Belt drive

On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-01 16:10, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 01 May 2019 07:51:01 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-04-30 16:23, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:51:45 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]


No, no, look at the positive side. I am getting free core muscle
training :-)

Or straining your back picking up the penny :-)


My lower back isn't that great but MTB riding actually helps it by
building up core muscle. Something none of the doctors ever told me.
Most likely they didn't even know such stuff.

Just about anything that exercises a muscle strengthens it. I suspect
that your doctor knew that.


No, I was told MTB riding is out. They also did not know that I had a
magnesium deficiency, all of them didn't. A CPA did. After his advice I
started taking supplement and that helped, big time.

And how did this CPA determine that you had a magnesium deficiency?
did he do tests?


He listened carefully to my description of all the symptoms, asking in
detail about my dietary habits, then he said that a magnesium deficiency
is quite likely. And bingo, he was correct. Now why didn't any of the
medical professionals ask those questions? Well, we all know why.

Very interesting. the standard indication of magnesium deficiencies
a

Deficiency of magnesium can cause tiredness, generalized weakness,
muscle cramps, abnormal heart rhythms, increased irritability of the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There you go. Muscle cramps - back pain. Many back pain attacks are in
essence muscle cramps. For example, caused sudden compensatory movements
to fight a nerve compression jolt due to a spinal issue. MTB riders know
this from other muscles. You mess up a turn, stick out a foot, try to
catapult over some obstacle ... YOUWEEE


nervous system with tremors, paresthesias, ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Big time!

When a nerve becomes inflamed ever so slightly it swells. Causing it to
become inflamed more. Causing it to swell more. A vicious spiral effect.


... palpitations, low potassium
levels in the blood, hypoparathyroidism which might result in low
calcium levels in the blood, chondrocalcinosis, spasticity and tetany,
migraines, epileptic seizures, basal ganglia calcifications and in
extreme and prolonged cases coma, intellectual disability or death.

Which of these were your symptoms?


Some. What comes out of the spine does belong to the nervous system and
that's what causes the most serious pangs of pain.

What happened was that about 4-6 months after starting daily magnesium
supplement (a time delay the CPA predicated) me back pain attacks
because less frequent and, most importantly, less severe. I never had
one again where I was unable to get out of bed in the morning.

Fast forward a few more years when I bought the FS MTB. A year into that
the now fairly mild back pain episodes shrunk further in terms if
frequency and severity.

One has to be careful with supplements because it or other ingredients
in them can mess with heart medications and other prescriptions. I don't
use any prescription drugs though.


It seems many medical doctors learn by rote and then whatever they
learned in school goes.

Of course they learn by rote. Just as you did.


I did not. In fact, I rarely went to the auditorium at the university.


... Watts are volts times
amps, or did you discover that by experiment and your name is "James"?


Practicing ham radio for the most part, building much of my gear. Also
by earning money on the side repairing TVs, radios, tape recorders,
two-ray radios and so on.

and this taught you what a Watt was?


Yes. I learned it "in reverse", peeling practical use back to the
theoretical foundations. That is my preferred way of learning and it
works. It greatly reduced boredom and fatigue while learning.


Engineers who learned by rote usually can't think outside the box. I get
paid for doing just that.

Ridiculous. If you have never learned the basics of your trade,
whatever it may be, you will never be a success and you can't
possibly live long enough to learn all that by experience.


Well, this is what my clients pay me for. And keep dragging me back from
retirement.


So yes, you do need to learn the basic underlying facts by rote.


No.


He probably also knew that suggesting that you did bending and
stretching exercises every day was an example of futility on his part
as almost everyone will ignore any suggestion to do anything that
smacks of "work".

Well, no, the first three docs were in Germany and those guys generally
do not subscribe to a sedentary lifestyle. One actually suggested
swimming which was good advice though that doesn't do much for the back
muscles. At least not as much as MTB riding. My back muscles have become
almost rock-hard after five years of riding.

They would have become "rock hard" from lifting weights also. Did you
try that as part of a regimented exercise plan?


That is poison for someone with compromised L4,5,6 discs.

