I’m back and happy to be so. I never left. Work and life intervened. Is this conversation part of work and life? Absolutely, and in the deepest way. In a past blogging adventure, I was so frustrated with myself when I did not post several times a week. I realize now in reading the works of others I enjoy that the tortoise approach of years is more realistic – – at least for me.
On the right side-bar beneath our recent posts there is a list of books that I’ve read this year. I have a goal of twenty books annually. My education was largely technical and I’m trying to remediate. Do I mourn the hundreds of hours invested in STEM? Not really. Rather, I’m hopeful that an autodidact has such astounding resources available today. There truly is only voluntary ignorance. One of my conceptions of heaven is this: a thousand lifetimes to learn.
I’ve given Russell a hard time about his reading list (the Bible) for several reasons. It was a nice stroke of irony and true in the fact that my favorite atheist knows scripture better than most theists. But – – it doesn’t reveal the depth of his interests and intellect. Is a book list right for Russell? Yes as far as it would go. But, we learn in different ways and he is primarily an auditory/visual type. I learn best with a paper book and pen in hand to annotate.
The book list fails Russell in that it only represents a small fraction of what he consumes. My list represents close to the whole. So – – I propose: lets list the links of the the most important/memorable YouTube videos that have helped Russell to form his thoughts. I’ll continue with the series of books that form mine. We live in an amazing age where knowledge is available to all who seek it. And we live in an age where YouTube and Wikipedia are valuable, accessible, primary sources of information. I gladly await pushback from any of my academic friends – – I’m ready to courteously defend that belief!
So: lets read (or listen, or watch), think (while running for me), and write.
Pascal
–1:16
russell & pascal 