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There are more well-written and thoughtful academic papers available online than any person will ever make it through in a lifetime. The fact that many (or eve

by jfager 16y ago

There are more well-written and thoughtful academic papers available online than any person will ever make it through in a lifetime. The fact that many (or even most) don't rise to that distinction is irrelevant to the basic point. It's a rare person who can "look up the occasional chemical compound" to any effective end who hasn't already immersed themselves in the subject of chemistry to know why they are doing so and what the information they're getting back actually means. Information-at-will is unbelievably powerful and amazing, but it's not a substitute for in-depth study.

euroclydon 16y ago
You're absolutely right. Those were the two flaws in my statements. But, my main point (however poorly stated) is that the internet should be viewed as a successful reference tool and not a failed enlightenment or educational tool.
chc 16y ago
Actually, it is relevant to the basic point. If I could reliably look up well-written and interesting content on the Internet, that would be wonderful. But most of it is lost in a morass of crap. There's probably some level of "Human nature just doesn't incline us toward useful learning," but I think there's also just basic risk aversion: If I read a blog or forum, the information content might be low, but at least I have a good idea what I'm getting. I have no trouble finding an amusing and semi-informative blog, but finding a chemistry text that is useful to me is actually much harder, even though I'm sure there's probably more than one on this giant Web.
- jamesbritt 16y ago
  It makes me think of going to the supermarket where there are 80 different breakfast cereals. Some of them might be healthy for me; I need to figure out which they are. Tedious but doable. Except in the Internet cereal aisle there are 80 thousand different breakfast cereals, unreliably organized. Yes, the healthy stuff is in there, but finding it is a whole other issue. Now I have to rely on a curator, and I need to know how best to find and pick one, which is a different sort of problem.
- jfager 16y ago
  How do you find blogs you like to read? Google only gets you so far, so you come to places like HN. You still have to know where to look in order to wade through the masses of crap. "Low signal" is just a fundamental characteristic of the web at this point. I read CS papers. If that's what you're interested in, too, CiteSeer's Most Cited will last you years: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/stats/articles http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/stats/articles

by jfager 16y ago

euroclydon 16y ago

You're absolutely right. Those were the two flaws in my statements. But, my main point (however poorly stated) is that the internet should be viewed as a successful reference tool and not a failed enlightenment or educational tool.

chc 16y ago

Actually, it is relevant to the basic point. If I could reliably look up well-written and interesting content on the Internet, that would be wonderful. But most of it is lost in a morass of crap. There's probably some level of "Human nature just doesn't incline us toward useful learning," but I think there's also just basic risk aversion: If I read a blog or forum, the information content might be low, but at least I have a good idea what I'm getting. I have no trouble finding an amusing and semi-informative blog, but finding a chemistry text that is useful to me is actually much harder, even though I'm sure there's probably more than one on this giant Web.

jamesbritt 16y ago
It makes me think of going to the supermarket where there are 80 different breakfast cereals. Some of them might be healthy for me; I need to figure out which they are. Tedious but doable. Except in the Internet cereal aisle there are 80 thousand different breakfast cereals, unreliably organized. Yes, the healthy stuff is in there, but finding it is a whole other issue. Now I have to rely on a curator, and I need to know how best to find and pick one, which is a different sort of problem.
jfager 16y ago
How do you find blogs you like to read? Google only gets you so far, so you come to places like HN. You still have to know where to look in order to wade through the masses of crap. "Low signal" is just a fundamental characteristic of the web at this point. I read CS papers. If that's what you're interested in, too, CiteSeer's Most Cited will last you years: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/stats/articles http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/stats/articles