191–200 of 290 posts
It’s particularly galling when I know the work was funded by my own tax dollars. If a govt employee had produced the work, it would have been in the public domain. But if the govt gives a grant to a researcher, suddenly their output is intellectual property with a grossly inflated profit margin.
Perhaps, but the reality for a great many is that "free time" is occupied by survival anxiety, whether because that time is spent in additional paid work, care of loved ones, or attempting to get a leg up or to jump on a non-sinking life raft.
While technology-enabled cultural fragmentation is undoubtedly a strong influence in this, the long term affordability inversion that has occurred between consumables (food, clothes, electronics, etc) and assets (housing, education, security) has exacerbated the aforementioned anxieties and therefore makes people vulnerable to the charms of the escapism that new types of quick-hit media provide, from cable-news through to social media.
I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…
I always love this conversation: Snob: "Listening to an audio book doesn't count as reading the book!" Everyone else in the world: "k"
Granted you can miss a lot when you're reading, too, since a lot of the context for any work is external to the work itself, but with a book, you have to actively choose to keep going when you're confused, rather than passively letting it flow past you. Nothing privileges the choice to turn to the next page rather than returning to the previous page.
I think the experience of reading books at least is good training for how to read an audiobook or listen to a lecture. You should be quick to pause and rewind if you suspect you missed something.
I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think people are confused by the definitions of primary/secondary sources. Sorry: Primary - the actual evidence. The actual letter written by Jefferson; the ice core itself, etc. For example, if you are an historian writing about Jefferson, you actually travel to the archive and read Jefferson's letters and look through the other papers, etc. - the actual stuff. Secondary - the journal article, the scholarly book…
> WTF do you know about me or anyone else to judge their choices? I don't, and did not claim to. And yes, one can and usually does judge at some level. I don't need to know much about someone to have an opinion that intentionally touching random strangers' private parts in public is problematic. Try not to be so sensitive. My comment was not a criticism of anyone. > Your ignorance of the need for direct knowledge of…
I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…
I don't think the accusation of elitism is valid here. Postulating that a particular kind of activity might be better suited to a particular kind of goal isn't elitism. Is it "elitist" to claim that one sorting algorithm is faster than another? People are so individualistic and sensitive these days that they take any proposed alternatives that don't align with their own habits and modes of consumption as a direct aff…
The primary source is from Socrates lips (unavaiable), but you can read Plato’s Phaedrus, ask Wikipedia, or chat with Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
1. Society is set up so that I have to prioritize making money in my limited free time. Fortunately this pressure has lessened since I got a well paying job, but it held back my free time for years.
2. Because of the first constraint, I don’t have the time to dive into mastery. I’m reading works at a much slower rate since I have to work everyday. I’ve also found the time over the past few years to study Modern Greek, which I could have spent studying Ancient Greek I suppose. However, I don’t have the time to study both and Modern Greek has been my priority for reasons outside of my research.
3. I owe a great deal of my research to people with PhDs/DPhils on the topic. However, I also can’t contribute much to the field because they deliver their incredible work full time. I’m far less likely to make significant contributions when they have already spent years studying Ancient Greek and then every day performing acts such as translating great works.
All that said, I’m satisfied not competing with the experts. I just recognize that this is purely a hobby that I perform for fun when I have the time, which isn’t as often as I need in order to be a more useful researcher.
"Where have the amateur researchers gone" To their 2nd job. "and how do we bring them back?" Pay them enough salary to survive on just 1 job.
I read a fair amount and I actually do research as leisure all the time, but I can’t stand these elitist and unoriginal think pieces about how much better and cooler this person’s habits are than yours. >> for the leisurely researcher, self-study must include the discipline’s foundational texts I feel like this person has some kind of dark academia aesthetic fetish that they need to hold onto to feel superior to ever…
The author also asks "If you were stranded on an island (or small hostile planetoid), what books would you want to have with you?" which I also can't answer. I would fall into the category of someone who does research as leisure. I have been slowly unraveling the genetics behind gender dysphoria. Yes I have borrowed a few biology books from libraries, but it has mostly been reading 70 years of research papers, piecin…