Indexer
Just imagine what it would be like if you knew everything. There were no facts that you had to look up, because you had them all on board anyway. You’d wipe the floor at the pub quiz every time!
But wouldn’t that be ever so boring? I spend my life desperately trying to find out as many new things as I can, because I enjoy the thrill of the chase, but the arrival can sometimes be a bit of an anti-climax. I have the answer – now what?
My working life, from which I retired this time last year, was as a professional fact finder in that I was trained as a librarian, and my job was to find things out and show other people how to do so. The good thing about this job is that, even when the answer has been found, there is someone next in the queue with a fresh question!
One big irony in my life, though, is that there is a question that I shall never know the answer to, and that is – who am I? I have no idea who my natural father was, and my natural mother is only a name.
So is my thirst for knowledge a substitute for not seeking an answer to that basic question about me? I can imagine some latter-day Dr Freud suggesting that very thing!
And no – I don’t want to know everything. I just want to be comfortable wallowing in a bottomless pit of ignorance with a few gobbets of knowledge thrown in just to make life interesting!
I do not want to know everything, life would lose its taste because we live learning, discovering new truths, I love getting to know new things and searching for answers.
shhhh
(sorry couldn’t help that)
information on the internet is a huge problem. First off because of the arrogance that “I don’t need a professional to help me.” I can do it myself.
In the days of old, we have peer-reviewed information sources that you knew were good.
I can honestly tell you that there is not a site on the internet that can’t be changed, modified or hacked.
I think the age of librarians is on the horizon!
I wrote a book many years ago now, where I talked about Information Merchants (we have those today) and information brokers (we have them today).
I can get information about a legal issue from Lexus Nexus. I have to pay for th information but if they are wrong, they owe me! They validate and verify the information they share!
I was made redundant from my last full-time professional post – back in 2002 – because the company i worked for had decided that they they didn’t need a library because “it’s all on the Internet”. That was 17 years ago – it’s not true now and it certainly wasn’t then!
My consolation was that the company went bust only 18 months later!
Switching on the tv for news is one way to say that every one is hungry of knowleldge (lol) And that is just the tip of the ice berg.
Then there is the craving expecting friends and family to share their life and what that means is craving for knowledge. I could go on………….
I think till the dying day people want to acquire knowledge.
Our problem these days is deciding on what counts as real and as false knowledge. One skill that many librarians have is spotting the tell-tale markers that incline one to trust certain sources of knowledge more than others.
No doubt fake news is doing the rounds and that is very sad.
However, it is not difficult to pick wheat from chaf specially when one goes online There are genuine sites about which one is aware of. For exmple, sites that talk of medical issues, I know which sites to look for.
Yes – you know what sites to look for, but can you be assured that that applies to everyone else?
Too bad if they cannot. This fake news saga is vigorously discussed at all levels and there is little one can do about it.