A Few Minor Musings About "The Death of Expertise"

Dashiell Hammett's con man Casper Gutman says, "Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice." Blogging and reading also require practice, and this summer has shown me how woefully out of practice I am at both activities. In an effort to regain some form, I'm going to post a few observations about Tom Nichols's The Death of Expertise.

First, Nichols gives a thorough overview explaining how we have gotten to this point where all opinions, no matter how ludicrous, are treated as equal; he illustrates how schools, talk radio, the Internet, and experts' hubris all share in the blame. Nichols's clear exposition of how each entity produced voters who are both angry and misinformed makes the book a must read. 

Second, Nichols buries the lede. The problem of  "the most disturbing aspect of the American march toward ignorance is 'not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge'" is first mentioned on page 216. To be fair, I'm not sure anyone knows how to solve the problems caused by that particular arrogance, and any attempt to do so would have required a far different book.

Third, Nichols has written an eminently readable book. (I will probably assign it to a couple of my Debate II students.) The book's readability, however, points to a larger problem that Nichols alludes to several times: can experts and the public, even with the intervention of "public intellectuals" communicate? Nichols quotes several public intellectuals in his book. One, James Poulos, is so comfortably esoteric that he is likely unable to communicate most ideas to an average person on the street. Nichols also quotes Dan Drezner, one of my favorite denizens of the Twitterverse. Drezner, like Nichols, is eminently readable. That said, Drezer's column today refers to a "Bulworth-like jeremiad." I may be selling my friends and neighbors short, but I'm not sure I know 10 people who can both recognize the allusion and define the word. Bubbles exist and experts get comfortable talking to other experts and we common folk get comfortable talking to other common folk. Communicating across bubbles is far more difficult.

Finally, Nichols does an excellent job of mentioning the need for humility. I think this scene encapsulates what Nichols is saying, (The most relevant part starts at 7:20)

Amazon??Hitler??

First, I haven't followed the Amazon versus book publishers storyline as much as I should have. Everything I have read indicates Amazon is seriously overstepping. Second, my German is pretty rusty, so I can't vouch for the translation in this YouTube clip. That said, it's still worth a look.

I know I'm violating Godwin's Law and assorted Plainsman Corollaries. Don't judge. Watch. I hope someone does a musical soon.

Quotation Of The Day: Dan Brown Is A Lousy Author Edition

From this Michael Deacon article:

“Hello agent John, it’s client Dan,” commented the pecunious scribbler. “I’m worried about new book Inferno. I think critics are going to say it’s badly written.”

The voice at the other end of the line gave a sigh, like a mighty oak toppling into a great river, or something else that didn’t sound like a sigh if you gave it a moment’s thought. “Who cares what the stupid critics say?” advised the literary agent. “They’re just snobs. You have millions of fans."

That’s true, mused the accomplished composer of thrillers that combined religion, high culture and conspiracy theories. His books were read by everyone from renowned politician President Obama to renowned musician Britney Spears. It was said that a copy of The Da Vinci Code had even found its way into the hands of renowned monarch the Queen. He was grateful for his good fortune, and gave thanks every night in his prayers to renowned deity God.

HT: This Justin Green post.

Quotation Of The Day: The End Of Everything Edition

From this Carlos Lozada column:

Nature and truth. Money and markets. Men and marriage. Faith and reason. They’ve all ended. Power ended in March, but that makes sense because leadership ended last year. History ended more than two decades ago, while the future ended just two years ago.

On the plus side, illness has ended, along with poverty, racism, war — even homework.

If you thought these things were still around, just pick up “The End of Sex,” by Donna Freitas, published last week, or Moises Naim’s “The End of Power,” which came out last month. Try David Wolman’s “The End of Money” or David Agus’s “The End of Illness.” Those came out in 2012, the same year that Hanna Rosin affirmed “The End of Men” and John Horgan imagined “The End of War.”

Plains Pops: Reading Trifecta Edition

First, from my blog reading, three interesting posts from Rod Dreher:

1. A conservative teacher discusses how poverty effects student.
2. A post based on a comment about the poverty article.
3. The humanities as a way of knowing.

Second, the first three books pulled from my to be read pile:

1. Hell is Empty (Finished)
2. Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
3. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking will be my first Nook book.  I started but stuff got in the way, so I'm going to restart.

Thrid, a bleg for books to add to the list:

1. An overlooked classic
2. A coach's book
3. A young adult novel that's not The Hunger Games, gotta keep up with the young'uns

Plains Pops: Links From The Weird To The Sublime Edition

The Weird:  Ordinary Batman:  Some animated Gifs depicting what Batman does when he's not fighting crime. (HT: IO9.com)

Only Slightly Less Weird: Superhero Movies (Sort of):  Bill Murray as one of the Guardians from Green Lantern and Selina Kyle in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Some Common Sense from Corporate America:  (Of course the only tools they care about are the ones that they sell, but the principle is still sound.)

