ANSWERS: 5
  • I do not wish to complicate the issue but I know for a fact that age is a factor in this matter. I cannot retain facts like I could when I was younger. I feel wiser philosophically but when I was 30 I could remember 200 phone numbers. Today at 47 years old, 50 is closer to the number of phone numbers I can keep in my head and recall when needed.
  • There is certainly a limit to what you can learn. You can make this limit grow by training. Some theories and observations say that one could retain much more that we usually do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory Rather than to concentrate only on learning a lot of things, I think that it is better to organize this knowledge and learn how to find the information that one need. And find the necessary information to solve your particular task. If you just concentrate on academic knowledge, you have the risk to lose your connection to life and commen sense, I must give your partner right. The solution is, I think, to maintain some balance between academic learning and learning through life.
  • I have heard that everything one ever experiences is "retained"..not always acessible, because a lot of it is stored in the subconscious. I would think if that which you learn is logical and true,it would enhance common sense because you would have more tools with which to evaluate. So good-natured though your partner might be, I think he is wrong! :)
  • I'll agree with your boyfriend - there's been a couple of people I have known who have had degrees, masters and PHDs and had absolutely no common sense or initiative. I do wonder how they got there and how they are going to keep a job in the real world. I try to do everything in moderation, and am finishing with full time education next year when I have my degree!
  • the current view is that there might actually be a limit to the amount you can learn, but that its so high noones reached it yet. however, the more you know, the more you have to consider when choosing a response, and so the slower you react in situations that you would have used to have just guessed about (in other words, common sense has been obstructed by knowledge). however, you also tend to make a better choice based on knowledge as compared to common sense, so its all good.

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