Awhile ago I had a wisdom test on this blog (results here) but I had no idea how to grade it. Today I discovered a "wisdom scorecard" developed by a sociologist at the University of Florida. It is 39 multiple-choice questions and, annoyingly, many of them are variations on the same thing. Take it for what it's worth (= not much), but I thought some readers might be interested.
A few problems I see with attempting to grade wisdom:
1. wisdom is highly contextual.
2. we are not internally wise; rather, we have moments of wisdom.
3. wisdom is about recognizing shades of gray, which means a black and white multiple choice questionnaire is inherently unwise.
P.S. - I scored a 4.2, placing me in the "relatively wise" range.
Jul 31, 2010
Best uses of my time this week
Roughly in order...
Explicitly prioritizing elements of my start-up.
Thinking about the things I most want to be known / remembered for.
Reading about research on increasing creativity (part 1, part 2), and then actively thinking about my start-up using the techniques.
Reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody.
Analyzing likeability data. (Please take the survey if you haven't already.)
Reading Chris Anderson's Free.
Charlie Rose interview of Jeff Bezos.
Reading Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars.
Sitting on the porch during a rainstorm.
Reading Scott Adams' The Dilbert Principle.
Reading Cass Sunstein's Infotopia.
Reading Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution.
Jul 28, 2010
Bill Murray on improvising
His fourth media encounter in the past 10 years goes to GQ. I was disappointed with the questions, but it was interesting to learn about his 800 number and his (lack of) TV-watching habits, and I loved this quote:
Well, obviously a lot of it is rhythm. And as often as not, it's the surprising rhythm. In life and in movies, you can usually guess what someone is going to say—you can actually hear it—before they say it. But if you undercut that just a little, it can make you fall off your chair. It's small and simple like that. You're always trying to get your distractions out of the way and be as calm as you can be [breathes in and out slowly], and emotion will just drive the machine. It will go through the machine without being interrupted, and it comes out in a rhythm that's naturally funny. And that funny rhythm is either humorous or touching. It can be either one. But it's always a surprise. I really don't know what's going to come out of my mouth.
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If you're like me, you might enjoy watching Bill Murray read poetry to construction workers. The poem reading is from roughly 1:00 - 4:00. (Hat tip: A Daily Dose of Architecture)
Squibs
We have two social dimensions: one of likeness (closeness or distance) and one of status (place in hierarchy). We easily "recognize" (i.e., quickly assume) where people fit in these two dimensions.
Moral concepts are clustered in three groups: 1. ethic of autonomy, 2. ethic of community, and 3. ethic of divinity.
Ethic of Autonomy is the goal of protecting individuals from harm so they can pursue their own goals. Ethic of Community is protecting the integrity of groups, families, nations, yielding virtues such as obedience, loyalty, and wise leadership. Ethic of Divinity is protecting from degradation the divinity that exists within us -- keeping us free from "moral pollutants" like lust, greed, and hatred.
It is dangerous for the Ethic of Divinity to supersede the Ethic of Autonomy because you could end up with Nazi-like moral crusades, but a life that ignored the Ethic of Divinity would be unsatisfying.
Maybe one of the primary driving factors of progress and innovation is the fact that witnessing extraordinarily skillful actions gives people the drive to imitate.
I am curious to know how people in the audience felt/acted with regard to the mosquitoes Bill Gates released at the TED conference. How many people would have swatted at the mosquitoes as typical pests? Did some people try to coax the mosquitoes to bite them just so they could tell their friends they were bitten by one of Bill Gates' mosquitoes? How many people assigned the mosquitoes some Bill Gates/TED Conference majesty? It probably depends on whether they saw it as an historic event ... but what determines whether people view something as historic/special?
A constant stream of trivial concerns and egocentric thoughts keeps people locked in a profane world. The self is the main obstacle to spiritual advancement.
Anything that shrinks the self creates an opportunity for spiritual experience.
Awe is the emotion of self-transcendence. Awe creates an opening for change.
Historically, awe meant fear and submission in the presence of something much greater than the self. Only in the modern secular world does it mean surprise plus approval.
Awe happens when 1. a person perceives something vast -- usually physically vast, but could also be conceptually vast (e.g. grand theory) or socially vast (e.g. great fame or power), and 2. the vast thing cannot be accommodated by the person's existing moral structures.
Moral concepts are clustered in three groups: 1. ethic of autonomy, 2. ethic of community, and 3. ethic of divinity.
