Do Democrats really want a House Minority Leader worth $100 Million?

[Fumesucker]

81. A couple of recent threads that touch on the issue of experience vs intellectual knowledge

"Do men understand rape?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026070209

And this one in particular.. "Hand to Mouth and the rationality of the poor"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016111336

I’ve long thought that the “marshmallow” experiment is nearly universally misunderstood: kids wait for the marshmallow for exactly as long as it makes sense to them to wait. If they’ve been brought up in an environment where delayed gratification pays off, and where the rules don’t change in the meantime, and where they trust a complete stranger to tell them the truth, they wait, and otherwise they don’t – why would they? But since the researchers grew up in places where it made sense to go to grad school, and where they respect authority and authority is watching out for them, and where the rules once explained didn’t change, they never think about those assumptions. They just conclude that these kids have no will power.

I'm also reminded of the old adage that in theory theory and practice are identical while in practice they are not.

For instance, take whatever it is that you do or have done for a living, would it be possible for someone who has never actually done that particular thing but studied the theory intensely to move into that job and things continue smoothly and without problem.