Yeah, but I’m inclined to reserve the label for subjects larger than yourself. Something that plugs into a tradition of study that evolves in history in an accumulation process. Exercise and diet rarely rise to that level. I guess a sense of history feels necessary to me.
Conversation
Replying to
Interesting, I supposed I can't imagine a topic that isn't related to big frames (we are historical subjects). This might be my projection that I see diet and read material cultures of piety and devotion meets self-fashioning in these political-economic conditions. ...
1
3
(and yes I can be very annoying to watch football with or music videos, or talk about the weather because I am *always* seeing why this is a case of the bigger that.)
1
3
Replying to
I think that’s a rare attitude though. Most engagement in these things is atemporal. Sports fandom sometimes acquires a bit of a sense of history, but not the studiously analytical kind.
2
3
Replying to
I bet if people had more words for talking about what they are interested in some really interesting enduring interests would emerge. Some interests have clearer paths to connect dots than others.
1
2
Replying to
This interest in study as opposed to shallow curiosity or drive-by interest is I think a big part of why cozyweb cultures have emerged and are stealing attention from public social media. The for eg is literally a set of study groups (explicitly labeled as such)
1
4
Group study is a slightly different beast. Study has mostly been a solitary activity for me in the past and in fact a way to seek solitude. It’s been fun learning to engineer group study and keep it deeper than idle forum chitchat.
1
3
I think group study is best done in a peer learning way. Teachers generally hurt, not help. But the idea of a tutor though..l good fit for study. Tutors help you study, teachers do something closer to providing air cover and efficient strategic knowledge bombing.
2
3
Closest I came to “tutor” was advising a bunch of undergrad theses at Cornell as a postdoc. It’s different from grad-level advising and classroom teaching. US grad TA-ing is also not like real tutoring, even though the sessions are called tutorials.
2
2
It helps if you can experience a good peer group studying interaction, so you can get a sense of what is possible. I would say I am currently actively in maybe 5 of these groups, the longest-running (for me) since 2015, the most recent I joined a few weeks ago.
1
1
All have at least some professional academics, cause that's my social graph. Some are more public, one is probably decently selective. I'm personally game to learn all kinds of things with all kinds of people. Interestingly, I don't think all academics belong to such groups.
2
I'm also studying a related phenomenon (the long arc of book clubs, homeschools, etc) so I definitely think people do convene and study. There are fascinating networks of people learning all kinds of things together.
2