Ethic of Autonomy is the goal of protecting individuals from harm so they can pursue their own goals. Ethic of Community is protecting the integrity of groups, families, nations, yielding virtues such as obedience, loyalty, and wise leadership. Ethic of Divinity is protecting from degradation the divinity that exists within us -- keeping us free from "moral pollutants" like lust, greed, and hatred.
It is dangerous for the Ethic of Divinity to supersede the Ethic of Autonomy because you could end up with Nazi-like moral crusades, but a life that ignored the Ethic of Divinity would be unsatisfying.
Maybe one of the primary driving factors of progress and innovation is the fact that witnessing extraordinarily skillful actions gives people the drive to imitate.
I am curious to know how people in the audience felt/acted with regard to the mosquitoes Bill Gates released at the TED conference. How many people would have swatted at the mosquitoes as typical pests? Did some people try to coax the mosquitoes to bite them just so they could tell their friends they were bitten by one of Bill Gates' mosquitoes? How many people assigned the mosquitoes some Bill Gates/TED Conference majesty? It probably depends on whether they saw it as an historic event ... but what determines whether people view something as historic/special?
A constant stream of trivial concerns and egocentric thoughts keeps people locked in a profane world. The self is the main obstacle to spiritual advancement.
Anything that shrinks the self creates an opportunity for spiritual experience.
Awe is the emotion of self-transcendence. Awe creates an opening for change.
Historically, awe meant fear and submission in the presence of something much greater than the self. Only in the modern secular world does it mean surprise plus approval.
Awe happens when 1. a person perceives something vast -- usually physically vast, but could also be conceptually vast (e.g. grand theory) or socially vast (e.g. great fame or power), and 2. the vast thing cannot be accommodated by the person's existing moral structures.
Your name submissions
Thanks to those who submitted responses to the 'name my company' survey. I don't know that I found my answer, but I did have a lot of fun. Here are some submissions I particularly enjoyed:
Toxic Strudel
Lead Souffle
Scattered Focus
Chocolatey Drool
Brazen Quahog
Ephemeral Old Fart
Rustic Kumquat
Rosy Flatus
Toxic Strudel
Lead Souffle
Scattered Focus
Chocolatey Drool
Brazen Quahog
Ephemeral Old Fart
Rustic Kumquat
Rosy Flatus
Jul 27, 2010
Likeability survey
I wanted to find some data on how likeable certain companies and people are but could not come up with anything so I decided to create my own data. Please take 90 seconds to complete the following survey. Your responses are anonymous and I will publish the results next week. Thanks much!
Jul 25, 2010
Squibs
It's interesting to me how a simple transformation (e.g. from years to days) can change my perspective. For example, if you are lucky enough to live until your 82nd birthday, you live not quite 30,000 days (10,000 of which are spent sleeping). Somehow '30,000 days' (or '4,286 weeks' or '984 months') makes time feel more precious than '82 years'.
Smiling signals warmth and trustworthiness in women, but confidence in men. So smiling leads to more intimate relationships for women, but less intimate relationships for men (because vulnerability ≈ intimacy).
Maybe one of the single best things a person can do for themselves is to shift from their default self-worth goals (seeking to prove self-worth and to avoid proof of worthlessness) to learning goals.
Test of a virtue: Can you have too much of it?
While people tolerate and even like demographic diversity, not so for moral diversity.
It's easier (and arguably more productive) to celebrate commonality than to embrace diversity.
"To consider our petty status-worries from the perspective of 1,000 years hence is to be granted a rare, tranquilizing glimpse of our own insignificance." -Alain de Botton
It is a primitive tendency to try to get people to like you because of your status. It is more difficult but more rewarding to be liked for your true vulnerable self.
"There can only be an impression of strangeness born out of failure to recognize that others share in our own needs and weaknesses." -Alain de Botton
"Man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without." -Thoreau
The test of great work is whether it gets better with time. Great songs are ones that get better the more you listen to it / study it. Great books are ones that get better the more you study it / think about it.
Can God be upset? Can God feel unhappy? Can God be hungry?
These might seem like minor questions (with maybe even obvious answers), but they say a lot about one's perception of God.
Smiling signals warmth and trustworthiness in women, but confidence in men. So smiling leads to more intimate relationships for women, but less intimate relationships for men (because vulnerability ≈ intimacy).
Maybe one of the single best things a person can do for themselves is to shift from their default self-worth goals (seeking to prove self-worth and to avoid proof of worthlessness) to learning goals.
