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  <h1 id="main_header">My Thinking Style & Learning</h1>
  <h2 id="second_header">How the way one thinks can affect the way one learns</h2>
  <h4 id="date_header">4-4-2015</h4>

  <section>
    <p class="bodytext">
      The way you think about things in general and about life can have a huge impact on how you go about learning new things and experiences. According to <a href="http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/gregorc.htm">Dr. <NAME></a>, I am a "concrete random thinker". Being a concrete-random thinker means two things. The concrete quality, accroding to Dr. Gregorc, means that I register information directly through my five sense. That seems kind of obvious to me...I mean, doesn't everybody register information through at least one of their five senses? You couldn't register any outside information if you were born with no senses whatsoever, could you? Maybe if your brain had an ethernet port wired into it and was plugged into the internet or something...Anyways, according to Dr. Gregorc, I deal with the "here and now", and I don't "look for hidden meanings or make relationships between ideas or concepts". The former is true: I'm not big on looking for hidden meanings. The latter, on the other hand, is not necessarily true: there are plenty of times when I catch myself making relationships between ideas or concepts. It's called problem-solving, or creative thinking, or just thinking...
    </p>
    <p class="bodytext">
      The random quality means that I let my mind organize information by chunks and in no particular order. According to Dr. Gregorc, I am able to skip steps in a procedure and still produce the desired result, and I "may even start in the middle, or at the end, and work backwards". Again, to be bluntly honest, this doesn't really make much sense to me, so I'll break that statement down into sections. Section 1: "When you are using your random ability, you may often be able to skip steps in a procedure and still produce the desired result...". Sure, there are plenty of times where I may have skipped steps in a procedure, or even started in the middle and still produced the desired result. Isn't that called simplification? Or "being efficient"? Or being in a rush? Or having to meet a deadline? Or "being lazy"? I'm at a loss on this one. Section 2: "You may even start in the middle, or at the end, and work backwards". I don't believe I enjoy starting at the end and working backwards. That's somewhat of a strange order. Yet I can recall instances when I've had to work this way. It's called backtracking, and often occurs when one needs to find a problem where the cause is not immediately known. I believe lots of people do this for many reasons, not just the "concrete random" thinkers.
    </p>
    <p class="bodytext">
      While I have a hard time understanding (and agreeing with) Dr. Gregorc and don't believe I necessarily fall into his funk categorization schema, I do agree with the <a href="http://www.thelearningweb.net/personalthink.html">website that provides the test</a>. According to this website, concrete random thinkers "are experimenters". Plain and simple (thank you!). This makes much more sense. When I was five, I was hiking the French Alps in Chamonix Mont Blanc with my mom, my dad, and my brother, when I came accross a large patch of bushes, all of the same plant. At the time, I had no idea what it was, so I asked my dad, who replied: "don't touch it, it'll sting you". I didn't believe him. I had to find out for myself. So I dove into it. It was stinging nettle. It stung worse than anything I'd ever felt. Getting back to the point. The fact that I'm an experimenter is something I've suspected for almost 20 years or so. At DBC, I'll use this knowledge to productively experiment with different potential solutions to coding problems or other situations where I'll need to put my problem-solving hat on, but I'll do so in a managed way and while exercising a certain degree of caution. While I was taking Java and C++ classes, I found experimentation not only to be one of the best ways to find creative, more efficient, and less code-intensive solutions, but to also be necessary in some situations. In a nutshell, if there's no risk to it, why not try [experiment] with new strategies, methods, concepts, or ideas? Isn't that a part of invention and innovation?
    </p>

    <p class="bodytext">
      So far, my biggest struggle throughout Phase 0 has been managing my time and trying to find the right balance between being a perfectionist and being efficient. I don't think it's related to the way that I think or learn. Rather, I think it's a matter of habit and making minor life changes here and there. I had a rough time in Week 1, as I hadn't yet adjusted to this increased workload. Week 2 comprised a very large amount of work, and with grad school and work, it was a lot to take in in such a short time. But I weathered the storm, and I had a much easier time this week because I consciously practiced time boxing, I got to bed earlier and woke up earlier, I got in the habit of taking a 15-minute run down to the harbor and back between challenges, reduced my workdays from 5 to 3, and made a couple of other small changes in my daily routine. 
    </p>

    <p class body="bodytext">
      As I perviously stated, I don't really believe that there is a specific way to categorize or classify the way I think. I belive that I have some qualities from multiple categories, and I believe that they change depending on not only how much I exercise my mind, but also depending on what I'm doing or according to a number of factors such a my stress level, my emotional state, whether I'm feeling tired or energetic, whether I'm just getting up or just getting home from having worked all day, etc. Like the concept behind the <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/">growth mindset</a>, I believe one's thinking and learning styles are fluid and can change depending on a number of factors, one of them being how one exercises their mind and brain. One of the ways I plan to morph my learning and thinking styles in order to become a quicker and more effective thinker is to strive to achieve the right balance between exercise, work, and play. Another thing I will strive to do is to learn to roll to break my fall. I mean this both literally and figuratively. By figuratively, I mean that I will learn to control the frustration that arises when I can't figure something out, and if I fail at a certain task, to harness my anger and channel it so that I may use it to my advantage.
    </p>

