Friday, January 23, 2009

The Lights Are On, But Nobody's Home

I made a sad realization this week. When Bryan starts explaining how things work (which is often) I automatically stop listening. I also tune out scientific explanations. This is bad for a number of reasons:
  1. I'm severely limiting my ability to learn
  2. I'm not giving Bryan the courtesy of listening when he talks about things that are important to him
  3. He's probably giving me the answer to something Peter will ask tomorrow
  4. I want him to listen when I talk, so I should listen to him
  5. Guilt
He was telling me something as I opened the window to write this post. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. He thought I was telling him to hurry up so I could write. Actually, I was wondering whether or not I had been paying attention. Turns out I had.

Now, I love learning news things and Bryan is a fountain of little known facts, so it makes sense that I would want to soak in everything he says. How can I get my brain to stay focused?

2 comments:

Jordan said...

For every new fact you learn from Bryan, you get one point. When you have collected 50 points, you get a prize. That prize is for you to decide. After a couple of times of playing the game, you'll automatically listen.

Cristin said...

Erik pointed out the other day that I must have some sort of aversion (or pride) to learning things from him. Same thing - he tries to teach me something, I shut down. I wonder why that is?