I have to say that my change of perspective over the last couple of months has been very rewarding. I've ingested two very large science fiction books by Banks, the two substantial biographies one of Cheney and one of John Adams. I've munched on Socrates, consumed hours and hours of podcasts of Richard Muller's Physics overview, learned a bunch more on global warming, hiked down a path in East Africa, and discovered a host of thinkers who have challenged and delighted me, from Niall Ferguson to Craig Venter to Peter Schwartz.
My new kick is absorbing all the lectures from TED and The Long Now Foundation. I have to say that the more I find out about cats from the Hoover Institute, the more I find to like. But I cannot say that my entire project has taken shape. It may end up being very light on the blogging side since I'm mostly absorbing - this may end up being an extended Twitter with some focus on the use of blogging tech as not so much a deliberative and meliorative tool as a repository of a growing body of knowledge - basically a running dialog on the new ideas.
As I mentioned in one of the comments, I'm primarily interested in refining my own intake of high quality information one step further. It reminds me of the time when I was getting in shape for hill climbs on my bicycle. I stopped paying attention to the fun of the lightweight on the bike path and just biked solo on the hills I loved so much. And so I'm turning away from the short-term back and forth and concentrating on bigger ideas with a longer shelf life. What I'm actually curious to know is what the people who have nothing but time and freedom tend to do with their time and freedom.
I do so with a kind of sad recognition that I'm outside of the realm of friends. Which is to say I think I have finally accepted that I have a set of fundamentally alienating combination of interests that I will never be able to share. I am no longer concerned about that social isolation and I will try to reconcile that with the nagging pain I am accustomed to feeling about it.
I'm also rather amazed that I've let a good number of disciplines escape me while plying my avocation as a gadfly. This became evident as I began to look more closely at economic theory. I really should know more about it as I claim that if I won the lottery tomorrow I would like to study economics. That's a practical matter. Also I've allowed a combination of social laments keep me from doing what I'd like realizing finally that I actually don't want the rewards of being considered extraordinarily socially responsible. I am no longer compelled to pursue the admittedly compelling subjects surrounding race, culture and perhaps even politics. Instead I think I know too little about various histories, economics & biotech. Plus I've been missing out on a lot of excellent seminars.
I am still very much interested in philanthropy, but I realize there are a lot of 150 page scholarly treatises that I might have consumed instead of that much blogorrhea. And I really know better. Anyway, I'm giving up various conceits and I'm leaving the blogfather role quite satisfied that the black political right is permanently well-represented online. I'll keep Cobb because I still do need the traffic for my ego's sake.
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