But you are arguing that eating magnesium has cured you and made you
"rock hard". Now you tell us that you have spinal disc problems. Are
you saying that magnesium cures disc problems... which are usually
considered mechanical problems? Does eating magnesium actually cure
spinal disc problems?


sigh

Could you please read more carefully for once? Magnesium supplement has
reduced the severity of my back pain attacks. It does not increase
muscle strength. I _then_ _afterwards_ started riding the MTB, a lot.
About 30-40% of my cycling trips happen on the MTB. That is what built
up the back muscles and now keeps them strong. Like yesterday where I
was standing in the pedals much of the ride, even downhill, to keep the
bike steady on shifting ground.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2019-05-02 20:56, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Wed, 01 May 2019 07:28:51 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Hmmm... I've always thought "full speed" was the speed you reached
when that big, bad, dog, came rushing out of the drive with dinner on
his mind.

My experiences have been that one can reach some astonishingly high
speeds in that event :-)

I was once attacked by an entire pack of neglected dogs. It didn't
take much effort to outrun them -- they chose to attack at the top of
two miles of steep downhill.


Yesterday on the MTB we encountered a large group of sheep who bolted
off when we came over a hilltop. The large sheep dog was nonplussed
about that and came running towards us, growling and snarling. Some
teeth showed. I said "nice dog", "good dog". Didn't work ... GRRRROWL.
Then I said "perro bonito" - instant smile and tail wag. Later the
shepherd called him back, in Spanish.

A friend of mine had a Doberman running towards him down a long
driveway. French Creek Road in Shingle Springs, CA, where many dogs run
free and there are no gates at the end of driveways. So he put on the
coals but there was a long uphill section. Not a chance. He heard heavy
breathing coming closer and thought "this is it". The Doberman flew by.
Way up the hill the dog slowed to a trot and looked back. "Huh? What's
the problem? Step on it, dude, let's go!".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, May 3, 2019 at 5:49:45 PM UTC-4, Roger Merriman wrote:
Snipped...]

I know that road tyres can fail, though personally I’ve heard of or
experienced MTB tyres generally, the cheaper tyres generally ride awfully
etc, personally a lot of my MTB is steep wet/rocky rooty so grip, and
durability are high on my list though rolling resistant and wear rate are
not.

Roger Merriman

I feel for you Roger.

I have a few trails that I ride a lot. When it's dry those trails are a
delight but when they're wet the roots and moss covered stones or rocks
make riding a bicycle a real challenge. What makes it more of a challenge
is that many of the roots are fairly large and are at angles to the
direction of intended travel and that can make keeping the front wheel
aligned and the bike upright a very fun exercise.

Cheers

Yup easy for a bike to follow rocks and what not, though I found that good
trail tyres do mitigate this to a extent, surprisingly ability to cling to
steep, wet off camber rocks.

Roger Merriman

On Sat, 04 May 2019 08:02:47 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-01 16:10, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 01 May 2019 07:51:01 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-04-30 16:23, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:51:45 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]


No, no, look at the positive side. I am getting free core muscle
training :-)

Or straining your back picking up the penny :-)


My lower back isn't that great but MTB riding actually helps it by
building up core muscle. Something none of the doctors ever told me.
Most likely they didn't even know such stuff.

Just about anything that exercises a muscle strengthens it. I suspect
that your doctor knew that.


No, I was told MTB riding is out. They also did not know that I had a
magnesium deficiency, all of them didn't. A CPA did. After his advice I
started taking supplement and that helped, big time.

And how did this CPA determine that you had a magnesium deficiency?
did he do tests?


He listened carefully to my description of all the symptoms, asking in
detail about my dietary habits, then he said that a magnesium deficiency
is quite likely. And bingo, he was correct. Now why didn't any of the
medical professionals ask those questions? Well, we all know why.

Very interesting. the standard indication of magnesium deficiencies
a

Deficiency of magnesium can cause tiredness, generalized weakness,
muscle cramps, abnormal heart rhythms, increased irritability of the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There you go. Muscle cramps - back pain. Many back pain attacks are in
essence muscle cramps. For example, caused sudden compensatory movements
to fight a nerve compression jolt due to a spinal issue. MTB riders know
this from other muscles. You mess up a turn, stick out a foot, try to
catapult over some obstacle ... YOUWEEE


nervous system with tremors, paresthesias, ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Big time!

