- Matthew Wieder
- New York, NY
- United States
Student, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
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Can we "engineer" our own interests through repeated exposure?
This week in my Bioelectricity class we learned about muscle contraction and how individual muscle twitches build on each other until tetanus (complete contraction of the muscle) is reached. Muscles are made up of small individual contractile units called sarcomeres which when they contract by themselves change the length of the muscle and produce a force that is negligible. However, when the sarcomeres contract in unison, the tension force produced is great enough to allow us to perform all of our normal day to day activities.
We also had a discussion in class about science education and how to get more young people excited about science -- often times in class there was a certain interaction with a role model who provided key influence either in a positive or negative direction.
This led me to think about the idea of life changing experiences. Is it ever a single experience, a specific interaction with a teacher or other role model that leads us to the career choices we make or, are we more influenced by the small events and sets of circumstances that "sum up" and provide this life altering influence?
Bill McLasky
Kathleen Moran
Harnsowl Ko 50+
Robert Winner 50+
Yu-An Chen 50+
Steven Nikolidakis 50+
I also agree that it is a combination of the two. Although the small events might not have as much of an impact immediately, because of the elongated exposure time that we have to them, they could also have the same effect in the long run. By having only one specific experience, it might be disregarded after a certain time period. However, I also see why those are important. If there is one big event in life which changes your outlook towards something, and therefore causes you to avoid/cherish it more, that could also provide a life altering influence. This seems to happen in the education system with subjects such as math and science. If a student is put down by the teacher over one subject through negative reinforcement, the student might purposely avoid and lose interest in that subject.
Sarina Hannon
(What didn't work: repeat exposure, talking to someone who was really good at it but didn't love it. It sometimes worked to just put a good effort into liking it. ie smiling while I was doing it, being optimistic, looking for good things etc)
Joanna Cruz
I feel the same way you do and I have had similar experiences. I have found that my interests have been reinforced by interactions with people passionate about what they do. They speak and act with such vigor. When someone believes wholeheartedly in something, it shows in their demeanor and behavior. Those are the particular things I look for in making certain decisions regarding my own interests. Just based on my own experiences, I feel that repeated exposure is the key to inspiration and to developing dreams. Repeated exposure results in big life changing decisions that drive us towards our passions. It is never one single event because according to John Locke, we are made of continuous streams of consciousness and not just one single event or body part. Though I do believe the first event that sparks our interests is important, it is just a start. We need more pushes in a certain direction to overcome any resistance and build up momentum.
Howard Yee 50+
This is a very gray area as we've all heard of tiger moms or helicopter parents who live vicariously through their children. They may have the best intentions but in the end, they may be doing more harm than good. In the end, I believe we need to teach ourselves and others to observe the intentions instead of the surface-level problem at hand. When we expose people to ideas, what are our intentions at the exposure? Do we want to force them to believe what we believe in? And as consumers of ideas, we need to understand why we are receiving information. Having a horrifying experience should not deter us from pursuing something, just like how we should not blindly believe in something just because of a positive experience.
russell lester
Heather White 10+
Meggan Trevey
Andrew Tam
I think you bring up a good point. We can't know we are interested in something we don't know about, thus our interests arise in the set of things that we do know about. In the twin example, it may be true that we are genetically disposed to take greater interest in certain subjects over others. However, as Cal pointed out, the way this interest develops varies widely, and is largely related to culture.
Suppose we are never exposed to something that we should genetically be inclined towards - then we shall never find out that we had a disposition towards it to begin with.
With this information, it seems to me that we cannot engineer our own interests. If genes do carry these inclinations towards particular subjects, than I would say that we can't engineer our own interests, as our interests have already been engineered by our genes. What we can do is choose the pool of topics that we could potentially find interest in. If we inherently dislike a particular subject, I don't think we can genuinely force ourselves to like it.
sindhura tokala
Veronica Shalotenko 50+
I definitely agree that, in most cases, it’s not just one factor that pushes a person toward a certain career (or decision for that matter). Everything that happens to us, however small and insignificant, has the power to influence our thoughts and perspectives. Even when it comes to major decisions (such as choosing a career path), I don’t think that there is one factor that has a stronger influence on a person’s choice than all others. Ironically, if you asked someone why he or she decided to go to a given college or to choose a given career, most would give just one reason. Is this one reason the truth, though? Probably not. We might rationalize our choices in retrospect, but are we ever 100% certain that our rationalizations are the true reasons behind our actions? Essentially, our decision-making process is not too different from the process of muscle contraction in our bodies. Just as the different components of muscle have an (equally important) influence on muscle contraction, a variety of different factors have an equally important influence on every one of our decisions.
