Many pursuits apparently fall under this purview: programming, economics, history, philosophy, english, physics, math (often called "mental weightlifting"), sociology, classics, engineering, college (esp. the liberal arts), grad school, law school, medical school, business school, multi-level marketing, neuro-linguistic programming, and chess, to name a few.
I'm not at all opposed to this idea and I do favor "raising the sanity waterline." But I'd like to see the claims evaluated more systematically against 1) how beneficial the most common alternative activity that the median person who would otherwise invest in these pursuits would be and 2) how beneficial the most useful alternative activity that the median person who would otherwise invest in these subjects could be.
Surely there is not enough time, given our current healthspans, to invest ourselves in all or even most of these activities. So, for those of us who do value good "thinking" skills, how should we choose?
(The above link anecdotes do not prove much, as it is possible to make nearly any point with a little google-fu, but I have read and heard this sort of statement repeated over and over to the point that it seems to me to be nigh-gospel. If anyone knows of a systematic way to determine whether these are commonly held beliefs, I'm all ears.)
I'm not at all opposed to this idea and I do favor "raising the sanity waterline." But I'd like to see the claims evaluated more systematically against 1) how beneficial the most common alternative activity that the median person who would otherwise invest in these pursuits would be and 2) how beneficial the most useful alternative activity that the median person who would otherwise invest in these subjects could be.
Surely there is not enough time, given our current healthspans, to invest ourselves in all or even most of these activities. So, for those of us who do value good "thinking" skills, how should we choose?
(The above link anecdotes do not prove much, as it is possible to make nearly any point with a little google-fu, but I have read and heard this sort of statement repeated over and over to the point that it seems to me to be nigh-gospel. If anyone knows of a systematic way to determine whether these are commonly held beliefs, I'm all ears.)
