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Thanks for sharing! It looks really beneficial and inspiring for not only kids but also for all the people who want to make a tangible product which they have created by just a simple drawing. And the best thing is that they don't need to know any programming language to design.

I will start first :) The best motivation why I want to hold a Phd is I like learning. So, I think that the more I learn, the more I will teach others.

but mine sounds same as yours :) learning more and more in the fields I enjoy and meeting different people and discovering their repertoire and stories are my main motivations.

I agree, one must be really really really motivated take such a daunting task. This is hard work, a journey with ups and downs, yet always rewarding during and at the end of the process. My main motivation for doing a PhD was discovering my own "self" and simply "the world". The more I try to uncover some unknowns about the world the more I give meaning to my existence.

When I had my undergrduate degree I was planning to work all my life long but I realized that spending a year without learning in an academic environment was a disaster. I come from another city and travel on buses just to learn and make my life, job and environment understandable and meaningful. I am doing this as I can inspire, inform, help teachers and my students with what I gain through PhD as it helps me broaden my vision.

I think we all, Phd sts, are crazy people :-)) We have such intrinsic motivation that we can spend hours and hours on reading, writing, searching etc. People around me are always asking me how I can handle all these stuff and I sometimes ask myself the same question...And the only answer I come up with is that we all have the feeling of hunger for knowledge and nothing feeds it.

I agree with Şermin that we are really crazy though I am not in PhD level. People around me keep saying that "Are you mad? Why are you doing this?" It depends according to situations but I believe that (as you do) this is a voluntary work. We want to learn something, explore different disciplines and so on. It is a bit a part of self-actualization, I think.

Dear Halil, The site cannot be accessed. It is better to give another link,I guess.

Actually I have just checked it and it is working but if you still have problem to reach the book please try this link: http://www.martinshaven.com/Resources/Hofstadter%20-%20Godel-Escher-Bach.pdf

Thank you for the new link. I guess it is due to the settings of my computer.

I couldnt access the book either :( But it seems very interesting, I would like to read and enjoy it. I have heard about Escher for the first time last year by a friend of mine from mathematics department, I believe Escher himself is a mathematician too, is that right? I am especially a fan of his "Waterfall".

Canan did you try the second link I have added? In fact, he is an artist, but Gödel is. Yet, while trying to explain the nature of meaning, the book gets help from some works by Gödel, Escher and Bach, all of which similarly acquire their meanings by self-referencing and creating formal rules made of meaningless elements. So it is possible to say he is mathematically inspired :) and I like that paradoxal piece too.

This is an absolutely amazing and inspiring video. After watching video, I strongly believed that barriers we have to overcome have emotional bases instead intellectual ones. Maybe if I follow 4 steps properly and focus on ı can even play guitar. In fact, it seems to me devotion and removing practise barriers are the keys to success and manageable, then why not give a try.

I liked the song in the video very much and the graphics showing the relationship between the time and skill or how we are good and the practice. However, I am not sure that 20 hour is applicable to everything to be learned. In the four steps, we can relate self-correction part to self-coaching as mentioned in the readings.

The four steps mentioned in the video have really good implications for the learners. Self correction and removing the barriers are especially important to learn anything new. However,I agree with Burcu, 20 hours of practice is not enough to acquire some kind of skills. Can anybody learn a foreign language in 20 hours? Kaufman reminded the fact that early stage of skill improvement is very fast but being an expert takes long time and effort. It is a very common phenomenon we come across in language classes. After students become intermediate or upper intermediate, they have difficulties to improve in English to be advanced learners. Expertise requires patience, motivation and continuous hard work. Students need to be patient and practice more but under the stress of proficiency exam they feel hopeless. Maybe, teachers should inform them about the stages of skill acquisition so that learners will know that what they experience is just a part of the skill acquisition process.