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Gabriel Nijmeh › Likes
BBC - dot.life: The culture of copying - Rory Cellan-Jones - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs...
Gabriel Nijmeh and Marcos Marado liked this
"Criminalising seven million people, it concludes, will have huge costs and may not even work in a globalised economy where other countries my follow different policies. Then again, telling those seven million that it's fine to go on downloading for nothing will make it even harder for the creative industries to develop sustainable online businesses. So, no easy answers in this report."
- Miguel Caetano
Excelent resource, good comments too
- Marcos Marado
from fftogo
12 Music Bloggers Worth Following on Twitter :: List of the Day :: Paste - http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs...
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Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
@davepollard lists "Ten Important Business Trends" which I can't disagree with. However trends do not make scenarios only help to inform strategy. - http://blogs.salon.com/0002007...
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
10 business trends that are well and truly on the radar (although I believe they were 10 years ago too). To get beyond trends is what actually matters. Similarly evaluating how they may play out in the context of your business or organization matters. What next only matters in context.
- Stuart Henshall
listening to "Dyslexic Heart - Paul Westerberg" - http://blip.fm/~69u5e
Dan Morrill AKA Techwag, Kelly W., Thomas Hawk and 4 other people liked this
Great song. Old school.
- Mike Roberts
Every day Friendfeed gets a little more useful and Twitter becomes a little more useless.
Luis Enrique León, Amanda im Netz, Karola Riegler and 60 other people liked this
in what ways
- Paul Kinlan
I have to say, I DO like the new look.
- Trevor Lee
I totally agree.
- Kathrin Stieler
Explains the massive amount of new FF followers the past couple of weeks... the Twitter/FF follower sync tool sure has helped.
- Gabriel Nijmeh
Commenting on FF kicks Twitter's arse!
- Peter Fletcher
Agree very much so. This new IM notification thing is just awesome too!
- Adam Turetzky
but why?
- Paul Kinlan
I am starting to come to the same conclusion. The recent replies fiasco made me realize FriendFeed has more context.
- Jackson Miller
I blame Oprah.
- Mike Abundo
d'oh, that reminds me, I forgot to login to twitter today again...
- Don Bonaddio
Connecting the message on Twitter, discussion and conversation better on Friendfeed
- Rudy De Waele
True. I like Friendfeed better, but more people use twitter at the present time.
- Brian Harrison
I like them both and use them when necessary.
- Jacque
I'm new to friendfeed, why do you say ff is more useful than twitter?
- tekhelet
Because of lists, alerts, threaded discussions, etc.
- Steve Rubel
from IM
Yeah Steve, I'm with you, This FF (yesterday), allowed me to receive your's about Amazon Kindle for Blogs, and get signed up ASAP, Thanks Much, Herm
- Trey Morgan
I have perceived in recent weeks that Twitter is losing juice -- less RTing, fewer comments, etc. However, Twitter-supporting third-party apps are still very compelling.
- Mike Elgan
But it is not threaded discussions, it is a single set of replies to a post.
- Paul Kinlan
@SteveRubel I do like the lists and alerts though
- Paul Kinlan
AMIN
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
and I do like my discussions.
- Paul Kinlan
As in Ray Kurzweil, it's speeding up and getting quicker and we are the frog in the pot. So, we're holding on and being at the effect and causing the effect. What does he say happens next - we start to reverse our brain activity. I do think it is pretty amazing we are watching it grow at the speed is increasing rapidly. I said this before -- about twitter, ashton's driving the boat and Oprah is on the water skis/know that reference..
- carolynn kutz
Yes and no. Yes for my main twitter account and no for any other accounts. They are for other blogs and not related with the FF content.
- Bibi
Agree with you. Not sure I need to import the Facebook stuff in there... seems like everything is imploding into itself these days
- Janet Barker-Evans
An Unschooling Manifesto - http://blogs.salon.com/0002007...
Gabriel Nijmeh and Robin Barooah liked this
Alex Scoble was talking yesterday about education. One thing to remember is that people are different, and there is no perfect system for educating everyone. No matter how much we spend on a singe, centrally managed, bureaucratic system, it can't meet everyone's needs. Trying to do it with a singe systems is a recipe for mediocrity as everyone struggles to control the only source of education. Allowing people to learn as they wish, to change methods when they want, change schools when they want, or if there is no school they want, to open one.
