BEg2 chapter 10 leaning waaay into reading in to (such fun)

[Joseph Tracy]

More good stuff. Love the way you think through the motivations. Had a similar sense of it. There is also in my experience with nerds an inclination to answer the basic question with least effort or time spent; its almost competitive. So no hidden extras on this drive, no viruses, ok, safe.

> On Jan 1, 2022, at 2:17 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Maxine: What do I do, just plug it in my computer?”
> 
> Ziggy:  “Yaahh! No! Mom! you don’t know what’s on it. I know some kids at
> Bronx Science—let them check it out in the computer lab up there.”
> ….
> Maxine: So now your friends have seen it before I have.
> 
> Ziggy: They . . . uh, they don’t read that much, Mom. Nothing personal. A
> generational thing.”
> 
> 
> 
> Leading me to prolonged & prolix meditations & computations on the
> ramifications of that statement.
> 
> Fortunately they pack down considerably  (compression algorithm?)
> 
> Step one:
> It’s not exactly true. Novels still sell, eg.
> So I’m thinking Ziggy is oversimplifying based on the limits of Maxine’s
> need-to-know (a skill probably acquired before puberty, especially in the
> Big Apple)
> 
> 
> Side trip:
> Computer literacy is embedded in language literacy, but it may be becoming
> more like “language literacy is embedded in computer literacy.” Like
> language is the frosting & computer literacy is part of basic operational
> competence, ie, the cake.
> 
> 
> Step two:
> 
> Compare the hackers who try to get into hashslingrz who *definitely* intend
> reading what’s in there, & either face jail or getting tracked into hacking
> for The Company.
> 
> Whereas, Bronx Science’s earnest students are minding their own business.
> They’re preparing for a less nerve-racking interface with the powers that
> employ, which doesn’t involve unseemly interest in other people’s business.
> 
> 
> Note that Ziggy turns to Bronx Science public high school
> https://www.bxscience.edu/m/
> for this assistance.
> 
> A) presumably his private school peers aren’t grindstoning nerdishly, but
> preparing to be the leaders of tomorrow - if there are hackers amongst the
> Kugelblitz go-getters, Ziggy knows that those posh kids will not only read
> the shit but propagate it, profile it, and try to profit from it.
> 
> And B) Ziggy instantiates private school leadership ability by apparently
> having a network of amiable connections (probably not limited to Bronx
> Science) upon whom he can call
> 
> 
> Contemplating this obviously class-based distinction might ruffle Maxine,
> even though she sent him to Kugelblitz.
> 
> So he uses lossy compression & just sez, kids these  days don’t read.
> --
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