hope: a lifting post: how dreams motivated learning

What if at the age of 45 you loose your memory, your job, and you barely stay alive? It happened to Garth Murray. He sunk into a life which was dominated by sleep until ... his sleep came up with the answers. Sometimes it does not take more then part of the brain to come to the rescue and give visions of techtales and push a person into some heavy informal learning that reshapes life itself.

Thanks to Simon Young, a New Zealand journalist that is into social media I found myself reading Idealog. While I was reading through the headlines one story snapped my attention: Daydream Believer, the story of Garth Murray who designed a new audio (= speaker) system that reshapes the audio world. Although his memory was shattered and he became a hyperacusis (= a collapsed tolerance to everyday sounds), that same brain came up with visions on how a new design of speakers would enable him to filter distortion from audio. Because he knew nothing about audio or speakers, he started learning it himself (he did talk to a specialist to help him on the way) and he began building the design that appeared in his vivid, vision like dreams. It is quite a story and it gave me hope.

It also made me think that in crisis situations, the only thing that gets us out is informal learning, because it is the natural way to learn. Formal learning only covers standards or basics or paths that have been walked on.

If you are interested in Garth Murray's speakers: Theophany Loud Speakers.