Gene wrote:
> There are more students than teachers. There are more listeners than
> speakers. There are more readers than authors. Teaching, speaking, writing
> are vocations that demand a high level of skill. Most people recognize that
> and refrain from casual writing for fear of looking bad or from
This is something that I have often thought was symptom of a problem.
Perhaps in this day and age of information overload it's necessary, but I
wonder if it's a good thing. It seems self-defeating to feel that only
professionals can do something. Unfortunately, Gene's comment may keep a
few more people from posting to this list. I look at these kinds of lists
as a group of friends talking about common interests, not as a classroom.
As Gene and I agreed, people more likely to listen (read) than speak
(write). I see this also in music where people love to listen to
professionals but end up unwilling to play an instrument, sing or even hum
in front of others. I see it in sports where people prefer to watch
instead of play. I've seen it more recently in daily chores and gardening
where people are more likely to hire them out rather than learn to do it
themselves. Now there also seems to be a trend toward hiring child care
and elderly parent care. People seem to be cooking less, going out to eat
or using more prepared foods. Most people (I'm talking specifically about
US, perhaps urban, society, but it applies to some degree to many other
places.) have long since stopped making clothes and many other things that
were fairly common not that long ago.
Probably more words than necessary (sorry, Gene <grin>) to make the point
that we are living indirectly, giving too much up to professionals and not
much better off for it.
> Because the Internet and mailing lists allow easy publication there is a
> lot of material being e-published that is a waste of reading time. Many
> people have personal Web sites that are ego expressive but of no help to
> readers.
A recent post of mine mentioned "presentation" of ideas to make them more
palatable to the general public. Given your perspective, Gene, what kinds
of things do you think are helpful to readers?
Eric Storm
