4 ms·

So the argument that research for the sake of research is worthwhile is perfectly sound, the condescending "let me explain to you how a budget works" and "it's

So the argument that research for the sake of research is worthwhile is perfectly sound, the condescending "let me explain to you how a budget works" and "it's not my decision to spend the money" parts certainly rubs me the wrong way.

drucken 14y ago
How on Earth is that condescending? How is a nun in middle of Africa meant to have even a basic understanding of how a specific government's budgeting and economic system works? I am willing to bet the vast majority of Americans themselves (to this day) have no idea of even the basics so simply explained by Dr Stuhlinger, yet it was a critical part of the bigger picture.
- ams6110 14y ago
  I thought it weakened the piece. The story of the microscope made the point, the letter could have been ended there and been much shorter/stronger.
  - drgath 14y ago
    Weakened the piece? The microscope-story was just fluff to prime the reader to be open to the idea that science can benefit humanity. It was loosely based on real events, and the quotes from the count assuredly are made up. Still, a good story though. Had he ended there, the letter would lack any real substance to argue his point.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      > "he microscope-story was just fluff to prime the reader to be open to the idea that science can benefit humanity." Not just that, but to drive home that although the benefits of research may not be known at the time they are nevertheless existent.
- JohnsonB 14y ago
  >How is a nun in middle of Africa meant to have even a basic understanding of how a specific government's budgeting and economic system works? She can't have read a few books on economics? His explanation was pretty basic and nothing that couldn't be found in econ 101 textbooks. He essentially just assume she was uneducated.
  - Jtsummers 14y ago
    When communicating with an unknown audience you can't make any assumptions of pre-existing knowledge. Especially if that knowledge is considered essential to the topic at hand. If you do otherwise it will leave the audience confused, or confident but with potential misunderstandings. If this were in person, he might have been able to ask, "What do you know about the US's method of setting a budget and taxation?" and tailored his response after that. Since it was a letter, greater caution was needed. Are you offended by the first chapter or two of nearly every programming language book that explains what variables, conditionals, arrays and the like are? If you know it, you can skip it. If you don't, you can read it to have a better foundation for the rest of the text.
  - GlennS 14y ago
    A nun, in the 1970s, in Zambia, is not going to have easy access to economics textbooks.
    - JohnsonB 14y ago
      As if she lived there her whole life, never had a standard education, never had any opportunity whatsoever to access a standard library?
      - vidarh 14y ago
        Some quick Google Books searches indicates that Sister Mary Jucunda might have been a nun for maybe as much as 20-30 years by then (someone by her name shows up in various documents from the Catholic church dating back quite far). While I have no idea how much of her life she spent in Zambia, it is quite possible that she received her "standard education" in the 30's or 40's. It would seem quite reasonable for a nun who received her regular education that early to possibly have grown up going to a religious school somewhere where the idea of teaching topics such as economics to a woman would not have been particularly favoured, and/or where the use of a "standard library" to read texts outside of the curriculum would have been discouraged. In other words, depending on the wording of the original letter, it might very well have been entirely reasonable to assume that she would not have had any knowledge of economics (for that matter, you could assume a fairly substantial percentage of adults today would benefit from the explanation he gave).
- roel_v 14y ago
  Because the obvious response to 'how the budget works' is 'well then change the way the budget works'. I'm not sure if it's 'condescending' per se, but it did take away from the power of the letter.
TheComedian 14y ago
I did not find that comment condescending, though I expected to when he mentioned that he was going to explain how the budget worked. In fact, the thing that struck me while reading the entirety of the piece was how well he advocated for his position and explained difficult ideas in an accessible way while not talking down to the nun or criticizing her for not sharing his point of view. If all scientists could write in such an effective way their politics would be much better received I'm sure.

drucken 14y ago

How on Earth is that condescending? How is a nun in middle of Africa meant to have even a basic understanding of how a specific government's budgeting and economic system works? I am willing to bet the vast majority of Americans themselves (to this day) have no idea of even the basics so simply explained by Dr Stuhlinger, yet it was a critical part of the bigger picture.

ams6110 14y ago
I thought it weakened the piece. The story of the microscope made the point, the letter could have been ended there and been much shorter/stronger.
- drgath 14y ago
  Weakened the piece? The microscope-story was just fluff to prime the reader to be open to the idea that science can benefit humanity. It was loosely based on real events, and the quotes from the count assuredly are made up. Still, a good story though. Had he ended there, the letter would lack any real substance to argue his point.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    > "he microscope-story was just fluff to prime the reader to be open to the idea that science can benefit humanity." Not just that, but to drive home that although the benefits of research may not be known at the time they are nevertheless existent.
JohnsonB 14y ago
>How is a nun in middle of Africa meant to have even a basic understanding of how a specific government's budgeting and economic system works? She can't have read a few books on economics? His explanation was pretty basic and nothing that couldn't be found in econ 101 textbooks. He essentially just assume she was uneducated.
- Jtsummers 14y ago
  When communicating with an unknown audience you can't make any assumptions of pre-existing knowledge. Especially if that knowledge is considered essential to the topic at hand. If you do otherwise it will leave the audience confused, or confident but with potential misunderstandings. If this were in person, he might have been able to ask, "What do you know about the US's method of setting a budget and taxation?" and tailored his response after that. Since it was a letter, greater caution was needed. Are you offended by the first chapter or two of nearly every programming language book that explains what variables, conditionals, arrays and the like are? If you know it, you can skip it. If you don't, you can read it to have a better foundation for the rest of the text.
- GlennS 14y ago
  A nun, in the 1970s, in Zambia, is not going to have easy access to economics textbooks.
  - JohnsonB 14y ago
    As if she lived there her whole life, never had a standard education, never had any opportunity whatsoever to access a standard library?
    - vidarh 14y ago
      Some quick Google Books searches indicates that Sister Mary Jucunda might have been a nun for maybe as much as 20-30 years by then (someone by her name shows up in various documents from the Catholic church dating back quite far). While I have no idea how much of her life she spent in Zambia, it is quite possible that she received her "standard education" in the 30's or 40's. It would seem quite reasonable for a nun who received her regular education that early to possibly have grown up going to a religious school somewhere where the idea of teaching topics such as economics to a woman would not have been particularly favoured, and/or where the use of a "standard library" to read texts outside of the curriculum would have been discouraged. In other words, depending on the wording of the original letter, it might very well have been entirely reasonable to assume that she would not have had any knowledge of economics (for that matter, you could assume a fairly substantial percentage of adults today would benefit from the explanation he gave).
roel_v 14y ago
Because the obvious response to 'how the budget works' is 'well then change the way the budget works'. I'm not sure if it's 'condescending' per se, but it did take away from the power of the letter.

TheComedian 14y ago

I did not find that comment condescending, though I expected to when he mentioned that he was going to explain how the budget worked. In fact, the thing that struck me while reading the entirety of the piece was how well he advocated for his position and explained difficult ideas in an accessible way while not talking down to the nun or criticizing her for not sharing his point of view. If all scientists could write in such an effective way their politics would be much better received I'm sure.