kp wrote:Just wondering... Does anybody out there use a Kindle (you know, the electronic book thingie from Amazon)? I understand you can download your own pdfs onto it.
kp
After researching it, I would prefer the Sony reader to the kindle, but I can't justify the money for either.
As for condensing the material, I don't think it is really possible. I can sum up the concepts, but that is not going to be productive for explaining it to people. If you are trying to explain it to people, they don't just want you to tell them the concepts, they want you to explain how that works and why. Then when you do they are going to argue it with you, so you have to have the facts, and explanations to back it up. The only way I found is to study it over an over, then try to explain it to others. When I was at University, in my education classes, we heard the statistic, and don't know how accurate it is, but I found it to be true, that you learn 20% of what you hear, 40% of what you read, and 70% of what you teach, and that to teach best you should have your students engage in all three. That has been my approach, I have listened to the audio portions over and over, all be it I used to deliver pizzas and spent the majority of my day in a car listening to the radio, and most don't have that opportunity. At the same time I read the books and forums over and over, until I was able in my mind to effectively explained to myself why I 'believed' what I 'believed'. Back when I was an agnostic I would tell my christian friends, that I could not believe something that I could not explain why I believe it, and Christianity never gave me that ability. Finally after I did that I began to try to explain it to others, horribly at first, I had a horrible approach, and was not very effective, but as I went on I learned to modify that approach, and I also learned what issues seem to come up the most, and I learned to address those. As you go you will learn that there are a number of objections that come up over and over, so you know to focus on those topics. I will give a piece of advice, when you are talking to others, focus more on explaining what you believe as opposed to why they are wrong, if you do the other, they will get deffencive and stop listening to you. To quote Dennis Prager "Clarity over Agreement". If you can help them to understand it you will do more good than if you just attack their beliefs.
I can't even come up with a short explanation of why I can't come up with a short explanation. I think the mindset of most here is not short answer oriented, we are all skeptics who need in depth answers.