Adam Luke

I recently finished another semester of university, which means I have officially completed half of my degree. Yay, or something. Anyway, since I have another few weeks with little in the way of commitments, I feel it’s time for some self improvement.

You see, I want to become “smart” again. When I was younger, I was, pretty much, smarter than everyone else my age, and achieved more academically, without having to do any work. And because of it, I frequently got special privileges, and got to participate in special programs. These days? It seems that everyone has “caught up”, and I’m no longer better than everyone else. It annoys me that it’s possible for other people to beat me in assignments, exams, etc., even when I put in effort, as there’s nothing I can do about it. I hate being second rate. I probably sound like a spoiled brat here, and I’m not going to deny that I am one..!

But. I would like to rise up and regain my status of “super smart”. I don’t know whether this is achievable (I suspect it’s not), or how it is achievable, but as part of my “master plan”, I would like to increase my general knowledge. Certainly, I can hold my own in a game of Trivial Pursuit, but screw that; for me, it’s all about winning. I want to own. For sure, I have areas that I can definitely improve in. History, for instance. Most of my current knowledge about history comes from the Horrible Histories series of books for children, which I used to read. This is fine, but I don’t know whether those are wholly historically accurate, and also I want to read something aimed more at an adult audience. Oh, and something that looks at the history of science and technology should be interesting, rather than the usual people-and-events focus.

Also, I’m not averse to using documentaries to improve my knowledge. In fact, I quite like them (related posts: Dinosaurs, Koyaanisqatsi).

So I plan to go forth and learn. Or, be overwhelmed and give up immediately.