- Alex Scrivener
Feedly continues to blow away Friendfeed, Google Reader and Twitter for uncovering the most strategic news on the planet with a minimum of noise and fuss. Not even a contest.
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
It's Monday morning: I check out out all four sites sequentially. Feedly: bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Direct hits. Nearly no misses. The other sites apparently don't get the recommender thing at all -- falling ever farther behind the curve.
- Sean McBride
Gadget groupies are not thought leaders. They are cheerleaders, not tech creators. Most of them are not capable of creative and higher abstract thinking. They are enthusiasts; followers. But they do serve a valuable function in transmitting new technology to the world at large.
Gabriel Nijmeh, Cole Jolley, Greg Guitarbuster and 3 other people liked this
Sean. If there's one thing that you stop doing, it is labeling people. We are what we have learned. The gadget groupies are not gadget groupies, but people like you and me who at the moment don't see anything better to do with their time.
- Meryn Stol
"Gadget groupie" is an archetype. Most of us here are gadget groupies to one degree or another; certainly I am one. But it's important to remind oneself repeatedly that there are higher levels of human activity than caressing shiny new toys. Especially higher levels of intellectual activity. (This post was directed more at myself than anyone else.)
- Sean McBride
I recommend not ever using archetypes in public conversation again. It creates unnecessary distance, unintentionally. Except maybe guy and girl (and the pronouns). This is not really offensive to most people.
- Meryn Stol
"there are higher levels of human activity" this is subjective, and also won't win the people engaged in supposedly "lower activities" over.
- Meryn Stol
I say this based on all the mud-slinging I have come across during my climate change research.
- Meryn Stol
Sean, I think I'm more of a Gadget Slut. Maybe even a Gadget Whore. Hmm, I'll have to think about that. *gives propeller on beanie a twirl*
- Ladybug Heather
Really? In my experience gadget groupies are a self-critical bunch who are aggressively skeptical about their own pursuits. Hardly thin-skinned.
- Sean McBride
Heather -- I've been a gadget cultist and fanatic for quite some time. Deprogramming may be required.
- Sean McBride
Could we become so entranced in playing with our shiny new toys and groovy gadgets that we fail to notice that the world is collapsing around our ears? Oh, definitely. In fact, this is probably the situation in which we are currently immersed.
- Sean McBride
Sean, yes, definitely. That's a bit of the thinking in Jared Diamond's "Collapse".
- Meryn Stol
I've read "Collapse," and "Guns, Germs and Steel." We may be in the midst of a "Collapse" scenario now. Jared Diamond is doing the kind of creative and higher abstract thinking that is missing from much of the gadget fetishism world.
- Sean McBride
Well part of us are in the collapse scenario, part of us are not. Some people are fighting back. And those are winning. Have you read "Blessed Unrest" by Paul Hawken?
- Meryn Stol
Well, fighting... That may not be the right metaphor. Let's just say they are aware and empowered.
- Meryn Stol
Just added it to my reading list: "In his new book, Paul Hawken, noted environmentalist, businessman, writer, tech entrepreneur, and organizational/cultural theorist, makes a compelling case that the disparate movements for ecological restoration and social justice are merging into "the largest movement in the World.""
- Sean McBride
Back then, Paul Hawken was not really aware of social media. I don't know how he's doing now. Social media only strengthens the case.
- Meryn Stol
postlinerarity -- right. Writing a blog post about the iPhone is not creating Perl, Python or Ruby. And composing 10,000 tweets is not creating, say, Jared Diamond's "Collapse." But there has always been a role to play for reviewers, critics and enthusiasts. They are a key component of the overall cultural metabolism.
- Sean McBride
I think that more people writing blogs even about gadgets, or doing silly videos means more people who start firing up their own abilities, and gain the confidence, to start to write, play music, make films, write code or make stuff - yes, it means more rubbish, but also far more chances to get great stuff. Everyone starts rubbish. How many people in the past never started, who might have been great? In 2008, many of these people do feel they can try. And that is good.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Joelle -- but let's be honest. Most of us don't have time to plow through this stuff. :) That's why we need systems to sort it all out by value and to skim off the cream.