When a nerve becomes inflamed ever so slightly it swells. Causing it to
become inflamed more. Causing it to swell more. A vicious spiral effect.


... palpitations, low potassium
levels in the blood, hypoparathyroidism which might result in low
calcium levels in the blood, chondrocalcinosis, spasticity and tetany,
migraines, epileptic seizures, basal ganglia calcifications and in
extreme and prolonged cases coma, intellectual disability or death.

Which of these were your symptoms?


Some. What comes out of the spine does belong to the nervous system and
that's what causes the most serious pangs of pain.

What happened was that about 4-6 months after starting daily magnesium
supplement (a time delay the CPA predicated) me back pain attacks
because less frequent and, most importantly, less severe. I never had
one again where I was unable to get out of bed in the morning.

Fast forward a few more years when I bought the FS MTB. A year into that
the now fairly mild back pain episodes shrunk further in terms if
frequency and severity.

One has to be careful with supplements because it or other ingredients
in them can mess with heart medications and other prescriptions. I don't
use any prescription drugs though.


It seems many medical doctors learn by rote and then whatever they
learned in school goes.

Of course they learn by rote. Just as you did.


I did not. In fact, I rarely went to the auditorium at the university.


... Watts are volts times
amps, or did you discover that by experiment and your name is "James"?


Practicing ham radio for the most part, building much of my gear. Also
by earning money on the side repairing TVs, radios, tape recorders,
two-ray radios and so on.

and this taught you what a Watt was?


Yes. I learned it "in reverse", peeling practical use back to the
theoretical foundations. That is my preferred way of learning and it
works. It greatly reduced boredom and fatigue while learning.

Seriously? Or are you just trying to justify your assertions that you
have never learned by rote. You learned in reverse? You stuck you
finger in the lamp socket and it hurt and you traced this all the way
back to Watts original experiments?

Or that you counted on your fingers (and your toes for really big
numbers) until you discovered, all by yourself, how to multiply 2 x 2?

Your name isn't "Grimm" is it?



Engineers who learned by rote usually can't think outside the box. I get
paid for doing just that.

Ridiculous. If you have never learned the basics of your trade,
whatever it may be, you will never be a success and you can't
possibly live long enough to learn all that by experience.


Well, this is what my clients pay me for. And keep dragging me back from
retirement.


So yes, you do need to learn the basic underlying facts by rote.


No.


He probably also knew that suggesting that you did bending and
stretching exercises every day was an example of futility on his part
as almost everyone will ignore any suggestion to do anything that
smacks of "work".

Well, no, the first three docs were in Germany and those guys generally
do not subscribe to a sedentary lifestyle. One actually suggested
swimming which was good advice though that doesn't do much for the back
muscles. At least not as much as MTB riding. My back muscles have become
almost rock-hard after five years of riding.

They would have become "rock hard" from lifting weights also. Did you
try that as part of a regimented exercise plan?


That is poison for someone with compromised L4,5,6 discs.

But you are arguing that eating magnesium has cured you and made you
"rock hard". Now you tell us that you have spinal disc problems. Are
you saying that magnesium cures disc problems... which are usually
considered mechanical problems? Does eating magnesium actually cure
spinal disc problems?


sigh

Could you please read more carefully for once? Magnesium supplement has
reduced the severity of my back pain attacks. It does not increase
muscle strength. I _then_ _afterwards_ started riding the MTB, a lot.
About 30-40% of my cycling trips happen on the MTB. That is what built
up the back muscles and now keeps them strong. Like yesterday where I
was standing in the pedals much of the ride, even downhill, to keep the
bike steady on shifting ground.

[...]
--
cheers,

John B.

On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 8:02:36 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-01 16:10, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 01 May 2019 07:51:01 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-04-30 16:23, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:51:45 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]


No, no, look at the positive side. I am getting free core muscle
training :-)

Or straining your back picking up the penny :-)


My lower back isn't that great but MTB riding actually helps it by
building up core muscle. Something none of the doctors ever told me.
Most likely they didn't even know such stuff.

