Tom Nichols Quotes

It is a new Declaration of Independence: No longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true. All things are knowable and every opinion on any subject is as good as any other.

Never have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything

But science is a process, not a conclusion. Science subjects itself to constant testing by a set of careful rules under which theories can only be displaced by better theories.

Writing is listening to Tom Waits and wanting to be the literary equivalent. Writing is ending up as the literary equivalent of Bananarama.

Plugging words into a browser window isn't research: it's asking questions of programmable machines that themselves cannot actually understand human beings.

You know what writing is? Writing is sitting on a chair staring into space. Writing is two hours surfing the internet and five minutes typing. Writing is skim-reading ‘writing advice’ on websites and muttering ‘fuck off’ under your breath. Writing is looking at your friends’ success and muttering ‘fuck off’ under your breath. Writing is reading over what you’ve written and thinking you’re a genius. Writing is reading over what you’ve written and shouting ‘fuck you’ at the screen. Writing is £3500 college courses after which you pursue a career in telemarketing. Writing is something you either fucking do or you fucking don’t. Writing is listening to Tom Waits and wanting to be the literary equivalent. Writing is ending up as the literary equivalent of Bananarama. Writing is forty publishers saying you do not meet our needs at this time. Writing is meeting no one’s needs at any time. Writing is completing 2000 words one morning and weeping about never being able to write again the next. Writing is losing a whole day’s work to a decrepit Dell laptop. Writing is never having the time to write and never writing when you have the time. Writing is having one idea and coasting on that for months until another one comes along. Writing is never having any ideas. Writing is sitting at a bus stop and having four million ideas and not having a notebook to hand. Writing is laughing at the sort of people who keep notebooks on them at all times as if they are proper writers. Writing is reading. Writing is reading. Writing is reading. Writin’ is fightin’. Writing is writing.

The new system created by Goldwater-Nichols was not universally popular in the Pentagon, but the people in the field loved it.

Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise, argues that the world has become so complex that the average person doesn’t understand how things work, feels helpless, and comes to resent experts. And with endless information just a click away, people think they can find out the truth for themselves and dispense with the experts. Never mind that it might take a true expert to successfully “navigate through a blizzard of useless or misleading garbage” that proliferates on the internet. So when it came to vaccines, though most people rejoiced at this marvel of human ingenuity, a significant part of the population rejected the advice of experts. They felt uncomfortable about a vaccine produced so quickly and with such a novel technique.

Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything. It is a new Declaration of Independence: no longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true.

«То, что все мы сейчас ощущаем – это постоянное давление, заставляющее нас владеть достаточной информацией, всегда, иначе нас назовут культурно безграмотными. Чтобы мы могли выдержать мини-презентацию, деловое совещание, посещение офисной кухни, коктейльную вечеринку. Чтобы мы могли оставлять посты, твиты, чаты, комментарии, тексты, доказывая тем самым, что мы вроде как видели, читали, смотрели, слушали. То, что значимо для нас, утопает в петабайтах информации. И нам вовсе необязательно потреблять этот контент из первых рук. Достаточно лишь знать, что он существует – выразить свое мнение по этому вопросу и суметь поучаствовать в беседе на эту тему. Мы подходим опасно близко к созданию поддельной осведомленности, которая в действительности является новой моделью невежества». Karl Taro Greenfield, “Faking Cultural Literacy,” New York Times онлайн, 24 мая 2014.

