4 October 2004
This came to my mind after a friend said she was looking for a certain type of magazine during her travel. I wasn’t really sure whether she wanted to buy it for informational/educational purposes or if she just wanted simple entertainment.
But it got me thinking…How much of our life is spent reading “How To” books? And do they really help? This is also applicable in the endless textbooks that elaborate on models and theories and then come up with their conclusion: these are not based on empirical data at the time of formulation but should be replicated in light of future developments. WHAT?! Plain English Please! D%*N! They don’t work period!
So, how can we possibly gain more knowledge from “How To” books that don’t derive from experience or empirical data? I’d start launching my attack on inspirational books any minute now but some people who were actually “inspired” might send me threatening comments.
Are we really swayed to do things in a certain fashion just because books told us to? I wonder…
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
nikz: haha, that's interesting. when i read beauty magazines (rather, when i flip their pages, haha) - i just read the "how to"s for entertainment, coz sometimes they provide interesting information that could be helpful. but eventually, i may forget some of their tips, heheh!
there are those self-help books too, and yeah, i could remember certain details in them. but maybe these books don't tell you what to do but they give you something to think about (parang agenda setting ata ... NYOK X_X;;)
then again, it depends on the kind of "help" that is being provided. haha. if we're looking at "10 ways on how to attract a guy" then some people may try it for the heck of it - then it's up to them to decide if it works or not. experience comes afterwards. anyhoo, i do agree on the fact that experience is the best medium of instruction. then again advices given in books must have come from the authors' experiences as well, right? otherwise, why else should we read their stuff if they haven't had any experience in the matter? just shoving some ideas here, hehe ... XD
Post a Comment