A living collection of notes, ideas, and reflections from Doug Belshaw.
This is going to be a long-ish note, primarily because I'm going to be quoting at length from Jay Springett's excellent INTERNET OPERATOR zine. As you can see from the gif above, I've given it the highlighter treatment, pulling out things which resonate with me.
…Source: Are.na
We ought to observe also that even the things which follow after the things which are produced according to nature contain something pleasing and attractive.
For instance, when bread is baked some parts are split at the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion contrary to the purpose of the baker's are, are beautiful in a manner, and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating.
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Every week I get a Google Scholar alert with academic articles that have cited my work. The screenshot above is from a recent one about which I was alerted. No, I'm not going to link to it.
These days, it's pretty obvious that the authors of papers citing my work haven't read my actual words, but only other people's summaries. And, of course, some "scholars" either intentionally or accidentally misinterpret my work for their own ends.
…Thank goodness for people like Claus Wilke, who writes so eloquently, unpretentiously, and reasonably about a subject he knows inside-out. Unlike, for example, Noah Smith, who apparently should stick to being an economist:
…It's now 16 years since I've been in the classroom, but you never really get out of the mindset of being a teacher. As one mug I saw put it "Teachers don't get old, they just lose their class" 😅
I loved teaching History, and particularly 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. This new online resource from the British would have been so great to use with very enthusiastic Year 7's (11-12 years old).
…I'm not sure how I've only just heard about it (perhaps because I forgot to renew my SCiO membership) but the SysPrac26 conference is the week after next. I've decided go, rearranging my existing commitments on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd September.
…On the afternoon of Wednesday 25th November (UK time) I'm going to run a free session based around Sightlines. I'm going to keep it to 10 places to keep it participatory and conversational. It's a bit of an experiment.
…With my last zine, as well as the 40-page professionally-printed version, I also included a smaller, home-printed zine from a sheet of A4.
I'm planning on doing similar with my next one, and this post is giving me some creative ideas, as are these resources.
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