The fire hydrant of new information
About 20 years ago, I became frustrated that, because of long hours spent at the office, I was not able to read as much as I would like. After all, there were thousands of good books out there that I had never read. To add insult to injury, my memory recall was poor regarding many of the classic books I had previously read. For instance, I had read The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye, but could I intelligently describe the plots and characters of these books? Not without rereading them.
It occurred to me that I was reading books at the rate of only about one book every three months. If I lived 50 more years, reading four books per year, I would be dead after reading only 200 more books. That seemed to be an exceedingly gloomy prospect given that the culture I inhabit is continually bursting with new and interesting information.
No, I wasn’t under the delusion that I would ever be able to know everything. I realized that it would be impossible for any one person (probably for any group of 1000 people) to to have detailed knowledge rivaling that contained in any large library. Rather, I was seeking a basic working knowledge of many of the basic fields of study taught in most universities. I didn’t want to embarass myself in a group that started discussing well-known literature and basic principles from scientific fields such as biology, physics and anthropology. I felt …
