The Portable Professor series

I don't like the term "monetizing time."

It's one of those unfortunate, sad terms that you still hear from time to time, and though I understand (or think I do) what the writer's trying to say, it simply isn't true, because contrary to the popular American expression, time isn't money, so you can't "monetize" it. You can only hope to make good use of it.

And incidentally, goofing off is sometimes a very good use of time. But I digress.

I do a lot of driving with my work. And while I like to drive, I also like to learn, and I've sought to find ways to use that time for learning. One I've recently discovered is the Portable Professor series, available from Barnes and Noble.

I bought one to try it out: Foundations of Western Thought. It's good.

Judging from the one I've been listening to so far, I think these are an improvement over those from The Teaching Company. The Teaching Company's stuff, while good, has a whiff of pomposity about them, and little things such as triumphalistic music intros and canned applause tracks at the beginning and end of lectures (as if Americans applauded when professors speak)are sort of silly, to be frank.