tyranny of choice
I have to begin work on my dissertation now, which for those of you who are interested, is to be on that fascinating topic of Liberator Bombers in the Battle of the Atlantic. I know, I’m an anorak. But really – it is so interesting – did you know that with the introduction of only 40 of these bombers into the Atlantic theatre at the end of 1942 the whole balance of the campaign swung in the Allies favour. Which allowed them to seriously consider landings in France. Which led to the downfall of Hitler (or at least prevented the Soviets from doing it by themselves).Thousands of ships, Tens of thousands of deaths, and millions of tons in supplies lost, a lethal war of attrition fought for nearly three years with little hope that it would change - and then - hey presto!. Forty planes reallocated from a to b. Problem solved. War won.
A ‘tipping point’ if ever I saw one. Malcolm Gladwell would be proud of me. Possibly.
Cont...
posted by Benjamin Nakizo @ 2:11 pm
1 Comments:
But no. You see, this is the dilemma. It is a dissertation of 15,000 words. It has to be detailed in the extreme and has to provide a coherent argument that furthers the historiography. So surely I need to focus all my reading on this one, relatively narrow topic, I need to read everything and anything related to it. I must know this thing inside out.
Yet there is a whole world of exciting literature out there about all sorts of even cooler things, like theories on critical mass and the impact of India on world culture and markets – how can I possible discipline my maundering mind on just one topic – as interesting as it may be?
And of course, here is the true paradox - reading widely is good for you right? Healthy. It expands your horizons so to speak, gets you thinking about things you never normally would. So surely by reading widely I can only add to my overall dissertation because it will give me new angles from which to view it. Indeed, it was the ‘tipping point’ and other books like it that led me to look at the Battle of the Atlantic with an eye to finding the one pivotal change in the first place. But surely I need to stop messing around at the fringes, and get stuck into as much literature on my actual topic as possible, right? But will that make my work too narrow? Or will I be making it to wide if I continue to read heavily on other topics?
The horrors of being a nerd.
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