- Sean McBride
If I am honest - I plow. Now and then I will just dig for hours on one of the topics I am interested, maybe only once or twice a year. Because what rises to the top is usually fine, but there are even better gems that never do
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I'm a plower too.
- Meryn Stol
Some of the smartest bloggers I know: Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald, James Wolcott, Jim Kunstler, Jim Lobe, Juan Cole, Philip Weiss, Stephen Walt, Tim O'Reilly
Gabriel Nijmeh, roel, Donna Mugavero and 17 other people liked this
Finally, a list without Scoble in it. :)
- Roberto Bonini
Kunstler = Seer
- Denise Young
You are what you read.
- Meryn Stol
always good to post the links should people want to validate your claim :)
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Joelle -- you're right. See the following comment.
- Sean McBride
Some of the smartest bloggers I know: 1. Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Dish) http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/ 2. Glenn Greenwald http://www.salon.com/opinion... 3. James Wolcott http://www.vanityfair.com/online... 4. Jim Kunstler (Clusterfuck Nation) http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/ 5. Jim Lobe (LobeLog.com) http://www.ips.org/blog... 6. Juan Cole (Informed...
more...
- Sean McBride
Quite a few of these brilliant bloggers are preoccupied with Mideast politics. Why? Think about it: the Bush 43 administration was totally bogged down in Mideast politics, and Barack Obama will be trapped by the very same forces from his very first day in office. Mideast politics could take down the entire planet, and pull the rug out from our sometimes infantile fascination with shiny new gadgets and toys.
- Sean McBride
I am not too much impressed by most of the so-called A-list tech bloggers. I feel like they are well behind the tech curve.
- Sean McBride
How I define "smart": powerful minds wrestling with important topics in original ways. Pathfinders.
- Sean McBride
V - I would love to see your top 10 blogger list (or top whatever number). How about everyone else? Please include links if you feel up to it.
- Sean McBride
Chris -- in your opinion, who are the smartest bloggers on the net? (I can't imagine that everyone or anyone agrees with my list.)
- Sean McBride
Does anyone have something to add to this list?
- Meryn Stol
Show me your own lists. :) I'm curious. Tell me what's wrong with my list. :)
- Sean McBride
Most of the A-list tech bloggers strike me as intellectual lightweights. That is my honest opinion. Chitter chatter about trivia, usually. Not engaged with the big strategic trends and issues. Some of them are interesting sometimes. But not truly consequential. (This is what is known as a "provocation." :))
- Sean McBride
Sean, I would also consider Bruce Wilson at Talk to Action, Joe Bageant, Brad Friedman, Scott Horton, David Neiwert, Dave Pollard. I like and follow 70% of your list BTW.
- triple t
triple t -- thanks for providing some pointers. Brad Friedman and Scott Horton I know well and read regularly. If you find some time, by all means post the links for these bloggers -- most people won't have the energy to track down the links through Google.
- Sean McBride
I forgot an important blogger on my list: Kevin Kelly (The Technium) http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/ Kelly thinks and writes far beyond the level of the gadget bloggers.
- Sean McBride
Good point, Gregory.
- Sean McBride
Sean, you're right - a lot of blogging is more focused on the entertainment content than on anything else. I'm an outsider and a nobody so I didnt quite want to say it like that, but the fluff/depth ratio is not great. I don't think it is due to their intelligence, that is what the current "set up" of feeds and bookmarking does encourage: speed and quotable short-bites. They need to earn a living, but they also need the "mass" readership to earn the invites to events etc.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Joelle -- most of the very best bloggers seem to be paying no attention to commercial considerations. Their minds are obsessively focused on trying to understand or solve particular difficult leading-edge intellectual problems of consequence. And they usually write elegant prose that slides easily into one's mind.
- Sean McBride
Traditional newspaper oped page columnists and contributors are not remotely competitive.
- Sean McBride
Sean, that is a great way to describe it "obsessively focused on trying to understand or solve particular difficult leading-edge intellectual problems" . I live with a person like that :S (not the writing bit, the other part). For my part I tend to think none of us know enough to really be able to make a breakthrough on a lot of those topics, except in interaction
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
triple t -- Dave Pollard (How to Save the World) http://blogs.salon.com/0002007... is a great find.
