Interview meme...

[denny]

1. Do you find people who choose monogamy utterly incomprehensible?

Absolutely not. I find monogamy much easier to comprehend than polyamory, and in theory I find monogamy the more attractive of the two in many ways - it just doesn't work for me in practise.

2. What was your favourite subject at school, and why?

(written after the rest of the answer) I can't believe how much I wrote in reply to this one - what a fantastic leading question :)

This is heavily age-dependent. In infant school I initially found learning to read and write quite boring, as my mother had already taught me the basics before I got there. Maths however was an entirely new game and quite fascinating - so elegant! - so at this point it was definitely maths.

A couple of years later, I had something of a falling out with my maths teacher over my refusal to do a worksheet of 100 example multiplication problems (I did the first ten, the middle ten, and the last ten (increasing difficulty), and declared that it was inefficient to make me do all 100 when I clearly understood the principle involved) :) (yes, I did get them all right). At this stage I was getting a little bored with maths because they kept repeating themselves, instead of building on the new knowledge once I had learned it (never mind those other peasants). :-P

(My mother actually had to come into the school and settle the argument about the 100 question worksheet. She pointed out to my head teacher (in a cutting tone clearly audible from the corridor which I had been sent to wait in) that if I was so bored that I was picking arguments with the teachers, perhaps it would be a good idea to give me some more engaging work, rather than complain because I didn't enjoy mental drudgery. My mum is great.) :)

Anyway, around this time I'd also discovered that the junior half of the school had a HUGE book collection (compared to the 3 shelves the infants got), and had persuaded someone that I should have access to it. This marked the start of a very quiet period for me, as I devoured printed words at quite a pace, and pretty much refused to do anything else - particularly interact with people :) This is also when my love of sci-fi was born. I guess I would have been about 7 at the time. At this stage 'reading time' was clearly my favourite part of the timetable, so that probably falls under the broad category of English.

At the age of 8 I got a computer and within two weeks I knew that I wanted to be a computer programner when I grew up. My school wasn't really in a position to cope with this fact, so I focused in on maths again, which had got quite interesting now that I'd moved up a year or two. Also I had found out by this point that maths was almost the only class where your answers were either right, or wrong. I approved of this heavily, and it's still the single biggest reason that my overall answer to your question is 'maths'.

I finished all the junior school books before I was actually reached the junior classes at age 9, and had to bring in my own reading books. It was then that I discovered libraries and was enthralled with reading all over again. I also got more interested in writing fiction at this stage, largely because of an extremely good English teacher - thankyou, Mrs Ward.

By the age of 10, the school had caught up with my bedroom, and had a computer (a BBC Micro). There was no curricular activity that interested me as far as the computer was concerned - they wanted to teach us how to use the software they had for it, not how to make it do new stuff - but I spent every extra-curricular minute I possibly could on it. I improved three of the games that had come with the machine, including one that was a very basic AI (the 'guess which animal' game). My teachers were somewhat bewildered, but didn't really argue as long as I didn't overwrite the originals.

Also at 10 we started doing French, which I was really good at for some reason, so I enjoyed that for a while. Unfortunately I let this early head-start make me hugely over-confident in the subject at secondary school, and halfway through the second year there I realised that I'd been left irretrievably far behind. One of the few times that I've learned a practical life lesson - I try very hard never to repeat that mistake. I love learning things, so crippling my own learning process left me really annoyed with myself.

At secondary school I had quite a lot of fun in electronics while we were doing it, and really got into music for a couple of years when my school bought basically an entire studio - my GCSE Music exam pieces were all recorded on four synths and an eight-track mixer :) I got a G, which annoyed the head of the music department so much that he appealed it at two levels, claiming the board were unfairly biased against modern instruments and techniques. I still got a G, but I'm really impressed that he tried... especially as I skipped about 50% of my school time between the age of 12 and 16, including many of his lessons.

My secondary school was even more behind the times than my junior school as far as encouraging computer programmers (as opposed to users) was concerned - they wouldn't let me prod and poke things at all - but by this time I was doing quite a bit of basic coding at home, so it didn't really hurt me that much. I suppose I might have gone to school more often if it had been more interesting though. Through the whole of secondary school I'm finding it hard to choose between maths and science as my favourite subject... I think it was probably science by a narrow margin. In the last year, I had really good teachers in both, which makes it very hard to choose. In general, I think the quality of a teacher can make all the difference in whether a student enjoys a subject - and discovers an aptitude if they have one, or learns despite themselves if they find it hard going.