Test of a virtue: Can you have too much of it?
While people tolerate and even like demographic diversity, not so for moral diversity.
It's easier (and arguably more productive) to celebrate commonality than to embrace diversity.
"To consider our petty status-worries from the perspective of 1,000 years hence is to be granted a rare, tranquilizing glimpse of our own insignificance." -Alain de Botton
It is a primitive tendency to try to get people to like you because of your status. It is more difficult but more rewarding to be liked for your true vulnerable self.
"There can only be an impression of strangeness born out of failure to recognize that others share in our own needs and weaknesses." -Alain de Botton
"Man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without." -Thoreau
The test of great work is whether it gets better with time. Great songs are ones that get better the more you listen to it / study it. Great books are ones that get better the more you study it / think about it.
Can God be upset? Can God feel unhappy? Can God be hungry?
These might seem like minor questions (with maybe even obvious answers), but they say a lot about one's perception of God.
Jul 22, 2010
Squibs
More squibs from or inspired by The Happiness Hypothesis. First edition.
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Science and religion do not answer the same questions (S: how?, R: why?), but they need to at least be consistent.
Dan McAdams proposes that we have three levels of personality: (1) The Big 5: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, (2) characteristic adaptations: personal goals, defense and coping mechanisms, values, beliefs, and life-stage concerns that we develop to succeed in our particular roles and niches, and (3) Life Story: an evolving story that integrates a reconstructed past, perceived present, and anticipated future into a coherent and vitalizing life myth.
Life goals can be sorted into four categories: 1. work and achievement, 2. relationships and intimacy, 3. religion and spirituality, and 4. generativity (leaving a legacy and contributing something to society). People who primarily pursue work and achievement are less happy than those who pursue the other three.
You need adversity because it adds interesting material to your life story.
"Stories are fundamentally about the vicissitudes of human intention organized in time."
It helps to write about the most traumatic events in your life, not in order to let off steam but to make sense of it, increasing insight into the causes and consequences of the event.
When writing about traumatic events, begin by answering these two questions: Why did this happen? What good might I derive from it?
Ages 15-25 are a critical period and people older than 30 disproportionately remember events between these ages -- first love, intellectual growth, first time living independently. It's when young people make choices that will define their lives.
Wisdom is tacit knowledge that allows people to:
(1) Balance their own needs, the needs of others, and the needs of people or things beyond the immediate interaction. 'Ignorant' and 'pure evil' and 'black and white' are strongly influenced by our own self-interest. The wise see things from others' point of view, see shades of gray, and choose a course of action that works out best for all in the long run.
(2) Balance three responses to situations: adaptation (changing self to fit the environment), shaping (changing environment), and selection (moving to a new environment).
The universal virtues proposed by Martin Seligman -- wisdom, courage, justice, temperance, transcendence -- are universal because they are abstract: there are many ways to be wise, courageous, or humane.
---
Science and religion do not answer the same questions (S: how?, R: why?), but they need to at least be consistent.
Dan McAdams proposes that we have three levels of personality: (1) The Big 5: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, (2) characteristic adaptations: personal goals, defense and coping mechanisms, values, beliefs, and life-stage concerns that we develop to succeed in our particular roles and niches, and (3) Life Story: an evolving story that integrates a reconstructed past, perceived present, and anticipated future into a coherent and vitalizing life myth.
Life goals can be sorted into four categories: 1. work and achievement, 2. relationships and intimacy, 3. religion and spirituality, and 4. generativity (leaving a legacy and contributing something to society). People who primarily pursue work and achievement are less happy than those who pursue the other three.
You need adversity because it adds interesting material to your life story.
"Stories are fundamentally about the vicissitudes of human intention organized in time."
It helps to write about the most traumatic events in your life, not in order to let off steam but to make sense of it, increasing insight into the causes and consequences of the event.
When writing about traumatic events, begin by answering these two questions: Why did this happen? What good might I derive from it?
Ages 15-25 are a critical period and people older than 30 disproportionately remember events between these ages -- first love, intellectual growth, first time living independently. It's when young people make choices that will define their lives.
Wisdom is tacit knowledge that allows people to:
(1) Balance their own needs, the needs of others, and the needs of people or things beyond the immediate interaction. 'Ignorant' and 'pure evil' and 'black and white' are strongly influenced by our own self-interest. The wise see things from others' point of view, see shades of gray, and choose a course of action that works out best for all in the long run.
