Saturday, 13 March 2010 10:33 pm
(no subject)
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deckardcanineRemember a month back when I was looking at a catalog of "The Great Courses"? Well, I went ahead and bought two of them, even tho I said I'd buy no more than one. I opted for CDs, because they made it sound like their DVDs don't add much; besides, it's easier to do other things at the same time this way. Together they cost $80 plus shipping.
Now I've heard 4 of the 24 lectures in "Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning." Some of it's been review for me, but I have improved my understanding of a few terms and gotten an almost completely unfamiliar history lesson. Unsurprisingly, it gets more useful as it goes along, tho not always more interesting. Prof. David Zarefsky sometimes takes a while to finish making a point that seemed simple enough from the outline, but that should reinforce my memory.
The other course, which I'll start when I'm done with the first, is "The Art of Critical Decisionmaking." I eliminated the other options largely by determining which material I could find well enough online. Alas, the astronomy and game theory videos I've checked out online so far bring back not-so-welcome college memories. I don't know whether that means I was right or wrong to pass up the CDs.
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nefaria and thatcatgirl, but I watched the first episode of Cosmos online Monday and barely stayed tuned thru the hour. Maybe I was feeling too ill, or maybe I'll just never share Sagan's enthusiasm. One thing's for sure: The enormous numbers associated with space no longer wow me; I take them for granted.
Anyway, today I received another Great Courses catalog advertising another "up to 70%" sale, only this time the deadline is April 8. No, they're different courses this time, so I wasn't misled on the previous urgency. Still, I discarded the catalog shortly. The jury's still out on the CDs I already have, and even if I find them worth the price, I am not buying a new set every month.
Now I've heard 4 of the 24 lectures in "Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning." Some of it's been review for me, but I have improved my understanding of a few terms and gotten an almost completely unfamiliar history lesson. Unsurprisingly, it gets more useful as it goes along, tho not always more interesting. Prof. David Zarefsky sometimes takes a while to finish making a point that seemed simple enough from the outline, but that should reinforce my memory.
The other course, which I'll start when I'm done with the first, is "The Art of Critical Decisionmaking." I eliminated the other options largely by determining which material I could find well enough online. Alas, the astronomy and game theory videos I've checked out online so far bring back not-so-welcome college memories. I don't know whether that means I was right or wrong to pass up the CDs.
And sorry,
nefaria and thatcatgirl, but I watched the first episode of Cosmos online Monday and barely stayed tuned thru the hour. Maybe I was feeling too ill, or maybe I'll just never share Sagan's enthusiasm. One thing's for sure: The enormous numbers associated with space no longer wow me; I take them for granted.Anyway, today I received another Great Courses catalog advertising another "up to 70%" sale, only this time the deadline is April 8. No, they're different courses this time, so I wasn't misled on the previous urgency. Still, I discarded the catalog shortly. The jury's still out on the CDs I already have, and even if I find them worth the price, I am not buying a new set every month.
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biiiiilions!
Not remembering it well enough, I don't know if it started slow and got better, or if it was more consistent throughout it's run. So, I can't tell you if it picks up.
Also...
It seems like having other people studying the something online at the same time might make the difference between it being hard or easy, it would be a big step up from going it alone. How 'bout sometime we pick a subject we'd both like to read up on (like game theory), try to round up a few more people who are interested, and all read the same pages and talk about them? We could make a community here or something. (It could wait 'til you're not going through a set of lectures, of course.)
Re: Also...