{"id":3960,"date":"2014-04-15T17:10:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T21:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"too-much-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/too-much-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Have Too Much Knowledge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have Mitch Mitchell of ImJustSharing<\/strong><\/em> and his comments on a Wayback Whensday post to thank for the inspiration for this post. \u00a0We were discussing caffeine in beverages.\u00a0 He asked a question about where caffeine comes from.\u00a0 It was a perfectly legitimate question and related to the topic of discussion, so I answered it.\u00a0 Before posting, I (like any responsible journalist would) checked my stated facts for accuracy and turned up an additional historical tid-bit or two, so I worked those in as well.<\/p>\n

Mitch\u2019s response to my reply indicated pleasure, and perhaps some surprise, with the quality of my answer.\u00a0 And I wondered why.\u00a0 What made this comment so different from dozens of others Mitch and I have exchanged in the past?\u00a0 After all, I\u2019m a well-read, educated fellow.\u00a0 My head is crammed full of useful knowledge – and a fair bit of useless fluff that sneaks in.\u00a0 Why would he be surprised to receive a well-considered response from me?\u00a0 I pondered that for a while.\u00a0 When I awoke, I realized it\u2019s because it has not been the type of response I\u2019ve been posting.\u00a0 For that I blame Chuck\u2026 at least in part.<\/p>\n

All the Knowledge of Chuck<\/h2>\n

\"too<\/a>Back in the day of yore, before the internet was available to the public we had BBSs. \u00a0Bulletin Board Systems were a primitive version of today\u2019s discussion forums and chat rooms, except that, because there was no internet yet, participants joined in by mashing their telephone hand-set into the pads of a big, clunky modem (think Matthew Broderick in War Games) and dialed a phone number for the desired discussion forum.\u00a0 The BBS\u2019s computer and the participant\u2019s computer squealed and squalled at each other for a moment as they shook hands and agreed to talk, then words would scroll up the caller\u2019s computer screen, which back then were either amber or green text on a black background. \u00a0Minimal graphics, no mouse, no Windows G.U.I.<\/p>\n

A BBS offered various forums for various topics.\u00a0 Users paid for a membership and could log in to read the messages left by other users and respond to them in a threaded conversation format.\u00a0 Better BBS\u2019s had multiple incoming lines so that several users could be \u201con-line\u201d at the same time, and by responding to one another’s posts could carry on a real-time, chat style discussion.<\/p>\n

My favorite BBS was The Dragon\u2019s Lair.\u00a0 While The Lair probably had a hundred or so regular users, there was a core group of about a dozen, maybe eighteen, users who had gotten to know one another well and made it a point to dial-in every night to \u201ctalk\u201d.\u00a0 I went by the handle Conan the Librarian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Even back then I was a writer, and I had a room full of books from which I could pull great information.\u00a0 I also had learned to use tools like Gopher to ferret out information from the computerized knowledge repositories of universities and research facilities as well as services like Delphi.\u00a0 This was all done above board and perfectly legally — I have never been a hacker.<\/p>\n

Everyone in our group was intelligent and well informed and we had some great discussions.\u00a0 Few of them were the dry, intellectual pontifications you might imagine.\u00a0 We were not eggheads.\u00a0 Most were quite stimulating, a few were hilarious.<\/p>\n

But there was one fellow: Chuck, who stood out.\u00a0 I can use his real name because he was as old as I am now back when I was as young as I was then, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019s dead and buried and, as such, will not take offense to my discussing him.\u00a0 Chuck knew everything.<\/p>\n

Bear in mind that all this occurred before the internet, before Google or Bing, before the sum total of mankind\u2019s knowledge was available to anyone who could type a phrase into a search bar.\u00a0 No matter what we discussed, Chuck had facts and figures for it.\u00a0 We thought he was making it up, so a few of us researched some of his figures – he was spot on, every time.<\/p>\n

If his responses had been made only in delayed postings, he might have had time to search an encyclopedia for the information, or call some scientist friend, but when these discussions were happening in chat mode, there was no time for that.\u00a0 It baffled us.<\/p>\n

On several occasions we actually conspired to work into a discussion engineered to be so bizarre that Chuck would have to concede a lack of knowledge.\u00a0 Not one of these Stump Chuck sessions succeeded!<\/p>\n

