5 ms·

Here's the problem. You are considered ignorant if you don't know anything about Pushkin. But it's perfectly normal or accepted to ignore who Enrico Fermi, Alan

Here's the problem. You are considered ignorant if you don't know anything about Pushkin. But it's perfectly normal or accepted to ignore who Enrico Fermi, Alan Turing or Paul Erdős were. We're all ignorant about something but, in society, literary ignorance is frowned upon much more than scientific ignorance.

boucher 19y ago
I disagree. If you use name recognition as a proxy for knowledge (which is probably a poor metric), than you're probably as likely to have heard of Turing as your are Pushkin. The set of people who have heard both is likely to be much smaller, and by inference, more knowledgeable. On the other side of the argument, you could argue its easier to understand the contributions of someone like Pushkin than someone like Fermi. But this too is probably true only on a superficial of level.
prakash 19y ago
not really, depends on who you hang out with;-)
gruseom 19y ago
You are considered ignorant if you don't know anything about Pushkin. In Russia, sure. But the Pushkin example is completely atypical of our society. When was the last time you heard Pushkin mentioned among non-Russian non-specialists? The obscurity of Pushkin is actually the point in this case. If she had said "He hadn't even heard of Shakespeare!" the implication would have been "He's a lout", which is quite different. "He hadn't even heard of Pushkin" is more along the lines of, "He doesn't pass the minimum test for my exacting, boutique tastes".
mixmax 19y ago
I noticed that too - I had absolutely no idea who pushkin was until I asked wikipedia. I do, however, know all the people you mention, and why they are known. People are just different, and so is their taste in books. The idea of finding partners based on book preferences is interesting though. I would love a dating site where I could search for women based on their reading habits. I mean if I could search for women that liked Neal Stephenson or Bob Woodward I would be thrilled. So could someone here please make it? Please...
- pg 19y ago
  We'd definitely consider funding it.
  - mixmax 19y ago
    With that disclosure you can probably be expecting a few applications for the idea :-) And I'd love to use it if somebody gets it right.
    - rms 19y ago
      Yeah... no reason to stop at books either, you could also do music/movies, all forms of media really.
      - johnb 19y ago
        although, to go back to high fidelity - the big discovery is that it's not what you like, but what you're like that makes a relationship workable
- bootload 19y ago
  "... I would love a dating site where I could search for women based on their reading habits. ..." Heard of this exact idea on popular media this week. Can't find the site though. So the idea while not original, is worth trying. How do you really know if a person is really reading the books they claim online though?
  - mixmax 19y ago
    damn.. :-) You could do it with music as well - make a small app that scans through your music library and uploads it. Then match with people that have the same taste in music. Would probably have broader appeal, since more people listen to music than read books. Or has that been done too?
    - demallien 19y ago
mtts 19y ago
That's not really what this is about, however. Knowing who Enrico Fermi, Alan Turing or Paul Erdős is, indicates you know your math. Knowing who Pushkin is, on the other hand, serves as a tribal marking that signals that you're one of a group of people that have a certain outlook on life, namely one in which literature is important. If you're hiring someone for your startup, that's probably not important to know, but if you're looking for someone to have a relatioship with it can be helpful.

boucher 19y ago

I disagree. If you use name recognition as a proxy for knowledge (which is probably a poor metric), than you're probably as likely to have heard of Turing as your are Pushkin. The set of people who have heard both is likely to be much smaller, and by inference, more knowledgeable. On the other side of the argument, you could argue its easier to understand the contributions of someone like Pushkin than someone like Fermi. But this too is probably true only on a superficial of level.

prakash 19y ago

not really, depends on who you hang out with;-)

gruseom 19y ago

You are considered ignorant if you don't know anything about Pushkin. In Russia, sure. But the Pushkin example is completely atypical of our society. When was the last time you heard Pushkin mentioned among non-Russian non-specialists? The obscurity of Pushkin is actually the point in this case. If she had said "He hadn't even heard of Shakespeare!" the implication would have been "He's a lout", which is quite different. "He hadn't even heard of Pushkin" is more along the lines of, "He doesn't pass the minimum test for my exacting, boutique tastes".

mixmax 19y ago

I noticed that too - I had absolutely no idea who pushkin was until I asked wikipedia. I do, however, know all the people you mention, and why they are known. People are just different, and so is their taste in books. The idea of finding partners based on book preferences is interesting though. I would love a dating site where I could search for women based on their reading habits. I mean if I could search for women that liked Neal Stephenson or Bob Woodward I would be thrilled. So could someone here please make it? Please...

pg 19y ago
We'd definitely consider funding it.
- mixmax 19y ago
  With that disclosure you can probably be expecting a few applications for the idea :-) And I'd love to use it if somebody gets it right.
  - rms 19y ago
    Yeah... no reason to stop at books either, you could also do music/movies, all forms of media really.
    - johnb 19y ago
      although, to go back to high fidelity - the big discovery is that it's not what you like, but what you're like that makes a relationship workable
bootload 19y ago
"... I would love a dating site where I could search for women based on their reading habits. ..." Heard of this exact idea on popular media this week. Can't find the site though. So the idea while not original, is worth trying. How do you really know if a person is really reading the books they claim online though?
- mixmax 19y ago
  damn.. :-) You could do it with music as well - make a small app that scans through your music library and uploads it. Then match with people that have the same taste in music. Would probably have broader appeal, since more people listen to music than read books. Or has that been done too?
  - demallien 19y ago

mtts 19y ago

That's not really what this is about, however. Knowing who Enrico Fermi, Alan Turing or Paul Erdős is, indicates you know your math. Knowing who Pushkin is, on the other hand, serves as a tribal marking that signals that you're one of a group of people that have a certain outlook on life, namely one in which literature is important. If you're hiring someone for your startup, that's probably not important to know, but if you're looking for someone to have a relatioship with it can be helpful.