Those who make a distinction between education and entertainment don't know the first thing about either. — Marshall McLuhan ( via the movement-sig fortune cookies' collection )

( Marshall McLuhan. )

McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher who coined the term "global village" and predicted the Web (WWW) almost 30 years before its invention (which in turn was a while before it became popular).

Both education and entertainment were known by various names throughout human history:

• Philosophy (especially amateur philosophy)

• Science

• Art

• Aesthetics

• Fun, Joy.

• Academia, scholastics

• Love, pleasure.

• It is possible yada` (ידע; = "to know") in ancient Hebrew, meant "to educate / to entertain" and involves pleasure, but sometimes pain too, and was mutual, and always spawns [possibly invisible] baby angels. If learning makes you bored or indifferent, it likely is not effective.

  ( @shlomif Tweet )

I think before the Internet/social media were a thing, people did amateur philosophy / entertainment / education / art - with their peers, even if limited to sports / food / Members of the appropriate sex.

( @shlomif (= me) tweet. )

I think I have learnt more from Internet forums (especially interactive, realtime chat, ones), than I did from Project Euler which I favourably compared to the Technion. I also attribute a lot of ideas and inspiration from them.

For more information, see:

1. Why "let's Remove net access to avoid distractions" is bad.

2. "The Machines That Can Give You Questions"

3. "I learned a lot from my teachers, and from my friends more than my teachers, and from my pupils the most."

4. xkcd: "11th Grade"

   
   

   [Above a bar graph:]

   11th-grade activities:

   [The y-axis is labeled:]

   Usefulness to career success

   [Above the x-axis are two small bars and one huge bar. Below the x-axis, each bar is labeled:]

   900 hours of classes

   400 hours of homework

   One weekend messing with Perl

   Hover text: And the ten minutes striking up a conversation with that strange kid in homeroom sometimes matters more than every other part of high school combined.

5. My YouTube comment for the student film titled "The Student Bride". I feel that that film satirises and criticises the contemporary American college student life by showing how ridiculous the film The Princess Bride (which is regarded as a modern masterpiece) will be when adapted to be set there.