Re: ::scr Other jobs

[jonah <jonah@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 26/4/02 10:41 am, Magnus Huckvale at magnus@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> and why not?  I think the idea that people follow a particular
> profession is more due to necessity and tradition than people simply
> following their calling.  Limiting ideas about people being stronger
> in 'left brain' or 'right brain' activities don't help.  Secondary
> schools seem to drum into us the idea that we're either good at
> Sciences or the Arts.

Yes, sadly, and it's not just schools: the concept is reinforced all over
the place. This was the point that I thought a lot of people missed in the
long-winded "eloi and morlocks" thread. People were making the point that
some people are taller or stronger than others and holding that up as
evidence that nature played a major part in determining if someone was
better suited to arts and sciences.

I felt that completely missed the point. Of course some people are taller
or stronger or cleverer than others. However, the distinction between arts
and sciences is *not* the same as the distinction between tall and short,
or weak and strong, or fast and slow. Sure, some people are better/quicker
at learning than others, and that's down to nature, but I still see no
evidence that nature has any effect on *what sort of thing* they can
learn.

Or, to take the Michael Jordan(?) example, sure, he couldn't make the
switch from basketball to baseball, but how does that prove that he
wouldn't have been any good at baseball if he'd been playing it all his
life in the same way he had basketball? AFAIC he'd just dedicated more
time to practicing basketball, so therefore he was better at that. But
then, IANASF, so what do I know?

Sorry if that's repeating what anyone said before, I skipped quite a few
of the later posts in that thread.

* matt stops for a second

Oh god, what have I done?

Oh, and Magnus, ignore me if you're already a published author, but I
really *wouldn't* go for either fantasy or sci-fi as your first novel. 

-- 
matt
"There are no honourable bargains involving exchange of qualitative
merchandise like souls for quantitative merchandise like time and
money."
 - William S. Burroughs