(2) Balance three responses to situations: adaptation (changing self to fit the environment), shaping (changing environment), and selection (moving to a new environment).
The universal virtues proposed by Martin Seligman -- wisdom, courage, justice, temperance, transcendence -- are universal because they are abstract: there are many ways to be wise, courageous, or humane.
Jul 21, 2010
Facebook woes
Not that I am trying to build the next Facebook (although I am building something similar to Facebook's fan pages), but I confess that I sure don't mind reading all the chatter about people wanting an alternative to Facebook. Here are some interesting articles and quotes:
ComputerWorld 7/17 The five stages of Facebook grief: (Thanks, Bob)
NYT 5/11 Four Nerds and a Call to Arms Against Facebook:
NPR 7/21 Facebook Ripped in Consumer Satisfaction Survey:
---
And in case you haven't heard, some guy might have a legitimate case to 84% of Facebook:
ComputerWorld 7/17 The five stages of Facebook grief: (Thanks, Bob)
Facebook's popularity is based on the reality that human beings are social creatures. Staying connected with people we know is innate to us. But maintaining separate social groups that we don't want to clash is also innate. ... The social network of the future will pattern itself after real-world social groupings. It will enable people to have private, closed, secure conversations within groups, without fear that one social group will gain access to the conversations of another.
NYT 5/11 Four Nerds and a Call to Arms Against Facebook:
As they describe it, the Diaspora* software will let users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share. Mr. Sofaer says that centralized networks like Facebook are not necessary. “In our real lives, we talk to each other,” he said. “We don’t need to hand our messages to a hub. What Facebook gives you as a user isn’t all that hard to do. All the little games, the little walls, the little chat, aren’t really rare things. The technology already exists.”
NPR 7/21 Facebook Ripped in Consumer Satisfaction Survey:
A new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index ranks the top 30 social media sites. Facebook, which now has some 500 million members, emerged as a surprise loser. In the survey, users complained about privacy concerns, interface changes, navigation problems, and advertising.
Facebook scored a measly 64 on the scale of one to 100. That's lower than an IRS site.
Topping the list of satisfying social media sites, the collaborative online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
---
And in case you haven't heard, some guy might have a legitimate case to 84% of Facebook:
According to the claim, Paul Ceglia hired Zuckerberg in 2003 to help him design an online database of street photos, and reportedly signed a contract with the Facebook founder that would give him a 50 percent stake in Zuckerberg's side project—"an online yearbook for Harvard kids" that he was "thinking of expanding." Because of a "contract provision that awarded [Ceglia] equity the longer [Zuckerberg] worked on the site," the former wood pellet distributor claims that he's legally entitled to 84 percent of Facebook.
Jul 19, 2010
Name my company
I could use your help. I need a name for my company and rather than trying to come up with one myself I think it would be more effective if ideas were thrown at me and then I filter down the ones I like.
I believe people are more creative under constraints, so let's try these:
1. The name must be two words, at least one of which is a noun.
2. No more than two syllables per word.
3. The concept should be interesting or surprising. It's best if the two words are conceptually opposed (see, for example, Scott Adam's post on Lady Gaga's language).
Bonus points if the name is pleasant-sounding and easy to spell. The name needn't have anything to do with the company (I struggle to explain it in a couple of sentences so I've given up on explaining it in a couple of words).
PLEASE DON'T CENSOR YOURSELF. Whatever comes to mind, I want it. The more names you come up with, the better.
Below I have listed a slew of adjectives and nouns just to get your brain moving. I find it a lot of fun to chaotically combine words (which I am pretty sure is the secret to surrealist writing).
Regardless of whether I choose one for my company's name, I will post a list of the ideas I found most interesting. Thanks for your participation!
