NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navigation "simplified". was: Buckley the Navigator
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2008 Mar 10, 02:50 -0400
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2008 Mar 10, 02:50 -0400
Dan Allen, you wrote: "What I object to is the Dummies perspective of "you are a dummy -- an idiot -- and so we will dumb things down for you". Typically that approach keeps things basic for too long." Sure. I agree that this can happen. I guess I didn't make my point. I don't want to belabor, but I'll take one more stab. Those "for dummies" covers are a sort of a JOKE. They're not really "dumbed down" any more so than any other straight-forward introductory textbook. In fact, they're just streamlined introductions to the topic of hand, and in general I have been impressed by the quality: well-written, thoughtfully organized, and just plain useful at a practical level. But by titling them "for dummies", many customers are disarmed, and that is the key. They think, 'well heck, I can deal with that'. So they buy the goofy yellow book entitled "XYZ for Dummies" instead of the rather more serious-sounding "Treatise on Introductory Concepts of XYZ". At some level, it's just marketing. At another level, it's a magic trick... a Jedi mind trick (if you'll pardon the pop-culture ref), where you persuade the student that they can do XYZ by conning them into thinking that 'any dummy can do XYZ'. That's all. -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
