The great art of learning is to understand but little at a time. ~John Locke
Well, I guess I’m on the path to great learning because there are some topics about which I am learning only a little at a time. With those, I am absolutely thick-headed and I make no apologies for it. I can, after all, normally navigate grammar and punctuation. A human can’t be expected to be accomplished in every way, right?
Tongue in cheek a bit, but on the deficit side, I have managed to avoid understanding some concepts [listed in the next section] for so long I am convinced I will grasp them only if God has an FAQ that lays it out for me. I can’t be the only person who has very specific, annoying comprehension deficits. What causes that? Here we go.
My personal list of the incomprehensible
I recognize that at least a few of you think I have a modicum of intelligence. and what I am about to reveal may be deeply disappointing. The short list that follows includes situations that continue to confound me, no matter how many times attempts are made to pound explanations into my head:
- Velocity – as opposed to speed. Don’t get it. Yes, I’ve heard various explanations. They all sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher.
- The ability of a fly (one that’s in a moving car) to keep up with the car while he’s flying. You know, not settled onto a headrest or something. If I’m going 60, shouldn’t he have to, also?
- Wheels with spokes – why do they appear to be moving backward when the wheels are actually spinning ahead? And why does it make me dizzy? And don’t give me grief if I should have said tires instead of wheels.
- Parked car – when I’m seated in a stationary vehicle and the vehicle next to me starts to back out, why do I feel like my car is moving?
- Scrabble – why don’t I have the skill set to play that game even though I have a solid vocabulary? I couldn’t beat a 10-year-old wearing a blindfold.
- Grip – how are football players able to hang onto a ball when they’re jolted by a collision with a human freight train? Yeah, yeah. I know it has something to do with muscle memory. But, still.
Again, no matter how many times a teacher, friend, or family member has attempted to shed light on these puzzles for me, I remain in darkness. Why?
Surfing for answers and wiping out
I normally cite at least a few sources in my posts* because I know so little about so very much, and varying perspectives are critical, anyway. In this case, I was challenged to find a source that could answer the question I was posing: Why do some of us fail to understand that which millions of others find easy?
Oh, sure, I had returns to the online question. But. No matter how I worded my query, Google came back with unhelpful articles, some on learning disabilities such as dyslexia and others on developmental delays. Yet others suggested I might be negatively impacted by environmental issues. Or did I have a bad teacher? Well, I did have some teachers that were less than effective, but in those cases I normally located other resources and got on with the task at hand. Sheesh.
All that to say Science might have an answer for me but it clearly doesn’t like the way I’m holding my mouth when I ask the question. So I went to a message board. Quora.
*If you haven’t noticed the references before, you can look for words that have hyperlinks. Almost always they’ll be a different color.
The people speak
I haven’t spent much time on Quora, and it was a last resort in this case. Fortunately, I found some credible suggestions there. Here are a few qualities that could be factors impacting my impediment, if you will:
- Inability to set aside preconceived notions. Possibility.
- Wiring. Mine is just different from any person who has tried to explain certain concepts to me. Maybe. Doubt it.
- Relevance. I use analogies often since I find them useful. Perhaps whoever is trying to teach me just hasn’t found the right turn of phrase to make it happen. Could be.
- Intentionality. That is, it isn’t that I don’t want to understand, but I don’t want to understand enough to do the work. Nah.
Wait. Not sure I can walk away from that last one so easily.
The answer. Maybe.
Attitude is such a weighty factor in so many endeavors. As an example, it is easy to casually remark that we wish we were more like Miss La-di-da. In fact, I have. Not Miss La-di-da, but someone I admire who always appears calm and capable and ladylike. I don’t think that’s what I really want or used to want, though. Otherwise, I would make an effort to achieve the transformation.
Along that train of thought, I’d like to understand each of the items in my personal list, but I’m not sure I care passionately about any of them, and I’m just not willing to put in the work. Ok. The velocity thing bugs me, but otherwise? Not so much. Here’s why I believe that, in the final analysis, I’m apathetic.
