The easy way out.

There are two techy-based ways of doing things that people (including myself) think are easier than the original ways: taking a web course (as opposed to face to face classes) and books-on-CD (as opposed to paper).

Everyone thinks web courses are easier since you don’t have to physically sit through class. . . Wrong. It just means that you have to put forth all the effort in organizing yourself, something that is normally done with weekly meetings. Sure you get to do your classes in your time, according to your schedule, but it does take some dedication. If I could, I’d take my library courses face to face. The online ones are great, but no matter how much support, how much chat or how much discussion the class entails you inevitably feel like you are a student body of one.

Or maybe that’s just my natural isolationist policies kicking in.

Yesterday I drove 5 hours to a place, did something for work and drove back. It was a nice trip and worth while. I brought Freakonomics on CD along for the ride. For some reason I thought it would be the easy way to “read” the book. . . Wrong again. It took considerable cognitive load to keep up. They weren’t dishing up very heavy information, but just to follow the story I needed to concentrate. On the open highway that’s fine, but when I needed to think about navigating or when traffic got heavy I found myself pausing it. It wasn’t safe to do both at the same time.

This was my first experience with an audio book and I found it very enjoyable. It was an engaging book and well read by one of the authors so I was glad that I brought it along. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth checking out. The parts about the triple-K (you know who I mean) and sumo wrestling were particularly good.

I will probably give others a try while traveling. I think they will be less of a hassle during air travel. I always spend forever putting books away, taking them out and finding my place again during the dance that is modern air travel.