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Some People Just Never Learn
Iddo Genuth writes "German scientists recently showed what many of us suspected but could not prove — some people just don't learn. The German researchers have found a genetic factor that affects our ability to learn from our errors. The scientists demonstrated that men carrying the A1 mutation are less successful at learning to avoid mistakes than men who do not carry this genetic mutation. This finding has the potential to improve our understanding of the causes of addictive and compulsive behaviors."
...doesn't it mean it has some evolutionary advantages?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I agree. I know I will be called out on anecdotal data here but I have known more than one person with alcohol problems or who are smokers who are actually quite bright. everyone knows of the archetypal substance abusing tortured genius. I'm not saying that alcoholism is a sign of intelligence but rather that it is a poor indicator of stupidity, in this case shown through repetitive poor decisions.
thats right, I rarely use capitals. deal with it. but don't mistake my laziness for stupidity
I wonder if this implies that medication that affects dopamine levels reduces (or increases) a persons failure to learn from mistakes.
Then they'll brainwash there kids into thinking they have a genetic disorder that prevents them from learning (educators will propagate this as well). Then the activists will get involved and say that poor grades are discriminatory against something that these people have no control over. Then...
I was diagnosed with some sort of generic learning disability when I was a teen.
I tend to bang my brain against new concepts again and again, until I finally understand them in big chunks. I tend to overlook the obvious, and go for the bizarre interpretations of things.
So I often find myself in situations where I feel stupid for not grasping something that is readily apparent to most everyone else, but at the same time I've been successful with teaching myself certain concepts other people wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
For instance, I've taught myself how to program in Haskell, whereas most programmers run screaming from anything with more than a minimal functional paradigm component. It did take me quite a while to get some concepts in Haskell, though.
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Incite and flee.
Just because some people have a harder time learning does not mean they can't learn.
/. post), it means they have a lower capability.
It's just harder.
Seriously, it doesn't mean they don't learn (the title of this
It's like saying that Americans can't speak more than two languages. Most have never tried, nor had the easy resources to do so, but they could probably learn additional languages, even if it might be harder here.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
For those that are going to call Goodwin's Law, look up eugenetics. Many US states practiced it up until around the time of WW2 (some states even did it later). Sterilizing prisoners, people they decided were mentally ill, etc. Some really, scary and depressing cases. Sure, it wasn't necessarily race based, but definitely the same idea that a certain European country had.. In fact, they claimed they got the idea from California.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Maybe the article is badly written, but it appears as if the scientists are jumping conclusions. The test subjects were asked to pick a symbol, they got feedback in the form of a smiley face or an angry face. Some short time later they were asked to pick a symbol again. If they now picked the happy face, the scientists assumed they had learned.
Somehow, I doubt that seeing a smiley face is enough of a reward to make the subject avoid making the same choice again. I mean, the angry face might look more interesting, or the subject might just wonder what happens if the takes the other card (given that he took the happy one first).
I'm just saying - there could be many reasons other than "not learning" why a person picks the symbol that gives an unhappy face as a result. Hopefully, the scientists thought of this, but it's not in the article (as far as I can tell).
"OS/2 Supporters Petition IBM To Open OS/2 Source In 2008"
"Bill Gates Says Capitalism Shouldn't Be So Cut-Throat"
"Microsoft Says Current Windows Is The Most Secure"
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
It is amazing how a person while defending a nation from being stereotyped against can none the less demonstrate the same prejudice as the original poster. I agree that we can't say that all Germans were at fault for what happened to the Jews. Can you please elaborate on the good and valid reasons that can or could exist to hate every single member of the nation, in your post you are saying there were. The fact that Jews through out the history where hated is not a good defense of what happened in Germany. This whole discussion is irrelevant to this post in any case, the original post was irrelevant your reply was as bad and frankly mine is no better, I just can't stand someone jumping in to defend against stereotyping while committing the same offense.
Well, that and the fact that the (republican) election board in Ohio decided to allocate all the voting machines to areas of the state which supported Bush, forcing people who lived near (for example) the universities to wait in line for hours or not vote at all.
Luckily, Ohio did learn from its mistake, and kicked the republican governor out of office to years later.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Whether or not enough votes were faked/switched/stolen to steal the election, it seems indisputable that about five out of ten U.S voters voted for Bush in 2004. And turnout was sixty percent, so really seven out of ten * registered voters either didn't care if Bush got re-elected or they voted for him. Having known and worked with many Americans in the United States for several years centred around the 2004 election, I still don't know how to account for that widespread amount of mass wilful ignorance and/or active malice.
I think, having known many Americans, that I have much more trouble making sense of it than do people who have never lived among them.
* - 7/10 because 4/10 didn't vote and (50% * 6/10) voted for Bush.
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.