- Sean McBride
Dave Pollard from How to Save the World is kinda crazy (and especially, pessimistic) but he has really interesting thoughts. I learned a lot from reading him a few years back, and now he seems to have grown stronger.
- Meryn Stol
BTW, is this the new A-list? ;)
- Meryn Stol
Wow, I like Dave Pollard, that *is* a find. From a quick skim I'm afraid I am not that far from his philosophy.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
There were 4 in there I had never heard of, so thanks a lot for sharing. I'm going to enjoy reading the backlog
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Joelle, you might also want to read FAR back into http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com/ She's very smart too. Oh, and it's filled with comments from me and other smart people.
- Meryn Stol
what, another one? Not sure how I'll give all those the attention they need, we'll see. The Technium is good, too, just ate 30 minutes of my time without my noticing it, and that was 1 blog entry. PS: now i get to antagonise some of FF as I post really old stuff as I discover it for the first time :)
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
thanks triple t, Dave Pollard is awesome.
- Denise Young
Dave Winer
- Igor Poltavskiy
Dave Winer rates among my top 50 bloggers.
- Sean McBride
Pollard is on FF BTW http://friendfeed.com/davepol... and Twitter
- triple t
Thanks triple t!
- Meryn Stol
Messianic personality type: 1. dependent on groupthink 2. dogmatic 3. easily manipulated by cult doctrines and leaders 4. fanatical 5. gullible 6. hostile to critical thinking 7. narcissistic
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
The first step towards enlightenment and self-knowledge: identify and understand the sources of your psychological and ideological programming. Track the chain of programming to the root. Control your controllers.
David Lynch, Nicola Quinn and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
Isn't the control of your controllers just another controller and isn't this approach just another bit of programming?
- Todd Hoff
Would you rather be a controller or a controllee? Fully conscious or unconscious? Someone who has deconstructed his or her psychological and ideological programming doesn't necessarily have to create new systems of cultural control. Perhaps he or she might simply enjoy being a fully liberated human being.
- Sean McBride
"Control your controllers" -- really meant to say control the ideational systems which have controlled your mind. Understand that they are arbitrary human inventions.
- Sean McBride
Along this track: among religionists, the world can be divided into creators of religions, leaders of religions and followers of religions. From a certain perspective, only the creators of religions are interesting; the others are basically bots, mechanical and repetitive products and emanations of simple algorithms.
- Sean McBride
How to spot victims of cult programming: they can't defend their beliefs in fair, open and reasonable debate, and they become emotional and angry when their beliefs are challenged.
Meryn Stol and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
Usually they end up relying on censorship and violence to defend their irrational belief systems. And their irrational belief systems are all about propping up their fragile egos.
- Sean McBride
We all have our buttons, and a global superintelligence will know precisely what they are for billions of individuals. Push this button and get this response, like clockwork.
laprensa66, Roney Smith, Rob Haas and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
The coming age of social engineering: knowing the precise amount of pressure to exert on the precise button to provoke a precise response. Billions of people, trillions of buttons. Humanity as a mighty Wurlitzer. Are we already there?
- Sean McBride
Who has the key to the central control room for all the buttons? The global oligarchy, I would imagine. The oligarchs who own and control governments, mainstream media outlets, intelligence agencies, think tanks, the world's leading corporations, etc. Constructing the social graph here is not too difficult.
- Sean McBride
I think this is why we see few revolutions of the type foiled by Smedley Butler in the 1930s. Compliance technology has move to the point where physical control of people and governments isn't necessary.
- Todd Hoff
GL -- the problem is, whole-system thinking could also lead to the world's ultimate totalitarian dictatorship. It might even be an invisible dictatorship, with the instruments of control kept well out of public sight.
- Sean McBride
Currently oil is the currency of choice for the oligarchy. They now see that as a time-limited commodity. We will be converted to carbon-credits as the international currency within 50 years.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Every technology can be used for good or evil, and often both.
- Sean McBride
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-11-30) - http://joffi.tumblr.com/post...
David Young, Jason Toney and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
1. Jeremy Soule 2. Coldplay 3. U2 4. New London Philharmonic Orchestra 5. Alison Krauss Jeremy Soule is all Game Soundtrack music. His Guild Wars, Icewind Dale, and Morrowind sountracks are modern masterpieces in my book. New London Philharmonic is co-listed as the Royal Philharmonic in some places (not sure what's up there); mostly movie theme stuff, but some classical that I hadn't retagged yet, also. Coldplay because I had only recently gotten Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends and the Prospekt's March EP new this week. U2 is U2 and Alison Krauss has the voice of an angel.
