I should be focusing on a proposal I have to submit today and designing an innovative ethnographic approach to researching latent and future needs and expectations from automotive service, but I find myself distracted and lacking inspiration. And I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of another kind. I was in Bangalore on work and met up with a cousin who has young kids in school. We were talking about how they are being taught and how they learn. Although both parents are heavy users of the internet, she said to me she wants to keep her kids away from it for as long as possible because she's rather have them learn, synthesize and remember, than just provide them with the access to gain the knowledge. I'm a firm believer in the 'magic' of the web in it's natural ability in providing us new avenues to learn and serendipitous discovery. And in the power of communities like Twitter that really help us grow as we share and learn together.
 And yet, my cousin's comment bothered me as I found myself telling a friend just last night that there are several mashups around Twitter. His immediate question to me was, name 10 - and I found myself at a loss. But in a few seconds I could provide him with a full list from the Twitter Fan Wiki. I felt a little embarrassed about the fact that I had not bothered to remember even a few!!! Similarly with a recent statistic on the future of mobile social networking - I knew I had read it but I had not remembered the exact statistic. It took a little Googling to find it. Searched. Found. Forgot. This bothers me.
 As this happened, I put the question up at Twitter last night: "what's better - access to knowledge or having the knowledge? i find often i have access & don't bother to remember stuff. Not good!"
Here are some responses (read bottom-up):
I love the rap on knowledge, synthesis, wisdom and learning! What bothers me most is while the web is hugely useful in helping us in "learning to learn", how much of this, as Gautam and @weaverluke suggest is being synthesized and allowed to transform into wisdom?
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