Just about anything that exercises a muscle strengthens it. I suspect
that your doctor knew that.


No, I was told MTB riding is out. They also did not know that I had a
magnesium deficiency, all of them didn't. A CPA did. After his advice I
started taking supplement and that helped, big time.

And how did this CPA determine that you had a magnesium deficiency?
did he do tests?


He listened carefully to my description of all the symptoms, asking in
detail about my dietary habits, then he said that a magnesium deficiency
is quite likely. And bingo, he was correct. Now why didn't any of the
medical professionals ask those questions? Well, we all know why.

Very interesting. the standard indication of magnesium deficiencies
a

Deficiency of magnesium can cause tiredness, generalized weakness,
muscle cramps, abnormal heart rhythms, increased irritability of the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There you go. Muscle cramps - back pain. Many back pain attacks are in
essence muscle cramps. For example, caused sudden compensatory movements
to fight a nerve compression jolt due to a spinal issue. MTB riders know
this from other muscles. You mess up a turn, stick out a foot, try to
catapult over some obstacle ... YOUWEEE


nervous system with tremors, paresthesias, ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Big time!

When a nerve becomes inflamed ever so slightly it swells. Causing it to
become inflamed more. Causing it to swell more. A vicious spiral effect.


... palpitations, low potassium
levels in the blood, hypoparathyroidism which might result in low
calcium levels in the blood, chondrocalcinosis, spasticity and tetany,
migraines, epileptic seizures, basal ganglia calcifications and in
extreme and prolonged cases coma, intellectual disability or death.

Which of these were your symptoms?


Some. What comes out of the spine does belong to the nervous system and
that's what causes the most serious pangs of pain.

What happened was that about 4-6 months after starting daily magnesium
supplement (a time delay the CPA predicated) me back pain attacks
because less frequent and, most importantly, less severe. I never had
one again where I was unable to get out of bed in the morning.

Fast forward a few more years when I bought the FS MTB. A year into that
the now fairly mild back pain episodes shrunk further in terms if
frequency and severity.

One has to be careful with supplements because it or other ingredients
in them can mess with heart medications and other prescriptions. I don't
use any prescription drugs though.

Do you get medical advice from a CPA? From whom do you get tax advice, an MD?

What is the magnesium dosage and how is it determined? I'm going to start taking buckets of the stuff because my back is killing me. My knees are killing me. Basically everything is killing me.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Friday, April 12, 2019 at 9:50:25 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 12 Apr 2019 19:19:22 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 4/12/2019 6:37 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 12 Apr 2019 16:07:53 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Friday, April 12, 2019 at 9:27:51 AM UTC-5, db wrote:
My son is set on getting a belt drive for the bike he
is building. What is good about them? You have to have
the exact length for your bike, and if it breaks, it
is very expensive to replace.

So, why?

--
Dieter Britz

Go over to YouTube and do a search on Gates Belt Drive. A number of videos will appear that talks about bikes with this drive system and usually Rohloff or Pinion gear boxes.

There was a guy at a marina where I kept my boat that had an aluminum
single speed bike with a belt drive. It apparently worked great, he
parked it on the dock next to his boat and it was there for years and
years with no apparent maintenance what so ever. A chain drive would
have been rusted itself into one solid chunk in that period :-)


Was that the Bridgestone OPC14 with V Belt drive?
I sold those . Nicely done, great price, no complaints.

I don't know. I did noticed that it was a "notched" Vee belt although
I don't think that the pulleys were notched and it was not a fixie and
had brakes fore and aft.
--
cheers,

John B.

The gaps close up while going around the pulley.

On 2019-05-04 20:37, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 8:02:36 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:

[...]


... palpitations, low potassium levels in the blood,
hypoparathyroidism which might result in low calcium levels in
the blood, chondrocalcinosis, spasticity and tetany, migraines,
epileptic seizures, basal ganglia calcifications and in extreme
and prolonged cases coma, intellectual disability or death.

Which of these were your symptoms?


Some. What comes out of the spine does belong to the nervous system
and that's what causes the most serious pangs of pain.

What happened was that about 4-6 months after starting daily
magnesium supplement (a time delay the CPA predicated) me back pain
attacks because less frequent and, most importantly, less severe. I
never had one again where I was unable to get out of bed in the
morning.