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<body>
  <h1 id="main_header">My Thinking Style & Learning</h1>
  <h2 id="second_header">How the way one thinks can affect the way one learns</h2>
  <h4 id="date_header">4-4-2015</h4>

  <section>
    <p class="bodytext">
      The way you think about things in general and about life can have a huge impact on how you go about learning new things and experiences. According to <a href="http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/gregorc.htm">Dr. <NAME></a>, I am a "concrete random thinker". Being a concrete-random thinker means two things. The concrete quality, accroding to Dr. Gregorc, means that I register information directly through my five sense. That seems kind of obvious to me...I mean, doesn't everybody register information through at least one of their five senses? You couldn't register any outside information if you were born with no senses whatsoever, could you? Maybe if your brain had an ethernet port wired into it and was plugged into the internet or something...Anyways, according to Dr. Gregorc, I deal with the "here and now", and I don't "look for hidden meanings or make relationships between ideas or concepts". The former is true: I'm not big on looking for hidden meanings. The latter, on the other hand, is not necessarily true: there are plenty of times when I catch myself making relationships between ideas or concepts. It's called problem-solving, or creative thinking, or just thinking...
    </p>
    <p class="bodytext">
      The random quality means that I let my mind organize information by chunks and in no particular order. According to Dr. Gregorc, I am able to skip steps in a procedure and still produce the desired result, and I "may even start in the middle, or at the end, and work backwards". Again, to be bluntly honest, this doesn't really make much sense to me, so I'll break that statement down into sections. Section 1: "When you are using your random ability, you may often be able to skip steps in a procedure and still produce the desired result...". Sure, there are plenty of times where I may have skipped steps in a procedure, or even started in the middle and still produced the desired result. Isn't that called simplification? Or "being efficient"? Or being in a rush? Or having to meet a deadline? Or "being lazy"? I'm at a loss on this one. Section 2: "You may even start in the middle, or at the end, and work backwards". I don't believe I enjoy starting at the end and working backwards. That's somewhat of a strange order. Yet I can recall instances when I've had to work this way. It's called backtracking, and often occurs when one needs to find a problem where the cause is not immediately known. I believe lots of people do this for many reasons, not just the "concrete random" thinkers.
    </p>
    <p class="bodytext">
      While I have a hard time understanding (and agreeing with) Dr. Gregorc and don't believe I necessarily fall into his funk categorization schema, I do agree with the <a href="http://www.thelearningweb.net/personalthink.html">website that provides the test</a>. According to this website, concrete random thinkers "are experimenters". Plain and simple (thank you!). This makes much more sense. When I was five, I was hiking the French Alps in Chamonix Mont Blanc with my mom, my dad, and my brother, when I came accross a large patch of bushes, all of the same plant. At the time, I had no idea what it was, so I asked my dad, who replied: "don't touch it, it'll sting you". I didn't believe him. I had to find out for myself. So I dove into it. It was stinging nettle. It stung worse than anything I'd ever felt. Getting back to the point. The fact that I'm an experimenter is something I've suspected for almost 20 years or so. At DBC, I'll use this knowledge to productively experiment with different potential solutions to coding problems or other situations where I'll need to put my problem-solving hat on, but I'll do so in a managed way and while exercising a certain degree of caution. While I was taking Java and C++ classes, I found experimentation not only to be one of the best ways to find creative, more efficient, and less code-intensive solutions, but to also be necessary in some situations. In a nutshell, if there's no risk to it, why not try [experiment] with new strategies, methods, concepts, or ideas? Isn't that a part of invention and innovation?
    </p>

    <p class="bodytext">
      So far, my biggest struggle throughout Phase 0 has been managing my time and trying to find the right balance between being a perfectionist and being efficient. I don't think it's related to the way that I think or learn. Rather, I think it's a matter of habit and making minor life changes here and there. I had a rough time in Week 1, as I hadn't yet adjusted to this increased workload. Week 2 comprised a very large amount of work, and with grad school and work, it was a lot to take in in such a short time. But I weathered the storm, and I had a much easier time this week because I consciously practiced time boxing, I got to bed earlier and woke up earlier, I got in the habit of taking a 15-minute run down to the harbor and back between challenges, reduced my workdays from 5 to 3, and made a couple of other small changes in my daily routine. 
    </p>

    <p class="bodytext">
      As I perviously stated, I don't really believe that there is a specific way to categorize or classify the way I think. I belive that I have some qualities from multiple categories, and I believe that they change depending on not only how much I exercise my mind, but also depending on what I'm doing or according to a number of factors such a my stress level, my emotional state, whether I'm feeling tired or energetic, whether I'm just getting up or just getting home from having worked all day, etc. Like the concept behind the <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/">growth mindset</a>, I believe one's thinking and learning styles are fluid and can change depending on a number of factors, one of them being how one exercises their mind and brain. One of the ways I plan to morph my learning and thinking styles in order to become a quicker and more effective thinker is to strive to achieve the right balance between exercise, work, and play. Another thing I will strive to do is to learn to roll to break my fall. I mean this both literally and figuratively. By figuratively, I mean that I will learn to control the frustration that arises when I can't figure something out, and if I fail at a certain task, to harness my anger and channel it so that I may use it to my advantage.
    </p>

      <!-- copy and paste as many sections as you want to add paragraphs -->
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