Adjectives: abandoned, abstract, affable, amiable, astute, ballooning, basket of, batch of, bearded, bed of, blistering, cagey, candid, chipper, chivalrous, chocolatey, colloquial, colorless, confiding, congenial, consonant (harmonic), constant, cordial, courteous, cracked, craddling, crooked, cross-fertilized, cross-hatched, cultured, dainty, dancing, dapper, decaying, dense, devout, diagnostic, dignified, discerning, disingenuous, dividing, drooling, dry, dual-use, East Asian, entrusted, ephemeral, etched, exploratory, fluid, foul, freeze dried, fresh, frolicking, fruitful, fruity, gaggle of, garbled, genial, genteel, gentle, glass, glowing, gradual, groomed, half-assed, hamburglered, heedful, hidden, inquiring, keen, languid, lead, loose, makeshift, multiplying, natural order of, neighborly, new wave, noble, observant, occupied, odorless, ordered, orderly, overdressed, overgrown, paleo, parceled, passing, perceptive, pigeonholed, pile of, pioneering, piped, pompous, portable, pre-packaged, prim, processed, reams of, refined, river of, rotten, rusted, rustic, sea of, search engine optimized, self-aware, shipshape, shriveled, shrunken, smooth, speculative, sprightly, spry, sputtering, squirrely, stagnant, stone, strange, sun-baked, swanky, sweet, tabbed, tasteless, tender, timid, tin, transient, translucent, truncated, trusty, turbulent, underdressed, vegan, vessel of, violent, watchful, watery, witty, yearning
Nouns: Admiral, air, baby food, ballcap, banana peels, blankets, Bugles, candor, chimes, cliches, crackers, death, department stores, dots, drool, embers, etchings, fire hydrants, fish finder, fog, fruitbowl, furniture, grouper, harpsichord, hotspot, indicator light, Japanese game show hosts, junipers, kale, kumquat, labs, Labtec machine, ladies' room, lens, load, mildew, molecules, nerves, nobility, observations, Old Fart, pamphlet, paraplegic, pellets, pen caps, Pioneer, port wine, prose, retinas, Sailor, sausages, scientific method, search engine optimization, shoelaces, shrapnel, shutes, Sigmund Freuds, Sin Curve, skin(s), sleeves, sprinkler systems, squirliness, staircase, sugarbowl, telephone wire, theories, trailor hitch, troubadour, trout, turbulence, vegan hotspot, vegetables, veggies, vessel, walleye, whiskers, wind, zealots
I believe people are more creative under constraints, so let's try these:
1. The name must be two words, at least one of which is a noun.
2. No more than two syllables per word.
3. The concept should be interesting or surprising. It's best if the two words are conceptually opposed (see, for example, Scott Adam's post on Lady Gaga's language).
Bonus points if the name is pleasant-sounding and easy to spell. The name needn't have anything to do with the company (I struggle to explain it in a couple of sentences so I've given up on explaining it in a couple of words).
PLEASE DON'T CENSOR YOURSELF. Whatever comes to mind, I want it. The more names you come up with, the better.
Below I have listed a slew of adjectives and nouns just to get your brain moving. I find it a lot of fun to chaotically combine words (which I am pretty sure is the secret to surrealist writing).
Regardless of whether I choose one for my company's name, I will post a list of the ideas I found most interesting. Thanks for your participation!
Adjectives: abandoned, abstract, affable, amiable, astute, ballooning, basket of, batch of, bearded, bed of, blistering, cagey, candid, chipper, chivalrous, chocolatey, colloquial, colorless, confiding, congenial, consonant (harmonic), constant, cordial, courteous, cracked, craddling, crooked, cross-fertilized, cross-hatched, cultured, dainty, dancing, dapper, decaying, dense, devout, diagnostic, dignified, discerning, disingenuous, dividing, drooling, dry, dual-use, East Asian, entrusted, ephemeral, etched, exploratory, fluid, foul, freeze dried, fresh, frolicking, fruitful, fruity, gaggle of, garbled, genial, genteel, gentle, glass, glowing, gradual, groomed, half-assed, hamburglered, heedful, hidden, inquiring, keen, languid, lead, loose, makeshift, multiplying, natural order of, neighborly, new wave, noble, observant, occupied, odorless, ordered, orderly, overdressed, overgrown, paleo, parceled, passing, perceptive, pigeonholed, pile of, pioneering, piped, pompous, portable, pre-packaged, prim, processed, reams of, refined, river of, rotten, rusted, rustic, sea of, search engine optimized, self-aware, shipshape, shriveled, shrunken, smooth, speculative, sprightly, spry, sputtering, squirrely, stagnant, stone, strange, sun-baked, swanky, sweet, tabbed, tasteless, tender, timid, tin, transient, translucent, truncated, trusty, turbulent, underdressed, vegan, vessel of, violent, watchful, watery, witty, yearning
Nouns: Admiral, air, baby food, ballcap, banana peels, blankets, Bugles, candor, chimes, cliches, crackers, death, department stores, dots, drool, embers, etchings, fire hydrants, fish finder, fog, fruitbowl, furniture, grouper, harpsichord, hotspot, indicator light, Japanese game show hosts, junipers, kale, kumquat, labs, Labtec machine, ladies' room, lens, load, mildew, molecules, nerves, nobility, observations, Old Fart, pamphlet, paraplegic, pellets, pen caps, Pioneer, port wine, prose, retinas, Sailor, sausages, scientific method, search engine optimization, shoelaces, shrapnel, shutes, Sigmund Freuds, Sin Curve, skin(s), sleeves, sprinkler systems, squirliness, staircase, sugarbowl, telephone wire, theories, trailor hitch, troubadour, trout, turbulence, vegan hotspot, vegetables, veggies, vessel, walleye, whiskers, wind, zealots
Squibs
These squibs are from or inspired by Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis -- and from only a small portion of the book (!). It's why it is one of my highest rated books.
