The Fire Hose Effect

Have you every tried drinking out of a fire hose? I can't say that I have done it literally, but I tend to do it quite often figuratively. In the past year I have figuratively drunk out of a fire hose of information by:

• Starting my Masters
• Taking a course before my Masters attended mostly by people with PhD's (including a number of people who are my Master's professors)
• Decided that a normal course load wasn't enough and went off and signed up for a Mechanical Engineering course ... when my background is nursing. 
• Took a 10 week PRIDE course complete with huge binder
• Picked a difficult Thesis subject for my Masters

I really am a glutton for punishment aren't I? Why do I do it? Not sure I entirely know the answer, nut I'll give it a shot. 

When I walk away from a class with a headache from thinking too much I know I've made some intellectual progress. Add to that the fact that there are a million different things to learn in the world if I take it slow I'll never accomplish everything that I want to. To top it off, by absorbing information and learning from many fields on many topics I become a resource for those around me. That means that I can help to build the world's scientific knowledge and I become irreplaceable to my company. 

All in all, I'll probably never learn. After all why walk when you can run?