I completely agree with Ray Bradbury about libraries:
“Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
Here’s what he says about a similar source of free knowledge:
“The Internet is a big distraction,” Mr. Bradbury barked . . . “Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,” he said, voice rising. “They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? ’To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.’
“It’s distracting,” he continued. “It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere.”
When I was in college (at Caltech), I didn’t find classes or books very helpful. I liked reading old New Yorker articles. Which then I got from the library but now I’d get online.
Well, college is not a one-size-fits-all. There is too much reliance on college these days. There are a lot of students going to college who have no business doing so, probably in part because college is a business. But, in defense of colleges/universities–I’ve thrived in and on them. They fit me like a glove and allowed me to flourish and be creative. And they continue to do so now that I’m a professor.
Aaron, I agree. About the students “who have no business doing so”, I’d put it differently. I’d say there are many students who are forced to go to college.
I didn’t know you went to Caltech (new reader here). Did you see this article in Engineering & Science? https://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXXII1/mazmanian.pdf. It’s all about beneficial bacteria, mostly with respect to irritable bowl syndrome (where they’ve been doing the science with mice), but making suggestive connections to asthma, eczema, and even diabetes.
I’m making my second batch of yogurt today.
It’s fun!
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It’s hard to believe that you prefer online to print for reading articles and books, unless your monitor has very high resolution.
“To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.” Har! Ray Bradbury is cranky old man of the day. Fantastic!
Bathetic. The internet is ‘A Medicine for Melancholy’.
I love Ray Bradbury. Every April he gives a speech at UCLA during the Festival of Books and I love to hear him speak. He’s so inspiring.
However, I think he’s wrong about the Internet and he’s certainly entitled to his own opinion.
I think the Internet is now for good or ill (and more often good than ill) the new library of the world.
It takes an entirely different set of skills to manage it though. And the Internet, along with email, can certainly be a distraction.