Have you ever gone on social media to find something new and interesting only to be disappointed by a litany of quotes you were told were important in high school? Then you, my friend, have been invaded by quote miners. Quote miners post a lot of quotes from dead people, usually writers, but also actors, singers, religious figures, philosophers and politicians. It is a rather morbid activity when you think about it, riffling through the archives of some dead famous person to appear profound is probably the most extreme form of intellectual laziness out there. One wants the veneer of an intellectual when they engage in such activity; they want the appearance of intellectualism without having to put in the actual work of being an intellectual. They desire us all to tell them how wonderfully smart they are for reading books that are available for free at the public library or for next to nothing online. They really believe that we did not read John 3:16 just right yet, that, if we take yet another look at those same words, we will be able to really understand it this time. We are too stupid to have gotten it the first, second or tenth time around in the mind of a quote minder. But this time, now that it is on their social media page, we will surely understand. Quote miners are mostly unoriginal. They have no thoughts of their own or just do not find their own thoughts interesting enough to speak for themselves. Did someone else make them feel this way at some point? Maybe, but quote miners may just feel that they are inadequate in general. Meanwhile, quote mining is become less and less popular, mostly because people often misquote people when they quote mine. If you go on pinterest or twitter enough, you already know what I am talking about. Just how many statements have been attributed to iconic figures without them ever having said such things? We will never know for sure. There have been far too many times that Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson or Immanuel Kant have been invoked only for researchers to later state that they never said anything of the sort. In this way, quote mining actually works to harm history and education in general. I guess what I am getting at here is, there is no real use for quote mining. The whole reason people go on social media in the first place is to hear something different. They want to know you, not your personal library or, in most cases, lack thereof. Why would you want to get to know someone you must constantly impress with wise words anyway? Is that a genuine relationship, one where you must continuously impress people with your intellectual prowess? Is that friendship now? I hope not. I do not like to perform for people when I am offstage. I do not even care to impress people when I am on stage. I am mostly up there for myself. That is the reason I do this show too. I am not trying to impress you. I am inviting you to get to know me. And, perhaps one day, you will feel comfortable enough to reach out and get to know me. I really hope that happens one day. But I am not going to force it. You don't have to like me. You know, a guy I knew once said, "if you don't feel like quoting a dead person, create something they would've enjoyed". And, oh yeah, that guy I once knew. That was me. I still know him, but he's changed quite a bit, and, dare I say, for the better.