to seek out communities with Grit that already exist which will support their level of intensity so less willpower has to be spent on creating these environments. Since willpower is directly linked to habit building as well as creating grit (which, in living with it, could in some ways be considered a habit), both of these sources paired together offer valid insight and would do well to be paired together in my final research article. The Power of Habit also has many references to other studies that I can follow up with for further research on building habits for the singular purpose of making better autodidactic learners.

Finally, the library database is full of relevant information which is where I felt almost overwhelmed with the amount of modern research being done on metacognition. Though it reaffirms my original thought, it proves that I may have to go back to re-examine my second blog post and trim more fat off of the broader topic of reducing NSLDC debt. Since adding value is a good way to do this, my definition of value has to be assessed to determine which indicators are lead dominos and which ones are further down the line. Examples of dominos further down the line with added value include:

Decreasing the cost of college credit, creating a middle-class learning economy, a renaissance in entrepreneurship (through applying that learning), decreased levels of existential depression, increased mental health, perpetuating ecocentric views to challenge anthropocentrism, encouraging deeper learning in concert with technology, and increasing human relevance in the face of greater and digital and (un)natural challenges.

As I mentioned, in order to achieve relevance in any of the above fields through my pursuit of intellect and entrepreneurship, I’m currently limiting my areas of concern down to primarily include autodidactism and its relation to metacognition. I hope this increased limitation will allow for the study of grit and habits that will have the greatest impact on these areas of value down the road. I would also like to expand my studies further to include the research areas of applied growth mindsets.

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Blog Post #2

My interest is in solving a Practical problem, meaning I will be utilizing data that pertains specifically to decreasing the cost of college while increasing the value of it. I aim to increase knowledge on autodidactism for myself and my audience as I produce this research too.

The questions helped me narrow down my focus to “consulting on autodidactism techniques and training as it relates to entrepreneurship (aka problem solving).” This question does raise pose a problem in asking it because it does question the educational system on whether there is a better way to be learning things. Perhaps the education system is structurally effective, but the rate of change is forcing it to evolve quicker that it is ready for. This makes the problem bigger than questioning whether the knowledge is effective that is being taught, it also exposes the growing problem that many people’s way of life may be collapsing because education itself is not working as it used to. 

I realized that my topic does run the risk of being too broad because my inquiries seem to have applicable information everywhere. Eventually I want to use the loyalty the brand builds to incorporate new housing models - that is not what I’m focusing on right now. I have to remind myself that my work is in consulting, and at that it specifically focuses on the autodidactism that grounds my idea to reality. In that, limitations are actually the best way to bridge the gap between thought and reality, so by sticking true to these limitations I believe I will be able to find a plethora of information on the topic and be able to use it to create an interesting solution to a problem that plagues college students and high school students constantly.

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My central concern is with the national student loan debt crisis. Out of high school, I saw many people going into college because it was the path set out before them. I also saw many people including me and my friends who were disenfranchised with a surprising lack of promising options if we chose a different route. Luckily, I found one I liked and went into Americorps NCCC. While I was there, I learned about testing out of college credits, which got me thinking about how new innovations can be married into the system to make it more valuable, meaningful, and have more quality. Through my understanding and use of the system I found out about to test out of credits, I aim to create a case study that applies a theoretical framework of what pure intellectual pursuit looks like (as opposed to the models mandated by high schools and many colleges), and challenge these structures based on practices that center around patience, habit building, tactics (such as which notes to use in which situation), and others. Ultimately, I hope to find and/or create an outlet where I can apply these elements of a theoretical framework to the real world both intellectually and with monetary results through entrepreneurship.

I am also concerned with the treatment of the environment in the context of business today. As many have noted about the concept of terra nullius, much of western thought supposes that thought and achievement are positioned as more important than the land itself. I find this preposterous because we, as humans, need the environment and nature to survive. We are part of an ecosystem, even though current thought tends to separate us from animals. I realize this has a profound impact on what it means to be an entrepreneur if this fact is faced and not ignored, so in this way too I hope to challenge the system by unearthing new ways to conceive business that is viable, reliable, and sustainable. 

In essence, my interest is deeply with problem solving because entrepreneurship is just the way that problem solving is most noticeably expressed in our world. People who have money ultimately dictate the form of public service though their decided use of it. In pursuing my education and what I want to do for the rest of my life, this question is more existential than economical.

In summary, I am looking for ways to take my conceptualization of intellect and apply it to the real world. As the quote in ACA by Mary T. Wales says, “We should teach a thing not for its own sake, but as preparation for what lies ahead,” and while I don’t agree with teaching or learning anything because we should (I think that effective learning stems from a burning desire to know or be able to do a thing for a reason), I believe this offers insightful thought into the real reason it is important to pursue knowledge: to apply it. I hope to measure my success in this class by creating a manual that I can use to lead classes and help teach others to become better autodidacts as I pursue a better understanding of the nature of intellect and how it applies to starting businesses.