- Michael W. May
Eagles – Please Come Home for Christmas - http://www.last.fm/music...
Ladybug Heather and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby please come home) - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Melissa, Gabriel Nijmeh and Michelle Jones liked this
And the original (?) :)
- Michael W. May
One of my absolutely favorite songs. I love when she performs this on Letterman each year.
- Michelle Jones
Yes, this s still best
- Michael W. May
from twhirl
Amazon.com MP3 Downloads: Vice Gives You The Gift Of Good Music (free Holiday sampler) - http://www.amazon.com/gp...
Melissa, Gabriel Nijmeh, RAPatton and Rodfather liked this
"Featuring ten songs from artists along the lines of Chromeo, the Streets, and Black Lips, Vice Gives You the Gift of Good Music is an album that'll up your cool quotient for the next few weeks--whether you're celebrating the holidays or not. Even better, it won't cost you a thing. Download it free for a limited time."
- Michael W. May
from Bookmarklet
Gabriel Nijmeh, Joey Gibson, Shey, Jamaican of FF and 7 other people liked this
Perfect.
- Paul W. Swansen
lol
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
Boxee raises funding as it goes after content, your living room - http://venturebeat.com/2008...
Gabriel Nijmeh and Melissa liked this
JackRyanBauer: Obama Hires More Clinton White House Veterans-Wall Street Journal: http://urlenco.de/hsrmmdv (via @googlenewsus)-sounds like change 2 me :-( - http://twitter.com/JackRya...
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
Dasan: $GM management makes me absolutely sick - what a bunch of gangsters. "Give us cash, or we'll take the rest of you out" - http://twitter.com/Dasan...
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
Welcome President Obama! Now get started, you have a big mess to clean up.
Gabriel Nijmeh, cjmart, Kevin Johnson and 12 other people liked this
He has 2 months to take some deep breaths.
- Kamath (नमः)
He's gonna need em once he sees the things they only show presidents.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
[flips through Secret List] "So there's really UFO wreckage?" "Actually, it's less impressive than you'd think."
- Karim
expect at least 8 months since his start date.
- clarke thomas
MSNBC Electoral Projections - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JPoAca...
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Keith - @tsudo, Spencer, Shey, Jamaican of FF and Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
ha!
- Mike Lewis
Washington Times - LYONS: Obama, the hoax - http://washingtontimes.com/news...
Gabriel Nijmeh liked this
“The good news - the self reliant and self determinied will always do better than those who choose to be parasites. And yes, SOME choose it.” - http://friendfeed.com/e...
Gabriel Nijmeh, Craig Eddy and ComicList liked this
Being a Conservative on the Liberal Internet | Island Dog (Spencer Scott) - http://www.theislanddog.com/2008...
Gabriel Nijmeh, Alexander Williams, Oldengrey (Jay) and 4 other people liked this
Pretty cool 'Obamunism' graphic. - http://sarahbarracuda.com/barack-...
Gabriel Nijmeh, Soulhuntre, Keith - @tsudo and 4 other people liked this
The MoJo Interview: Bill Maher (On Religulous) - http://www.motherjones.com/intervi...
Gabriel Nijmeh, bill giltner, James Carnley and 2 other people liked this
"I would say that Jerusalem was an eye-opener. I was raised Catholic but my mother was Jewish. And, I guess, and maybe it's a liberal East Coast thing, but we have this idea that Jews are less crazy than the Christians and the Muslims. But when you go to Jerusalem they actually look more crazy. I call it the funny-hat capital of the world.... When you go to Jerusalem you notice that there is a lot of craziness going on. Even on the plane over, they were, at a certain point, they all stood up in the aisle of the plane davening; they wrapped their tzitzit around their arms, and they just looked like crazy people, always bowing their head. It's disconcerting."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
Jerusalem: ground zero for the self-destruction of the human race? Certainly Jerusalem-centric ideologies have generated a wealth of apocalyptic scenarios that have been embraced by millions of fanatics. Some of them control weapons of mass destruction.
