Nine Theses on Wikipedia: A Special Feature
I submit these nine theses to Wikipedia’s community and to the world. I do this, as Martin Luther said when he posted his famous 95 theses, “Out of love for the truth and the desire to elucidate it.” A quarter of a century ago, Jimmy Wales’ company Bomis hired me to start a free encyclopedia. The first draft, from which we learned much, was Nupedia—it made slow progress. So, a year later, on January 2, 2001, when a friend told me about wikis, I immediately began imagining a wiki encyclopedia.
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What is the best way to teach geography?
I’m wondering: what is the best way to teach geography? I’ve started a system with H. (age 5) which seems to be working reasonably well, but I wonder if, perhaps, we should be
12 comments on What is the best way to teach geography?8 minutesI gih dah bah! (update about the baby’s “education”)
It’s been a while since I reported about Baby E., especially in any detail. So here’s maybe my first detailed report (he’s now 11 months) about what we’re doing with him and what’s
14 minutesOur “curriculum”: update about the boys (August 2011)
Help Screen Options WordPress 3.2.1 is available! Please update now. Dolly’ll never go away Add New Post Blog posts options Post image*: Publish Preview Status: Draft Edit Visibility: Public Edit Publish immediately Edit Move to Trash Categories All Categories Most Used Citizendium Education Latest Post Other Weird Stuff Publishing Theory Communication Knowledge Privacy Uncategorized Wiki…
28 minutesSee a ReadingBear demo and volunteer to help finish the job!
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been spent most of this year developing a free reading tutorial. We were calling it WatchKnow Reader, but now it’s called Reading Bear. I need
3 minutesReply to Nathan Jurgenson on anti-intellectualism
Thanks to Nathan Jurgenson for a thoughtful critique of “Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?” I wish I had more time to respond, especially since it is so earnestly intellectual itself. The following will
7 minutesShould we teach math in elementary school?
From the anti-intellectualism department, arguably: An emeritus psych professor, Peter Gray, has made the argument in Psychology Today that we should not teach math in elementary school (K-6). (Hat tip, BrillKids Forum.) Well,
6 minutesUpdate about the boys (June 2011)
I’ve changed quite a bit of what I’ve been doing with H. For many months, I was following a schedule according to which I assigned specific subjects to specific meals (we read, or
12 minutesGeek anti-intellectualism: replies
My essay on “geek anti-intellectualism” hit a nerve. I get the sense that a lot of geeks are acting–quite unusually for them–defensively, because I’ve presented them with a sobering truth about themselves that
21 minutesIs there a new geek anti-intellectualism?
This essay can be read in my 2020 book, Essays on Free Knowledge. Perhaps ironically, it is no longer free. UPDATE: I’ve posted a very long set of replies. UPDATE 2: I’ve decided to
1 minuteIs college a waste of time?
More from the anti-intellectualism dept.: I admit this is news to me: a “Thiel Fellowship” has been set up by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, which encourages tech entrepreneurship by under-20-olds with the requirement
14 minutes
Support the Knowledge Standards Foundation:
/larrysanger- I invited my X peeps to ask me questions and then "like" the various questions, and I would upload the answers in video form. Here it is! Christian identity – 1:10 "Call no man teacher" – 9:25 Role of government – 15:45 Authority & resistance – 19:15 Wikipedia labor – 24:20 Net value of Wikipedia […]
- Made for beginners, family, friends, study group members. Most of this stuff is obvious after you use LLMs long enough. If you have more good ideas, put them in comments!
- While I was raised Christian, I lost my faith in my teens, as so many do. But my life has been a truth-seeking quest, and I ended up earning a Ph.D. in philosophy (as I was starting Wikipedia). My reasons for disbelief fell away one by one; eventually I read the Bible, finally, for good […]