periphery

[keryx]

There's an article in Go Animal today about peripheral vision. I think it's written all wrong. That is, he has a point, but he goes about his point poorly. There's validity, for instance, in the idea that school is frequently anti-peripheral-thinking (that is, thinking which is global and wide-focused).

Unless I'm just a complete freak, what I think the invention of the cubicle did was make your focus more multi-dimensional. You can't just scan to the sides - you have to go up as well as around (or at least I do). And all the technology he gripes about is in fact supportive of peripheral thinking, metaphorically.

Yeah, well, people who are really excited about food and movement that are good for you are frequently also convinced that progress and industry are evil. It's annoying.

Today I really like the word periphery.

Comments

[baronmind.livejournal.com]

What bothers me is that he doesn't admit he's just making it up; he presents it as if it's a fact. I make up random assumptions about how things work all the time, but I always present it as "It seems to me that...", as opposed to "In fact, it is safe to assume." It's not really safe to assume that something some random guy made up based on no information is true. That's exactly the sort of argument that's getting creationism added to science classes in Kansas. "Well, it's safe to assume that these animals didn't all just evolve by themselves!" Could you support that assumption, please?

How has he responded to your book recommendations? Is he appreciative of the correction, or hostile? If it's the former, you may be right; there may be hope for him to improve.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

He was, if I recall, fairly open to the idea of reading something new that might expand his perspective. I have a suspicion that he read "Killing Monsters" (book about how video games and violence actually help us process violence) after I recommended it, because he stopped throwing out random "conventional wisdom"-type comments about how teevee is so bad and scary. But he didn't actually challenge things he'd said in the past, just kinda stopped talking about it.