An Idea I Had

[ParadiceCity9]

I kinda figured out that I have a problem with professions that do no good for mankind, like a professional athlete. I'm cool with sports, but if you're gonna do it, at least do something science-related too to actually do something good.
Oh and while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

[got tonkaed]

its hard to believe theres a single profession that doesnt provide a good for mankind. Even something that perhaps is understood to be less useful, like professional athletics, provides social cohesion and helps to prop up the consumerism that is the essential quality of most modern urban industrial societies. While it may not be the most useful thing there is, determining utility is an inexact job at best.

[Nickbaldwin]

Professional athletes are useful in the sense that they're people for the youth to look up to and be inspired by. They help kids get fit by providing an example of how they could be and they get kids into sport.

[JACKAZZTJM]

fictional novels arent pointless to me i read them for my enjoyment

[Fircoal]

its hard to believe theres a single profession that doesnt provide a good for mankind. Even something that perhaps is understood to be less useful, like professional athletics, provides social cohesion and helps to prop up the consumerism that is the essential quality of most modern urban industrial societies. While it may not be the most useful thing there is, determining utility is an inexact job at best.

QFT, except I must say that killing jobs (like hunters, and military jobs) are the lowest on their use to mankind.

[InkL0sed]

It wouldn't exist if it didn't have a point.

Even if that point was to have no point.

[jonesthecurl]

I kinda figured out that I have a problem with professions that do no good for mankind, like a professional athlete. I'm cool with sports, but if you're gonna do it, at least do something science-related too to actually do something good.
Oh and while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

...pointless thngs:
Playing online boardgames...
posting to Chatter Box...
Replying to a lame subject like this...

[Hologram]

its hard to believe theres a single profession that doesnt provide a good for mankind. Even something that perhaps is understood to be less useful, like professional athletics, provides social cohesion and helps to prop up the consumerism that is the essential quality of most modern urban industrial societies. While it may not be the most useful thing there is, determining utility is an inexact job at best.

QFT, except I must say that killing jobs (like hunters, and military jobs) are the lowest on their use to mankind.

Well, hunters are descended from when we actually had to kill for food (not just slaughter dumb, helpless animals, actual hunting), and most hunters still eat their kills, which allows us to reallocate food to those who don't hunt, therefore increasing the food supply.

Soldiers and the art of war are a by-product of nationalism, which encourages self-improvement, at least on the national level, which can arguably be said to better humanity in some way or another. I'm not saying that it's the best way to go about the betterment of humanity, but that's the way we do it.

[Jenos Ridan]

Oh and while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

You miserable troglodyke!

[MeDeFe]

Oh and while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

You miserable troglodyke!

It's 'troglodyte', actually, unless you're trying to convey that PC is a lesbian who lives in a cave.

[Dancing Mustard]

while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

Congratulations, your brain is defective.

[Snorri1234]

Not every random thought that pops up in your head is worthy of a thread...

[reminisco]

while I'm here I might as well say that I think reading fictional novels is the most pointless thing there is.

Congratulations, your brain is defective.

to address this without any element of hilarity -- honestly, novels have, throughout history, not just been vehicles for entertainment, but also in many cases, valuable historic documents of specific times and places, not to mention a method for understanding the world around us and the people in it.

so much of the non-fiction publishing market is filled with drivel worse than fiction -- dominated by designer diets and self-help books written by self-proclaimed experts.

in fact, if anyone wants to read a hilarious and brilliant parody of said market, check out John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise, amazon link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Areas-My-Expertis ... 438&sr=8-1

when the book first came out, it was available as a free audiobook download from iTunes, with Hodgman doing the reading himself. that was my first exposure to the wonderful tome, but after listening to it, i just had to buy a hard copy.