stuff i should write about

i was thinking the other day that there are all these random, disparate bits of knowledge i have gleaned from the world and my education, that i possess, a really odd collection.  stuff that when people ask me what i do, or what i studied, or (indirectly) what i know about, i have a hard time really bringing to the surface because i'm expected to talk about a specialty.  no one seems to value a good generalist anymore.  maybe that's my own self-criticism and doubt.  i dunno.  but part of me thinks i should write about what i know, and research the things i know enough about to be able to speak about them but not enough to write anything meaningful about.

i've been listening to a lot of "stuff you should know" lately, and i can tell that's basically what these guys are doing.  except in a lot of cases, they didn't know anything about the topic to begin with.  and there's also a limit to the scope and depth of their topics.  i have something of an interest in doing something similar to what they're doing, except i would like to sometimes go into even less depth, and pose thought experiments to myself and others, and in many other (probably most) cases, go into more depth, and start with something i have some pretty solid background in.  that is, stuff i studied in school.

i kind of want to compile a collection of the knowledge i have that i think is most interesting and important to the world we live in.  well, some of it interesting, some of it important, and some of it both.

i'll make myself a list of some of the topics that come to mind at first, with the intention of expanding this list as the ideas come to mind.  maybe i'll just email them to myself at a particular email address and whenever i sit down at a computer, i'll grab those additional topics and add them to this list?  well, we'll see if this writing idea even holds my interest long-term, first.

* multi-generational households
* socialization, importance to mental health
* greenest buildings are the ones already built
* historic preservation - old windows: keep them, repair them (despite what some repairfolk may say to you when they visit your home!)
* do toilets and showers really need to share the same physical space?
* do babies/children really need their own rooms (as long as they have space that is theirs)?  what is the necessity & value of privacy within the immediate family?  what are the limits of that?  is this a modern construct?  if so, what have we gained &/or lost as a result?
* the value of knowing your neighbors
* mixed income neighborhoods (and apartment buildings)
* pseudoscience, citing freud all the damn time (stop for fuck's sake), and reasonable use by laypeople of modern research... what can we legitimately expect of people?
* homelessness, mental illness, drug addiction: the revolving door
* why everyone should drink their own tap water
* creating incentives for learning (teachers to children, and students to themselves): the brain's reward system as it relates to seeking understanding and the resultant retention
* the case for shorter work weeks
* alcohol, why we as a culture aren't more aware of the effects (serotonin depletion, liver/insulin function & the diabetes link); how we seem to be oblivious to the social acceptability of binge drinking
* ADHD & stimulant medication: subjective experiences, how they are ignored in favor of compliant children; why they may *really* be depriving these kids of a full shot at an engaged childhood (anxiety, primarily)
* anxiety: deleterious effects, the many causes, the social acceptability of it, how reluctant we are to relax except in pre-planned sessions
* why we need more mixed-subject educations than people are likely to get in school nowadays
* what a job search and the job market in general ought to look like if employers want better matches for the positions they have open and if employees want to feel fulfilled in their jobs
* an argument in favor of an approach other than just passing or failing -- what if, instead, students who didn't absorb the knowledge & abilities of a course the first time around, just tried again, without penalty, because in some cases people take longer to "get" certain things, and not always because they are destined forever to be "bad at" those things.  in this system, there would also be a much higher level of mastery required to move on.  you can't "pass" a class, you have to master the subject matter.  i don't want my dentist to have retained a random 70% of what they learned in school, for instance.  i want them to know, backwards and forwards, everything they do.  i don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to keep working at something until they've "got it"; we do this in on-the-job learning all the time.  problem is, we can't expect employers to give us this opportunity for trial and error.  we really should be doing more of this in school.
* small footprints, physically and in terms of consumption and energy usage
* economies of scale (why don't more people understand this principle?  so many well-meaning and good-hearted folks make really terrible arguments just due to a lack of understanding of something that doesn't even require any economics education, just applying a bit of common sense!  it makes me cringe!)
* why are we suddenly only able to find acrylic/latex paint for painting walls & such?  they may be "water based" but they are made with petroleum byproducts.  what is so bad about a vegetable oil-based paint, where linseed (flax) oil is the base instead?  why have people suddenly got this idea that oil-based somehow has something to do with petroleum?  it's the opposite.  and what's worse is of course that oil-based paint is a superior and more durable product.  ugh.
* dust in the home - not just dirt and dander; a lot of it is your furniture and clothing shedding small fibers
* air quality indoors and out, misconceptions, and why people should be opening their windows more often