Look into your wallet or purse

[coberst]

Look into your wallet or purse

If you find no library card you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.

Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.

After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.

[Specforces]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

A life-long love of learning is rarely held in a higher regard by the lackadaisical lunatics of society today.

[ebs2002]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

That may have been true a few years ago, but "Welcome to Teh Intarnet".

Today, one can learn a vast amount of knowledge without ever having set foot in a library if they know how to utilize the internet. Subscriptions to scholarly databases, Amazon Books, etc. has helped redefine the self-learner.

The information that is difficult to find online could easily be learned by travelling to the library and merely spending afternoons there, without ever actually owning a library card.

That, or you could be like my alma matter (Dickinson College, for those who are wondering): your student ID is used for checking out books.

Me, I've never actually owned a library card. I still consider myself a self-learner (even if I settle for Wikipedia entries or a Cecil Adams column).

[Squeek]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

What if your library is the Internet?

I have access to any book I want right here and now. I don't have to waste two gallons of gas just getting the the library and back only to make the return trip a few weeks later.

Also, what if you don't have a wallet or a purse? I never believed they were necessary, so I don't use one. I don't bring money with me anywhere I go unless I intend to purchase anything, and I just keep it all in a pocket if this is the case.

[Grandiagod]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

Look into your wallet or purse

If you find no library card you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.

Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.

After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.

I have a library card. Bud I never go to the library. Why? Because the library is simply outdated. With sites such as wikipedia and others learning is a lot easier than going into a old building and rifling through decade old books.

[studmuffin51306]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I don't carry a wallet. I am too young to worry about keeping money with me. I have a library card, but it hides somewhere within the depths of the area under/behind my bed (you'd have to see it). I haven't visited the library in at least six months. I only read Wikipedia once in awhile, and it's usually about DDR related topics. I am not a self-learner as you have called it, but I like to think I am still intellegent, because I learn through other people. I listen to my schoolteachers, my parents, my superiors, the news, and other things of that sort.

Even in the library you're still learning from someone else, it's just in written form.

[Afrobean]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

Yeah, the library is useless for research these days. Internet is by far superior.

I still use it whenever I feel like reading for fun though. Actually, I'm gonna go by a library on the way to class today and see if I can't get a copy of that Woe Is I book.

EDIT: I dilly-dally'd too long and I ran out of time. I'll go to the library tomorrow.

[Laharl]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I actually agree that the internet is a superior way to research. Why pour through encyclopedias that are usually decades old (because really, most libraries don't have the budget to update their books very often) when you can find the same information from a reputable website?

Still, I think it's important to have a library card. Not for research purposes, but because it's a free access to great works of literature. I think reading is important, and frankly, I need to read books more often rather than sitting on the internet in my free time.

[coberst]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I actually agree that the internet is a superior way to research. Why pour through encyclopedias that are usually decades old (because really, most libraries don't have the budget to update their books very often) when you can find the same information from a reputable website?

Still, I think it's important to have a library card. Not for research purposes, but because it's a free access to great works of literature. I think reading is important, and frankly, I need to read books more often rather than sitting on the internet in my free time.

I think that the Internet is a very useful tool for the self-learner but it is also like the poolhall. It fits well our society, which has become lulled into intellectual slumber by sound bites and bumper sticker information. It is also a drug that allows us to think that we are gaining something valuable while we waste away our time in the Internet poolhall.

[stretchypanda]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I had a library card until I moved to a town where the library used to be someone's trailer.

[Tasselfoot]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I had an interesting discussion with an elderly lady at Break the Fast (at the end of Yom Kippur)...

she was stating that today's youth are too narrow-sighted and focused on specifically what they want. The internet helps to further that end, because if we're writing a paper on one specific topic, we can gain infinate amounts of information on just that topic, without ever stumbling onto something extraneous.

BUT... her point was that we NEED to stumble upon information that may seem to be worthless or not relavent, because it may in fact be relavent later in the paper, or in a future paper, or just in general knowledge.

Basically, the internet furthers a direct approach to learning specifically what we want to learn as opposed to a more random approach of picking up bits and pieces on many subjects by searching through sources that may or may not have information we want.

I did see her point, and I understand its merits... but honestly, my feeling is still that the information gained from browsing a library doesn't outweigh the extra time spent to gather it. The world revolves around opportunity cost, and in this case... I'd rather stick to the straight and narrow, because in this technological society, we can accomplish so much so quickly... every minute is precious.

