Dear Journal,
Developing the same thought from yesterday, I think that I might have been mistaken about specialization in life. Once, I figured that it was necessary to essentially sacrifice other opportunities in one's life in order to be good at anything. It seemed like a logical belief, after all, as common sense dictates that we have to be either a master of one trade or a clueless fumbler of all trades. I'm sorry, did I say fumbler? I meant jack of all trades.
Tsk. Disgraceful fingers.
But after some study and plenty of experimentation on myself, I think that its actually very possible for someone to acquire multiple skills simultaneously and that's may be the best way to go about learning. This is an incredibly superficial consideration of it, but basically my understanding approaches this:
1) Our brains respond less well to focused study over a small period of time than to diffuse study over longer periods for time, so improvement is best done by just concentrating on various different topics
2) Although this will take longer in actual days, it will actually take less time - a seeming paradox that I'll explain shortly. I'm not sure if I mentioned it yesterday, but a study group found that the group that spend two hours a day on a topic for 55 days learned less well than the group that spend one hour a day for 80 days. So essentially while the first group took more days to study, they only spent 80 hours overall, while the control studied 110 hours overall with less effect.
3) An obvious caveat is that, "So what if I study more hours a day and put in more days of study in my chosen area of knowledge?" Well, that obviously works. Its just not very satisfying and the return of investment regarding knowledge for time isn't as good as if you had planned it out earlier. However, if you absolutely have to cram, it does work.
4) The best way to maximize improvement in a single area, then, would be to develop several different but related skills that concern the area. For example, to maximize my development in areas of creative writing, I focused on just filling out as many notebooks as possible, building my vocabulary, plotting story seeds and learning how to type faster. Most applied knowledge tends to draw from several sources of personal information as it is, so it is useful to learn in the same manner as well.
Chess
I've found another way to learn about chess theory - from various YouTube videos produced by "GreenCastleBlock" or Matt Polland. He's a 1900 player, which is just short of the Masters, and is comfortably graded as a Class A player.
Now that I have a better grasp of the fundamentals, his videos have become far more useful in understanding the overall theories behind chess play and especially the nuances of positional play, one of the bugaboos which have consistently plagued me in the past.
But that's just theory, and as I've come to establish over the last few dozen journal entries, theory is just a few steps short of useless without application. I played a 1500 player today, and lost 1-2 in three games. Nonetheless, I remain inordinarily pleased in my first win and am glad that even in my lost games, I often maintained a consistent threat upon my opponent.
Some thoughts about my play:
1) I've been focusing on playing Black so I can understand the principles behind the Defences. This has forced me to use my pawns much more, realizing both the weaknesses and the strengths of having a good foundation. It is true - every single pawn move creates both strength and weakness and between all but the most beginning of players, good use of pawns decide the game. I won my first game in spite of being a piece down because by deeply advancing my d-pawn, it forced my opponent to use both of rooks in a defensive instead of an offensive role. The final winning play:
27) ... d2
I push my pawn to threaten Queening on the next turn. The pawn had a rook defender, so my opponent had no easy way of taking the pawn. The most direct way would be an attack on the pawn with the rook, which would cause him to exchange a rook for a pawn.
28) Rd1 Be6
White blocks the queening square with his rook, but I respond by sending a rook. I move to threaten Bishop attacking that rook via g4.
29)Rb2 Rc1+!
White moves up his other rook to destroy the pawn and then threaten doubling up his rooks. I have no real way of stopping him, as I lack any way of defending the pawn twice.
But! I have a much stronger plan. With my rook moving into the neighboring square and checking his king at a1, this gives me a win.
30) Rxc1 dxc1++
White has to take my checking rook with his rook. I take his rook back with my pawn, promoteing into a queen, and instantly smothering the White king behind his pawns.
This game also demonstrates the importance of tempo. Had White been one move faster, I would have lost the game as his rooks doubled up on the d file. But because of the gambits made earlier where I gave away my pieces for positional advantage, it allowed me to cause sudden death and halt the game.
Social
I believe that things are working out between betwen me and the girl after I had a rather stern talk with her. I somewhat regret how I have to be so with her, but I think that's important that she never takes me for granted in her life. Maybe it'll be enough to allow me to trust her and depend on her.
Otherwise, however, I ought to set more goals for myself socially. I'm not doing poorly, and haven't had much in the way of my usual social anxiety. So I ought to search for more challenges.
Literary
Well, I've been writing more here, haven't I? I've been following my schedule slightly more religiously, though my major foe continues to be procrastination. I fell asleep today during the afternoon due to exhaustion, so that knocked my schedule off somewhat. Still, I fully intend to attend to my schedule.
Heaven knows that I can't delay this for much longer.
Technical
The slow but sure method is working a lot better, but by God it is slow. I also realized that another problem in my studying was that I did not have many opportunities to actually work on it, hands-on, or try to solve problems in a realistic trouble shooting manner that involved activities. And I'm certainly a very hands-on learner,
CONCLUSION:
There's one thing which I haven't mentioned here which probably ought to be: I've also been working out a lot more regularly and have been taking to wearing a watch. Working out is just an easy way to feel great and reinforce the connection between effort and improvement(and yes, pain). The latter is probably more symbolic than real, as I have other means of checking for my time.
Oh, and yeah, Alizee is hot. I know, I'm three years behind, but its not like I get to see a lot of French songtesses in the US.
Regards,
IO
