The Authority To Teach (Department Of Dilettante Research)

[koganbot]

Returning to the subject of the Department Of Dilettante Research - summarizing it in one sentence:

Everybody takes each other's course.(1) I don't mean this literally, since I'm hoping for scores of participants, while "everybody takes each other's course" is only feasible for a dept. of five or six max. But "everybody takes each other's course"

Comments

[koganbot]

"everyone takes each other's course or class"

"Course" as in "I follow along his road for a bit"; "class" as in "I imagine myself into her sensibility and social class."

Endorsement of "Of"

[koganbot]

The name "Department Of Dilettante Research" is a deliberate problem: "dilettante" will be a problem for the academy, which is all about specializing and knowing your subject matter; "department will be a problem for anti-academics who don't like the structure and conventions of academia and who hate the idea of requirements. The moniker is equally a problem for me, since I hate barstool bullshitters and get bored to suicide by most dabblers, but also I found academia the wrong home for my prose and ideas, too many arbitrary conventions and expectations that hurt my writing and too much dead conversation, too much fear of language, fear of flirting, of fighting, of gossip and jokes. But then back to my fear of human beings, and the fucked-up things that happened on ilX because of too much flirting and fighting and the continual refusal to think, so... well, "research" is a problem for me too, since it sometimes involves what people in sales call "cold calling" and what people in psychology call "playing with others." "The." Not so

Re: Endorsement of "Of"

[xyzzzz__]

Love to be a better dabbler and bullshitter, actually.

Re: Endorsement of "Of"

[koganbot]

It's an important art, when done well.

[koganbot]

More from that article on high-impact nonprofits:

"The secret to their success lies in how high-impact nonprofits mobilize every sector of society - government, business, nonprofits, and the public - to be a force for good. In other words, greatness has more to do with how nonprofits work outside the boundaries of their organizations than with how they manage their own internal operations."

"They share financial resources and help other nonprofits succeed at fundraising. They give away their model and proprietary information in an open-source approach. They cultivate leadership and talent for their larger network, rather than hoarding the best people. And they work in coalitions to influence legislation or conduct grassroots advocacy campaigns, without worrying too much about which organization gets the credit."

[Of course, this sentence jumped out at me: "Self-Help also followed this path, creating a secondary loan market and expanding its innovative lending models through mainstream financial players such as Wachovia and Fannie

PAOR

[koganbot]

This might need a thread of its own. Without partially applied onerous requirements (PAOR) the thing is not going to happen. "State ideas rather than alluding or referring to them or just summarizing them." "You don't get to leave the room until I'm convinced I understand you and that you understand me." Quick definition as to when you've stated an idea: when someone can understand your statement. Sometimes that person may not be me. Sometimes that person may not yet be alive. But I wouldn't bet on either.

Maybe you either have these requirements within you or you don't, as a feature of your character. If you have it you probably also have a basic intuition about when to put these requirements into effect and when not to. You wouldn't want them always in effect since sometimes you want students/readers/colleagues to figure things out for themselves, sometimes your whole point is the varied and slippery nature of the terms you're using, sometimes a good new idea is full of problems (I'd say that almost any good new idea will be full

[martinskidmore]

I am not the kind of thinker to run a course, or even to contribute much, but I am very good at exams, so let me know when you have formal qualifications to offer...

[koganbot]

Well, I've always wished you had more confidence in yourself...

[martinskidmore]

I think I have a realistic idea of my mind. It's absolutely exceptional in some ways, which is why (in order of importance) I am a second outside the world record at Minesweeper and have scored a world-record matching 210 on an IQ test and could get A+ on every exam at uni without having to try much and why I can produce quality software at ten times the speed of anyone else in my workplace. That's about a good memory and very efficient processing, especially anything at all mathematical. I'm a reasonable critic, but uninspired. I occasionally have a fresh idea that is not worthless, but always small-time stuff. I lack brilliance and creativity, or the kind of insight that better critics (whether in the arts or other ways) bring. I'm smart enough to just about follow conversations between (say) you and Mark, but nowhere near smart enough to contribute usefully very often, if at all.