24th October 2011, 09:33 PM
P Prentice Wrote:if we are only writing this boring stuff for each other we wont have a future
our purpose needs to be more than maintaining employment in an indifferent world
why should everybody else pay for us if we cant give them anything they can see as either interesting or useful (calling punters dumb if they dont get it - wont cut it)
there has to be an appreciation that we cant keep churning out endless reports that nobody will ever read or we are doomed (i tell ya - doomed)
and as for archives - there is no future there for dead sure
This just sounds like dumb down to justify our existence...
Perhaps all those boring museum curators should allow punters to handle all the artefacts and replace the signs with ones reading 'old stuff' and stop 'doing things properly' because it's only for their own benefit and the benefit of visiting museum curators.
Perhaps universities should add juggling and fire eating to every course just to liven it up a bit, after all what's the point of the the boring fusty gits teaching properly.
Perhaps all books should be forced to have a one page summary, to make it easy for everyone.
The point of these reports is not to change the world, or entertain, it is to present the results of the work for future reference. Some will be a bit boring, some might be quite interesting, some will initially appear boring only for their importance to become apparent later, some will languish in an archive somewhere before being rediscovered. If archaeologists don't realise this then we loose our very purpose and we are certainly doomed.