I don't understand

[benlehman]

The amount of flack I've gotten for wanting to teach about Forge theory without arguing about it. Do people not understand the difference between a polemic and a teaching text? Or do the simply not recognize the latter as having any value?

Feh.

Comments

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Also, people are bad at listening. Many of us have trained ourselves or been trained to automatically jump on the first little bit we disagree with or have counter-evidence for, in anything we hear.

I wonder if some of it may also be that people (whether by nature or training, I am not certain) treat teaching differently when it is coming from someone they perceive as being 'in authority' versus someone who they do not. I suspect there is too much of a tendancy to listen too uncritically to those we are told are authorities/in authority ('I must be wrong'), and too critically to those we think are equal or unproven compared to ourselves ('They must be wrong, or they don't know how things are different for me').

Do you have a teaching text on Forge theory? I feel the problems I've had with Forge theory come in large part from a dearth of people presenting it as something that can be taught (with admittedly occasional exceptions), and instead as something that must be pre-understood, or accepted axiomically, and that people who do not innately understand or accept the theory are fools or blind.

[funwithrage.livejournal.com]

Yes, very much so. It's something I've actually noticed in martial arts: if Master Daum asks if *that's* what I call a punch, I'll blush and apologize and correct the hell out of myself. If J. Random Green Belt does it, my first instinct is to go "No, this is," and beat the shit out of him. It's a thing I need to work on, and one which, I think, is pretty human.


And a basic text would be helpful: having mostly not been on Forge/RPG.net, I end up going "Huh?" a lot.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I am 2/3rds through a teaching text called "An introduction to Forge Theory" on my other blog -- http://benlehman.blogspot.com/

I'd be very happy to get feedback on it, although (given the above), I'd prefer feedback of the "I don't understand this" sort, rather than that "you are all wrong" sort. If you can say "you are all wrong" and actually say, coherently, why, then the essay has succeeded.

yrs--
--Ben

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll definitely check it out. Sadly, I have a tendancy to completely forget about non-LJ blogs these days, now that I have no personal list of them on my own page. I'll try to remember.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

There is a livejournal feed at thisismyblog, if you care to actually subscribe.

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Got it.