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Some useful counter-perspective on The Atlantic’s recent article claiming that Kids These Days don’t know how to finish books.
At the very least, the author of that article deliberately left out material from the experts she interviewed that didn’t fit her narrative.
@inthehands @baldur The Atlantic loves, loves, loves its narratives and “there’s something wrong with the Youths” is a big one. I gritted my teeth and stuck it out my subscription for too long because of Ed Yong.
But we should pity the poor author. You’re out there to gather supporting quotes for a pre-ordained conclusion and some damn subject-matter expert just insists on complicating things.
@inthehands
Gell-Mann Amnesia. Limit your trust in the media.
@mpjgregoire @inthehands @baldur Isn’t Gell-Mann amnesia more about reporters being ignorant than about reporters having a predefined conclusion that they’re searching for evidence for?
In any case, this allows me to tell my two Gell-Mann stories. (1/3)
1. 1977. I was a freshman at CalTech. Big open-air something-or-other. Gell-Mann spoke, saying it was stupid to go to CalTech to get an undergraduate degree. Go to a cheaper school for undergrad. (Next year, I did.) (2/3)
2. I was a waiter in the CalTech faculty club. Gell-Mann ordered a slice of cream pie. I thought – under the influence of Marx Brothers comedies – that pieing a Nobel Prize winner in the face would make a good story. However, he had a reputation for humorlessness, so I didn’t. Feynman, maybe, would have been worth the risk. (3/3)
@marick
The point is not that reporters are ignorant (often they are), but that someone who actually knows the topic being reported would often shake her head at the article.
Thanks for the stories.
@inthehands @baldur Dawn used to dread getting interviewed by the local newspaper for the same reason.