And now, for something not related to atheism or religion. 
It’s, instead, a lesson in humility (and it reminds me, I need to write another post about what “humility” should, and shouldn’t, mean).
These days, I work at home, for myself, writing and creating sites. But, for the past 15 years or so, I’ve been a “computer guy”: a systems administrator, mostly. I’ve worked at several places, and I believe I was (and am) an above average tech.
Of course, even if you’re self-taught like I (mostly) am, you need books. Especially back then, before you could find every piece of documentation on the Internet like you can, now. So, I bought and read a lot of books, and I still have shelves full of them. Many are from O’Reilly; you may know those, with a white cover and an animal on the cover. I have (and have read) books about systems administration, operating systems, programming in several languages, web design, and much more.
However, there was a series of books I always refused to buy, to read, even to consider. They’re also quite popular: the “For Dummies” books.
I hated the idea of those books. I found them insulting - basically, they called the reader an idiot. Therefore, anyone who bought those books was, to me, saying “yes, I’m an idiot.” I couldn’t understand how people were capable of doing that. It felt, to me, as if they were admitting that they were too stupid to read books for “normal” people, and had to read books for “dummies” instead.
Well, I was younger then. A few days ago, when I was browsing for books about a particular subject, I found myself reading through several pages of one of those “for dummies” books, and, to my surprise, the content was really, really good. Not patronizing at all, not written as if the reader was some neanderthal or something. It was very good.
(Note that I’m not saying that all of them are that good, un-patronizing, and so on. But that one - the first one I actually read something from - was.)
And I had been avoiding those books for a decade, because of my prejudice against them.
I’ve always hated it when people pre-judge something, without any real knowledge about the subject… and I had done exactly that, for years. It was, in a way, a shock.
And why had I done that? Why was so important to me not to read books labeled “for dummies”? Did I fear to turn into one? Was I so insecure that I worried about what people would think about me? Was the opinion of others so important? Or was it my own self-esteem that would be shaken by reading a book that called its reader a “dummy”? Did I actually think that my intelligence, knowledge and skills were affected by the title of a book I read?
I guess it was a combination of those.
Still, this is a lesson: never, ever believe I’m “too good” to do really stupid things like pre-judging. And always be ready to admit my mistakes, correct them, and learn from them.
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Yes I also have refused to even look at one of those books, but now I suppose ill have to.
And its not about the opinions of other people, it’s about your ego.
Intelligence is my favorite attribute and so attaining and retaining knowledge is my favorite pass time.
This can be related to my second favorite attribute strength, and so strength training is my second favorite pass time. Now I take pride in these attributes, and sometimes my ego can be a bit of a problem. For instance I will refuse to work out on those exercise beans although they are supposedly quite good simply for the fact that my self righteous ego sees them as beneath me. But skateboarding for instance (which I’m utterly useless at) I have no shame in making a complete ass of myself. This ties back to the fact that it is nothing to do with the opinions of others. Its about ego that son of a bitch fog that will dismiss things that offend it in an instant.
Humility is ying to egos yang. But the balance is related to how much pride you take in your actions.
For instance a guy who loves to be right HATES to be wrong even if its about a subject he knows
nothing about, due to the fact that he takes pride in being correct.
Saying ying and yang was completely off really.
It’s more like a chemical equilibrium equation and the equilibrium constant is determined by pride.
I think a great deal of one’s intelligence, is knowing where one’s intelligence ends. You can be the smartest man alive on many subjects, but whatever you know, or understand, there will always be much much more you don’t know, and won’t ever.
That’s why I strongly believe that curiosity is an attribute that someone who claim to be “intelligent” must have.
Those books are for curious people, be them smart or simply interested in something new. I confer however, that the marketing approach seems unfit for those who strongly valorise or seek pride in knowledge and intelligence. The cover is kind of a bit flashy too :o)
Very nice books though.
I don’t think those books are suggesting they are for dumb people. Dumb people don’t know how to read. “Dummies” instead refer to people who know nothing about the subject.
i think these are nice books to get started on the subject about which u don’t know anything. it’s helps to build your confidence. and later you can go for more advanced books. it doesn’t matter what title says as long as you learn something.