This 1952 television broadcast at The Johns Hopkins University looked back, with dreary optimism, at Abraham Flexner‘s essay “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge”. Flexner’s essay appeared in the October 1939 issue of Harper’s magazine [you can download that essay here.] Recently, Brainpickings took an appreciative look at Flexner and his musings. Click on the image, […]
Tag: usefulness
Computer Usefulness, 1969 and Now
In 1969 a publishing executive wryly tallied up whether and how computers had helped his industry: “Pitfalls to Computer Use in Publishing and Communication,” Daniel Melcher, Journal of Business Communication, vol. 6, no. 2, Winter 1969, pp. 47-51. The author, chairman of the R.R. Bowker Company, says: Most large publishers now have computers; many small […]