He was almost at his door when Vik’s earsplitting shriek resounded down the corridor. Tom was glad for the excuse to sprint back toward him. “Vik?” He reached Vik’s doorway as Vik was backing out of it. “Tom,” he breathed, “it’s an abomination.” Confused, Tom stepped past him into the bunk. Then he gawked, too. Instead of a standard trainee bunk of two small beds with drawers underneath them and totally bare walls, Vik’s bunk was virtually covered with images of their friend Wyatt Enslow. There were posters all over the wall with Wyatt’s solemn, oval face on them. She wore her customary scowl, her dark eyes tracking their every move through the bunk. There was a giant marble statue of a sad-looking Vik with a boot on top of its head. The Vik statue clutched two very, very tiny hands together in a gesture of supplication, its eyes trained upward on the unseen stomper, an inscription at its base, WHY, OH WHY, DID I CROSS WYATT ENSLOW? Tom began to laugh. “She didn’t do it to the bunk,” Vik insisted. “She must’ve done something to our processors.” That much was obvious. If Wyatt was good at anything, it was pulling off tricks with the neural processors, which could pretty much be manipulated to show them anything. This was some sort of illusion she was making them see, and Tom heartily approved. He stepped closer to the walls to admire some of the photos pinned there, freeze-frames of some of Vik’s more embarrassing moments at the Spire: that time Vik got a computer virus that convinced him he was a sheep, and he’d crawled around on his hands and knees chewing on plants in the arboretum. Another was Vik gaping in dismay as Wyatt won the war games. “My hands do not look like that.” Vik jabbed a finger at the statue and its abnormally tiny hands. Wyatt had relentlessly mocked Vik for having small, delicate hands ever since Tom had informed her it was the proper way to counter one of Vik’s nicknames for her, “Man Hands.” Vik had mostly abandoned that nickname for “Evil Wench,” and Tom suspected it was due to the delicate-hands gibe. Just then, Vik’s new roommate bustled into the bunk. He was a tall, slim guy with curly black hair and a pointy look to his face. Tom had seen him around, and he called up his profile from memory: NAME: Giuseppe Nichols RANK: USIF, Grade IV Middle, Alexander Division ORIGIN: New York, NY ACHIEVEMENTS: Runner-up, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition IP: 2053:db7:lj71::291:ll3:6e8 SECURITY STATUS: Top Secret LANDLOCK-4 Giuseppe must’ve been able to see the bunk template, too, because he stuttered to a stop, staring up at the statue. “Did you really program a giant statue of yourself into your bunk template? That’s so narcissistic.” Tom smothered his laughter. “Wow. He already has your number, man.” Vik shot him a look of death as Tom backed out of the bunk.

Колледжи стали заложниками студентов, которые требуют, чтобы их чувства были превыше всех остальных соображений. Они, несомненно, убеждены в своем праве требовать этого, потому что привыкли так жить, в терапевтической культуре, которая не оставляет ни одной невысказанной мысли и ни одного невыраженного чувства.

Глубоко укоренившиеся и обычно неизменные взгляды пользователей Интернета стали основой "закона Поммера", гласящего, что под влиянием Интернета, человек, у которого не было мнения по какому-то предмету, приобретает только неверное мнение по нему.

Самая главная проблема мгновенной коммуникации в том, что она мгновенная. И хоть Интернет позволяет общаться гораздо большему количеству людей - это однозначно новые исторические условия - возможность мгновенного общения любого человека с любым другим не всегда хорошая идея. Иногда людям нужно взять паузу и поразмышлять, дать себе время осмыслить информацию и переварить ее. Вместо этого Интернет становится ареной, где люди могут реагировать, не думая.

Используйте источники, представляющие разные точки зрения. Разнообразьте свой рацион. Вы же не станете весь день есть одно и то же. А потому не используйте одни и те же источники медиа весь день. (...) Избегайте местечковости: попробуйте источники из разных стран, так как в них часто встречаются материалы или взгляды, о которых американцы даже не догадываются.

the defense of knowledge is integral to the defense of democracy.

An uninformed judgement, even when right, is often less useful than a reasoned view, even when wrong, that can then be dissected, examined, and corrected.

Expertise is not a parlor trick played with factoids.

Online debates become personal, emotional, and irresolvable almost as soon as they begin.

В настоящее время Соединенные Штаты - страна, зацикленная на преклонении перед собственным невежеством. (...) Мы гордимся своим незнанием.

В настоящее время уровень фундаментальных знаний среднестатистического американца так упал, что он пробил границу "невежественного человека", прошел черту "неверно информированного", а теперь катится в сторону "агессивно заблуждающегося". Люди не просто верят глупостям, они активно сопротивляются процессу познания и не хотят отказываться от своих неверных убеждений.

Американцы сейчас уверены в том, что обладание равными правами в политической системе также означает, что мнение каждого человека по любому вопросу должно считаться равнозначным любому другому.

Соединенные Штаты - это республика, в которой люди уполномочивают других принимать решения от их имени. Эти избранные представители не могут справляться со всеми вопросами и обращаются за помощью к экспертам и профессионалам. В противоположность мнению большинства людей, эксперты и политики - это разные люди. (...) Эксперты советуют. Избранные лидеры принимают решения.