Fast forward a few more years when I bought the FS MTB. A year into
that the now fairly mild back pain episodes shrunk further in terms
if frequency and severity.

One has to be careful with supplements because it or other
ingredients in them can mess with heart medications and other
prescriptions. I don't use any prescription drugs though.

Do you get medical advice from a CPA? From whom do you get tax
advice, an MD?


Mostly from the Internet, after I saw tax pros missing major strategic
points. Example: The tax pro of a friend told him only he could
contribute to an HSA because his wife no longer worked. Both being over
the age limit for catch-up. I told him no, the wife can also contribute
$1000 catch-up but it has to be into her separate HSA account. It is
called spousal catch-up contribution, hidden way down in the IRS fine
print. Well ... oh dang ... the tax pro was wrong and I was right.

Then a friend was advised to start a SEP after beginning consulting
work. Big mistake. I told him he should go individual 401(k) because the
amount of pre-tax funds that can be deferred are massively higher. His
tax guy failed to see that, completely missed it, and that had some dire
tax consequences which were irreversible.


What is the magnesium dosage and how is it determined? I'm going to
start taking buckets of the stuff because my back is killing me. My
knees are killing me. Basically everything is killing me.


The dosage is on the bottle, mainly goes by weight and you have to know
your diet. I need two supplement pills per day. Just took them for today.

The effect years back was quite profound and it has lasted, no more
major flare-ups.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2019-05-04 15:54, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 04 May 2019 08:02:47 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]

It seems many medical doctors learn by rote and then whatever they
learned in school goes.

Of course they learn by rote. Just as you did.


I did not. In fact, I rarely went to the auditorium at the university.


... Watts are volts times
amps, or did you discover that by experiment and your name is "James"?


Practicing ham radio for the most part, building much of my gear. Also
by earning money on the side repairing TVs, radios, tape recorders,
two-ray radios and so on.

and this taught you what a Watt was?


Yes. I learned it "in reverse", peeling practical use back to the
theoretical foundations. That is my preferred way of learning and it
works. It greatly reduced boredom and fatigue while learning.

Seriously? Or are you just trying to justify your assertions that you
have never learned by rote. You learned in reverse?


I generally do. Reducing a practical problem back to theory but only as
far as needed to solve it. This is why my dad called me a
"Brotgelehrter" in German. Translated it means someone who learns and
applies scientific theory only if it makes money".

The trick is, as an engineer you must be able to go all the way back. In
my case (EE) back to the four Maxwell equations upon which nearly
everything electrical is based.


... You stuck you
finger in the lamp socket and it hurt and you traced this all the way
back to Watts original experiments?

Or that you counted on your fingers (and your toes for really big
numbers) until you discovered, all by yourself, how to multiply 2 x 2?

Your name isn't "Grimm" is it?


No. I just learn differently. You sound like some of our professors who
considered ham radio operators lowly tinkerers. Little did they know.
All of us made it into rather nice professional settings. Because we are
able to see the big picture first and then drill down, not the other way
around which often results in an ivory tower "solution" that isn't
successful in the marketplace.

It also enabled me to be successful in medical device engineering, a
field I don't particularly like but kind of got into. There, the first
order of business is always to find out "What exactly do they want to
diagnose with this?" and then work backwards, back up the theory ladder.
Always.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Sun, 05 May 2019 07:49:09 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-04 15:54, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 04 May 2019 08:02:47 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]

It seems many medical doctors learn by rote and then whatever they
learned in school goes.

Of course they learn by rote. Just as you did.


I did not. In fact, I rarely went to the auditorium at the university.


... Watts are volts times
amps, or did you discover that by experiment and your name is "James"?


Practicing ham radio for the most part, building much of my gear. Also
by earning money on the side repairing TVs, radios, tape recorders,
two-ray radios and so on.

and this taught you what a Watt was?


Yes. I learned it "in reverse", peeling practical use back to the
theoretical foundations. That is my preferred way of learning and it
works. It greatly reduced boredom and fatigue while learning.

Seriously? Or are you just trying to justify your assertions that you
have never learned by rote. You learned in reverse?