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When husbands and wives estimate the percentage of housework each does, the total >120%. In a study with MBA students in group project, the total was 139%.
"Naive realism": We believe the facts as we see them are there for all to see, therefore others should agree with us. Jon Haidt says this is single biggest obstacle to world peace and social harmony because it gives us the illusion of a world full of good and evil.
Violence and cruelty have four main causes: 1. greed/ambition, 2. sadism, 3. high self-esteem, and 4. moral idealism. Greed/ambition explains a very tiny percentage of all violent acts, and sadism almost none. High self-esteem and moral idealism explain almost all.
Be careful that your reason for doing something is more than just the end goal because when you get there you will be disappointed and devalue your accomplishment as striving after wind.
Happiness motivates top down processing, which impairs performance when attention to detail is required.
Self-determination theory: psychological well-being stems from feeling autonomous, competent, and related.
Attachment theory: two basic goals guide children: 1. safety, and 2. exploration.
Trauma changes priorities and philosophies toward the present, and toward other people.
Passionate love is a drug with symptoms overlapping with heroin and cocaine. It cannot last forever because, like drugs, tolerance sets in.
Why human love makes people uncomfortable: 1. makes them irrational and illogical (philosophers wrongly believed morality is grounded in rationality), 2. moral codes designed to keep order, 3. fear of death comes from sex's reminder that we are like other animals.
"Hell is other people." But so is heaven.
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When husbands and wives estimate the percentage of housework each does, the total >120%. In a study with MBA students in group project, the total was 139%.
"Naive realism": We believe the facts as we see them are there for all to see, therefore others should agree with us. Jon Haidt says this is single biggest obstacle to world peace and social harmony because it gives us the illusion of a world full of good and evil.
Violence and cruelty have four main causes: 1. greed/ambition, 2. sadism, 3. high self-esteem, and 4. moral idealism. Greed/ambition explains a very tiny percentage of all violent acts, and sadism almost none. High self-esteem and moral idealism explain almost all.
Be careful that your reason for doing something is more than just the end goal because when you get there you will be disappointed and devalue your accomplishment as striving after wind.
Happiness motivates top down processing, which impairs performance when attention to detail is required.
Self-determination theory: psychological well-being stems from feeling autonomous, competent, and related.
Attachment theory: two basic goals guide children: 1. safety, and 2. exploration.
Trauma changes priorities and philosophies toward the present, and toward other people.
Passionate love is a drug with symptoms overlapping with heroin and cocaine. It cannot last forever because, like drugs, tolerance sets in.
Why human love makes people uncomfortable: 1. makes them irrational and illogical (philosophers wrongly believed morality is grounded in rationality), 2. moral codes designed to keep order, 3. fear of death comes from sex's reminder that we are like other animals.
"Hell is other people." But so is heaven.
Jul 18, 2010
Competitive Fetch
My new favorite game:
I appreciate that he slows down to at least give me the illusion that I have a chance. When he turns on the boosters it's (even more) embarrassing.
I appreciate that he slows down to at least give me the illusion that I have a chance. When he turns on the boosters it's (even more) embarrassing.
Prosperity emerges from ideas having sex
Matt Ridley nicely ties together some important ideas in his TED talk released this month. (16:27)
I couldn't agree more.
I couldn't agree more.
Jul 15, 2010
Why people use Twitter
Our results show that participants did not use microblogging to satisfy their needs for social connection and affiliation, but highly extraverted participants did use it to relieve their existential anxiety.
In other words, people don't tweet to feel part of a community, but rather to increase their sense of individuality and thereby decrease their sense of meaninglessness.
Eric Barker's response: "I thought the answer was going to have something to do with Justin Bieber."
Jul 13, 2010
David Gray on the creative process
Jian Ghomeshi of Q TV interviews musician David Gray (12:47 video). Some highlights...
