Too Wired for Facts

I’ve read and heard that the internet “is making us smarter, because we don’t waste energy trying to memorize facts, which is reserving brainpower for understanding the big picture.” Where’s the nearest toilet ‘cause I’m going to lose it.

OK, so facts are in the way of recognizing the dynamics that turn numbers, locations and other such nonsense into quick-connect concepts. Class, you don’t need to memorize the percentage of the Reichstag held by the Nazis in 1925, just know they were in the minority and a few years later, busy killing millions. Estimated study time:7 minutes. Estimated global effect: ongoing.

I remember giving a speech in 2009 to 50 journalism students at a college. I was talking about war and raised the protests of one, Cassius Clay. I asked if anyone knew the name. Zip. Okay, it was just a fact to be Googled as “what was Muhammad Ali’s birth name?”

Today’s rant is made possible by the internet.