Let’s dive right into this week’s speedlink.
Knowledge for its own sake is incredibly powerful and infinitely useful. That’s why Scott Young says that learning useless things isn’t all that useless after all. From what psychologists call the availability heuristic to how knowing something helps you learn new things more easily, learning “useless” tidbits of information can “still make your model of reality a little more accurate.” And that’s pretty useful.
While it may seem like it would be obvious enough, there is much more to the classroom dynamic. Damien Riley explains what students need from a teacher beyond simply going through the pre-approved lesson plans. Students need someone to listen to them, they need an expert who can help them with future aspirations, and they need a source of encouragement to get them through the rough patches. If all they needed was knowledge, then teachers would be completely replaced by textbooks.
It’s a common misconception that working from home is a relaxed and carefree existence. It’s even more common that people think stay-at-home parents have an easy life, but as Chaunie Brusie eloquently points out, having a parent stay home to watch the kids is more of a luxury for the working spouse. The dynamic brings peace of mind and a sense of reassurance, because the parent who is working outside the home can know that the kids are in good hands and the chores are being done.
Life is hard, partly because we allow it to be populated by so many useless thoughts and concerns. Marina Popzov lists five such things that unnecessarily complicate our lives. Are you focusing too much on the task and not enough on the end goal that these tasks are meant to achieve? Are you working harder rather than figuring out how you can work smarter? Are you forgetting to ask the right questions to ensure that you are doing the things you should be doing?
And finishing off this week’s collection, Troy Stouffer discusses the mentality of entitlement that is becoming increasingly pervasive in our culture. Just because you desire something doesn’t mean that you necessarily deserve it. You have to work for it and, even when you do, your right to the pursuit of happiness does not supersede someone else’s right to the same. Sometimes, you must put someone else’s needs ahead of your own.
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