“Another way to speak of the anxiety is in terms of the gap between information and knowledge. A barrage of data so often fails to tell us what we need to know. Knowledge, in turn, does not guarantee enlightenment or wisdom. (Eliot said that, too: “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? / Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”) It is an ancient observation, but one that seemed to bear restating when information became plentiful—particularly in a world where all bits are created equal and information is divorced from meaning. The humanist and philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford, for example, restated it in 1970: “Unfortunately, ‘information retrieving,’ however swift, is no substitute for discovering by direct personal inspection knowledge whose very existence one had possibly never been aware of, and following it at one’s own pace through the further ramification of relevant literature.” He begged for a return to “moral self-discipline.”
― The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
― The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
“Every man carries within him a world, which is composed of all that he has seen and loved,”
― First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
― First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“After thirty years of intensive research, we can now answer many of the questions posed earlier. The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. Finally, the human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived.”
― Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
― Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
“I wonder if you can ever be at home anywhere, because home is not a place--it's a state of mind. Really being at home is feeling at home in your own skin...Perhaps you have been searching for home in the wrong place all your life.”
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S.’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at S.’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Art, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, History, Mystery, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Science fiction, medicine, biology, and nutrition
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