Thursday, October 14, 2010

Prove Me Wrong

I'm changing the name of this blog. Hopefully that won't be a problem for my millions of fans. The title is just totally inappropriate for me now. I'm perfectly comfortable with the label of atheist. And it's not as if my beliefs about God are a frequent subject. My interests and my approach have changed.

What hasn't changed is that I'm still using the internet to learn via argument. It's a poor man's education. Not as good as getting a PhD of course, but you can make a lot of intelligence progress here, especially if you can learn to filter the reams of information. It reminds me of Matt Damon ridiculing the preppy rich guy that thought he was so smart. For a few bucks in late fees at the library he could have learned more than he did spending thousands on an ivy league tuition.

I've learned most from those that have shown me errors in my arguments. Some that have done this are ass holes. Some are arrogant pricks. Some just want to get under my skin. And some are basically gracious, smart people. In any case these are the people that have benefited me most. My plan is to continue making mistakes and learning from them.

3 comments:

  1. Ok, here's where you're wrong so far. Good Will Hunting sucked, and you can't learn everything that he did in the library. Plus, all the math was wrong. I know this movie sucked because I discussed this movie with a PhD in mathematics. That's the second point where you are wrong. The highest level of intellectual achievement is not a PhD. It is two masters degrees. Final error - I have read your blog religiously, and I have never seen any commentator be anything but generous and patient with you pointing out your numerous errors. You probably just got confused.

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  2. But there was a Chomsky reference in the movie.

    Note that I didn't say the movie did or didn't suck. And you can certainly learn about the economies of the southern colonies in a library. Doesn't Friedman cover that?

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