Stuff happens. The free will part is what you do about it. You can take two siblings who grow up in the same environment, have a similar education, similar aptitudes and the same events in their lives. It's very unlikely they'll react to those events in the same way and consequently, their lives will take different paths. Sometimes very different.
I think there's a psychological thing with reversing, or parallel parking, (and with maths actually), where you believe you can't do it and so you can't, which is why a good teacher can be so important to break down your mental barriers and allow you to process a problem differently. I used to watch my Mum - a very competent driver - failing over and over to park outside my gran's house. She was sure she couldn't do it, and she would get more and more wound up just driving there, knowing she'd have to park when she arrived. By the time she got there she was absolutely determined to fail. And did. Repeatedly.
Where I live - very narrow lanes - I find myself watching people reverse cars quite often. There is definitely no difference between men and women - most people are bad at it. People who are good at it are the ones who have had the most practice, i.e. my neighbours
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
... I come home miffed as I've had a crappy day at work...
...because I'm miffed, and being a crappy person, I take it out on my wife...
...that leads, quite rightly IMO, to an angry atmosphere...
...so I have a wine or two...
...because I had wine, I snore when I sleep...
...my wife then tries to stop me snoring by nudging (read punch) and shoving (read kick) me...
... we both then get an interrupted night...
... I miss the alarm because ....
... I get up late and grab odd socks in my haste...
... realising, I hunt around for the matching pairs...
... I leave home a few minutes late ...
... at the cross roads there's been a fatal accident a few minutes earlier...
Where is free will? Did I have a pre-thought (and a pre-thought, pre-thought to allow me to think the pre-thought) thought and decided to be nasty to my wife? Could I have not been angered by the crappy day at work? Does free will control my emotions - and if so, why am I ever sad or angry? Or did I just react because of a particular chemical and electrical balance in my brain - maybe if I'd had a sandwich at lunch my sugar levels would have been better and I would have come home happy instead of snapping at a colleague?
I have just decided, using my free will , that I will never be sad or angry or nasty again or depressed or .... - do you think that will work?
And if I have free will, what is an aptitude for something? Is that aptitude not controlled by free will? I want to be good at playing the piano. My son and daughter both learned. My daughter tried harder and had more lessons, but my son was better at it. Why? My daughter really wanted to be good - they are both equally as intelligent as each other. She willed it. But she never achieved it. My son was gifted with sport, music, art - BUT was given horrendous self doubt (or did he will that on himself?). Can he will that away?
For some reason, in my late twenties/early thirties I decided I wanted to know about philosophy, so thought I'd have a bit of a read. I started with Plato's Republic. Loved the way it was written (as a discussion within a group) and I think I got most of the arguments and saw where he was coming from. BUT then it got to that bit about the afterlife - just googled it as my memory is bad - 'The Myth of Er' - well.... And what I read there was just a scenario for computer games - you die, you get allocated a character, and you start again but that character has hidden attributes that you discover as you live that role.
I also erred on the side of all this being created, because I saw law. Science just documents cause and effect. In that cause and effect is law and order. A reacts with B to give C because... Fine. So I saw order and law and thought that must surely be created. But I didn't think about infinity. If infinity exists, then law and order must exist someplace in the way it does here. Anything I can imagine must exist somewhere. If it doesn't then is infinity infinite?
So can everyone be an engineer? To me, no - not if it's not in their story. Can everyone be good at maths...English....Latin...Physics...music...poetry... - it depends on their story.
What I find humorous in all this 'my god' - the thing that created all this that I experience (and who/what created that 'my god'?) may just be some 14 year old snotty kid in the year 2300 where creating VR worlds and universes is just a coding exercise you go through in everyday schooling. And how many levels am I down the rabbit hole? The 14 year old is 'my god' - but he's created a world where we are able to create VR - so we create our own VR and over the years - in 2300 we become more proficient and we create VR universes where the people go onto create VR and in their year 2300, they perfect VR and the kids get taught it at school and they create.... If that scenario is 'true' it is so, so unlikely that we're the first iteration. But still what we perceive is the all isn't it? You think you have free will and control and you don't seem to be able to abjucate your responsibilities. So life is life and you have to live your story irrespective.
