"This essay is not written for a reader" - I am an avid fan of things not written to meet with a reader's eyes because fundamentally that is an impossibility. The author is always the first reader, apart from the first molder and history-keeper of the text. Imparting that quarantine gives me a little sadness, but I take comfort in that whatsoever has been written thus far in the tangle of history has been fully read, for it was written.
I'd disagree with your biology teacher. I think being hardworking itself is a trait of intelligence (reminds me of those Malory Towers girls...) It shows you have stock of your capabilities and your lacks. Self-awareness and self-correction is where it's at. To be honest, and I am sure you have heard some variation of this from our other friends, it is because of this stubborn attitude of yours that propped you as the paragon and model of academic intelligence in comparison to us rascals who opened (and to some extent, still do open) our textbooks and note-pages the blessed day before the exam. Not all of us made it to distinction. The other day SP comically said if you consider yourself dumb (sic) then there's no hope for the rest of us.
The cincher, the punchline, the joke on our blunted heads is that to work smarter you do in fact have to work harder. There is no shortcut to knowing, despite mnemonics, mind palaces, bookmarks, well-organized webpage inventories et al., so good luck to us all, intelligent or not.
There are philosophic truths here. You are right: after a point, it was impossible for me to write without having in mind a faceless Reader. It heartens me to be able to see that the business mantra of "smart work" is not as smart as it sounds. Your encouragement will get this stubborn old slogger to slog on without bothering too much about shtupid quantifications of whatever seems to arise out that coiled mess in our skulls.
"This essay is not written for a reader" - I am an avid fan of things not written to meet with a reader's eyes because fundamentally that is an impossibility. The author is always the first reader, apart from the first molder and history-keeper of the text. Imparting that quarantine gives me a little sadness, but I take comfort in that whatsoever has been written thus far in the tangle of history has been fully read, for it was written.
I'd disagree with your biology teacher. I think being hardworking itself is a trait of intelligence (reminds me of those Malory Towers girls...) It shows you have stock of your capabilities and your lacks. Self-awareness and self-correction is where it's at. To be honest, and I am sure you have heard some variation of this from our other friends, it is because of this stubborn attitude of yours that propped you as the paragon and model of academic intelligence in comparison to us rascals who opened (and to some extent, still do open) our textbooks and note-pages the blessed day before the exam. Not all of us made it to distinction. The other day SP comically said if you consider yourself dumb (sic) then there's no hope for the rest of us.
The cincher, the punchline, the joke on our blunted heads is that to work smarter you do in fact have to work harder. There is no shortcut to knowing, despite mnemonics, mind palaces, bookmarks, well-organized webpage inventories et al., so good luck to us all, intelligent or not.
There are philosophic truths here. You are right: after a point, it was impossible for me to write without having in mind a faceless Reader. It heartens me to be able to see that the business mantra of "smart work" is not as smart as it sounds. Your encouragement will get this stubborn old slogger to slog on without bothering too much about shtupid quantifications of whatever seems to arise out that coiled mess in our skulls.