Lord Butts
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
2
   |
Posted - 2013.06.17 18:58:00 -
[1] - Quote
Having been with "the arts" my whole life, be it video games, cartoons, music, etc. I've always had deep imagination. I get inspired by what I see and try to come up with my own things, including a big story right now. However, pure imagination can only go so far. After playing the likes of Ratchet & Clank, Mass Effect, and watching films like District 9, it hit me how much I love science fiction. New life outside of ours. Now, with my wild brain that's constantly running, I want to put my hand in this genre and make my own contribution. However, what I lack is knowledge. I could do something abstract like Ratchet where every damn planet has oxygen and decent weather and come up with my own universal laws, but that's kinda lame. I want to take a more realistic and detailed approach like Mass Erect. That means knowing how life/ecosystems work, how it is moulded through time with its environment, how environments themselves work, and also technological things like machinery, designs for buildings, weapons, and all that good stuff. I noticed that my teacher from 3D Modeling class basically knew everything about anything. People would ask something random or he'd be teaching us something and would bring up something that seemed like had nothing to with what we were doing, and he would know all about it.
So. How do I go about learning all this? I'm in community college right now, so if it's through classes like Biology and Geography (I'm assuming), I can manage. Is there anything else? Any books or online information areas or anything? Or even another efficient place to ask?
|
iceyburnz
Crux Special Tasks Group
Gallente Federation
748
|
Posted - 2013.06.17 19:32:00 -
[2] - Quote
I mean this in a positive way:
Learn to read.
Im not suggesting you can't, but reading is a skill. Reading boring books is a talent.
Knowledge generally comes from boring books.
To become an academic, you must foster a love of reading. You must develop your critical analysis skills. Ironically these things universities do not teach you, you must feel it in your bones, and develop these skills alone. Your passion must be for learning.
Read everything. For pure learning you can't beat anything written prior to 1939. Only mass media was newpapers and radio and literature was directed at the intellectual elite. Get a kindle, loads of free victorian books on those.
When your fed up of reading, watch documentaries. Anything (avoid contemporary military documentries and anything about anicent aliens).
As BF Skinner the behavioural psychologists famously said "We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading".
Also don't worry about intelligence levels. Everyone with a healthy mind (meaning: has a typical functioning healthy brain without abnoramilites or illness) can become an expert in anything providing you put the time and energy in. All intelligence does is seperate the quick studies from the slow studies. Don't believe me? Google: "Ericsson's ten thousand hour rule".
If you want a start, I recommend the book "A brief history of progress" by ronald wright. Then read Nietzche. Anything by Noam Chomski is also good. You can't go wrong developing that memory, so read anything by Dominic OBrien, he'll teach you the loci method (used by the ancient greeks and romans to remember long speechs and facts in an era that predates paper).
Hope this helps.
|