Category: People

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Amusing Ourselves to Death
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Neil Postman

This important book helps explain the current state of our society, media, and education. Postman begins by contrasting the two great futurist novels, 1984 and Brave New World. He concludes that Huxley made the better prediction—no need for a police state when we have television!

His basic premise is that we have moved beyond the age of information-rich typography into a new world dominated by images and sound bites. The unit of discourse is the thirty second television commercial, which attempts to make an emotional connection with viewers rather than inform them. The result is a dumbing down of everything from the evening news to PowerPoint dominated classrooms. The one thing he clearly gets wrong is the importance of computers, very forgivable when you consider that computers were mostly used for text and numbers back then. See also these longer reviews (2)(3). Unfortunately Postman died in 2003, but his legacy lives on!

Edward Tufte Short Course

Just back from attending this short course by the master of “intelligent design” himself Edward Tufte. It was well worth the time and effort! I’d recommend it to anyone who prepares or presents information with a computer (ie, just about everyone!). His insights are numerous and often challenge conventional wisdom. His bottom line is to enhance communication by increasing the dimensionality and resolution of data. The course included copies of all four of his major books, highlighting the most recent, Beautiful Evidence. The photo shows his discussion of Powerpoint’s role in the Columbia disaster, which I reviewed in 2005 and is included in Beautiful Evidence.

Update: Visit my Using PowerPoint Effectively resource page.

Julia Belle Swain and John Hartford

While vacationing on the Mississippi River we noticed this small steam-powered riverboat called the Julia Belle Swain. That name seemed very familiar. Then I recalled a John Hartford song by the same name (from his 1976 album Mark Twang). Sure enough, this was the very boat he piloted and sang about!

Mark Twain published his description of Life on the Mississippi in 1883.