Josh – 1

On Friday, January 17, I explored the matrix from 8:25 PM until 10:10 PM. I was home, in my living room, by myself. I clicked on the following links, and spent at least five minutes each in the ones marked with an asterisk (*): AE, BL, CC*, EL*, FY, GA*, HY*, KK, LP, QQ, RM*, SU, TM and ZB*. Altogether, I clicked on 14 links, and spent at least five minutes in six of them.

To my surprise, this turned out to be kind of fun. Some of the links were more interesting than others, and I was actually offended by some of what I saw at the KK link and clicked away from that one pretty quickly, but most of them were eye-opening, and I think I’ll probably go back and explore more of the links when I can find the time.

The first thing I learned about myself was that I’m not as smart as I think I am. It was kind of amazing to me how much I don’t know about the world. I didn’t realize, for example, that languages can die – and are dying. It’s sad to think that something as basic to human beings as language can fade away. It’s important for me to know this because, if I think I’m the smartest person in the world, I don’t pay as much attention to the world, because it really doesn’t have much to teach me. When I realize and remember that I’m not as smart as I think I am, I’ll keep my eyes and ears more open … and that means that I’ll be more likely to learn more things that matter. For the rest of the semester, I promise to click on at least two more links a week for at least five minutes each, so that I can continue to learn more about the world I live in.

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Josh - 2

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF

1. I’m not as smart as I think I am.