Chuck quickly became the go-to guy for anything factual\u2026 making him both highly appreciated and much despised.<\/p>\n

One reason I do not expound at length about things in comments is that I do not want to become Chuck.\u00a0 Let me re-phrase that; I could not become Chuck; I am not a walking encyclopedia or Jeopardy Grand Master.\u00a0 I do not want to be regarded the way we regarded Chuck.<\/p>\n

Pontification<\/h2>\n

Another reason for my commenting method has to do with the nature of blogging and commenting on blogs.\u00a0 In most cases, it seems inappropriate, even rude to expound at length about things posed in other people\u2019s blogs – and I do tend to get verbose in my impromptu writing.\u00a0 Being concise requires editing.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want to appear to be trying to show-up the host blogger.\u00a0 So I keep responses short.\u00a0 Sometimes humorous — or an attempt at humor anyway; my sense of humor is not always appreciated by all.<\/p>\n

Chuck had a way of irritating everyone simply because he knew so much.<\/p>\n

Marketing Mode<\/h2>\n

Shortly after I first got into blogging, Tristan taught me to comment in Marketing Mode.\u00a0 All bloggers know what this is and how it works, but we generally don\u2019t admit to it.\u00a0 I would comment primarily in an attempt to draw traffic back to my own blog.\u00a0 To do so I needed to avoid looking like a pompous jerk (if possible) yet not come off like a hit & run spammer either.\u00a0 Happy medium was the modus operandi; try to contribute something, but don\u2019t linger too long; there are many more blogs to get to this evening.<\/p>\n

A while back I read a post on Patricia\u2019s Lavender Uses blog where she discussed traffic and it\u2019s sources, and it got me to thinking (I have a bad habit of doing that).\u00a0 I wondered how much of the traffic I was getting was actually organic traffic: people who are genuinely interested in reading my prattlings, and how much of it was simply people who felt obligated to comment because I had commented on their blog.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t this much the same as maintaining a circle of friends by buying them gifts?\u00a0 If you stop buying them off, will they just wander away in search of another sugar daddy?\u00a0 Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n

The marketers among you — if indeed any are still dropping by — are no doubt saying, \u201cIt\u2019s your funeral buddy\u201d, but my intent when I got into blogging was not necessarily to earn my income from blogging.\u00a0 I sell my work, that\u2019s where I get my income.\u00a0 For me, blogging is, at best, a vehicle for entertaining and informing others, and at worst, a promotional tool.\u00a0 Used as such, if the people who come to read are repaying a courtesy and intend only to skim my post to get the gist, leave a quick comment and move on, then this blog has failed entirely in it\u2019s purpose and I would be far better off devoting the many hours a week that I put into blogging to commercial writing instead.<\/p>\n

Still Reading<\/h2>\n

I subscribe to a half-dozen blogs through their mailing list or RSS and read them as soon as I get the notice.\u00a0 I often comment on these\u2026 but generally not with pontifications.\u00a0 I still read a great many other blogs because I learn things from them, but unless I feel compelled to join the discussion, I don\u2019t.\u00a0 I am no longer in marketing mode.\u00a0 That way they do not feel obligated, and they will not give me a false sense of popularity.<\/p>\n

My reading list had become overwhelming; so many interesting people, so much great information, but I must prioritize and not commit to reading everything that is available. \u00a0I admit to being an information junkie – I always have been – it\u2019s one reason I was known as Conan the Librarian<\/em>.\u00a0 But the modern, internet-based world is too complicated, too crowded, too swiftly moving to be fully embraced from within a Simple Life.\u00a0 I stepped away from corporate life and power suits to get away from such stresses.\u00a0 But, like swimming in a rip tide, it\u2019s easy to get sucked back in if you\u2019re not careful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not wagging my finger at anyone.\u00a0 This is simply my choice.<\/p>\n

If you have read all the way to this point, I thank you.\u00a0 You are one of the people for whom I am writing, and I do appreciate you.\u00a0 Thank you for enduring this ramble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have Mitch Mitchell of ImJustSharing and his comments on a Wayback Whensday post to thank for the inspiration for this post.  We were discussing caffeine in beverages.  He asked a question about where caffeine comes from.  It was a perfectly legitimate question and related to the topic of discussion, so I answered it.  Before … Continue reading “Can You Have Too Much Knowledge?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[38,58],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-communication","tag-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20262,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/20262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}