Американцы уже больше не видят разницы между фразами "ты ошибаешься" и "ты глуп". Не соглашаться равносильно проявлению неуважения. Исправить другого значит оскорбить. А если ты отказываешься признать, что все точки зрения достойны рассмотрения, вне зависимости от того, насколько они фантастичны или безумны, значит ты зашоренный.

У каждого из нас есть врожденная и естественная склонность искать подтверждение тому, во что мы уже верим.

Американскую культуру в особенности привлекает идея талантливого самоучки (противостоящего, скажем, экспертам и элитам), который может бросить вызов целым правительствам – и даже еще более крупным организациям – и победить.

Новая культура образования в Соединенных Штатах заключается в том, что каждый человек обязательно должен поступить в колледж. Данные культурные изменения важны для гибели экспертного знания, так как по мере того, как учебные программы разрастаются, отвечая запросам потребителей, школы становятся лжеуниверситетами, чьи дипломы свидетельствуют больше о подготовке, чем об обучении – два совершенно разных понятия, которые все больше сливаются в общественном сознании. В худшем случае дипломы не подтверждают ни обучение, ни подготовку, а только посещение. А порой и вовсе свидетельствуют лишь о своевременно вносимой плате за обучение.

There are signs of hope, even if they are small and inconstant. Illiberal populists, as it turns out, are pretty lousy at governing, especially during a crisis that demands a steady and stoic engagement with science. In the United States, in particular, voters saw a mismanaged pandemic become a politicized catastrophe that eventually inflicted a 9/11-level death toll almost every day, and as of this writing has killed more Americans than combat in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam combined.

But if I am certain of anything, it is that it is well within our power as citizens to return to a more civic and more confident democratic life, if we so choose. We do not have to remain slaves to our anger and our fears. We do not have to destroy our own traditions and institutions out of rage and resentment. We do not have to live this way. That is why I wrote this book.

Americans now think of democracy as a state of actual equality, in which every opinion is as good as any other on almost any subject under the sun. Feelings are more important than facts: if people think vaccines are harmful, or if they believe that half of the US budget is going to foreign aid, then it is "undemocratic" and "elitist" to contradict them.

When resentful laypeople demand that all marks of achievement, including expertise, be leveled and equalized in the name of "democracy" and "fairness", there is no hope for either democracy or fairnes. Everything becomes a matter of opinion, with all views dragged to the lowest common denominator in the name of equality.

the death of someone close to us – changes us,’ I say slowly. ‘Maybe it makes us different, rather than the people around us.

read somewhere once that grief is like weather. As in: constantly changing, impossible to predict. You might be expecting clear skies but instead you get storm clouds. That seems about right. But I’m not sure how much longer I can go on, never knowing exactly when I’m going to get caught in the pouring rain.

That’s the problem when someone dies: there are no right answers. Every option is the wrong one.

Things don’t happen without a bit of effort, Will. Things happen because you make them happen. You know?

political commentator Tom Nichols described “the death of expertise,” a condition of the internet era in which the free availability of information and the ease with which individuals can express their viewpoint result in an intellectual free-for-all.

Knowing things is not the same as understanding them. Comprehension is not the same thing as analysis. Expertise is not a parlor game played with factoids.

This is erudition in the age of cyberspace: You surf until you reach the conclusion you're after. You click your way to validation, confusing the presence of a website with the plausibility of an argument.

When citizens placed on equal footing are all closely seen by one another, they are constantly brought back to their own reason as the most obvious and proximate source of truth. It is not only confidence in this or that man which is destroyed, but the disposition to trust the authority of any man whatsoever.

TOM STOPPARD: It was the most wrenching bereavement I can ever remember experiencing. I’m not reconciled to it yet. You just want to carry on thinking he’s up there high on the East Side, going into the Met, and going downtown to see a play.

More important and more relevant to the death of expertise, how ever, is that conspiracy theories are deeply attractive to people who have a hard time making sense of a complicated world and who have no patience for less dramatic explanations. Such theories also appeal to a strong streak of narcissism: there are people who would choose to believe in complicated nonsense rather than accept that their own circumstances are incomprehensible, the result of issues beyond their intellectual capacity to understand, or even their own fault.