[Laharl]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

Has she ever used wikipedia? I can't tell how useful having a link to some random word's entry is. The cross referencing possible in that site reminds me of that one library thingy in Isaac Aasimov's universe. (The only time I've directly read about it was in an Orson Scott Card short story dedicated to Mr. Aasimov, so I'm sort of shaky on the subject.)

[coberst]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

I had an interesting discussion with an elderly lady at Break the Fast (at the end of Yom Kippur)...

she was stating that today's youth are too narrow-sighted and focused on specifically what they want. The internet helps to further that end, because if we're writing a paper on one specific topic, we can gain infinate amounts of information on just that topic, without ever stumbling onto something extraneous.

BUT... her point was that we NEED to stumble upon information that may seem to be worthless or not relavent, because it may in fact be relavent later in the paper, or in a future paper, or just in general knowledge.

Basically, the internet furthers a direct approach to learning specifically what we want to learn as opposed to a more random approach of picking up bits and pieces on many subjects by searching through sources that may or may not have information we want.

I did see her point, and I understand its merits... but honestly, my feeling is still that the information gained from browsing a library doesn't outweigh the extra time spent to gather it. The world revolves around opportunity cost, and in this case... I'd rather stick to the straight and narrow, because in this technological society, we can accomplish so much so quickly... every minute is precious.

Self-actualizing self-learning is more about reaching understanding than reaching knowing. Knowing is fragmentary and understanding is more about synthesis. The Internet might be better and faster in acquiring knowledge but I think that the library and books are more about understanding.


Awareness + Attention = Consciousness

Comprehension is a hierarchy, resembling a pyramid, with awareness at the base followed by consciousness, succeeded by knowing, with understanding at the pinnacle.

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding. Everyone can answer “yes” when asked if they know music. We receive answers that go on forever when we ask a teenager if they know music. We awaken instant and sentimental memories when we ask an older person to tell what they know about music.

Silence and puzzlement is our response when we ask a person “do you understand music?” Occasionally the question “do you understand music?” receives an expression of delight and a verbal outpouring. The person who understands music--they are few and far between--has studied music in a way very few of us have. I suspect such a person is not only a lover but also a student of music. I do not understand music but I do understand the meaning of “understanding music”.

I create this musical metaphor for the purpose of illuminating a state of affairs of which we are seldom conscious.

Our formal educational system teaches us the knowledge required for making a living. Our formal education does not teach us the understanding required to live well. The development of understanding is something each of us must create on our own. If we do not recognize this fact we will not pursue this understanding and if we do not pursue this understanding we will remain intellectually naive.

We start our formal education experience as intellectually naïve children and end it twelve to eighteen years later as well informed intellectually naïve grown ups.

After formal education ends our understanding begins. The task of understanding is a private enterprise by me and for me. Understanding begins with this recognition and continues as one creates a process for the solitary activity of self-learning. I think a person could look at self-learning as a hobby, it could be one of your hobbies like tennis or golf, just a few hours each week and I suspect after a while it will become a very important part of your life style. Developing a sophisticated intellect is a solitary study lasting a lifetime.

Awareness--faces in a crowd.

Consciousness—smile, a handshake, and curiosity.

Knowledge—long talks sharing desires and ambitions.

Understanding—a best friend bringing constant April.


Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

[ebs2002]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

The Internet might be better and faster in acquiring knowledge but I think that the library and books are more about understanding.

I have to disagree. The internet can help one reach a higher understanding than a library, if one tries. A library's scope of knowledge is limited to what has been published and respected by scholars (unless we're looking at a public library, which has even less overall knowledge).

The internet not only gives you knowledge, it gives you context of the knowledge by real people. Just as one can't truly understand Jazz music or the sociological nuances of Harlem without actually going to a Jazz performance or spending a week living in the slums. While I'm not comparing the internet to actually going to Harlem, I'd argue that it's can come a lot closer than reading a few books and journal articles on the subject.

[talisman]

Re: Look into your wallet or purse

motivation to self-learn is probably more relevant than where people go to acquire information.

for that matter, your point about the library is absurd. you should have framed the debate as one between books and articles versus websites. a library is just a building where you can find books, many of which you can also find on the internet.