06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
The Case Against Reading Too Broadly
The real problem with telling young writers to fan out across genres and forms is that it doesn’t help them find a voice. If anything, it’s antivoice. Learning the craft of writing isn’t about hopping texts like hyperlinks. It’s about devotion and obsession. It’s about lingering too long in some beloved book’s language, about steeping yourself in someone else’s style until your consciousness changes colour. It’s Tolkien phases and Plath crushes. It’s going embarrassingly, un...25 FEB 2016 by ideonexus
227 cognitive verbs organized into 24 categories of seman...
Add to: combine, deepen, improve, incorporate, integrate, introduceArrange: arrange, list, organize, sortBig picture: comprehend, contextualize, orient, understandCollaborate: collaborate, contribute, engage, interact, participate, shareCompare: associate, categorize, classify, compare, connect, contrast, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, link, match, relateCreate: accomplish, achieve, build, compose, construct, create, develop, draft, form, generate, initiate, produce, publish, recor...28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Get a Child Addicted to the Real Wonders of the World
It’s easy to get a child addicted to real wonders if you start early enough. Simply point them out—they are all around us—and include a few references to what was once thought to be true. Take thunder. Explain that a bolt of lightning rips through the air, zapping trillions of air molecules with energy hotter than the Sun. Those superheated molecules explode out of the way with a crack! Then the bolt is gone, and all those molecules smash into each other again as they fill in the emptin...Folksonomies: wonder sense of wonder
Folksonomies: wonder sense of wonder
Teach them the fact of thunder and lightening and then tell them the god-explanation and see which one they think is more interesting.
07 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
Advice for Dealing with Trolls
What to do instead So what should we do instead. It's very simple: Ask him what he means. ; interrogate him: "Why do you feel that Python is so bad? What do you find wrong with it?" Agree with him (but use a softer language): "Yes, Perl is a nice language, and I agree that Python has its downsides and/or trade-offs in comparison to Perl." "It's OK to prefer Perl, we'll still accept you here." This will make the troll lose steam and help you find a common ground. And eventually nego...An interesting take on the issue, which borrows a page from Wikipedia's suggestions for debate.