I don’t know how to use our vacuum cleaner. Yes, the one that is charging in the laundry room right this very minute. Chances are, there wouldn’t be much required of me to learn how to disengage the vacuum from the charger and determine which attachment to use for the hardwoods. But from an intellectual perspective, what’s my motivation? My sweet husband understands I’m challenged in some ways and is always willing and able to vacuum for me. More able than willing, but let’s go with that.
Chances are, I’ll still occasionally think of the ways my brain is letting me down. The good news is that the older I get, the easier it is to drop my stream-of-consciousness threads quicker than soap bubbles burst on a hot, sunny day. Anyway, soon I’ll have another list of things I don’t understand.
Still. Someone out there may be able to explain the fly-in-the-car thing. Maybe for freshly baked cookies? Who’s up for it?
You?
Now you’ve got me thinking a lot more about why I can’t grasp certain concepts!
For instance, math! I can not seem to grasp algebra or beyond. 🥴
You’re welcome. Ha!
Interesting piece, we all have our list…..all different. That is why all of us are smarter than any of us. A team cannot function unless each of the members understands this simple concept.
The foundation of knowledge is curiosity which easily, and frequently trumps I.Q………the Southern Primitive Baptist preacher, gasping for breath and screaming at the top of his lungs……”The problem in this world is ignorance and apathy, ain’t that right deacon Smith? To which deacon Smith responded, “I don’t know and I don’t give a damn!”
Velocity is the speed of speed. If you are camping out in the fast lane at 55, you have speed but no velocity. If I am trapped behind you, it will not be long before I have velocity and go past you as close as I can and cut back in as close as I can. I did not learn this principle because I was curious. I had to get through Calculous I and II, Physics I and II, Dynamics and Thermodynamics because engineers at the time were making $550 a month and I was making $1.10 an hour. (FYI speed is the first derivative and and velocity is the second derivative in calculous.)
For you fly in the car, I refer you to Levels of Knowing and Existence. Author uses a bullet shot through a train window……..
Thanks a lot for me wasting the rest of the day contemplating things I do not know!
Glad I could help. 😉
We all have a head full of things we can’t comprehend. I would compare the fly in the car to a human in an airplane. I usually remain seated, but the flight crew and roaming passengers couldn’t possibly move as fast as the plane. Yet, there they are. That doesn’t explain it, but it makes sense to me. 😋
Yes, but (in my whiny voice), this example works only if the flight attendants could remain suspended in the air for as long as a fly can fly around in a car. Then. Yes, it would be the same thing, but I still wouldn’t understand.
The air is moving too. In the car and in the airplane. A fly sitting on the headrest or flying in the air inside the car both are taking advantage of the surrounding environment. The same goes for all of us humans who are spinning around space very quickly… we are touching the Earth and even when we jump or fly, we are surrounded by the air that is also moving super fast through space : )
That may be the closest I ever get to understanding.
Listen to me in my whiny voice, “Yes, but the example only works if the flight attendants are off the ground/seat. If they could remain suspended in the air for 10 seconds, then …yes. Same thing. And I still wouldn’t understand.”
While speed and velocity are fundamentally the same thing
Velocity adds a vector. The Airbus is traveling 400 knots true airspeed on a vector heading of 090. His speed is simply 400 knots.
The fly is same
Thing as playing tennis inside a
Moving ship. The person hitting the ball in the direction of the ship vector. Doesn’t hit it any different than the person hitting the ball astern
As Einstein says its relative.
Einstein spent his time as a patent clerk pondering this.
I have a great book
For you that devotes one entire chapter to the tennis ball on a ship fly thing.
One more to ponder concerning airspeeds
There is:
Indicated
True
Ground speed
The list goes on
An airplane on final approach may fly an approach speed of 140 knots
That’s indicated
But his true airspeed is the actual wind across the wings
At sea level this might be close to indicated depending on the density of the air that day
At Bogota Columbia his true airspeed might actually be 180
Air is thinner at 8200 ft
Just wanted to stretch your perception a bit .
One last point. The earth is rotating at approximately 24,000 mph. Factor that in.
A for effort, Walt. Still confused. And now I have a headache. 😉 But if you can draw me a picture of if your book has illustrations, bring it on.