[Prestidigitweeze]

One thing I'd be interested in knowing is whether people make any distinction between creative and polemical thinkers (which is not to say it's impossible for a thinker to be both).

Much as I love Dawkins and the author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, I wouldn't want to listen to either of them in the midst of a creative project because they're reacting to stupidity in the present and I'm trying to channel a pronounced lack of stupidity which (ideally) is timeless.

As necessary (and thankless) as Dawkins' mission might be, I wouldn't find his writing inspiring in a time in which people were not actually behaving like twits.

Also: To say that internet conversations are interchangeable with ones that occur face to face is to discount all of the esoteric aspects of our physical being. Nostalgia for printed books as opposed to ebooks is frequently ridiculous when the layout is superfluous and a simple flow of text is the only true medium. But personal interaction -- visual, auditory, emotional, visceral, even spiritual -- can be so complex and multifaceted that it can give participants what a forum exchange cannot.

Forums are tremendous resources, of course. Clearly, for people with our post counts to deny that would be hypocritical.

But for me to say that forums lack certain of the benefits of face-to-face interaction with brilliant people is not to undervalue those forums but to understand their limitations.

A forum exchange can be more exacting than a conversation in a bar and thus might be more useful to refer to in terms of (for example) diagnostic steps. But a bar conversation can inspire and validate participants in ways that help to fuel their work for a lifetime.

The Rivington School was a group of New York sculptors who met in bars, garages, galleries and studios. Once they stopped doing that, their school ceased to exist.

Imagine spending a New Year's Eve drinking with a few breathtakingly brilliant people. Now contemplate spending the next New Year's talking to those same people on Facebook while being physically alone. Which night is likely to yield more inspiring memories throughout your life?