Peter Boghossian is both angry and perplexed.
Gad Saad wrote a book because he was angry and flummoxed.
 |
Both are describing symptoms of the same thing. Gad thinks he's found the cause of the insanity, but he hasn't. We'll discuss this more in the future.
3 comments:
Gad Saad is an "evolutionary psychologist" -- which means that his field of expertise is doubly bogus: 1) psychology simpliciter is mostly bogus; 2) with "evolutionary psychology" they don't even have living subjects to "study" and/or "test" their "theories" against.
This is a bit tangential to Boghossian's point, but his video is both pointing out a real problem, and is a symptom of that very problem. I am with him that people who are functionally illiterate and can't understand signs should not be driving (and that we shouldn't be giving people a pass because we are afraid of "discrimination"). But functional illiteracy is not limited to "people who can't speak English". I have met a lot of people who speak English fine, but who basically can't or won't read. Who go all to pieces when confronted with even the simplest instruction manual, can't read a map, and have to have their GPS give them verbal instructions because if they have to manage by reading road signs they are lost. I am all for a quick comprehension test for *every* traffic stop, to identify these people and get them off the roads.
But this goes way beyond just driving. Just last night, my daughter was making shortbread, and got furious when she couldn't find any online recipes that weren't videos[1]. In my opinion, videos are a terrible format for giving instructions. Written directions are much better because a fluent reader can take them in faster, quickly back up to check earlier stages, check ahead to see what is coming up, and not necessarily depend on an electronic device for playback.
So why is everything online turning into videos these days? I think it is because they are catering to illiteracy. A lot of people won't read, and the videos make it so they don't have to. Even Boghossian's video here is designed to cater to illiterates (or at least people who are too lazy to read). It is *twenty minutes long*, but if he had just written it down, I could have gotten everything out of it in no more than five minutes. And really, I think his whole point could have been condensed into text that I could have read in two minutes. He is, in his own small way, contributing to the very problem he is complaining about.
----------
[1] We have perfectly good cookbooks, but for a simple recipe like this she thought a quick internet search would be faster than leafing through a book. She ultimately went with the hard copy, because a couple of minutes looking through the books beats suffering through a 10-15 minute video.
True enough. Yet, at the same time, so so many people waste all sorts of time texting back and forth rather than just engaging in a two-minute phone call.
Post a Comment