Few people know how much you have to know in order to know how little you know. Credit: Walter Ong Comment: This phrase highlights the paradox of knowledge: the more we learn, the more we become aware of the vastness of what we don’t know. It reflects a deep intellectual humility, where gaining expertise in … Continue reading How Little You Know Walter Ong
Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness and never more than when they affect the word. Credit: Walter Ong Comment: This quote suggests that technologies, especially those related to language and communication, don’t just serve as external tools but fundamentally shape human consciousness and perception from within. It highlights how … Continue reading Technologies Are Not Mere Exterior Aids Walter Ong
Written words are residue. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit … Though words are grounded in oral speech, writing tyrannically locks them into a visual field forever. A literate person, asked to think of the word ‘nevertheless’, will normally (and I strongly suspect always) have some image, at least vague, of the spelled-out … Continue reading Written Words Are Residue Walter Ong
Why Face-to-face Interaction Matters ** Friends with Cognitive Benefits Close Pop-up all posts in this chapter What’s the Vibe? Please be patient as this may take up to a minute to load… Close Before the widespread use of writing, oral communication was the primary method of sharing knowledge and culture in society. This oral tradition … Continue reading Orality ** The practice of transmitting knowledge, culture, and traditions through spoken language