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The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

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Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#171

Post by NalNezumi »

mmooss wrote: post #139
NalNezumi wrote: post #33

The blog post gives a slight posh impression. With the excessive quoting of authors and their book but in an incoherent manner that only strengthen the authors narrative by "look many famous people agree with me" and not why they agree with you. I agree with the general sentiment of the article but I think it kinda defeat itself in its need to reaffirm it's own excellence over actually being informative. He could've…

> The blog post gives a slight posh impression. I don't know about that, but so what if it did? Why is it even worth remarking on? I care about the value of their ideas; they don't need to pass a culture war test first.

[dead]

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#173

Post by sethammons »

deepsun wrote: post #128
sethammons wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A people's history of the united states is a good one. Most history is written by the generals and leaders. This account is colored by the oft ignored people.

> Critics assert blatant omissions of important historical episodes, uncritical reliance on biased sources, and failure to examine opposing views.

and this history texts are provided as a counter balance to the biased sources and failure to examine opposing views of other history texts.

take in a range and make informed decisions. When a book presents any factoid, something else was chosen to not be presented. And that choice colors the narrative. Those who say "teach the facts" miss that the facts chosen paint a bias.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#174

Post by mmooss »

NalNezumi wrote: post #171
mmooss wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The blog post gives a slight posh impression. I don't know about that, but so what if it did? Why is it even worth remarking on? I care about the value of their ideas; they don't need to pass a culture war test first.

[dead]

I'm sure you are aware of the culture war, and that your comment fits right into it. If you didn't mean it, I assume you'd say something different.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#175

Post by markus_zhang »

nottorp wrote: post #38
markus_zhang wrote: post #28

Don't know about you guys, but reading has become more and more of a burden for me. It is as if -- I have greatly narrowed my interest such that most books are not interesting any more. Even the sci-fi and fantasy books, once I loved, lost their magic. Nowadays there are only two types of books that excite me: 1) those about software/hardware engineering, such as iWoz(I even bought a few Tom Swift JR books for my son…

The question is, have you stopped reading same-ish books only to watch same-ish TV series? While various obligations can reduce your entertainment time, I've noticed that most people complaining about that tend to be able to list tens of Netflix series that they watched. And then wonder why I have no idea what they're talking about and when I have time to read. > Even the sci-fi and fantasy books, once I loved, lost…

I don't watch movies or TV shows very much.

For TV shows I keep going back to the same ones I loved, that is the X-Files. And I can't even think of a second one I'd go back to watch...damn there is really no other TV show I'm going to watch, unless you count kids show such as Bluey.

For movies I'm also going back to the ones I loved to watch. I think I did add maybe a few throughout the years, but it's safe to say that most of the movies in my library are older than 10 years old.

The thing about movies and shows is, reality can be weirder and more interesting. Most of the movies and TV shows are pretty naive when they try talking about politics or such.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#176

Post by janpmz »

yannis wrote: post #70
janpmz wrote: post #53

I did some leisure research on how the Nazca Lines align with mountain shadows and made a publication. That was a nice weekend. https://zenodo.org/records/11422308

I find this fascinating; I do a lot of reading and writing (leisure work) outside my own specialization; Some I believe are possibly publishable, but I am reluctant so far to attempt to publish them. Is zenodo a good place for this in your opinion?

I would have published on arXiv, but to do that you need an endorsement from an established arXiv user in that specific category. And even then, you can only submit papers in that category. On Zenodo, I was able to publish quickly, and I like that I can see the number of views and downloads.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#177

Post by markus_zhang »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #47
markus_zhang wrote: post #28

Don't know about you guys, but reading has become more and more of a burden for me. It is as if -- I have greatly narrowed my interest such that most books are not interesting any more. Even the sci-fi and fantasy books, once I loved, lost their magic. Nowadays there are only two types of books that excite me: 1) those about software/hardware engineering, such as iWoz(I even bought a few Tom Swift JR books for my son…

Sci-fi and fantasy suited me when I was young as they stretched my mind to possibility. The older and more cynical I have become, they're kind of just bullshit. I'd love to say their escapist but they fail even there as I my escapism increasingly requires a modicum of plausibility. I think there are still some books out there that might ring true in terms of seeing people and society for the way they are, but then th…

Yeah I get the same feeling about books, movies and TV shows.

The moment that they try to talk about politics or something serious, I feel they fell short. Reality is way more complex than what they are trying to reveal.