A Little More Reflective Common Sense: This Manifesto from Susan Cain, author Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

1. There’s a word for “people who are in their heads too much”: thinkers.

2. Our culture rightly admires risk-takers, but we need our “heed-takers” more than ever.

3. Solitude is a catalyst for innovation.

4. Texting is popular because in an overly extroverted society, everyone craves asynchronyous, non-F2F communication.

5. We teach kids in group classrooms not because this is the best way to learn but because it’s cost-efficient, and what else would we do with the children while all the grown-ups are at work? If your child prefers to work autonomously and socialize one-on-one, there’s nothing wrong with her; she just happens not to fit the model.

6. The next generation of quiet kids can and should be raised to know their own strength. 

7. Sometimes it helps to be a pretend-extrovert. There’s always time to be quiet later.

8. But in the long run, staying true to your temperament is the key to finding work you love and work that matters.

9. Everyone shines, given the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamplit desk.

10. Rule of thumb for networking events: one genuine new relationship is worth a fistful of business cards.

11. It’s OK to cross the street to avoid making small talk.

12. “Quiet leadership” is not an oxymoron.

13. The universal longing for heaven is not about immortality so much as the wish for a world in which everyone is always kind.

14. If the task of the first half of life is to put yourself out there, the task of the second half is to make sense of where you’ve been.

15. Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.

16. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Gandhi

A Major Musing About Mystery:  (This is sublime in case anyone is wondering.) From Maria Popova at Brain Pickings.

What emerges is an elegant definition of science:

Real science is a revision in progress, always. It proceeds in fits and starts of ignorance.

(What is true of science is actually also true of all creativity: As Jonah Lehrer puts it “The only way to be creative over time — to not be undone by our expertise — is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don’t fully understand.” Einstein knew that, too, when he noted that without a preoccupation with “the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed… empty.” And Kathryn Schulz touched on it with her meditation on pessimistic meta-induction.)

In highlighting this commonality science holds with other domains of creative and intellectual labor, Firestein turns to the poet John Keats, who described the ideal state of the literary psyche as Negative Capability — “that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable teaching after fact & reason.” Firestine translates this to science:

Being a scientist requires having faith in uncertainty, finding pleasure in mystery, and learning to cultivate doubt. There is no surer way to screw up an experiment than to be certain of its outcome.

Book Soundtracks

I am old enough to remember a time when the marketing of a film's sound track sent a signal that the movie sucked had some major flaws.  Now, it's rare for a film not to market its soundtrack.

Salon reports that books now feature soundtracks.

Actually, it might be too easy. A much better sense of Emma's sensibility -- cool Britannia like Prefab Sprout, Cocteau Twins, Billy Bragg and Everything But the Girl alongside English major mainstays Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading -- appears on author and screenwriter David Nicholls' website. Nicholls has imagined the two mix tapes Emma gives Dexter (one from 1989, the other from 2000) and created Spotify and iTunes playlists where they can be streamed or purchased.

Book soundtracks like these have become increasingly popular among authors and readers, especially as the connection between writers and their audience has become more interactive, and as the fast popularity of music-streaming services like Spotify have made it easy to share songs online. But while a song on a movie soundtrack might be there because of a licensing deal or to boost an artist on a label also owned by the studio, author playlists, when done well, can deepen a character and enhance a reader's connection.

"A big part of creating characters for me has always involved working out their tastes -- in clothes, fashion, music," said Nicholls, in an email interview. "I know what the leading characters like, what they wear, what they listen to, what they eat, and making playlists is, I suppose, a form of note-taking, a way of working without really working."

I don't see myself as a luddite, but I fear a reading future that exists of Kindles with links that allow readers to hear a song every time the title or lyrics appear on the screen.  That eventuality seems the next logical step.  Our society doesn't need more sound; it needs more time for quiet contemplation.

Reaping the Whirlwind???

According to this post, an Elana Kagan confirmation to the Supreme Court means that that no Protestants will be serving on the nation's highest court.  Did the problem enunciated by the title of this book contribute to the situation?  Just asking.

Summer Reading List

I should be correcting papers and cleaning my nest that is liberally feathered with the books and papers and comics.  In another life that nest was a love seat.  I decided to do something much more important; go through the stack of books on various to be read piles and pick twelve to read this summer.  A few are re-reads because I think that it's important to re-visit a few titles.  Here's the list:

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2. April 1865:  The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik
3. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Where God Was Born: A Daring Adventure Through The Bible's Greatest Stories by Bruce Feiler
6. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
7. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
8. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
9. Reason, Faith, and Revolution:  Reflections on the God Debate by Terry Eagleton
10. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso
11. The Question of God:  C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr.
12. Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham

That's the official hope to finish list.  I'll have a Grisham book and a graphic novel or two in my bag for down time when I'm at the NFL national debate tournament, but I won't count those.

I'm always looking for good reads.  Leave some suggestions in the comments.