The Future Is Well Rounded
By Andrew Price, 2005-08-27 22:28:25 in General. Leave a comment
Occasionally I go through a phase of feeling like there's so much that I want to know and learn that I frustrate myself. Today is one of those days.
On the one hand I want to learn everything there is to know about programming, computers and other geeky stuff but then there's all the other stuff that I'm missing out while my head is buried in the world of computers.
I've never really been big on reading books. In fact I'm "reading" two at the moment. I started reading The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (borrowed it from dave) while I was in Swansea and then a book that I asked the library to add to their collection became available so I started reading that - Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham. Before long my attention had turned to other things and now I'm half way through both of those books and can't seem to find the time to read either of them. Typical me.
So today, as has happened before, I've been craving some different kinds of knowledge. I want to read about ancient philosophers or the history of art or just some great piece of literature by a famous author long dead. It could be my brain's way of looking around for inspiration to add to all the computer knowledge that I'm building up. After all, you can't just know about computers - computers are a tool that you use to solve problems in all different aspects of life. For example. Paul Graham's reading list on his General FAQ looks very tempting. But the frustration comes from the length of the list. I'm not a slow reader, but I'm not quite Superman!
I'm sure I'll get around to it one day though. Maybe when I've finished university and just have a boring day job taking up most of my (precious) time.
There is a hell of a lot more information available these days than there was fifty years ago and the amount of years you have to stay in education hasn't really grown. It really makes you wonder what the limits of learning are.
Whats the optimum amount of time to spend acquiring knowledge in order to have the right amount of time left to use that knowledge to greatest effect?