This is from Phil Runkel on 16 Aug 96.
On 14 Aug, Bruce Gregory wrote that it takes "a lot of reading to extract
even a few ideas worth having" about psychology or education. I deeply
sympathize. I hate to think of all the time I have spent after graduate
school (1955) gradually learning to eschew the literature. I hate to
think of all the time I have spent examining the latest "revolution" and
"breakthrough" and so on only to discover that an old thing was being
said in more fashionable words. (And I didn't want to make the mistake of
reading too few paragraphs, so I especially resented wasting the time I
spent being fair and careful.) Nowadays I am willing to risk missing the
GREAT BREAKTHROUGH. If I miss it at first publication, I am sure somebody
will tell me about it before long. In the meantime, I am confident that
the next great breakthrough will be, in effect, the discovery of Powers's
1973 book.