Why is the tendency to use overly vague generalizations so common? Chris Anderson and his concept of The Long Tail idea is useful here. As an example, instead of lumping blogs into an institution and referring to it in the singular, it is far more powerful to think of blogs as "a Long Tail, and (therefore) it is always a mistake to generalize about the quality or nature of content in the Long Tail—it is, by definition, variable and diverse."
What is misleading is that the head of a long tail composed of the most popular products based on common appeal but often the tail products by being specialized or uncompromising often have higher quality.
Using vague generalities seems to come from intellectual laziness in developing concise and precise definitions of specificities.
About Me
- Richard Meinhard
- I came up through the elementary and middle school teaching ranks in Iowa and California to land in degree programs at the U of California and U of I. My Ph.D. is in developmental psychology and cognitive systems theory. After teaching at the U of Portland in math and teacher ed, I began my own organization to bring research into the public schools. I also have worked for policy changes such as chartering that would open opportunities for change oriented educators.