Ariel Habshush 50+
I agree with you that it is the individual experiences that have a great affect. I can speak from my own experience in the matter. The career choices that I have made seem to be influenced by the summation of small events. So far, I have directed my career towards the fields of mathematics and science and leaned away from the humanities. I believe that this decision of mine stems from my experiences in elementary and high school. In my youth, I continually excelled in and was intrigued by my mathematics and science courses while my humanity courses I found boring. After 12 years of exposure to the same situations, that guided me to choose a career in engineering. I do not remember one single experience that influenced me in choosing this career path.
Josh Mayourian 50+
I too can relate to my experiences in my secondary education to answer this question. From when I was young, my parents pushed me toward math and science. This reflected to my experiences in the classroom, as I always favored math more than humanities.
However, my school also played a huge role in this, as they separated students based on their mathematics abilities and humanities abilities. They pushed students to take honors and AP courses. Those who weren't pushed to felt as if they weren't suited for the material, and it may have held them back from pursuing that material. I was pushed to take AP's in math and science, but not in humanities. This made me more influenced to pursue an engineering path.
Simon Khuvis 50+
Amy Robinson 500+
That small sentence is "So what inspires you?" and it is the first thing one stranger said to me at TEDGlobal. That just..doesn't happen. But it did. And from there something changed. Many little things changed. I began slipping little curiosities into conversations and experimenting with interactions. I began to realize that I can catalyze a conversation into a meaningful exchange if I open up and do the uncomfortable, asking questions that encourage others to go deeper than a chat - to really share who they are, what they are passionate about and why.
This generates interest engineering. Before you know it you'll be writing philosophical emails to great minds and getting thoughtful responses. You will discover new ideas as those minds link you up with people and ideas you never knew existed. If you explore ideas you love with friends old and new and particularly explore who it is with whom you interact, you will find that engineering interest is two fold and can be instigated both internally and by others. Curate conversations.
Seriously, try saying "what inspires you?" more often. Or ever. It takes guts. They'll give you a perplexed look and then you'll set fourth into a splendid conversation, bits of which may change who you become. And maybe you'll be that person who inspires interest in others. You're well on the way :)
Cal Jahan 500+
How to get more young people excited about science? We have to remind ourselves that all children are born researchers/experimenters. We disrupt their exploration & discovery of the world by giving them theories and continue to spoon-feed ever more complicated theories without showing the connection to the world in terms of applications. How about a "Discovery Education" model. Students come to class and have to solve a real-world problem like how much paint they have to buy to color the room or what the height of a building is (using sunlight & proportions).
If we want science, we have to let students re-discover the theories/formulas. It is absolutely possible that some of these students may develop some new formulas in the process that we haven't considered yet. As for repeated exposure, sure, as during childhood.
Matthew Wieder 50+
I definitely agree that there is a certain period in a persons life when they are most susceptible to influence by experiences. As we get older we become more and more set in our ways, more sure of our likes and dislikes. If we desire that more students in the United States will take interest in math and science it is imperative that we find out exactly when this critical stage in a person's life is so that we can give them the most positive experience in the sciences at this point, hopefully setting roots for a future career in this same field. The greatest way is through great teachers, who take interest in the students successes and failures causing the students to take pride in their own studies in the same way, and opening their eyes to the incredible accomplishments that have occurred in the sciences, inspiring them for the future.
As for your comments about changing the structure of current education model, your views seem to be very in line with Ken Robinson (TED talk listed in related talks above) that in some ways the current educational system squelches the creativity of students.
Cal Jahan 500+
Also, there's a precedence in the history of the American culture that we can learn from & perhaps reuse. They were comic books & science fictions. I think an argument can be made that a boom in sci-fi post-depression and comic books post-WWII helped the US get a man in the moon. The connection is this, the adults who eventually got us there were able to do it because they grew a passion for science as children living through those eras. For this generation, it may not be either of those mediums but how about a science based RPG or electronic lego like http://littlebits.cc/thebits presented at this past TED?
As for hitting that critical period, I say hit'em with all we got at 9th or 10th grade as they come into high school. It gives them a bit of time to think & prepare for what to pursue at university
Fritzie Reisner 100+
This is not simply a matter of schools. Children hear messages from adults in their lives like, "I could never do math," often delivered with a laugh. This sort of cue is potentially destructive.