- Sean McBride
Sean: when I visited Jerusalem they prayed all around me on the plane. Had the exact same experience. It was very interesting to watch. A guy next to me translated the ceremony for me and explained why they were praying at that point in time.
- Robert Scoble
Robert - what is disturbing is to assemble a total picture of the ideology, complete with political program, that is associated with these practices, and to graph the influence of these beliefs on Israeli and American politics. It is easy to plot a direct line between these zealous religionists and the Bush 43 administration and the McCain/Palin camp, with neoconservatives playing the...
more...
- Sean McBride
Robert - and, as you noted in another comment, Israel is also one of the most impressive centers of high tech research and development on the planet. Israelis as a whole highly value science, reason, progress and all those good things.
- Sean McBride
Meh. Celebrities have zero credibility with me. I could care less what any of them, including Maher, have to say. He's a talent, period.
- Patricia
Being a celebrity doesn't automatically make one an uninteresting thinker any more than being a member of any other class does (except, perhaps, for the class of stupid people. :)) Mark Twain was a celebrity in his time, and I would rank Twain among the 20 most important thinkers in world history. Maher asks some salient questions about religion and religionists that need to be asked.
- Sean McBride
@sean mcbride, it's not about disinterest. :) Mark Twain became a celebrity through his work, not out of the pursuit of being a Hollywood talent....
- Patricia
Let me add that I definitely don't put Bill Maher in the same class as Mark Twain -- not even close. But I am looking forward to seeing Religuous.
- Sean McBride
@sean, i'm not. i could tell from the previews that he didn't get a well balanced opinion from one single question he asked. i also don't agree that God makes people act stupid - people make people act stupid and attacking religion doesn't exactly squelch that. He should be doing a documentary about the decline in quality of our public figures and ourselves. It used to be hard to have a...
more...
- Patricia
Patricia -- how should one respond to militant religionists who use "God" as a pretext for military aggression, human rights violations, genocide, anti-democratic policies and the like?
- Sean McBride
"God" as an excuse to conquer territory, steal resources, murder outsiders (and "traitors" from within), suppress free speech, impose authoritiarian or totalitarian rule, line the pockets of "priests," etc.
- Sean McBride
The War on Intellectualism - http://www.bilerico.com/2008...
Aaron Schaub, bill giltner, Aviv and 28 other people liked this
"It seems there is a new threat to our country- an insidious danger that is seeping into our homes and everyday lives that must be stopped at any cost. That threat is intellectualism. We have heard the some of the buzzwords of this political season- Folksy, Joe Six-pack, Elitist, and Arugula Eating. It seems the new "culture war" or wedge issue is intelligence. The Vice-Presidential debate only solidified the lines in this war. On one side, you had Palin- full of "folksy charm" and "you betcha" language. Then you had Biden, who had a command of the issues, but was called "boring" and (gasp!) "professorial" by the pundits."
- Sean McBride
from Bookmarklet
Except it is nothing new - it's been an undercurrent of American politics and culture for a long time now.
- Bora Zivkovic
Obama One Kenobi is our only hope :) But seriously, how does the US hope to survive. Our days as a manufacturing center are long gone. Seems that the way of the knowledge worker and technology are the right way. As such, can we convince Joe Sixpack that he needs to study more? Perhaps the greatest thing about Bush is that nearly no one likes him. If it weren't for Dubya, perhaps McCain or Romney would be more popular.
- Mike Reynolds
Mike, I don't think this is as much to do with Dubya as many like to think. IMO that's symptomatic of a general trend. When I first came to the states, when Clinton was still the man, one of the first things I noticed was the lack of respect for knowledge and education (and this exists even in the tech community). I remain completely baffled by this.
- Deepak Singh
Agree with Deepak, he took the words out of my mouth
- Sally Church
Maybe if you berate them, call them "idiots" and "morons," they'll suddenly start agreeing with you.
- Glen Mistletoe
I think the problem starts with the culture in our schools (which, at least publicly, are funded and "guided" by the government) which emphasizes complete submission to authority and elevates athleticism above academic performance. The whole "nerds vs jocks" thing... It's fortunate now that at least technology is changing that among the kids somewhat, if not among their teachers and school administration. It will take at least another generation before the tide really turns for intellectuals.
