Not better than porn. Just different.
In the Onion’s Our Dumb Century, they have an article dated February 20, 1947 proclaiming the advent of “tele-vision” and the dawn of a new golden age. “Tele-Vision Promises Mass Enrichment of Mankind,” it says, “New device to provide high-minded alternative to mindless drivel found on radio." Like so many Onion articles, it's written with a wonderful economy of language. All they need to do is suggest that television promotes intelligence, and the whole idea becomes hilarious.
I’m sure people thought this about the internet too, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone could understand, in the 70s, quite how dramatically the whole idea of information would change. The internet has eliminated almost any road blocks to curiosity. Anything can be known. What was the weather in Glenview, Illinois the day I was born? (34 and cloudy). How long is an elephant penis? (Up to 6.5 feet). What’s the most popular car in America? (Toyota Camry). Where does the word “history” come from, is it his-story or unrelated? (unrelated - from the greek histōr, meaning "a learned man" or "one who knows") What is the etymology of “Tuesday,” and how does it translate to the Spanish martes? (Martes is named for Mars, God of war - Tuesday comes from the Norse equivalent of Mars, Tîwaz, or Týr). What’s the orbital velocity around the equator? (1037 mph).
It’s not just that we can get the answers to these questions, it’s that it’s not even hard. It takes seconds. That is fucking amazing.
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For a while, I was the Listings Coordinator of the Boston Phoenix. This means that I would comb email, letters, and websites for quite literally every single event happening in Boston, and plug the essential details into Filemaker. Data entry at it’s worst. I wasn’t building a database, I was just keeping up. Cyclical. Pop on Mondays, Classical on Tuesdays, Events and Update Cards on Wednesdays, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Forever.
I’ve had worse jobs (UCLA Fund telemarketing, for one), but no job could even attempt to be as boring as this one. It really did break barriers. It’s like the Roger Bannister of boredom. There was only one benefit to this, which is that the job was so inane, required so little of my mind, that I could listen to academic/intellectual lectures while working and not miss a beat.
Author readings, politician interviews, science and intellectual lectures, debates on religion (these were my favorite)… there is an incredible amount of knowledge out there, and it’s free and instant and available to anyone who wants it. It got to the point where I could have themed days or weeks. I spent an entire week on the Supreme Court (Justice Breyer is the man) and I devoted a really fun day to Bill Hicks. I would just sit there doing data-entry and listening to things that would make me smarter.
There was a limit to this, but I really had to reach to find it. It was only when I tried to listen to an Oxford professor give a lecture on Special Relativity and its implications that I couldn’t both do my job and focus on what was being said. This leaves a good amount of space, as anything less complicated than the limits of the space-time continuum was fair game.
I had that job for six months, and I acquired a pretty good list of websites and videos that are worth watching, for other people who may have a hideously tedious day job. These are things that I have loved, that have gotten me six months in a job I would’ve otherwise quit after three weeks. Pass them along to anyone who might need them.
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Some individual videos I love:
Christopher Hitchens, on free speech (20m)
Possibly the best argument for anything I’ve ever heard in my life. This man has a gift for speaking like I’ve never heard.
Richard Dawkins, on the “queerness of the universe.” (22m)
Really fascinating shit about how our brains evolved in Middle World, as he calls it, the appalling strangeness of the universe, the near certainty of extraterrestrial life, the strange nature of existence, and more
Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s sermon on exploration and progress. (9m)
Part 2 here. (9m)
This guy is one of my favorite people in the world to listen to. He’s a brilliant astrophysicist who can explain amazing concepts in an accessible, compelling, frequently hilarious way.
Kevin Spacey, doing impressions on Inside The Actors Studio (6m)
This is a wonderful six minutes of video. This guy is so fucking talented. Not only does he do good voices and faces, but he makes up things that these people would actually say. His Al Pacino alone makes it worth 6 minutes of your time. The above link has better sound, but unsynced video. Here is a link to worse sound quality but the video is synced, and if you have headphones, I’d recommend it.
Joshua Klein, on the strange intelligence of crows. (10m)
I had, and still pretty much have, zero interest in avian biology. But this is fascinating, and I think pretty much anybody would/will impressed by how crows are apparently incredibly intelligent animals.
Chief Justice Stephen Breyer, talking about the Constitution (42m).
… about Democracy and the Law (76m).
… and about other stuff (67m).
Again, I have a limited interest in the law, but Breyer is awesome. He’s exactly the type of guy you wish would be supreme court justice. He’s thoughtful, intelligent, wise and humble, and with this ability to really answer questions. He’ll rarely just give an answer, but he’ll take the question in, consider it, and explain its implications. It’s so Judgey.
Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton, debating religion (90m)
Hitchens has done some 50 of these debates, and most are available online somewhere. Those are often more informative than this one, but few are as fun. It’s like arguing with a child.
Dan Savage on “The Price of Admission” (6m)
Dan Savage is an advice columnist out of Seattle, and is right about everything, all the time. This is his most all-encompassing videos, but pretty much anything with him is worth listening to.
A rare interview with Daniel Day Lewis (50m in 5 parts)
For all my scouring, this is one of the only interviews with him that isn’t worthless. He actually opens up about his process, his past… for anyone interested in the consistently genius work coming out of this guy, good stuff.
This is by no means exhaustive, and if any of you like a particular video or speaker and want more, I’d be happy to point you in the right direction.
Some great video sites:
At Google Talks - Google is the coolest company in the world. They house authors, politicians, comedians, and musicians, just because they can, just for no other reason than to get people like me to like them. And it works. There are, at present, 800 of these things, and they’re being uploaded all the time (4 new ones this week, for instance). Obama’s done one, Noam Chompsky, Randall Monroe, etc. Some of my favorites (and the names will repeat):
Christopher Hitchens, telling God where he can put it.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the guy who killed Pluto, explains why. Amazing.
Salman Rushdie, laughing at his own jokes but being interesting and compelling anyway.
John Hodgman and Jonathan Coltaine, making you laugh for 60 minutes.
Fora.tv - This is a wonderful website, devoted exclusively to this ideal. Great, free talks, about all kinds of shit. Anything. Ever wanted to learn the science of a good beer? Or about the killer asteroid that may hit us in 2036? Some funny ranting about the problem with cable news?
Inside the Actors Studio - Sadly, we have to go through youtube or video.google.com because they don’t rebroadcast it themselves, and it is consequentially in parts. However, this is some of the cooler and more revealing profiles of actors that I’ve seen. James Lipton and Charlie Rose are exact opposites of each other, and though Charlie Rose posts every interview he’s ever done online, I’m not linking to it because I can’t stand that fucking guy. Charlie Rose starts interesting and gets annoying over time. James Lipton is the exact opposite. Some that I enjoyed:
Ricky Gervais
Conan O’Brien
Kevin Spacey
Johnny Depp
Dave Chappelle
Hugh Laurie
TED Talks - These are incredible, 20 minute talks from leaders in the fields of anything. J.K. Rowling talks creativity and failure. Hans Rosling on an incredible new way to present statistics cool. Bill Gross on the present and future of solar energy. J.J. Abrams on mystery. Visionaries speaking to visionaries, really putting on their A-Game. If there’s anything I want to begin learning about, I’ll usually check to see if there’s a TED talk about it.
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There’s so much more, but I’ll cap it here. And if your job is/was as boring as mine, I hope these help you, as they’ve helped me, feel as though you’re not completely wasting your time.
From the magical learning tubes,
--jason