I have learned to avoid threads like this. As soon as I see a thread like this, I think: Oh, I'll stay away from this one, it will just eat up two hours while you think about it. Then I very tentatively open it, just for a peek, just so I won't miss anything, and then I see that it is started by Rick Fielding, so it must be worth considering. But I will still not post, or spend any time on it -- I have papers to grade, centuries of knowledge to expound, bureaucratic knots to work out. But it is an interesting question....I scribble a few thoughts. Many hours later, I am consumed by the meaning of "learning" -- What would it mean to say what I have learned any time, let alone on Mudcat....Then I am walking out in a beautiful iced over swamp, and am I contemplating eternal truths -- no, I am thinking, well, what have I learned....and so it goes. So the most important lesson I have learned is not to think about, or post on a thread like this.
yours, Peter T.