.random[oid]archive

Anyone remember Andrew Keen, the writer of The Cult of the Amateur? It was based on an essay, with the same hypothesis, that Web 2.0, the openness towards user generated content is damaging our culture. Claiming it is damaging professionalism and making it hard to find high quality work online.

The book was published in 2007 and from what I remember, it received a fair amount of negative reviews by both these so-called “armatures” and even professionals. Calling him an elitist. A label he was proud to wear.

To some extent I can agree that it is important to know who the main source is. Who wrote it, what is that person’s experience and is that person [the source] credible? But the tools online make that too easy now, so from my experience- which is my own -it is not difficult at all finding out if what you have read or seen is credible or not, if it was created with someone with background knowledge.

When someone creates brouhaha like Andrew Keen did, it is fair to assume that not only him but other elitist snobs might learn to tread lightly when expressing their so-called professional opinion online. Because the Internet is still regarded as something open, and criticising that will always result in those who support that openness become angry with those wanting to limit that and act like they are the only “professionals” that can express their opinion.

Which is why I was so surprised to read the following tweet by David Pogue (the original tweet was deleted):

TONIGHT’S MEDITATION: Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, I’m street smart,” all I hear is “I’m not real smart, I’m imaginary smart.”
[source]

This apparently upset a few people. Some of them replied to Pogue’s faux pas.

@Pogue Tell that to guys who really are street smart. You're sounding like an elitist snob. Stick with the tech stuff.—
R.J. Johnson (@RandyJohnsonLA) May 30, 2011

Pogue replied back to Randy Johnson by saying:

@RandyJohnsonLA It was meant to be a joke (I tweet one every night)… apparently it backfired. :)—
David Pogue (@Pogue) May 30, 2011

He also attempted to make a public apology, but his subtle sarcasm- from my point of view -did not really do him any good.  Not to mention he excuses it by saying he did not write it. Maybe he should check what other people are tweeting for him from now on? He might aswell not bothered with posting the following “apology”:

(BTW: Tonight's Meditation was a JOKE–not a belief I actually have. I didn't even write it. Apologies to offended street-smart people.)—
David Pogue (@Pogue) May 30, 2011

And as most of my readers might know, I do not have the tolerance for this kind of snobbery. Which resulted in me speaking my mind.

@Pogue When I hear people say they are book smart, all I hear is: "I'm good at regurgitating information I've been told to memorize."—
Dr. W (@DokterW) May 30, 2011

I will happily admit it. I have no respect for people who are only book-smart. Why? Because anyone, as long as they apply themselves, can sit down and memorize something – anything. By doing that does not automatically mean you understand it or can even apply that “knowledge” properly. It is time time people started to understand the difference between storing information and applying information.

@Pogue You can memorize all the books in the world, but that is not worth anything unless you understand it and apply it to the real world.—
Dr. W (@DokterW) May 30, 2011

You can memorize all the books in the world, but that is not worth anything unless you understand it and apply it to the real world.

It is all well and good to be good at memorizing information when you are a student. But when you receive your degree, at the end of the day, if you can not understand or able to apply that information you have acquired, it is not worth anything at all. You might aswell use your degree as toilet paper.

Being only street-smart is also a disadvantage at some point, because then you are bound to repeat history. But combining these two, that is when you can stop calling yourself book-smart or street-smart and instead proudly call yourself an intelligent human being.

When I eventually start working as a full-time journalist, I really hope I do not become an elitist snob that puts his foot in the mouth like these two. The last thing I want to do is to alienate my readers by acting like I am better than them.