Re: Latin and other irrelevant topics

["Pat Rogers" <progers@NOclasswideSPAM.com>]

"Brian Rogoff" <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com> wrote in message
news:Pine.BSF.4.21.0101262056580.20133-100000@shell5.ba.best.com...

<snip>

> Personally, I'd much rather spend time studying math than studying Latin;
> the latter seems a waste of time, like being forced to read Shakespeare.
> De gustibus non est disputandum. ;-)

IMHO reading Shakespeare is one of the most valuable things a human being
can do.  Why?  Because we are emotional as well as intellectual creatures.
Sure, maths may be more applicable in our technical activities, but the
number of technical people I know who have either a) never been able to have
a serious relationship, or b) couldn't make the ones they have had last for
any length of time, suggest that having some knowledge of how emotions work
would have saved them serious hardship.  While that information may be
available in psychology classes (or Machiavelli's "The Prince":), I'd rather
read Shakespeare's prose.  If there is anything about the human condition
worth saying, he has said it, and said it better than anyone else.

---
Patrick Rogers                       Consulting and Training in:
http://www.classwide.com        Real-Time/OO Languages
progers@classwide.com          Hard Deadline Schedulability Analysis
(281)648-3165                          Software Fault Tolerance