When asked if he had fears about breaking up the band after 15 successful years:
His icons:
On whether he was a victim of his own success:
On how to create a fresh start:
When asked about the paradox between the desire for a sense of security and the desire to shake things up:
On channeling the creative muse:
On the word "art":
###
David Gray performs "Kathleen" and then talks about the reasons for his success in Ireland (White Ladder is the top selling album of all time in Ireland)
David Gray performs "Fugitive" in Ireland
When asked if he had fears about breaking up the band after 15 successful years:
I guess a few, but more than that I just had a feeling that it needed to change -- needed to break the soil and let a little bit of air and rainwater in there. It felt like something had to alter in order to keep it interesting. It becomes formulaic and that's exactly why it becomes important to keep shaking it up. ... I play a certain kind of thing -- a certain moody thing here or a strummy thing there -- and if you've got the same musicians around you they invariably react to it in a certain way and after awhile the stockpile of ideas runs a little low. And unless they've got the same sort of total impulse to try to think around it and re-invent it in some way, you just end up repeating yourself.
His icons:
My heroes were Dylan and Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits and it was very much about cutting a track live in the studio -- that's all I really cared about: the moment as it existed then and there and I didn't really want to embellish it. ... Nearly every record I really cherish is all over the place in some way.
On whether he was a victim of his own success:
It's not so bad having the world hear your songs. It's definitely an improvement on total obscurity.
On how to create a fresh start:
I think the way that we sync up with people around us has a profound effect on what we're doing.
When asked about the paradox between the desire for a sense of security and the desire to shake things up:
It's the thrill of discovery -- that's the heart of it. ... There's nothing more exciting than discovery before the knowing -- the slightly unknowing moment when something just begins in front of you.
On channeling the creative muse:
At the risk of making everything sound like hard work, you have your moments of inspiration but you have to work for them. Most of it is just doing practical things and just showing up. You show up and, yeah, some days it just starts to click. Suddenly, from nowhere, it's like "where did that come from." Same three chords, but this time something special happens. That's what you work for: For the days when it all really comes sweet. The difference with anyone who achieves a lot is that they can just keep going and keep the quality even on the days when you're not feeling so good.
On the word "art":
I don't like the word "art" -- it sounds far too precious and important. I just make songs is what I do. An "artist" sounds like Michaelangelo -- it's some elevated position which I don't think is really applicable.
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David Gray performs "Kathleen" and then talks about the reasons for his success in Ireland (White Ladder is the top selling album of all time in Ireland)
David Gray performs "Fugitive" in Ireland
Jul 11, 2010
Squibs
Meditation tames the mind; it makes you desire less. You give up both the pains of losing and the pleasures of winning.
A group's level of trust is equivalent not to the average member but to the least trusted member.
A test for the appropriateness of my work: If I wouldn't do it for free, and if I wouldn't do it if no one was paying attention, then I'm not doing it for the right reasons.
Moral judgment is like aesthetic judgment: You know instantly whether you like it or not, but if asked to explain why, you confabulate. The emotional brain decides what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly -- explanations come second.
Language might have evolved as a replacement for phsyical grooming. People use language primarily to talk about other people, about their moral and social violations. In short, language evolved because it enabled gossip.
There is no boundary between human and ape or anything else. The distinctions are only emotional. Like colors, there is no point at which you can say blue becomes green.
Responses to threats are faster, stronger, and harder to inhibit than responses to opportunities because, from an evolutionary perspective, opportunities come and go, but a threat can end your life.
E.O. Wilson when asked which organisms are most interesting: "People. Then Ants."
A group's level of trust is equivalent not to the average member but to the least trusted member.
A test for the appropriateness of my work: If I wouldn't do it for free, and if I wouldn't do it if no one was paying attention, then I'm not doing it for the right reasons.
Moral judgment is like aesthetic judgment: You know instantly whether you like it or not, but if asked to explain why, you confabulate. The emotional brain decides what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly -- explanations come second.
Language might have evolved as a replacement for phsyical grooming. People use language primarily to talk about other people, about their moral and social violations. In short, language evolved because it enabled gossip.
There is no boundary between human and ape or anything else. The distinctions are only emotional. Like colors, there is no point at which you can say blue becomes green.
Responses to threats are faster, stronger, and harder to inhibit than responses to opportunities because, from an evolutionary perspective, opportunities come and go, but a threat can end your life.
E.O. Wilson when asked which organisms are most interesting: "People. Then Ants."
