Learning
∞
Inference, Repertoire, Acceptance
This replaces the last two essays. While Skinner's Folly is much the same, Part 1, Inference is mostly new. Thanks to Joan and Adam for their help.
The essay is for Denise, because she complains that my writing does not include enough sports examples.
Part 1, Inference Part 2, Repertoire Part 3, Acceptance Part 1, Inference …the physicist himself, who describes all this, is, in his own account, himself constructed of it.
∞
Hard Fun
The phrase “pleasure of writing” makes me pause. At this very moment, writing is not altogether pleasurable. The ticking of the clock telling me that the deadline is coming close frustrates me. I am stinging from the pain of having to throw out a whole paragraph because “it wasn’t going to work” even though it had a phrase with which I had fallen in love. So maybe “pleasure” isn’t quite the right word.
∞
Mastery
Can I move? I’m better when I move.
—The Sundance Kid
Last year, my wife and I moved from Edmonds, Washington to Portland, Oregon to help with our newborn grandchild. At least that’s the explanation I put out. The real reason? I was scared to go out at night in Edmonds. I was afraid I’d run into the notorious gangs of dentists, lawyers, accountants, and the most chilling of all, the “lords of Edmonds mean streets,” the financial advisors.
∞
Learning-Introduction
On a flight, seated behind a teenage girl, a novelist was having a get-off-my-lawn moment. With the click sound enabled, the girl tapped away on her iPhone. Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap… The nonstop cadence of the taps meant she could not be texting back and forth with friends. As the girl tapped away the entire flight, the novelist’s irritation dissolved into admiration and, finally, revelation.