Dickens
Article
Dickens is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between August 18, 2022 and May 23, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “most 35 year old writers aren’t Shakespeare or Dickens”; “If someone has never heard of Chaucer, Dickens, Melville, Twain, or Joyce”. It most often appears alongside Shakespeare, 1984, 1984 Calendar Meme.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: August 18, 2022
- Last seen: May 23, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- Shakespeare (2 shared issues)
-
- 1984 (1 shared issues)
-
- 1984 Calendar Meme (1 shared issues)
-
- 9-11 (1 shared issues)
-
- ACX (1 shared issues)
-
- Ahab (1 shared issues)
-
- Airstrip One (1 shared issues)
-
- Auschwitz (1 shared issues)
-
- Baby’s First Hebrew Word Book (1 shared issues)
-
- Big Brother (1 shared issues)
-
- Big Brother (1 shared issues)
-
- Britain (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
A natural objection is that maybe they’ve maxed out their writing ability; further practice won’t help. But this can’t be true; most 35 year old writers aren’t Shakespeare or Dickens, so higher tiers of ability must be possible. But you can’t get there just by practicing more. If acheivement is a function of talent and practice, at some point returns on practice decrease near zero.
Education isn’t just about facts. But it’s partly about facts. Facts are easy to measure, and they’re a useful signpost for deeper understanding. If someone has never heard of Chaucer, Dickens, Melville, Twain, or Joyce, they probably haven’t learned to appreciate great literature. If someone can’t identify Washington, Lincoln, or either Roosevelt, they probably don’t understand the ebb and flow of American history. So what facts does the average American know?