>> I love the way not knowing about differential calculus is perfectly 
>> acceptable, but not knowing about English literature gets you labelled 
>> as some kind of idiot. As if English literature is somehow "more 
>> important" than differential calculus...
> 
>   In context, it is, in fact. That's because literature is much more
> related to the culture around you (which, in the end, is closely related
> to socializing between people), while differential calculus isn't.
> 
>   Humans are cultural and social beings and literature is one of the
> best forms of learning and expressing about it. That's why it's usually
> considered a good thing for your education to read a lot.

Hmm... Clearly it's going to take me a while to wrap my brain around 
this concept...

Presumably this is why all schoolchildren [in the UK at least] have 
Shakespear inflicted upon them as a mandatory component of their 
education. I still can't figure out what good it's supposed to do.

Certainly I can understand the importance of social interaction. But 
"culture" always seemed to me to involve lots of pretensious people 
standing around whaffling something incomprehensible about a bend lump 
of metal painted green or something...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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