[flagged]
Go create something original instead of tryingto destroy the greatness "created by a white guy" in the past.
Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
31–40 of 80 posts
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#32What motivates you all to learn when you know that information about anything is easily accessible from anywhere ?
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#33[flagged]
Perhaps you should review the "Please don't complain about tangential annoyances", "Avoid generic tangents." and related sections of the HN guidelines. They're linked at the bottom of the page.
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#34A very nice story, and an interesting reflection on the education system.
Also, and this is just an aside, but “the protagonist who is too special for the sorting hat” is a bit of a trope in young adult literature at this point. Is this the first real instance of it? 1957. That’s a while ago! I don’t even know if the “sorting hat” trope was established enough to subvert at the time.
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#35I am sort of questioning my use of LLMs again after, first reluctantly, starting to use them multiple times a day. This story seems like it was intended to be an allegory for LLM-use though I know it couldn't have been.
It's an allegory about trusting "best practices", standardized bodies of knowledge¹, and "that's the way it's always been done". Not that those things necessarily don't work, they do in the story as well as in real life, but they need to adapt to change and the story illustrates what happens when they harden from best practice into unquestioned dogma.
¹ There's even a BoK for software developers, the SWEBOK, but I've never met anybody who's read it.
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#36Dr Antonelli said, “Or do you believe that studying some subject will bend the brain cells in that direction, like that other theory that a pregnant woman need only listen to great music persistently to make a composer of her child. Do you believe that?” Apparently, Asimov was an early critic of the “Mozart in the womb” movement.
I don’t think you can assign that meaning here one way or another. The context in the story at that point (IIRC) is that he’s sort of lying to the protagonist, or at least misleading him.
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#37A very nice story, and an interesting reflection on the education system. Also, and this is just an aside, but “the protagonist who is too special for the sorting hat” is a bit of a trope in young adult literature at this point. Is this the first real instance of it? 1957. That’s a while ago! I don’t even know if the “sorting hat” trope was established enough to subvert at the time.
No one would have recognized any tropes in 1957 beyond Shakespeare. Even Joseph Campbell wasn’t popularized until decades later.
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#38Alt link of text only - no cruft http://employees.oneonta.edu/blechmjb/JBpages/m360/Professio...
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#39A very nice story, and an interesting reflection on the education system. Also, and this is just an aside, but “the protagonist who is too special for the sorting hat” is a bit of a trope in young adult literature at this point. Is this the first real instance of it? 1957. That’s a while ago! I don’t even know if the “sorting hat” trope was established enough to subvert at the time.
No one would have recognized any tropes in 1957 beyond Shakespeare. Even Joseph Campbell wasn’t popularized until decades later.
Sorry, I can’t tell if this is sarcastic. Well I think it has a kernel of truth that overstates it for rhetorical flair.
I’m willing to believe the phrase “trope” wasn’t invented in 1957 if that’s what you are saying. But surely they had the idea of popular little trends in contemporary literature.
The must have known they were writing pulp sci-fi. At least when they got their copies they could feel the texture!
Re: Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)
#40A very nice story, and an interesting reflection on the education system. Also, and this is just an aside, but “the protagonist who is too special for the sorting hat” is a bit of a trope in young adult literature at this point. Is this the first real instance of it? 1957. That’s a while ago! I don’t even know if the “sorting hat” trope was established enough to subvert at the time.
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