Shivari post=18.70097.709803 said:
WhitemageofDOOM post=18.70097.709333 said:
Shivari post=18.70097.680524 said:
I've always considered myself mature (or at least more so than other people my age) but is this me becoming "truly" mature? Am I just being more responsible? Or is this just my interests changing and finding out who I am?
No, this is you becoming less mature.
SNIP
So in the end, everything you will do comes down to "how do i waste my time until i die." you can learn all you want, I'll be having fun. Were still just wasting time till it ends.
If you no longer enjoy games, that's fine. But your not becoming more mature and wasting less time.
You're quite the motivational speaker...
Just wait 'til he learns his fun will be regularly interrupted by his job at Wal-Mart for the next fifty years. Then he'll be a real riot.
What you're describing happened to me as well, although to be honest most of what is considered fun today didn't exist when I was your age. If I were reading and found an unfamiliar word, I'd look it up - and then spend the next hour reading other things in the dictionary. There's just so much interesting stuff to learn!
Eventually my brain got full. Now I have to be careful because whenever I learn something new, I forget something old. (I think they call that the balance of nature.) Sometimes at work I have to tell the other disciplines "Don't explain that to me, I might forget where I live!" So now I can play video games all I want.
Much of what is taught is more practical than kids know. Want to be a plumber? You need lots of math to rise above handyman level. (The guy pumping your septic tank probably isn't a plumber, he's the guy who didn't learn math.) When you're plumbing a new building, you have only the exterior walls laid out; you have to calculate exactly where that interior wall is going to be, because the concrete slab gets poured before most interior walls get framed. Similarly, other skilled trades need good math skills to calculate how much wire to cut, how much sheet metal to buy, what size channel iron can replace that angle iron that won't fit. And for a good white-collar job, you need to be able to get through college.
As for history, if you're in a representative republic you need some basis for voting other than "change". If you're really familiar with history, you can recognize trends and repeated mistakes. If enough people recognize past mistakes, they don't get repeated.
Science - everyone needs a basic understanding of science, it's how we understand the world around us. And grammar and composition are absolutely required for success. If you have the best idea in the world but can't express it well, you'll have a difficult time selling anyone on it. Reports and proposals are a big part of almost any business. But even beyond application, knowledge is good just for itself. Learning keeps the brain nimble and well-oiled, and as you've learned, has its own satisfaction.
Congratulations on your maturation. Unlike video games, there's always something interesting waiting to be learned - there are no dry spells where you are forced to learn something stupid or do without.