Random Thought # 72

I've been a little frustrated lately at work because the software that I support is so massive and all-encompassing that its nearly impossible to understand everything that it does, even within the span of a couple of years. I also came into the job knowing virtually nothing about it, so needless to say, its been a big difficult learning a piece here and a piece there and trying to understand the entire picture and how it all fits together. That got me thinking about how we learn/teach. Think about this, how much more difficult would it be to put a 1000 piece jig-saw puzzle together if you had no idea what the end result is supposed to look like. What if you had no clues because the puzzle didn't extend past the border? I personally learn much better if I know what the entire picture looks like in an ideal or completed state. This way, I have a goal to shoot towards and can sort of track my progress along the way, whereas if I didn't have that, I could only hope I'm putting the pieces together correctly, only to find out that I totally messed up and have to do it over and over again. Its the whole trial and error educated guesses concept. I've recently been reading about mantic and sophic and how they are complete opposites, yet compliment each other. Mantic implies learning from a higher source, revelation, inspiration, prophecy, etc., whereas sophic is how we learn. We use our own understanding, logic, rationale, facts, etc. to determine what exists. Mantic requires faith, and sophic requires facts. I recall a scriptures that says lean not unto thine own understanding, but trust in the Lord. I believe that's Proverbs 3:5. My sister just sent me a little plaque with that on it. Another correlation I've found is with how babies learn as compared to adults. Babies don't try to learn piece by piece, they observe their entire surroundings, taking in everything there is. We focus and specialize and get down into the nitty gritty. We learn at such an amazing rate while we are little babies. We go from doing nothing to walking and talking in 1 year's time. That's a miracle. Children trust and obsorb. Adults are skeptics and nitpick. Its no wonder the Lord keeps telling us to become as little children. Have faith, observe, learn, obsorb, trust, love, forgive, etc. Have you ever wondered why corporate training courses, university classes, and Sunday School Lessons are never successful? Ever take some time to just sit in a quiet place and watch nature and see how much you learn? Its amazing. Seek, ponder, and pray. The recipe for learning.