- Lindsay
I think it goes even deeper than that: the culture in our schools is really just the culture in our country.
- j1m
Sorry to disagree about schools but they do not reflect much of our society. At best, some schools might provide a distorted view of someone's interpretation of our society. The best we can hope is that schools are freed from the trappings of society and an environment is provided so students may explore knowledge from many angles.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I would stipulate that schools in many places are not reflections of society. Most of my respect for knowledge was fostered at home. That said, in the schools I studied in, excelling at academics was always given more importance, both in the public and private schools I went to. Since I did not grow up in the US, can't really claim to understand what the reasons are, but it's the kind of situation where it might be impossible to pinpoint one or two reasons
- Deepak Singh
Well, the culture 'which emphasizes complete submission to authority and elevates athleticism above academic performance' is a deep part American culture, and that culture also permeates American schools. The history of submission to authority is much, much older than the history of public schools, so I think schools are pretty much ruled out as the source. I don't know anything about the history of why athleticism is so widely revered, but I'd be curious to know more.
- j1m
Like #1. 10/05/2008.
- Robert Scoble
We see the aftermath everywhere. From the economy collapse, to Apple's stock dropping 10% from a silly rumor from an uncredible site, to politics. It's about time America woke up. THINK, people!
- Mona Nomura
Define authority though. To me the ultimate authority is my parents, even today when I am not quite a young un. Probably true for many others from the subcontinent. Is that the problem, or part thereof?
- Deepak Singh
My pet theory: the key to making people care more about their own education is to make the rewards more apparent or immediate. If getting A's on tests earned more money than selling drugs, many people would probably behave differently ;-) (And of course there are many ways to make rewards more apparent/immediate that don't involve money.)
- j1m
Deepak, I'm assuming you're probably from somewhere like India from the comments you've made (and please forgive me if that's a bad assumption)... The cultural relationship between kids and parents is somewhat different in the US and when I say authority I basically mean the government and its model in the school system, administration and teachers. Kids usually don't listen to their parents after they leave home, and sometimes they stop much earlier than that.
- Lindsay
@j1m - I agree... there needs to be some way to inspire kids by internal motivation, not just to get good grades but to actually LEARN things. The problem is they are given assignments that are much less interesting than the alternative ways they could spend their time... they finish them because they have to be done, not to actually LEARN the materials... We are missing something. I think it's because our school system is geared to produce factory workers and not knowledge workers.
- Lindsay
Schools are too focused on test results and their rankings in the districts to be concerned about whether a child is actually getting the material or is gaining an appreciation for learning. Since it's easy to look at test scores as an indicator instead of judging a child's excitement and comprehension of the materials as the criteria for advancement there's a disconnect. We need to teach them how to teach themselves and reward them for going above and beyond the baseline curriculum.
- Lindsay
Lindsay, correct assumption. The reason this topic fascinates me so much is that most of the people I have met in the dozen or so years I've lived in the US do not fit the general "anti-intellectual" mould, which leads to the question about how they got to where they are today in a culture which seems to discourage that.
- Deepak Singh
I think it's the easy manipulation of the media. Anyone with a lot of money or tireless drive can hire a publicist/work the media garnering enough coverage/exposure to eventually create an impact or image, positive or negative. The barrier of entry to become an influencer is almost zero these days, sometimes not necessarily in a good way. We are what we consume, in a sense. If we raise the bar, we'll rise with it.
- Patricia
This convo is evidence enough that the "intellectuals" don't get it. It's about popularity not IQ. Just look at Hollywood box office vs real art. Brad Pitt, Jolie, julia Roberts etc. bring in the big money and $$ mean power. There is nothing intellectual about it.
- Alex Nesbitt
I think this has been a part of US culture since the 1970s - Nixon was the first Republican politician to base his campaign on anger and bitterness directed against the country's intellectuals, and it's been like that ever since.
- Alexander Carlill
lindsay: I'd be careful about scrapping exams. The UK has shown that the move towards coursework orientated teaching methods precipitate a collapse in the performance and engagement of males in the education process. A decline that is reversed upon entry into the competative environment of the university. Using exam results in order to rank schools is bad however.
- alphaxion
It's like your whole country is subject to one giant instance of the Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes to choosing a leader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Warren
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