Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: We will always have gifted amateurs in many fields.

Hacks
Mary Anne — (archived)

Poets, palm readers, soldiers, loggers, bricklayers, sailors, firefighters, salesmen, receptionists, whores, librarians, gardeners, and groceries should have professional standards in order to exclude the hacks?

Yes.

Take a look at your list. I can't find even one on it that would not benefit from appropriate standards. Even palm readers need panache and polish; it's performance art, after all.

As usual, you are so eager to find fault that you don't read. Nowhere did I say that amateurs and hacks are the same. You drew that conclusion out of your need to believe that's what I said, proving yourself to be a hack reader. But there's hope: just attempt to understand what you read before you reply. It takes practice, but you can do it.

Think for a minute about what the "higher beings = greater traffic" measurement means. It means that quality in the blogosphere is measured the way talent is judged on "American Idol".

Also, emphasis on rapid response is only appropriate when the objective is news reporting or crisis intervention. As blogs don't take out snipers or treat heart attack victims on the scene, the fast movement so prized is only useful for reporting new and interesting facts, which blogs do very well. Turning out thoughtful opinion, on the other hand, takes a while. It takes deliberation and reflection, neither of which benefits from speed. Of course, if the opinion is already formed and all that's necessary is to plug the fact-du-jour into the preformed opinion, then no thought is really required.

We prize speed because it's fun. It's not always, or even usually, good for thought, or for art. Writing, whether anyone still believes it, is an art as much as a craft. Bloggers write; not all of them -- maybe not most of them -- are writers. Eventually, the hacks will be identified and ignored by others who practice art and prize craft. In the meantime, talk is cheap.

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