A library doesn't need windows. A library is a window.
Interpretation
A library serves as an opening to knowledge and imagination, rather than just a physical space.
In this quote, Stewart Brand emphasizes the idea that a library transcends its physical structure; it is not merely a collection of books but a gateway to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences. By likening a library to a window, he suggests that it offers insight and access to a world of information, fostering intellectual growth and creativity in individuals and society as a whole.
In practice
In a presentation about the importance of education, you could say, 'As Stewart Brand wisely noted, a library isn't just a building; it's a gateway to new worlds.'
On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.
The urgent finds you; you have to find the important. Importance is not fast. It is slow. It is not superficial. It is deep. And as a result, it's extremely powerful. When important matters go wrong, they undermine everything. When they go right, they sustain everything.
Science is the only news. When you scan a news portal or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same cyclical dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness; even the technology is predictable if you know the science behind it. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly
If we as a nation are to break the cycle of poverty, crime and the growing underclass of young people ill equipped to be productive citizens, we need to not only implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy, but we must also help those who have already given birth so that they become effective, nurturing, bonding parents.
We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
Helping people to connect with their personal creative capacities is the surest way to release the best they have to offer.
We have the most prolonged adolescence in the history of mankind. There is no other society that requires so many years to pass before people are grown up ... Adolescence is nurtured and prolonged by educational processes and by industry that has found a bonanza in embracing the adolescent population and fortifying 'adolescent values.' This prolongation of adolescence robs the country of the population group having the most risk takers, and the highest ideals.
We mistake being able to get lots of information from everywhere very quickly with actually getting knowledge.
For every fresh stage in our lives we need a fresh education, and there is no stage for which so little educational preparation is made as that which follows the reproductive period.
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