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Where did you learn?

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I dunno if anyone could answer this but are there any learning techniques i could use to keep all the information i'm reading in? I thought maybe reading a page, the copying important parts down into my own words?
 
rickolasnice said:
I dunno if anyone could answer this but are there any learning techniques i could use to keep all the information i'm reading in? I thought maybe reading a page, the copying important parts down into my own words?
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take lots of psychedelics whilst learning then wait for the flashbacks of pure knowledge... :)

trying to learn or memorize stuff directly doesn't work for me, instead I need to fit it into working hypotheses and other concepts I already have, so use the knowledge to think about something related then it will more likely stick, so the more you learn the easier it interlocks with other things.

so try and see what is going on with a chemical reaction, visualise the molecules and the reaction and see the similarity with other reactions.

IMHO people should learn chemistry for its own sake rather than 'drugz or bombz' and it is so much richer and more interesting. drugz chemistry is so banal.
 
About to finish BS in neuroscience, have taken orgo courses and neuroscience and physiological psychology courses. I still feel dumb when I read in ADD lol, especially on the chemistry/pharmacokinetics end. I need to read more! Philosophy has really sparked my interest this last semester
 
shoulda known. ;)
what was your research focus? (not that I could actually understand it. . .)
I've heard that there's interesting stuff coming out of the Berkeley labs. Someone made methylquaalone (sp???) once...

ebola
 
ebola? said:
shoulda known. ;)
what was your research focus? (not that I could actually understand it. . .)
I've heard that there's interesting stuff coming out of the Berkeley labs. Someone made methylquaalone (sp???) once...

ebola
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I was responding to rickolasnice's post about Dr. Alexander Shulgin.. ;)
 
Bs Chemical Engineering
BS Textile Chemistry
MS Organic Chemistry

My dad worked in a mill. Textiles was in my blood, I loved it, it was my life's work <3

Pharm chemisty was always just a side hobby - personal interest experiments run concurrently with my sanctioned research. One thing about working in chem labs - one reflux tends to look pretty much like any other reflux. ;-)

Sadly, the true love of my life - specialty textile and paper coatings and emulsions - pretty much migrated to China, so I am now a retired_chemist and do something entirely different now for practical necessity - to preserve the dream of truly retiring some day. :\
 
rickolasnice said:
I dunno if anyone could answer this but are there any learning techniques i could use to keep all the information i'm reading in? I thought maybe reading a page, the copying important parts down into my own words?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you are studying and what your objective is. For example, if you want to be able to "do" organic chemistry, there is only one way you can accomplish that. You absolutely have to go into a lab and just start doing organic chemistry.
 
What a minute!

You mean I can't compile a vast collection of pdfs and memorize a bunch of jargon and then think of myself as a competent organic chemist or scientist?

Don't rain on my parade old man.
 
radongas said:
What a minute!

You mean I can't compile a vast collection of pdfs and memorize a bunch of jargon and then think of myself as a competent organic chemist or scientist?
Click to expand...

Actually I realistically only learned really useful things from a total of two formal courses. The first was undergrad Qualitative Analysis which is one of only a couple of courses that will give you any real experience in lab techniques.

The second was grad level Synthesis of Natural Products - at that level you no longer have any lab work associated with courses, and the one useful thing I learned from that class was the doctor who taught it was so inspiring I felt a private personal level of humiliation that I myself possessed the knowledge of a basic gnat and that made me want to make myself into a better chemist.

Beyond that a big part of it actually was compiling a vast collection of pdfs or in my case mostly photocopies of journal articles. :) The key was taking them into a lab and actually trying to do something with them.
 
I'll chip in even though i only really lurk on ADD. I'm a pharmacy student and took 6 semesters of college chem, have no degrees.

What's the difference between chemistry and drug chemistry?? I'm not sure how you guys are using the words there..
 
Read more books on pharmacology and pharmacokinetics than I can even count. Opiates, BZDs, uppers, downers, and in-betweeners. I have what I like to call an impressive mass of knowledge sprinkled between different subjects. Or what others call, knowing a little bit about a lot of individual things. Currently I'm trying to fill in the holes in my knowledge with a bit of education as well as experimentation.

And of course, the countless sites such as Bluelight (but none any better), hehe.
 
Well, mostly from reading up on the hive when it was around, studying chem books, associates in science and fiddling around with chemicals at home (Step Father is a chems salesman with a degree in organic chemistry and tends to get me sample chems and lots of free glassware. Anyhow I've only learned to make what I like. Anything else I'd probably fail at. I'm not strong at math, so I have to triple check my calculations on any project. However the rest of my turkish family are whizzes in organic chemistry...BTW I'm American and they were married in, but ohhh do i love them!
 
I love Ochem. And plants. And brains. Especially brains.

A couple years ago, my shrink gave me her neuroscience, neuroanatomy and psych books, and I peruse 1/2 priced books for other txtbks. I've been reading on my own since, trying to figure shit out. I went to uni for a semester for ochem and I didn't find a single other student (even ones who had undergrad degrees) who had a personal interest and or appreciation for the beauty of atomic shenanigans. So school is kinda... meh. I mean, I have plenty of time to go back and try for a degree in the distant future ;) but I really do want to get a formal education. Shiny glassware and infinite access to journals and stuff...

For me, the draw of Uni is most definitely the vast libraries of information on ANY possible topic, no matter how specific... You can learn everything we as a human society have collectively learned over so many millennia... then, on the other hand, I want to travel the world and drop down to the most profane levels of existence and learn their wisdom as well...

Really though, I have no clue as to what is going on in this crazy world, but it sure feels GOOD!
 
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I've never read so much as a biochemistry textbook and it shows. Oh how it shows! But I haven't motivation enough to even download a pdf of a decent textbook and read it. See, the very reason why I take an interest in the fields that I do is that I wish to treat my own psychiatric conditions because I have been unable to find a decent psychologist/psychiatrist/psychopharmacologist, but my psychiatric symptoms comprise low motivation and interest which causes me to be unable to make quick progress in my autodidactic enterprise.
 
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