incoherence.net

Literacy used to be a big deal. That is, not illiteracy; I’m talking about the number of people who could not read or write in the general populous. Nowadays, this problem has largely been eradicated from 1st and 2nd world countries, though admittedly it’s still an issue in the 3rd world.

It’s not just about reading a newspaper or writing a report, but more on the quality of said literature. So much of “knowledge work” present in current jobs require some degree of writing, that schools have continued to emphasize the skill, testing it with the likes of essay questions in entrance exams (i.e., SAT’s and GRE’s). And they barely started teaching us how to type properly 15 years ago, though I’d imagine general computer skills and speed typing ought to be a part of the core curriculum by now.

Can we get some love for programming too?

Everybody likes traveling. It’s just the universal hobby everyone is supposed to have. There’s something amorphously sexy and chic about visiting exotic locales, interacting with indigenous populations, and marveling at local landmarks which appeal to our general well-being and happiness.

I guess I slept in the day they taught us why traveling is awesome. For me, most of the time traveling is an exhausting, expensive ordeal in pale comparison to, well, travelers’ descriptions.

Ok, that’s not quite fair; there’s quite a few types of travel most of us undertake, with varied amounts of crappiness. Going from the worst to the best type, then: