The Desire to Learn I was thinking the other day about all the reading I’m doing. The Harvard Classics series includes a lot more philosophical, historical, and poetic works than just fiction novels. In the current piece, Locke’s On Education, as well as others in the series, there have been suggestions as to what kind of books ought to be used for training up children.  I’m obviously interested in the subject, since I am reading precisely to expose myself more to these works and expand my understanding of life and the world. 

My Own History with Reading

I remember years ago, after I had gotten out of college, thinking- I feel like I haven’t read enough of classic literature. Now I probably would NOT have wanted the extra assignments when I was in school, being much more interested in other things than learning. But once I was out, I had the sense of being underexposed to all this great literature. So I decided to buy some books and start reading. I did this for a while, but then somewhere through the years, I didn’t keep up, until 2018 and a friend revived this instinct.

I had always been a good reader. I could read quickly and it came pretty naturally to me. My parents were both voracious readers. My Dad loved science fiction and westerns (Neither of which I had much taste for….) and my mom loved classic romance (not trashy) and fiction, so books were always around. Even as a young married couple, my wife and I would borrow the readers digest condensed novels, the ones where they would put four novels in one volume, and then devour them. All this to illustrate that reading was something I have always enjoyed. At this point in my life, as I’m reading more philosophy and classic literature, I’m doing so particularly with an aim to understand human nature.

Ways to Learn

But I was thinking the other day that education, learning, need not be restricted to reading. It would be possible, though I’m not sure of a good filter, to learn these lessons by watching TV just as well.

I’ll make a distinction. There is a pleasure in the act of reading, at least for some of us. Not everyone enjoys it. But if the point is to learn something, I tend to think TV isn’t a good way. Maybe it isn’t, to be honest, I don’t know how it stacks up against reading, but let’s say I wanted to learn logic. I could read a book on logic, learn the different names of the theorems and fallacies, read some examples, and then, if all goes to plan, I would be able to apply critical thinking to my own processes, and pick out when people are using fallacious reasoning in their arguments.

But would it be just as possible to learn those things by watching detective shows on tv? I may not learn the formal names of the arguments and fallacies, but I’d probably pick up the thinking along the way.

Of course it sounds much more erudite to say, ‘I’ve read X, Y, and Z classical texts’, rather than ‘I binged all 7 seasons of NCIS Wherever’, but it still seems to me quite possible to learn the same things. 

Finding the Pearls within a Limited Time

Of course a student wanting to read the best texts will have a better filter. By filter I mean, there are plenty of lists available about what constitutes the best texts so that you don’t have to read a million pieces-of-crap books, to get to the few that actually say something worthwhile. Whereas it’s a little harder with TV. Maybe at some point, there will be, but then another problem arises: “classic” TV shows, TV being a visual medium, will look dated and unappealing to whatever the current generation is, which means specific lessons would have to be recreated for each new generation in the latest visual technology.

Then there are the market forces at work. I have considered myself a free-market guy for a long time, and I still do believe very much in the market. But I will have to admit that after listening to thoughtful people from the left side of the spectrum, I see more problems with the market than I used to. One of those is probably going to keep great content from appearing on TV. And that market force is- TV, just like social media, is there not to educate you and elevate you, it’s there to keep you watching, and it will feed you whatever it feels like it has to in order to accomplish that goal. As Bret Weinstein says (DarkHorse podcast– tune in if you are interested) Markets are great at figuring out HOW to accomplish something, they’re terrible at figuring out WHAT to accomplish.

Of course we could try to implement some more centralized effort to plan out and systematically put out shows that would include content that educates and elevates, but now it’s starting to sound like Soviet Russian efforts and that just didn’t work all that well.

Reading- Efficient AND enjoyable

Maybe at the end of the day, books are still the most efficient way to learn. And if we want to just read for the sake of the enjoyment of reading, that’s awesome too. I have found my vocabulary increased, although I almost always look up the pronunciation, as well as the definition, of the words I don’t know, since it’s easy to screw it up and accent the wrong syllable. I’ve found through time that it’s better if I get the pronunciation right up front, so I don’t get a habit of saying the word wrongly in my head. I have been ridiculed for mispronouncing words, but I read someplace that when someone does that, they’ve probably read the word, without hearing it in conversation. So give them a break for being someone (just like you) who is reading and learning. Good advice.

AND…. I’ve found myself able to comprehend older passages better. For example, the other day I was reading a bit to someone, and they found it baffling- couldn’t understand what was being said. The passage was from around 1700, and the English used had a different cadence, a slightly different structure. The words were all known, but it still threw them when I read it out. So I explained what it was saying and they were like- Oh. I didn’t get that at all.

Having read volume after volume of works like this, I don’t struggle at all to understand what is being said.

Summary

I dunno, maybe I’m just trying to convince myself it’s cool when I’m watching TV. But I don’t HAVE to have a point, or some big life-shaping conclusion, I’m just writing down my thoughts.