Post-college philosophy-paper substitute
July 7, 2012 8:37 AM   Subscribe

My current occupation, although very interesting and satisfying in some ways, doesn't fulfill a craving I seem to have to apply my brain to challenging analytical tasks. I need something to do in my spare time that does.

In college, it was philosophy papers and intense bullshit sessions with too-serious friends. Reading and writing on my own doesn't seem to fully scratch the itch; I think whatever I do has to involve some sort of exchange with others.

I have about three hours a day max that I can spend on this. I'm willing to devote up to two months (three hours a day) to working to develop a skill or body of knowledge before the payoff of applying it doing the "real thing."

My image of this is that (like with philosophy papers) I would be researching something, discussing it with people, and writing argumentatively about it -- but it could have some other form entirely.

I would love this to make a contribution of some kind in some domain if possible, but I am OK with it not making any contribution at all anywhere. Some things I care about (although in a passive sense) are prisoners' rights, freedom of expression, and access to education. I am open to trying to start caring about something totally new.

In case it's relevant, I am an American but am currently living in a foreign country.
posted by anonymous to Grab Bag (8 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Have you perhaps thought that maybe there is an intersection between data analytics and philosophy?

Maybe if you don't have teh resources for your own research you could try to mine and extrapolate from others?
posted by krisak at 8:57 AM on July 7, 2012


This might at first seem very different.

What about chess? Like, playing seriously. Studying theory, joining a club, playing online and in tournaments. I did phil undergrad and am starting grad in the fall and find that chess gives me a very similar itch-satisfying payoff.
posted by pdq at 10:10 AM on July 7, 2012


pdq, I came in to likewise suggest that board/card games might be a good outlet. If you aren't familiar already check out boardgamegeek.com. Or, niche games like Magic, and traditional games like Chess or Bridge may all give you plenty to sink your teeth into and have online communities for discussion, debate, etc.
posted by meinvt at 10:40 AM on July 7, 2012


Puzzles. I'm specifically thinking of game puzzles and puzzle hunts. Start by solving, then you can try your hand at creating. Take a look at these examples:
posted by expialidocious at 11:20 AM on July 7, 2012


Free online classes like the Stanford Machine Learning class that was offered a short while back.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 12:09 PM on July 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


I second puzzles. It would be good to find someone (preferably offline, but online would work too) to solve with at first - some of the basic solving techniques take a little getting used to, I feel (but I'm average at best at them). I'd be happy to email you a couple PDFs of puzzles I've found especially fun to start - memail for my email address.
posted by maryr at 12:21 PM on July 7, 2012


Sounds like a good basis for a blog to me.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 5:26 PM on July 7, 2012


A group blog, at that. It sounds like OP wants to "make a contribution". Games and puzzles don't do that.
posted by yclipse at 5:34 PM on July 7, 2012


« Older How to improve my radio voice delivery?   |   What are these plants in in my yard? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.