We as humans, homo sapien sapiens, apparently don't use 100% of our brains actively. I'm sure the rest of it does something at some point. But, how does one measure the 'capacity' of a brain? I don't mean activity, since you can easily do that with CT's and fMRI's etc. What I mean is, some people have excellent memory, others don't. How do you really measure that? Or do we all have the same amount, but the way we store it means some people have more efficient mechanisms than others?...
I've been recently conversing with a friend of mine who I've known for a while but not very well until more recent times and they are in the middle of their medical education. Reading through their blog material about the things they did in lectures, classes, hospital sessions etc, it is increadibly high in specific content volume. Compare that to my rather 'empty' head, where I probably have much junk of not much use, I wonder if I had chosen to attempt medicine, would I have failed because my brain couldn't store it? Or would my brain kicked it up a notch and taken the task in a challenging way? I wonder if there would be any possible longitudinal studies where they could take kids in the same setting, have one batch control doing ordinary life things as they wanted, one batch being continually mentally challenged by difficult tasks, and one being given only simplisitc tasks. Then seeing their relative mental abilities, memories, and so forth. Hypothetically, it would show that challenging your brain does or doesn't increase ability and memory capacity compared to those who had it easy....
Of course, the other thing coming to mind after reading a considerable chunk of their blog material (two years out of six years written), is how little I've actually done in the same timeframe. Sure, you could say that I've done plenty with a PhD etc, but.... it just seems the sheer volume of information and experience they get in two years of their training is immensely greater than my own.... hmm. I don't regret not taking medicine, and I don't regret doing my PhD, it's just annoying in that I can't find good suitable work for my skills and level, where as being a doctor, you're always going to be able to get work at reasonable pay rates. I'll just have to look harder and continue to push on.
I've been recently conversing with a friend of mine who I've known for a while but not very well until more recent times and they are in the middle of their medical education. Reading through their blog material about the things they did in lectures, classes, hospital sessions etc, it is increadibly high in specific content volume. Compare that to my rather 'empty' head, where I probably have much junk of not much use, I wonder if I had chosen to attempt medicine, would I have failed because my brain couldn't store it? Or would my brain kicked it up a notch and taken the task in a challenging way? I wonder if there would be any possible longitudinal studies where they could take kids in the same setting, have one batch control doing ordinary life things as they wanted, one batch being continually mentally challenged by difficult tasks, and one being given only simplisitc tasks. Then seeing their relative mental abilities, memories, and so forth. Hypothetically, it would show that challenging your brain does or doesn't increase ability and memory capacity compared to those who had it easy....
Of course, the other thing coming to mind after reading a considerable chunk of their blog material (two years out of six years written), is how little I've actually done in the same timeframe. Sure, you could say that I've done plenty with a PhD etc, but.... it just seems the sheer volume of information and experience they get in two years of their training is immensely greater than my own.... hmm. I don't regret not taking medicine, and I don't regret doing my PhD, it's just annoying in that I can't find good suitable work for my skills and level, where as being a doctor, you're always going to be able to get work at reasonable pay rates. I'll just have to look harder and continue to push on.
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