Re: broken schools

D <nospam@example.net> writes:

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:

I don't actually read that many books on technology. My technology
exposure these days is more through blogs, usenet, and the occasional
networking event. Oh, and work of course, but that is more "organical"
exposure, and not really something I do actively.

>
Yeah.  This probably implies you're getting a lot of screen reading
time.  I like books because I can get off the screen.  And, the book
being good, is usually so much more carefully written than most papers
and blogs.

>
Too much screen reading if you ask me. But when I'm not working, I read a lot of
regular books, or on my eInk device, which is much kinder to the eyes. Reading
is one of my greatest hobbies. My wife gets annoyed at the enormous number of
books I accumulate. She wants me to throw them away, but it would be like
throwing away my children. I cannot do it! =/

I don't know the two of you, but it does sound like a good idea to throw
it all away.  But I'm suspicious to say it because I often do it.  When
I was a freshman, I bought all the books I'd use at the university.  I
thought it was expensive, but it was worth it---I thought then.  On the
second semester, I couldn't spend that money again and decided to try to
just get the books from the library.  If the exact book wasn't
available, I'd take another one---a theorem should be the roughly the
same in every book, right?  From this experiment, I concluded that I'd
never buy another book (and that every student should do the same).  It
was wonderful to always look at other books perspectives.

After graduation, I moved to another country.  I did my bachelor's
degree in a foreign country and then moved to another one after
graduation, to eventually move back home.  When I was packing to move
back home after years away, I decided to buy a bunch of books and take
them with me because it would've been more expensive to import them
after arrival.  I don't regret it because I still have them with me here
and these are books I use more or less regularly.  Nevertheless, I don't
need them for any emergency at all, specially at an age where all of
these books are easily available in electronic form.

I'm trying to say---it would be so easy for me to throw them all away.
Specially if my dear wife is getting annoyed with them, even if
unreasonably.  Perhaps my action would be to throw them all away and
have the house completely empty.  Then I might say at dinner---I'd
printed this chapter out today because I threw Mr. Smith's publication.
Lol.  Yes, I would enjoy getting on my wife's skin a bit. :)

Of course it's not literal throwing away.  You'd give them to a library,
say.  If that's too hard, you could rent a u-haul-equivalent storage in
your country to just put them out of the house.  It's not the same
thing---you could possibly enjoy the experience of being completely free
from these books.

If you use a hammer everyday, throwing it away is just plain silly.  (Or
even if you just use it occasionally.)  But, possibly, your wife could
be pointing out to you that perhaps you have a unreasonable stock of
books, which couldn't possibly be really useful; or, she could be the
thermometer to say that something's not quite right.  In particular when
you say that you can't do it.

I'm suspicious because I love to get rid of stuff. :) 

Also, my books are all stored in big plastic boxes and tucked away in
storage at my book.  In the house, only those that I'm currently
reading.

I try to go to the beach every day.  Today, for instance, I biked to the
beach, swam and then drank coconut water and do my reading.  If I'm not

>
Oh, wonderful! Where do you live?

Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

reading a book, then I go to Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) and I
print out what I find interesting there.  It's so much slow and
pleasurable to read off screen.  At the beach, I cannot just skip too
many texts because I have just a few with me.  And I shouldn't read too
fast because then I have nothing else to read.  So I take a long time on
every word and so the reading is a lot more fun.

>
Wonderful! Sounds like an excellent idea! I do save online articles and stuff as
pdf:s and do the same thing sometimes, going to a café or when flying. I find
the effect very similar to yours.

I used to go to cafés too... But they only have bad stuff to eat such as
coffee and coffee-like drinks and anything with gluten. :) Coconut
water, on the other hand, happens to be better than mineral water.  And
the Sun is a true doctor on this planet.

I'm even reading non-technical stuff.  Since December, I read
``Hackers'' by Steven Levy (1984) and then I also read the book ``No
Filter'' by Paulina Porizkova (2022), the model. :) She's an excellent
writer.  I enjoy the music from The Cars.  Paulina was Ric Ocasek's
wife.  He died in the pandemic, though not from COVID-19.  She seemed
interesting and I found her book interview-ads while listening to The
Cars songs on YouTube.  I enjoyed the book, but, yeah, I was just
snooping into other people's lives, which perhaps I shouldn't.

>
I'm currently reading Mirrorshades by Bruce Sterling (and other authors). Some
good, classic cyberpunk.

Sounds interesting.  The topic is fascinating.  But it might be a little
overrated as well.  Currently, I don't think our technology is really
advanced to warrant all the exploration of cyberpunk writing.  What I
think we have a lot of hype, which makes sense, given that the industry
has taken over the monarchies over the years.  You see, rewind history
until the collapse of the roman empire; then feuds sprang; then
monarchies were established, with help from the churches; eventually the
industrial revolution begins and then the bourgeoisie rises.  Now it's
their prime time---no wonder the hype is all in their favor.

I'm also reading various texts by Schopenhauer trying to figure out if
he in fact did independently discover buddhism, as his proponents are
very fond of saying. I'm skeptical. But let's see!

I wouldn't be surprised.  I think a lot of ideas from buddhism can be
inferred by a sensitive person.  Of course, those who sit down to write
and publish and have the skills to do it well are much less in number.
So perhaps Schopenhauer is one of them.  Let me know what you find. :)