Talk:Isaac Asimov/Archive 1

message: I think the Asimov quotes should be moved to the Wikiquote page for Asimov, with a link in the External links section. Ausir 18:30, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I added those back (perhaps the list should be shorter, though I'm happy with the current length). The reason is that wikiquote and the encyclopedia are different works and someone with a copy of the encyclopedia may not have a copy of wikiquote available (notably places like the school in South Africa which has an offline mirror of Wikipedia, or others with similar cost considerations or who just have only the encyclopedia CD or book). Linking to our related works for more information is good, removing things completely from here when they belong here, isn't. While most of us have excellent internet links, we do need to remember that the links aren't always as easy to follow as they are for us. Jamesday 21:36, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quotes 

message: "Took a Ph.D." seems like bad english, and usually you say what you got your doctoreate in philosophy in, i.e. a Ph.D. in economics, a Ph.D. in psychology etc.
As well I compiled a seemingly complete list of his works, if someone would like to format it also here: Isaac_Asimov_Complete_Bibliography . --ShaunMacPherson 20:27, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grammar gripe 

message: I believe I heard that Asimov had more words published than any other author in the English language.  Is this verifiably true?
*Bob Silverberg, another S.F. writer, probably rivals Isaac's word count, or exceeds it, as he wrote hundreds of semi-porn novels under various names, as well as other stuff that is basically unknown to his regular readers.  I've also read obits over the last 10 years of two or three other writers who were unknown to me but who wrote close to a thousand pulp novels in various fields.  It may well be that no one else has written as many serious words as Isaac, though....Hayford Peirce 20:01, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quantity of output 

message: Asimov was a reluctant member of mensa? Then he was almost certainly a "termite", one of the participants in Lewis Termans grand study of high-iq people. Lewis Terman never revealed their identities, but he revealed some of their occupations, and one was "a famous science-fiction writer". Couldn't really have been anyone else at that time, could it? This would also explain his membership in an organization he disliked. -- 158.38.141.11
:In his autobiography, he described them as intellectually combative - he was famous, so everyone decided to take a run at him. That's why he didn't enjoy it. →Raul654 13:25, Aug 24, 2004 (UTC)
:I was invited to a Mensa "party." Intellectually combative is an astute description of about 99% of the people I met there.  In fact the only guy there that I had any fun with roamed through the crowd and could often be heard saying (loudly) "I'm sooooo impressed." It was as if I had to prove to each and every one of them that I merited the invitation. I declined to join on those very grounds. I'm happy to hear that Isaac Asimov came up with such a succinct description of that bunch.
:Fantastic article by the way. Absolutely beautiful!--Wjbean 05:20, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Mensa

message: Anyone else think the comment on Asmiov learning how not to damage magazines that were to be sold in his
parents' shop is interesting enough to be re-included? (assuming it's true; not something I've
come across before). AdamW 12:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Turning pages carefully

message: I was surprised to see not one word about his public speaking.  It was apparently a large part of his professional life, if one is to believe the frequent allusions in his F&SF essays. Lefty 20:13, 2005 Mar 21 (UTC)
Good point. He was considered one of the best speakers for hire, and commanded enormous fees, once he learned that people would pay him for doing that.  He always spoke for free at any SF convention he attended, though. He considered it his obligation to the fans who had made him both rich and famous.  Maybe I'll dig out my sources and add that during fall break.  Astro jpc 19:32, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Public speaking

message: Quoting the article: "Isaac Asimov was a humanist and a rationalist. He did not oppose genuine religious conviction in others but was against superstitious or unfounded beliefs."
The linked-to article on superstition says that faith-based beliefs are superstitious, so this comment seems to be claiming that faith-based religion is not "genuine", and that religious belief should be based strictly on evidence. Surely that's far from NPOV?66.141.42.56 21:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It is not at all far from NPOV if Mr. Asimov said it himself. And since the article is about Mr. Asimov...--Wjbean 05:25, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Beliefs and politics

message: This article has too many categories. It becomes unweildy. I see that SimonP has put it into a :Category:Isaac Asimov which is a member of 3 other categories, and this is a good start to reducing the number. This could be taken further, by adding :Category:Isaac Asimov to a few more categories, but it isn't easy to see where to draw the line on this.-gadfium 03:38, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Categories

message: Substituted at 19:58, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment