Do you feel like you keep getting smarter?

Here's something I couldn't do five years ago: field work (i.e., hiking, climbing, kneeling, getting up again). Of course I can do that now not because I'm smarter but because I got a new knee.

I dunno. Define smart. Because I've continued to be active in research in my field, I know a heck of a lot more than I did five years ago, mostly because we've made some exciting discoveries in the last five years. Does that make me smarter?
 
texasclouds said:
Honestly, maybe it was me being more stubborn and having better tools than before. A compression test of 160 psi told me the engine wasn’t trashed like I previously thought. I was getting spark. Pulled off muffler and could see the bore, piston, and rings looked good. Fully disassembled the carb, cleaned, blew out the orifices. New fuel lines that I had left over from a motorcycle project. I said I’m going to reassemble and try one last time, them bam she fired first pull. Tuned the needles and went to work.
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I'll tell my method for keeping small engines running. All of my small engines are Stihl, I quick buying Yardman and other junk years ago. I run exclusively the Stihl pre-mix through them. I have never had a starting or carburetor issue with a small engine since. I know that pre-mix is highway robbery, and pixie dust, but for the gallon or two I run a year, its worth it.

Probably would get cost prohibitive if you were running a landscaping business, but for personal use it is tolerable.
 
I used to focus on getting “smarter”, better, more experienced, etc.

I now focus on maintaining and getting to retirement, buying land down south and disappearing into quiet things I enjoy. Hunting, fishing, boating, snowboarding, golf, etc.

After typing it, maybe I’m jaded?:)
 
Not sure whether I’m becoming any smarter, but I’m 100% certain that the world is becoming dumber.

In the last 5 years I’ve learned how to fly a plane and I’m now learning a lot about airplane ownership and maintenance.

I’ve also learned a little about electrical engineering in building design, which is somewhat different from the EE work I did designing missiles and EO systems for Lockheed.

Now that I’m retired, I’m looking forward to learning things I want to learn just for fun.
 
1. Learned to shut up when smart people are talking.

Also learned how to milk a cow, how to refill printer cartridges and soloed a tailwheel airplane. So smarter, maybe. But perhaps the challenge should be: how much can we stretch our brain cells?

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk
 
I learn new things constantly. Some are a result of tackling repair and maintenance projects on cars, equipment, or home improvements. Others are just watching/reading things from others with a great deal of knowledge on a particular subject that strikes my interest. I can't recall anything recent that has just been a paradigm shift in my overall intelligence level, but I believe I add to my "bag of knowledge/experience" fairly consistently due to being a naturally curious person. "Jack of all trades, master of none" will probably be what my epitaph will read, lol.
 
Fly in IMC legally. I never did illegally mind you.
 
I think I’ve learned a lot more about human nature in the last few years. But I’m looking at retirement soon. And kind of like @Radar Contact I am content to do the fun things and watch my daughter grow up into a wonderful human being. Work to polish up the résumé for the next phase of my souls existence.
 
kath said:
-- Teach people how to fly (legally!)
-- Program in python, and make plots in matplotlib
-- Make sourdough bagels and English muffins

...which means I've probably pushed three important things out of my brain...
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You reminded me (not sure why) that in the past 3 years I have learned how to do 3D printing. This might be a step backwards, Now I almost can't hang a picture without printing some custom tool or Jig to do so.

I also learned about Variable Speed controls for my Drill press, don't have space, time, or money for a mill. But have friends that do.

Did start learning bit of Python to add to the other dozen computer languages, but I am kind of at the point that they are all pretty much the same, meaning I can do most of them but am not really good at any of them. I currently have a Trinket M0 on my desk that can use Circuit Python, and I probably will use that for the simple application I am going to use it for.

The airport cafe makes way better bagels, muffins, and cinnamon rolls than they did 5 years ago (new management):). But then this is my 24th year of teaching people to fly.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
I poked around enough with the Ubiquiti EdgeOS to make it work ... well, primarily the traffic shaping policy

and poked around with the Synology DSM to learn some basics about VPNs and such.

I'm retired, I'm not going to work in the cybersecurity field.
 
The title reminds me of a story from my younger days.

Our family used to play trivial pursuit all the time. So much so that I learned to hate the game, even though my brother and I pretty much memorized all the answers.
One day we were playing with a kid from down the street and we were killing him. He complained that he felt stupid. So my brother told him to wait a minute as he went and got some "smart pills".
He came back and gave the neighbor kid some of the pills. The kid ate a few then said "eww, they taste like rat ****". My brother and I broke out laughing as we told him he was smarter already as he ran to the bathroom to throw up.
 
I know that I don’t know what is going to kill me.
Corollary what you don’t know you don’t know is what is going to kill you.
 
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I'm not smarter, and I learn slower, not as quick as i once was, but DRAMITICALLY wiser.
 
I had a meeting with someone orders of magnitude smarter than me today. I thought of this thread.
 
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