
In Praise of Silence - robg
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/in-praise-of-silence.html#more
======
HSO
At the risk of breaking the "silence" here (15 upvotes and no comment?!), let
me add this:

"Less than three minutes after an event, we expect a world of talking heads to
pronounce judgement on the meaning of what's transpired."

We don't really expect it in the sense of wanting it. We expect it because
we've been conditioned to instant noise on everything and now would find it
creepy if something interesting (broadly defined) happened and there was
silence. Reason is, all those media guys who want to draw our attention to
sell their customers's products cannot survive on delivering Just the Facts,
Ma'am. There are only so many known facts concerning any issue, and they are
usually a little harder to come by than mere sentiment and opinion, wrapped in
human interest drivel. I often imagine what a typical news article, even in a
generally good paper like the Grey Lady, would look like if boiled down to
just the facts. I'd die for a medium that gave me just the facts and remained
silent when it was done delivering (or still in the process of hunting for)
them.

As for the more personal connections, I routinely find people are genuinely
annoyed or even take it personal when I turn my phone off or don't reply to
email. I don't even have a Twitter account and just today shut down my FB
page, but people do expect it -- even though they know I'm not the social
type. Even harder to do in work environment where bossman or colleagues expect
to be able to call you anytime. Sigh... Similar to the media, I often ask
myself what they would say if they just gave or asked me actual
information/content, without the whole yadayada wrapper. I think it's some
sort of validate-my-existence/status/whatever thing but I ain't no
psychologist, so...

~~~
nostrademons
"I'd die for a medium that gave me just the facts and remained silent when it
was done delivering (or still in the process of hunting for) them."

Would you?

Thing is, there are many mediums that _do_ give you just the facts and then
shut up when they have no more facts to report. The Edgar database at the SEC
gives you the financials and relevant business information on every publicly-
traded corporation in America. The Congressional Record (and more user-
friendly sites like govtrack.us) gives you the full record of everything that
our legislators discuss. API documentation and the source code gives you all
the facts about most software libraries. Many scientific academic journals
give you just the facts on recent scientific discoveries.

How much time do you spend reading these, vs. time spent listening to
mainstream media, blogs, forums, social bookmarking sites, and other opinion-
based media?

Problem is, we're not wired to make sense of "just the facts" without
overlaying some sort of interpretation on top of it. Except for people with
full-blown autism, facts themselves are generally quite boring. They become
meaningful only when we overlay some sort of story on top of them. But coming
up with stories that can explain a set of facts is mentally exhausting, so
we'd very much like to outsource that to some other person.

~~~
HSO
"...there are many mediums that do give you just the facts and then shut up
when they have no more facts to report."

Edgar et al. was not what I had in mind. More like a cross between them and
today's news. The difference between data and information. Would it be too
much to ask for more information and less interpretation? I don't know
possible solutions either, perhaps a Wolfram Alpha type interface is already
the friendliest interface to data possible, but then again it's not (yet)
connected to "news events". One has to actively go and ask specific questions.

~~~
nostrademons
I would like to see more facts in news reporting, but I don't think you can
divorce this from interpretation. Facts by themselves are _boring_. You won't
even remember them unless you're given some conceptual framework to fit them
in with what you know.

------
wglb
" ... solitude is the school of genius"?

Also, television and silence are of different realms. To misappropriate GK
"Silence--don't know how that works on radio". I no longer even have the radio
on while commuting.

[Edit] I recommend the remarkable documentary film "Into Great Silence" by
Philip Gröning as a supporting argument.

------
ableal
Lacking a leafy back garden where fricking hummingbirds visit (tweetingtoohard
moment there), I'm reduced to getting my occasional insights in the morning
shower. But I still agree with the first 90% of the piece. Too bad about the
(lack of) conclusion.

Ah, well. Weren't I so deprived, I'd eventually think of an insightful comment
mentioning McLuhan's electric external nervous system, and feedback loops
working at ever higher frequencies. Besides that, I'm sorry oppressed by the
7-line HN comment box. That's, like, 3 tweets. Fermat's syndrome(TM).

~~~
alex_c
>Lacking a leafy back garden where fricking hummingbirds visit
(tweetingtoohard moment there)

Yikes, I think I might be guilty as charged.

<http://twitter.com/purrp/status/884420908>

~~~
ableal
Don't sweat it. Just casually observe it did not carry head-mounted micro-
lasers ;-)

------
edw519
The worst violator of silence ever invented was the 4 way split screen of
simultaneous talking heads.

The only one of these I ever want to see again:

    
    
      +----------+------------+
      | ******** | ********** |
      | ******** | ********** |
      | **       |     **     |
      | **       |     **     | 
      | ******** |     **     |
      | ******** |     **     |
      |       ** |     **     |
      |       ** |     **     |
      | ******** |     **     |
      | ******** |     **     |
      +----------+------------+
      | ******** | **      ** |
      | ******** | **      ** |
      | **       | **      ** | 
      | **       | **      ** |
      | ******   | **      ** |
      | ******   | **      ** |
      | **       | **      ** |
      | **       | **      ** |
      | **       | ********** |
      | **       |  ********  |
      +----------+------------+

