3 ms·
There is a point here, but I think Greenspun is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude wrong in the time scale. The elderly haven't been revered as the only repository of w
by rubinelli 17y ago
There is a point here, but I think Greenspun is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude wrong in the time scale. The elderly haven't been revered as the only repository of wisdom since the invention of writing, and the invention of the press accelerated the process. It made sense for villagers to take the outliers to the elders, because they were the only ones with some chance of having relevant experience, but their influence diminished as books became common and cheap. The elderly became mostly cheap labor for menial tasks like mending clothes or going to the bank, the kind of work that automation eliminates.
- sophacles 17y agoI don't know -- looking someting up in a book, even with a decent computer index, is still orders of magnitude slower than a googling it.
- evgen 17y agoThe difference is that when you "google it" you have nothing but a pile of undifferentiated facts and opinions without any context. Just knowing the right book to consult is sometimes a more valuable skill than being able to select the right keywords for a web search. The fact that so few seem to understand the difference between collecting facts and actually mastering a subject is painful to watch.