Nicolette Sinensky 50+
I completely agree with you regarding the educational system. It has become so standardized and rigid that there is no room for creativity or passion. It reminds me of "A Mathematician's Lament," a book by Paul Lockhart in which he describes the problems of the math education and curriculum (Link below). To demonstrate his point, he compares it to a fictional society in which art is taught in elementary school by memorizing colors and brush techniques, without students ever actually painting something original until college or beyond. In math, and in many other subjects, students are so bogged down with the rules and specifics of it that they never get the opportunity to experiment and enjoy the subject. If we were to present math, science, or other "boring" subjects in a fun way starting at a young age, perhaps kids would have a positive outlook reagrding them.
Link to an except of A Mathematician's Lament: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
Maria Georgescu 50+
I also completely agree that it is necessary to create the spark for loving to learn (not just science and math) at a young age. However, I do believe that even if the spark is there, most people are forced to be "pragmatic" when it comes to their career choice. I see so many bright students, especially engineers, choose to go into non-engineering and non-research fields simply because the pay is much much better. As Fritzie said, this mentality comes from hearing so many people claim how they were never good at math or put much effort into their school work and still were able to succeed. What does it say about our culture that we reward Hollywood actors and overlook scientists completely. Entertainment is a form of art and art in itself is a beautiful creation of the human mind, but at the same time, so is science which is sadly, continuously undermined. It may be a bit off topic, but I thought I'd post a link to a poem that has spoken to me ever since I came across it in a book. Titled "Pretty Good" by Charles Osgood, I feel it completely reflects what our educational system is currently like: http://holyjoe.org/poetry/osgood1.htm
Cal Jahan 500+
Fiona Weir
Andrew Leader 50+
I think a big confounding factor, for instance, is nostalgia. For example, when I was a kid, I hated going to Hebrew school. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about, and I thought all this "God" business was bunk. As a young adult, however, I enjoy going back to synagogue and learning more about my Jewish heritage because it reminds me of an overall very happy childhood.
Was this an active "Engineering" of my interests? I certainly didn't do it on purpose. But I think through similar associations, we can do something of the sort if we really choose to.
Joseph Taylor 20+
Carlos Renato dos Santos Junior
Trevor Murphy
Matthew Wieder 50+
Trevor,
While I agree with the idea that intelligence is affected by genes, and in this way will influence the opportunities available to different individuals, I feel that individual experiences in different subjects can have long lasting impressions on a particular student necessarily leading them to specific career paths. For example, a student who receives good grades in math is more likely to enjoy math and continue on with it in college and then in his/her career. Conversely, someone who may have had a bad experience in a math class, called out for a wrong answer etc. in elementary school may do everything in their power to then avoid math at all costs. So while genes may be a start point, I feel personal experiences come into play thereafter.
Trevor Murphy
Matthew Wieder 50+
Cal Jahan 500+
"..two different bodies of research with a similar finding. What it suggests is that children are shaped not by their parents over the long run, but in part -- only in part -- by their genes, in part by their culture -- the culture of the country at large and the children's own culture, namely their peer group -- as we heard from Jill Sobule earlier today, that's what kids care about -- and, to a very large extent, larger than most people are prepared to acknowledge, by chance: chance events in the wiring of the brain in utero; chance events as you live your life."
Matt, regarding the math analogy, I'd re-order the sequence of events that instead of good grades leading to liking math, it's more likely in majority of the cases that students like a subject so they study it hence gets good grades in that subject. But I get your point and agree that environment plays a role & we can do something about that whereas we're not ready yet to splice a math DNA into anyone :)
Jean-Baptiste Thibaudeau
The series of interactions that we had all feedback on each other to have a cumulative effect on me. And I, in turn, may end up influencing someone else one day
Matthew Wieder 50+
One of the most influential teachers I ever had was one I had in high school as well, who took an interest in my future career and pushed me to apply to a summer program teaching recombinant-DNA techniques. Seeing what could be done in the lab as compared to peeked my interest and I have continued working in labs over summers ever since. I guess this could be considered a single experience that changed my thinking, however, I feel that my experience in the class taught by that teacher primed me for the experience I would have over the summer. I wonder if under different circumstances, the same summer experience would have had as great an impression.
Richard Treadwell
Andrew Kiang 50+
An example could be that Ken Jeong’s, a doctor who turned comedian, life changing influence was during a high school performance where he received positive reinforcement for being funny. His interest in performing comedy never seemed to leave him even when he received his MD, as he continued to perform in comedy clubs on the side which later led to his big break in acting. The repeated exposure he received in comedy clubs was positive, which certainly encouraged him to continue with his interest. Perhaps this is a case of the life altering influence being a combination of both big events and summing small events.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/ken-jeong-from-doctor-to-comedic-actor-with-a-hangover-in-between/2011/05/17/AFbRvt7G_story.html