John, I agree with you that the law school workload can be stupefying and stupid-making. My experience has also been in line with those of you who feel pushed towards orthodoxy in legal thought. I think this has less to do with what and how much we are reading and more to do with how it is being taught. At first, this upset me. I felt stifled, and complained on this wiki and to anyone who would listen that law school was a distinctly anti-intellectual experience. I have changed my mind, however.

Yes, there is a lot to read. Sometimes class is boring. But the way I am thinking is changing, has changed, and I'm glad of it. Eben was right: we are learning a different language, and language acquisition is hard. Once you get it, though, the world opens up to you.

A story: I spent my junior year in high school living with a French family in a tiny town in Brittany. The first months were exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally. Then, all of a sudden, things started to slide into place in my mind. I'll never forget the first time I dreamed in French, and the feeling of euphoria in the morning. Magic!

I haven't felt quite that euphoria yet (something tells me euphoria is rather hard to come by round these parts), but I have felt things sliding into place. To bring this back to the technology discussion, I have found that 1.5 semesters of law school has helped me access and understand the world in a much more fulfilling way. I don't own a TV, and before law school I rarely read the news or listened to the radio - I much preferred the ostrich approach. Now it seems like everything has something to do with the law, and I'm excited because I actually understand what is going on. From the Citizens United decision to the debate over the constitutionality of the health care bill to patents on genes to the recent (excellent) profiles on Sonia Sotomayor and John Paul Stevens, there is no end of subjects to grapple with. I would bet my last dollar that most of you already were interested in these things before law school, but for someone like me, who is crawling out from under a rock, this is heady stuff. Without technology - NPR in the morning, the Internet throughout the day, even the NY Times on my iPhone when I'm on the train - I wouldn't have a prayer of keeping up with the news, especially in law school.

That said, I still grapple with memory problems and wish that Eben would sprinkle a little fairy dust on my head and turn me into a genius. I understand the apathy and the stress and have felt it myself, but I do believe that there is hope on the other side: we have a unique opportunity to understand and to engage with the world, and to do good work in it. Maybe that's just the sunshine talking, though.

-- CarolineFerrisWhite - 01 Apr 2010