One thing I notice about the exams is that, when it comes around to intensive studying period, two things always happen; I read the newspapers much more thoroughly, and for some reason, I break out with more pimples. The latter's a real shame.

Anyway, back to topic. The physics tuition so far has been not bad, and, you know, in the learning outcomes of every chapter that is printed on the front part of school notes, sometimes they require you to "appreciate that so-and-so law does this."

I used to look at it and raise my eyebrows. Appreciate? Really?

Well it turns out, yes. Appreciating what you are studying, much as it can be obscure and relative, is really tantamount to your sucess in the topic. Much as this may seem obvious to us all, I think it at first escapes our logic to appreciate something we have little interest in. I was piqued by the rain gun featured in transformers yesterday, and when I questioned why it could only be used once to take out the constructicon, Joel gave me some interesting news that made me want to read up more on it.

So I went to wiki (which is always trusty for techie stuff, I believe) and read up on it, and found that even JC-level physics applies so heavily to a mean machine such as this. If I applied the left hand rule, (which, actually, is more like secondary school stuff enhanced) the essential working of the gun came easily, and I felt... More connected to the gun, if you will. This, relatively speaking, is the appreciation of a subject.

Also, I remembered upon reading the wiki article about Joel's old post on how what we are studying will (not) be relevant to us in the future. I'd like to talk about that.

Most of us won't go on to become scientists or anything related to that specialised field. The thing is, science and technology has progressed to a far greater level than the average person can fully comprehend. We may use handphones all the time, but we'd never understand the workings of the microchips by just looking at it. It may have been different in the time of the caveman, a fire was a fire and a living piece of meat would be dinner. Education was still present even then, since young ones needed to know how to best take down a bull.

Now, when technology and science dictates our lifestyles, and with it having progressed so far, from young we already need to play that game of catch up so that new generations can continue where others have left off, and not stumble when we are presented a simple circuit chip. We can't do that if everyone chooses their own field of interest from young; the world needs so many scientists in different fields that specialisation is not efficient in the younger years.

An interest and knowledge needs to be inculcated while we are malleable, so that as many bright minds can be channelled to newer discoveries and findings. Many will fail to desire to understand the workings of a remote control, myself included. But if there is no attempt to inculcate that interest, then I predict change will come at a much slower pace.

The reason why I feel science has experienced exponential growth is, other than many other factors, there are many more educated minds able to contribute to the learning process with a better headstart, and this headstart is continually being pushed forward not only for the aforementioned need for catching up, but also so that when the interest is found, there isn't as much left to explain to the budding scientists.

For the rest of us uninterested in IVF and microchips, all this learning helps us do two things; develop further our logic by teaching us the stuff only advanced scientists could understand a hundred years back, and also, so that when new inventions arise, the public can make more educated responses to the change that is taking place. For example, so that you wouldn't just be awed by the mechanisms of the rail gun, but know, at the very least, the concept behind it.

I don't know why, but this appropriate Mandarin proverb will always stick with me for some reason. I learnt it firs in sec 2 when I was still doing regular Chinese, and I can speak it but I have no idea how to write it out in full.

"Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back."

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