Jul 7, 2010
Architecture splurge
A selection of architecture I like, mostly from my two favorite architecture blogs: A Daily Dose of Architecture and Ronen Bekerman.
Lake Austin, Texas
8 flats residential building in Paris
Kumu, Art Museum of Estonia
PS House in San Francisco
Loblolly House
Residential building in the Massena quarter of Paris
8 House in Southern Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lake Austin, Texas
8 flats residential building in Paris
Kumu, Art Museum of Estonia
PS House in San Francisco
Loblolly House
Residential building in the Massena quarter of Paris
8 House in Southern Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark
Jul 6, 2010
"Many English speakers cannot understand basic grammar"
New research says that Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar -- that there must be an underlying common structure to all languages "hard-wired" into the brain -- may in fact be wrong.
Unfortunately the article is light on details, but it says that on tests asking participants to identify the meaning of simple passive sentences such as "The soldier was hit by the sailor", a high proportion of those participants who had left school at age 16 scored no better than if they had been guessing.
Today is a sad day for the passive voice.
Unfortunately the article is light on details, but it says that on tests asking participants to identify the meaning of simple passive sentences such as "The soldier was hit by the sailor", a high proportion of those participants who had left school at age 16 scored no better than if they had been guessing.
Today is a sad day for the passive voice.
Who participates in social media? [chart]
This is not the first chart I've seen presenting such data, but it is the most effective. (From Businessweek. Hat tip: FlowingData)
Some observations:
-- 2.3x more people aged 18-21 create content than collect content (e.g., RSS), while 2.2x more seniors collect than create.
-- It is bizarre both how few "collectors" (RSS users) there are and how flat is the distribution. I am shocked that young teens (ages 12-17) collect at the same rate as seniors: 11%.
-- I am surprised that young teens participate less in social media across all categories than people ages 18-21.
-- The proportion of creators ages 12-26 bodes well future spectators.
Some observations:
-- 2.3x more people aged 18-21 create content than collect content (e.g., RSS), while 2.2x more seniors collect than create.
-- It is bizarre both how few "collectors" (RSS users) there are and how flat is the distribution. I am shocked that young teens (ages 12-17) collect at the same rate as seniors: 11%.
-- I am surprised that young teens participate less in social media across all categories than people ages 18-21.
-- The proportion of creators ages 12-26 bodes well future spectators.
Jul 5, 2010
Squibs
"Behavior is motivation filtered through opportunity." -Clay Shirky
The family is a subversive organization. The family is the enduring permanent enemy of all hierarchies, churches, and ideologies. Every couple can create their own culture, language, and moral code. -Elizabeth Gilbert
I look at my own blogging as (mostly) things I should be doing already, just submitted to a larger audience. A lot of it is reflecting on what matters to me, working out ideas and problems, exploring interests, and implanting in my mind quotes and ideas that seem important.
The "self" is not a thing in the head, and not a thing in the physical world. There is no such thing as a "substance" -- something that could hold itself in existence just by its own power. The "self" is not a thing but a process. Evidence: If you use a cane blindfolded, in less than 30 minutes you will be able to feel sensations at the end of the cane.
Envy is a useful tool for identifying what you want to do in life.
Thoughts can cause emotions, but emotions can also cause thoughts -- emotions can cause you to start looking for and interpreting danger in everything.
"War is a continuation of policy by other means." -Clausewitz
Work is satisfying when it brings out something unique in you while creating a product that people like and recognize.
The family is a subversive organization. The family is the enduring permanent enemy of all hierarchies, churches, and ideologies. Every couple can create their own culture, language, and moral code. -Elizabeth Gilbert
I look at my own blogging as (mostly) things I should be doing already, just submitted to a larger audience. A lot of it is reflecting on what matters to me, working out ideas and problems, exploring interests, and implanting in my mind quotes and ideas that seem important.
The "self" is not a thing in the head, and not a thing in the physical world. There is no such thing as a "substance" -- something that could hold itself in existence just by its own power. The "self" is not a thing but a process. Evidence: If you use a cane blindfolded, in less than 30 minutes you will be able to feel sensations at the end of the cane.
Envy is a useful tool for identifying what you want to do in life.
Thoughts can cause emotions, but emotions can also cause thoughts -- emotions can cause you to start looking for and interpreting danger in everything.
"War is a continuation of policy by other means." -Clausewitz
Work is satisfying when it brings out something unique in you while creating a product that people like and recognize.
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