I generally do. Reducing a practical problem back to theory but only as
far as needed to solve it. This is why my dad called me a
"Brotgelehrter" in German. Translated it means someone who learns and
applies scientific theory only if it makes money".

The trick is, as an engineer you must be able to go all the way back. In
my case (EE) back to the four Maxwell equations upon which nearly
everything electrical is based.


... You stuck you
finger in the lamp socket and it hurt and you traced this all the way
back to Watts original experiments?

Or that you counted on your fingers (and your toes for really big
numbers) until you discovered, all by yourself, how to multiply 2 x 2?

Your name isn't "Grimm" is it?


No. I just learn differently. You sound like some of our professors who
considered ham radio operators lowly tinkerers. Little did they know.
All of us made it into rather nice professional settings. Because we are
able to see the big picture first and then drill down, not the other way
around which often results in an ivory tower "solution" that isn't
successful in the marketplace.

It also enabled me to be successful in medical device engineering, a
field I don't particularly like but kind of got into. There, the first
order of business is always to find out "What exactly do they want to
diagnose with this?" and then work backwards, back up the theory ladder.
Always.

[...]

You seem to miss the point, whether deliberately or not is still a
mystery.

You talk about solving problems and use ham radio as an example and
say that you learn nothing by rote. But how did you discover the basic
four Maxwell equations? As I asked, did you stick your finger in a
light socket and then reverse engineer the shock to volts and amps?
But how did you even learn the basics of that amperage is, what
voltage is?

Or, staying with the ham radio analogy, how did you learn Morse code?
All those little dots and dashes? You just listened and figured it all
out?

Or even more basic, how did you learn that 2 + 2 = 4? Well actually I
guess that you could have come up with groups of 5 so five + five =
both hands and 5 + 5 + 5 + 5=both hands and feet?

Or how did you discover how a transistor worked, or even what a
transistor is? Little three legged black thing?

I suggest that you, in fact, did learn the basics by rote and only
than were you able to apply this basic knowledge to solve further
problems.
--
cheers,

John B.

Joerg wrote:
On 2019-05-04 15:54, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 04 May 2019 08:02:47 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 16:46, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 15:55:26 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-05-02 15:30, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 02 May 2019 07:42:23 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

[...]

It seems many medical doctors learn by rote and then whatever they
learned in school goes.

Of course they learn by rote. Just as you did.


I did not. In fact, I rarely went to the auditorium at the university.


... Watts are volts times
amps, or did you discover that by experiment and your name is "James"?


Practicing ham radio for the most part, building much of my gear. Also
by earning money on the side repairing TVs, radios, tape recorders,
two-ray radios and so on.

and this taught you what a Watt was?


Yes. I learned it "in reverse", peeling practical use back to the
theoretical foundations. That is my preferred way of learning and it
works. It greatly reduced boredom and fatigue while learning.

Seriously? Or are you just trying to justify your assertions that you
have never learned by rote. You learned in reverse?


I generally do. Reducing a practical problem back to theory but only as
far as needed to solve it. This is why my dad called me a
"Brotgelehrter" in German. Translated it means someone who learns and
applies scientific theory only if it makes money".

The trick is, as an engineer you must be able to go all the way back. In
my case (EE) back to the four Maxwell equations upon which nearly
everything electrical is based.


... You stuck you
finger in the lamp socket and it hurt and you traced this all the way
back to Watts original experiments?

Or that you counted on your fingers (and your toes for really big
numbers) until you discovered, all by yourself, how to multiply 2 x 2?

Your name isn't "Grimm" is it?


No. I just learn differently. You sound like some of our professors who
considered ham radio operators lowly tinkerers. Little did they know.
All of us made it into rather nice professional settings. Because we are
able to see the big picture first and then drill down, not the other way
around which often results in an ivory tower "solution" that isn't
successful in the marketplace.

It also enabled me to be successful in medical device engineering, a
field I don't particularly like but kind of got into. There, the first
order of business is always to find out "What exactly do they want to
diagnose with this?" and then work backwards, back up the theory ladder.
Always.

[...]


Are you saying the first step to designing an application to perform a task
is to define the task? Did you invent that?

--
duane