Notes from Howard's Sabbatical from Working. The name comes from a 1998 lunch conversation. Someone asked if everything man knew was on the web. I answered "no" and off the top of my head said "Fidel Castro's favorite color". About every 6-12 months I've searched for this. It doesn't show up in the first 50 Google results (this blog is finally first for that search), AskJeeves says it's: red.
I totally agree with his points. I feel I've gotten dumber since I left school. I also fear that my children won't be provided with the opportunity to focus on, well, "focused" learning because of all the distractions of everyday life. A couple of months ago I joined my niece on a tour of Carnegie Mellon and felt disturbed that several of the incoming freshmen we interacted with just seemed, well, dumb.
However at the same time that I've gotten dumber, I've learned more, oddly enough. I pay closer attention to politics, to subjects that have nothing to do with me (like Large Hadron Colliders), and to what others have to say about things. And all that I credit to the internet. But too often I come across things that I would love to learn more about yet feel I don't have the time on which to focus. I credit that to the internet as well.
I will disagree with one of his points:
"For academics on the political left, the last eight years represent the sleep of reason producing the monsters of our time: suburban McMansions, gas-guzzling Hummers, pop evangelicalism, the triple-bacon cheeseburger, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?, creation science, waterboarding, environmental apocalypse, Miley Cyrus, and the Iraq War — all presided over by that twice-elected, self-satisfied, inarticulate avatar of American incuriosity and hubris: he who shall not be named."
Overall his statement is correct (and brilliantly worded), but I actually think that Are You Smarter isn't a monster of our time, it's a demonstration of what those monsters have done to us. Everyday Americans cannot answer 5th grade questions, because of all the above, and this show proves it.
I think we could have avoided all this if we had just taken appropriate action the first time "he who shall not be named" used the term "nucular".
I wonder how much of this is new. I remember asking my parents for help with math and it wasn't long before I was doing stuff they didn't remember. Dad could help with history because it was a hobby of his, but mom couldn't. Mom could help with Spanish but dad could only help a little with Hebrew.
At one point I knew the 5 largest rivers, I don't now. I"m not dumber, I just forgot. I could relearn these quickly. The are you smarter type questions definitely exploit this by not giving you time to study (I assume, I haven't watched them). I haven't done calculus in 20 years though I did a lot of it for 6. It would be harder to relearn than other things but as you point out, I've learned a lot else since then.
I do think we're losing the ability to concentrate on things for longer periods. There seem to be fewer hobbies. People read less. I read way more on the net than I do in books.
And I'm still very annoyed at cashiers that can't do basic arithmetic in their head.
2 comments:
I totally agree with his points. I feel I've gotten dumber since I left school. I also fear that my children won't be provided with the opportunity to focus on, well, "focused" learning because of all the distractions of everyday life. A couple of months ago I joined my niece on a tour of Carnegie Mellon and felt disturbed that several of the incoming freshmen we interacted with just seemed, well, dumb.
However at the same time that I've gotten dumber, I've learned more, oddly enough. I pay closer attention to politics, to subjects that have nothing to do with me (like Large Hadron Colliders), and to what others have to say about things. And all that I credit to the internet. But too often I come across things that I would love to learn more about yet feel I don't have the time on which to focus. I credit that to the internet as well.
I will disagree with one of his points:
"For academics on the political left, the last eight years represent the sleep of reason producing the monsters of our time: suburban McMansions, gas-guzzling Hummers, pop evangelicalism, the triple-bacon cheeseburger, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?, creation science, waterboarding, environmental apocalypse, Miley Cyrus, and the Iraq War — all presided over by that twice-elected, self-satisfied, inarticulate avatar of American incuriosity and hubris: he who shall not be named."
Overall his statement is correct (and brilliantly worded), but I actually think that Are You Smarter isn't a monster of our time, it's a demonstration of what those monsters have done to us. Everyday Americans cannot answer 5th grade questions, because of all the above, and this show proves it.
I think we could have avoided all this if we had just taken appropriate action the first time "he who shall not be named" used the term "nucular".
I wonder how much of this is new. I remember asking my parents for help with math and it wasn't long before I was doing stuff they didn't remember. Dad could help with history because it was a hobby of his, but mom couldn't. Mom could help with Spanish but dad could only help a little with Hebrew.
At one point I knew the 5 largest rivers, I don't now. I"m not dumber, I just forgot. I could relearn these quickly. The are you smarter type questions definitely exploit this by not giving you time to study (I assume, I haven't watched them). I haven't done calculus in 20 years though I did a lot of it for 6. It would be harder to relearn than other things but as you point out, I've learned a lot else since then.
I do think we're losing the ability to concentrate on things for longer periods. There seem to be fewer hobbies. People read less. I read way more on the net than I do in books.
And I'm still very annoyed at cashiers that can't do basic arithmetic in their head.
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