user since
Mon Nov 27 2000 at 00:35:37 (23.3 years ago )
last seen
Fri Aug 22 2008 at 21:37:26 (15.6 years ago )
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53 - View disarmed42's writeups (feed)
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5 (Crafter) / 1914
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comics, music
motto
I will only know my limits after I have exceeded them.
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Kraven's Last Hunt
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I read an interview with Tom Wolfe which mentioned a term that he had coined. Information compulsion is the name that the good Mr. Wolfe has given to the urge that people have to share little bits of knowledge with other people, things that the other person did not know1. Wolfe says that we do this in order to gain status with others, as a way of showing off how smart we are. I like to take a slightly more altruistic view regarding the compulsion; I like to think that when I share a bit of information with someone else, they are edified in some way. I think that's what E2's about though, really: A bunch of people indulging their information compulsions. I know that's why I poke around here. Every so often I stumble across some nugget of wisdom that makes me go, "Cool." And what more do you want from a website?

1. Am I the only one that finds it ironic that by coining such a term, Wolfe has just given someone with an information compulsion something else to tell other people about?