Ideas: Input Versus Processing

Know when to stop the input...and start the thinking...

The process of learning, thinking, doing and enjoying is not just one process.  It is several different processes and skills that are linked together.  Each skill provides a different element of the entire process of conversion of a new learned fact, into a thought, action, which then results in a benefit of outcome.

Our brains are only capable of a finite ability to deal with facts, or "inputs"  at one time.  For some people it might be a large number of facts; for others, it might be a smaller number.  That number may change over our lifetime based.  It certainly will change with practice, improving with greater use.

Is it better to keep providing input that will be lost or forgotten?  Or stop the input and really process (i.e. think) about the inputs and turn them into lessons, concepts and memories?

Once we "hit" our limit of inputs for a period of time, our brain needs time to digest those new ideas.  It needs to process them, organize them and file them into the "storage cabinet" in our brains for future use. After that point, we may be wasting our time by stuffing in more inputs, only to crowd out the earlier ones.  Perhaps at those times, we are better to stop further input process and start the thinking process... 

We all can understand our own limits on "inputs" if we pay attention to what we are thinking and remembering.  I know I have reached my limit when I don't remember items which I have found important and/or interesting just moments before.  It's most evident to me during reading and other forms of conscious dedicated learning.  

What good is any further input or learning, if it only results in crowdings out other ideas?  Not much, in my opinion.  Perhaps it's better to stop, digest and THINK about the elements of knowledge that we have just required and reflect upon them in a way that will help us memorialize them as concepts and elements for our future knowledge base.  To understand them and allow us to put them into memory.

That process of stopping, reflecting and processing may be momentary...or prolonged, depending on the degree of your interest, importance, and depth of analysis. Regardless, the important thing is to stop and reflect on what you have just learned and allow it to really sink into your brain, rather than just glance off of it after having passed, ever so briefly, through your consciousness. That is how you expand your knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is greater than just memorized inputs.

 Lesson:

Know when to temporarily stop the inputs, process those inputs, and learn to create wisdom.