My brain aches - so I'm off to do the ironing...no, stuff it. I have free will, I don't have to do the ironing...
My problem with parallel parking is that it wasn't in the driving test back in the day, so I was never shown how to do it properly (that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it ). In practice I hardly ever need to do it, because almost everywhere I go has a car park.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Same here Jenny. Course hubby was working in a garage at 15 and trusted to drive Daimlers into the garage. I was never interested in learning to drive,1st marriage we lived in London, wasn't necessary. Then we bought caravan in the country ex didn't want to learn to drive,I was elected,the biggest driving school in this country, I started learning Kings Cross in the rush hour,ice and snow, not bothered,I got the ".my wife doesn't understand me"thing. 6 weeks lesson, automatic test,I was useless,test booked straight away,this time we drove round the country,I couldn't park, reverse hillstart, forgot the highway code questions gave up. Couple of years later, instructor used to hit me with a metal tobacco tin hard, and shout. Shout at me I'm Finnished. 2 other girls I worked with hand up skirt, down blouse,struck off. THEN I found the calmest one Ken,he would casually mention if I was heading for a brick wall,perfect,passed!!
... I come home miffed as I've had a crappy day at work...
...because I'm miffed, and being a crappy person, I take it out on my wife...
...that leads, quite rightly IMO, to an angry atmosphere...
...so I have a wine or two...
...because I had wine, I snore when I sleep...
...my wife then tries to stop me snoring by nudging (read punch) and shoving (read kick) me...
... we both then get an interrupted night...
... I miss the alarm because ....
... I get up late and grab odd socks in my haste...
... realising, I hunt around for the matching pairs...
... I leave home a few minutes late ...
... at the cross roads there's been a fatal accident a few minutes earlier...
Where is free will?
The free will is at point 2. You have a crappy day at work. You have a choice whether to take it out on your wife. No one is a 'crappy person' - some people make poor choices. Had you chosen to leave the crap at work, the whole of the rest of the sequence would have worked out differently. By assuming that it is inevitable that your bad day at work MUST lead to you taking it out on innocent bystanders, you are passing off the responsibility you have to deal with your own s**t, and blaming 'fate' for your poor behaviour. That's your choice.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Mine found me tunnels, somewhere I could go into fifth, gear, country roads and Hyde Park Corner, huge dual carriageway roundabouts, and practically every lesson involved going through a double roundabout because I foolishly told him it scared me., Vertiginous hill starts. I learnt in ice and snow in the dark mostly. He even brought in his child's articulated lorry so that I could understand what happened to the rear of the car when parallel parking By the time I did my test, I had experienced practically every situation in which a learner could legally drive. I passed first time. I couldn't manage gears with confidence until my dad showed me a diagram of how they worked. Once I knew what was happening under the stick, I had no more trouble with gears.
My problem with parallel parking is that it wasn't in the driving test back in the day, so I was never shown how to do it properly (that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it ). In practice I hardly ever need to do it, because almost everywhere I go has a car park.
The first sentence is not true. I was never shown how to do it, either. I wouldn't say I'm brilliant at it but I can do it. The actual reason you can't do it well is your last sentence. If you did it every day, you'd find you can do it as well as anyone else.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
I think there's a psychological thing with reversing, or parallel parking, (and with maths actually), where you believe you can't do it and so you can't, which is why a good teacher can be so important to break down your mental barriers and allow you to process a problem differently. I used to watch my Mum - a very competent driver - failing over and over to park outside my gran's house. She was sure she couldn't do it, and she would get more and more wound up just driving there, knowing she'd have to park when she arrived. By the time she got there she was absolutely determined to fail. And did. Repeatedly.
Where I live - very narrow lanes - I find myself watching people reverse cars quite often. There is definitely no difference between men and women - most people are bad at it. People who are good at it are the ones who have had the most practice, i.e. my neighbours
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My problem with parallel parking is that it wasn't in the driving test back in the day, so I was never shown how to do it properly (that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
By the time I did my test, I had experienced practically every situation in which a learner could legally drive.
I passed first time.
I couldn't manage gears with confidence until my dad showed me a diagram of how they worked. Once I knew what was happening under the stick, I had no more trouble with gears.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”