Your Foot's Gone Prime?

What a wondrous age! Data and thought and information speeding along, sometimes at the speed of light and sometimes, via AT&T, at the speed of molasses. Thoughts, statistics, opinions, all instantly or, via AT&T semi instantly, available.



Yet the speed of information alone is insufficient to make it useable. Listening and understanding to the information make it so. And those two skills are not new, indeed are very old, but absolutely necessary.



Ofttimes what we think we hear or read is not, in reality, what was said or printed. I have a minor affliction with dyslexia which rarely impedes serious reading but will on occasion create some startling headlines or signs. After all, who knew that the California Auto Association sells weasel tires?



In a serious, especially if heated, conversation, it is crucial to listen to what the other speaker actually said, as opposed to what was expected or anticipated to be heard. I am guilty of blithely opining against what I thought someone said only to feel silly (or worse) when they say that they agree with me, adding those four little words: "That's What I Said!" Oops.



Part of the impetus for this post is the return of books from those students doing research projects. I find it amusing to see that five books on New Jersey are returned by a student, as if the more books one puts in the bibliography, the better the grade. Hopefully this isn't true. The sheer amount of information represents only the opportunity to use it; in and of itself, it isn't important. A report using three books and an encyclopedia on forests may well be better written and more inciteful than another report that cites eleven books, three articles and a personal interview with a maple. OK, I made that last one up.



Progress is made when our ability to decipher, interpret and use data increases. That equals understanding and comprehension. Mounds of information are simply numbers or words.


"Your foot's gone prime"? "You're my sweetie pie"