A better list of suggested interests

Earlier in the month I posted the results of a "suggested interests" tool and explained why the interests it mentioned were already on my list. Today via slfisher I came across a new suggested interests tool that produced a better list of suggested interests, and also showed more of its work.
( Read more... )

A better list of suggested interests

Earlier in the month I posted the results of a "suggested interests" tool and explained why the interests it mentioned were already on my list. Today via slfisher I came across a new suggested interests tool that produced a better list of suggested interests, and also showed more of its work.
( Read more... )

Specialization is for people but we still have to know a lot of junk

Via various people (several answers stolen from janetmiles) - observations on a list of things that Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long thinks "a human being should be able to" do, because "specialization is for insects."

Personally, I think "every individual has to know how to do all the same things (or else they aren't really a member of the species and must be eradicated)" is for insects, and "having lots of options for how to live" is for human beings. Also I think "being able to work in groups so that different people can contribute their different talents and don't need to do things they're not good at or are physically incapable of doing" is for human beings. (It seems to work pretty well for some insects too.)

The only sense in which I agree with the spirit of the list, if not the letter, is that I think trying to learn and do a variety of things is good for most individual humans, and I think refusing to do or learn something because it's beneath you is not an attitude that helps most individual humans be better people.
( the list and commentary - long )

Specialization is for people but we still have to know a lot of junk

Via various people (several answers stolen from janetmiles) - observations on a list of things that Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long thinks "a human being should be able to" do, because "specialization is for insects."

Personally, I think "every individual has to know how to do all the same things (or else they aren't really a member of the species and must be eradicated)" is for insects, and "having lots of options for how to live" is for human beings. Also I think "being able to work in groups so that different people can contribute their different talents and don't need to do things they're not good at or are physically incapable of doing" is for human beings. (It seems to work pretty well for some insects too.)

The only sense in which I agree with the spirit of the list, if not the letter, is that I think trying to learn and do a variety of things is good for most individual humans, and I think refusing to do or learn something because it's beneath you is not an attitude that helps most individual humans be better people.
( the list and commentary - long )