TITLE: Not Reading in the Wild
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 30, 2008 12:26 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
My
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-06.html#e2008-06-27T15_15_21.htm">
   recent entry</A>
on student evaluations brought to mind a few other
items on not reading that I've encountered recently.

<UL>
<LI> Michael Mitzenmacher writes about the
     <A HREF="http://mybiasedcoin.blogspot.com/2008/06/scientific-citations.html">
        accessibility of scientific references</A>,
     whether on-line or in obscure journals.  How much
     effort should an author have to make to track down
     related work to cite?  Presumably, Mitzenmacher
     holds authors responsible for reading works about
     which they know, but it seems a short step from
     asking whether authors must make extra effort to
     find related work to asking, as Bayard did, whether
     authors must make extra effort even to <EM>read</EM>
     related work.  (And, if you have ever seen academic
     papers in computer science, you know that many of
     them do require extra effort to read!)  </LI>

<LI> Steve Yegge never learned to read sheet music and
     has survived by virtue of a prodigious memory.  But
     <A HREF="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/06/done-and-gets-things-smart.html">
        he tells us</A>
     that this is a bad thing:

     <BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
     Having a good memory is a serious impediment to
     understanding.  It lets you cheat your way through
     life.
     </EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

     So, Montaigne and I need not worry.  Had we better
     better memories, we might be skating through life as
     easily as Yegge.  </LI>

<LI> Comedian
     <A HREF="http://www.comedycentral.com/comedians/browse/d/pat_dixon.jhtml">
        Pat Dixon</A>
     has a schtick in which he gives unbiased movie reviews.
     How does he maintain his objectivity in a sea of personal
     opinion?  He doesn't watch the movies!  Wouldn't watching
     affect his reviews?  Brilliant, and often quite funny.  </LI>
</UL>

I hope it's clear that at least this last example
is not serious at all.
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