Overall, I'm going to have to choose maths, because several times in the course of my school life, I rediscovered that feeling of elegance to maths that makes it so fascinating if you have the right mindset. Science must come a close second, and English a much loved third. For all its wonderous breadth and depth (perhaps because of it), English doesn't have 'right' answers, and so it could never grab me the way maths and science did, and the way computers do. Right or wrong, true or false, one or zero - born to be a programmer :)

3. If you had to choose to play one character in the play or a film, which would you choose?

Hrm... difficult. I don't really watch that many films, and less plays, so I'm not sure.

Ooh! Presuming that I was magically gifted with the ability to carry the role, I'd quite like to play Cap'n Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Carribean. That should be fun.

If I'm not getting any acting skills thrown in with the deal, then I should probably just take a part in a porn film :)

4. Is there anything you would like to study, or study further, one day?

Yep - if I ever become independently wealthy, I will probably be up to my ears in AI texts before the year is out, with an eye to possibly doing research in the field. I'm very interested in the potential for applying AI to education.

5. Do you like cooking? If so, what kinds of things?

Absolutely not. I don't even particularly like eating. If they sold genuinely nutritious meals in pill form, I'd live on them at least 6 days out of 7, probably more. I resent the time it takes to prepare and consume a meal, I'd much rather spend that time reading. Or spodding :)

Comments

[lzz.livejournal.com]

2. English doesn't have 'right' answers, and so it could never grab me the way maths and science did, and the way computers do

I much preferred English for exactly the same reason, at least by the time it got to A level, by which stage my answers to science-related questions were usually wrong. ;-)

3. Couldn't you combine the two?

5. It's perfectly possible to read while eating and cooking, I do it all the time. I haven't quite managed to work out a way to read in the shower or while cycling yet, but am working on it.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Well yes, I do indeed read while cooking, but it would be easier if I could just take a 'steak and chips' pill instead :)

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

What AWESOME replies! Thanks - I feel very smug that my questions elicited such fascinating responses!

I'm enchanted that you devoured books so ravenously at from such a brilliantly young age. I did a similar thing at age 7, but unlike you, alas, I never discovered the elegance of maths!!! All languages and words were grist to my mill immediately - I learnt Welsh in 3 months (though have forgotten it since I moved to Africa aged 9) - but all maths and science was infuriatingly arcane and I wrestled with them relentlessly.

Which is a shame, because at the age of 9 I had decided I definitely wanted to be an astronomer and to go to MIT. For the next 7 years I bought difficult science dictionaries with titles like "Understanding Quarks and Quavicles," but fate was just not on my side! ... as became finally and humiliatingly clear in my final physics exam! *Mortification*

As a subject, though, my beloved English literature was harder than all the easy ones - biology and history etc were basically rote learning until 1st year univ so a good memory polished them off with no effort. But getting an A in English meant more than getting the right answer, and that endless, delightful challenge of finding the perfect, illuminating, economical and imaginative twist that would reach a stellar English grade was far, far more fascinating than anything else I encountered at school. (CUltural studies and psychology are as fascinating since I left). I LOVE that English is so elusive with its "rightness." :D

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

Also, your mum sounds absolutely brilliant. Was she wildly proud of your precocity?

My mum is indeed brilliant. I tell her so every now and then :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I don't really know if she was proud of me at that precise moment... I imagine she probably was, in a wry sort of fashion.

I think she was mostly just irritated that not only had they let a 7 year old get the better of them in a debate over education, but that they hadn't even noticed and were still arguing the point :)

My maths homework was quite hairy for a few weeks after that, but at least it wasn't dull... it rekindled my interest somewhat, although the printed word was definitely coming out in front at the time. Libraries! I was somewhat enthralled with the concept of a near-endless supply of books...

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised at your answer to (2) - mine would be practically the same but without the confidence to rebutt the teachers or bunk off school (that'd be the autism then)

As for (3), If I were asked to think of someone that most closely fitted that character it would be you without hesitation :)

[barakta]

I told my girlfriend about this post. She HATED primary school as like you she could read and write before starting. She also had additonal culture shock problems due to having grown up in the Gambia until a few weeks before school started. Primary school seems to be entirely about cultural references.

She expecially liked your refusal to do the pointless maths when you had proved without a doubt that you could do it. She says she would loved to have done that, but she was too confused (deafness) and scared to dare. Shame, cos her dad would probably have backed her up even if her mum didn't.

Such a lot of school is an awful lot of pointless hoops jumping... Give me a good book any day and I'll learn what I need and when I need to learn it.

Natalya