But I'm going to try some hard sci-fi and see what happens.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#178

Post by Der_Einzige »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #165
Der_Einzige wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, Howard Zinn, Chomsky, and most other left wing intellectuals of yesteryear have lost their cultural power. It doesn’t help that most of these folks are 1. So sold into the “American intelligence bad” narrative that they look at every left wing crack point and act like nothing bad happened under them. Even Allende, the classic example of a “good Marxist” leader, was a total asshole and likely deserved to b…

“Postmodern Neomarxism” basically doesn’t exist outside of a few fringe academics. Recommend you read Derrida’s _Spectres of Marx_, which goes into detail about how dead academic Marxism was even in 1993 (spoiler: it’s even deader now). His hopes for a “New International” never materialized and died with him. Even Žižek’s more recent _Too Late to Awaken_ is a depressing slog of an elegy, and he is the closest thing t…

That particular book is of special interest to me as a stirner shill/fanatic. The "Specter of Marx" he's refering to is Max Stirner! Derrida is trying to answer the question of "Why did Stirners book, The Unique and its Property, trigger Marx to write The German Ideology and dedicate over 300 pages to shitting on stirner?".

I've cover to cover read that book, and it's garbage dog shit just like Zizek is. The moment that you start trying to wax poetic about whose what ism is when you become post-modern neo marxism. It's academic ivy league eliteist careerism and its disgusting. Fashionable nonsense. Zinn and Zizek are playing the exact same game. One just writes more coherently than the other.

If you think Hegel or Marx are worth citing, you're a pomo/fraud. If you think Psychoanalysis/Freud are worth citing, you're a pomo/fraud. Deleuze killed himself. Mark fischer killed himself. Althussar killed his wife. Wilhelm Reich was a loony who after writing his analysis of the sexuality of fascism went nuts about "Orgone" machines. Foucault, Sartre/De Bouvier were pedos and collaborators. Even my favorite half-breed of pluralism mixed with pomo shit, Arendt, was in love with the arch nemesis of "oh they were literally a nazi " pomos - Heidigger! And who can forgot Carl Schmitt?

JUST WRITE THESE IDIOTS ALL OFF ALREADY AND LEAVE THEM IN THE DUST BIN OF HISTORY!

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#179

Post by awongh »

mmooss wrote: post #158
awongh wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my thinking, the definition of research is to find truth > the primary sources; that's where the truth is I mentioned this elsewhere on the thread, but I also feel like the most influential primary sources are less important than secondary sources- if you read Marx, the social and political circumstances of his ideas are in the context of an industrial economy and just don't apply in the same way anymore. You ca…

If you are researching economics, then Marx is a secondary (or higher order) source. The econmomic data used by Marx is primary. If you are researching Marx the person or Marx's ideas, then [edit: Marx's writings would be primary sources, and then] what would you think of someone who only read others talking about Marx, but didn't read Marx's actual writings? It wouldn't make much sense for anything called 'research'…

> The econmomic data used by Marx is primary

Literally picking through tables of all economic data for the last century... shocked pikachu meme not sure what that would gain you....

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#180

Post by carlosjobim »

ComposedPattern wrote: post #159
carlosjobim wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without even knowing you, I think I know exactly what is your problem. You're not reading with an open mind. Most people only read books where they agree with the author and agree with the books content. Get some books that you'd probably find disagreeable, and read them with the benefit of the doubt. Assume the author is right, and if you really can't do that, just remember that the writer is probably dead since lon…

> Have you read the Bible? It's shockingly different from what people believe is written there. It is a post-apocalyptic survival guide, as well as a collection of human stories and ideas that might date back hundreds of thousands of years. You must mean hundreds or thousands, right? Modern homo-sapiens are not hundreds of thousands of years old. > Have you read the Quran? Reading it is essential to understanding Mus…

It's easy for anybody to find a Quran and read it for themselves. The book cannot be more clear and concise regarding christians. Considering that Mohammad was familiar with christianity, and that the message most repeated in the Quran is that you should not join God with other gods and that you will go to hell if you do – I would say that the primary message of the book is anti-christian. Not against Jesus, but against those who worship him as God.

The most famous saying in Islam (which you all know) is clear about the strict monotheistic message. While the most famous saying in Christendom (which you all know), is clear about the trinity message.

As for joining God with other gods, this became a hallmark of Christendom even more so than just the trinity. But this is also after the time of Mohammad, and bears no relevance when talking about the Quran.

No matter which, the Quran and the Bible are two very different scripts, even though there is a popular belief that they are similar. Anybody who has read both can see that similarities are very few.

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