I have kind of wanted to delete some of my old posts because, to be quite frank with you, some of them make me want to go back in time to slap myself. They make me cringe, and they make me sweat. For a long time, their removal seemed like the only option.
But that would be self-censorship, right? And in our age of transparency, that's not only dishonest but imprudent. If there are skeletons in your closet, they are going to come out, so it may as well happen on your own terms. So here they are, in all their glory, the worst posts from this blog.
1) What I'm Reading, 7/1/07. A direct quote in response to this post: "Nobody cares what you are reading, Andy. If it's not funny there's no point." Point taken, I will focus on my niche whenever I can. Plus, now that I have Shelfari people can go here to see what books I'm reading, here to see my delicious tags, or here to see my shared items from google reader. And if you haven't realized that this whole thing was a roundabout way for me to brag about how much I read, you don't know me well enough.
2) This post on Ruckus Media, which I used for about two days and then switched to just downloading from iTunes so I could put the songs onto my iPod. This was the post that made me decide to never endorse a product until I myself had used it for more than a week.
3) The two times I linked to videos. I know that some of my friends do it, but I'm sorry, I don't like it when people link to YouTube et cetera. There's so much stuff to keep up with on the internet and only so much time in the day. If you find a world-class video now and then, feel free to show me it in person or through an e-mail. Maybe I'm a purist, but I think that blogging should be mostly for writing, and I loathe loading times.
4) This post on poker. I hate it when other people discuss the bad "beats" they had at the poker table, and I shouldn't hold myself to a double standard. I wasn't even gambling for money, so it couldn't be more irrelevant to you, my valued reader. You all could be anywhere in the world right now, but you're right here with me, and I appreciate that.
5) I don't even know what I was talking about here, here, or here. Don't click on those, whatever you do.
6) All of these stupid, pointless, you could care less movie reviews. Yikes! And I think I left a few out. Now I crowdsource my opinions to imdb and save everybody a lot of valuable time.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Words vs. action
Same day, same NYT science section, yet radically different:
Bush sets greenhouse gas emissions goal.
Businesses in Bay Area may pay fee for emissions.
Greg Mankiw may soon have to add the Bay Area to his Pigou club. President Bush, on the other hand, will probably not be invited.
Bush sets greenhouse gas emissions goal.
Businesses in Bay Area may pay fee for emissions.
Greg Mankiw may soon have to add the Bay Area to his Pigou club. President Bush, on the other hand, will probably not be invited.
These days those days
"He was a Republican because his father before him was a Republican and because this county was Republican."
That's from Dreiser's An American Tragedy, which is by the way not a tragedy because of this sentence. Please note that you could replace "Republican" with "Democrat" and the message would be the same; I am not evangelizing either way. Also note that this novel was published in 1925, a full 80 years ago. An appetizer for contemplation.
That's from Dreiser's An American Tragedy, which is by the way not a tragedy because of this sentence. Please note that you could replace "Republican" with "Democrat" and the message would be the same; I am not evangelizing either way. Also note that this novel was published in 1925, a full 80 years ago. An appetizer for contemplation.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Tuesday Statisticz: God vs. JK Rowling
"The revolution will not go down better with coke." - Gil Scott-Heron
A commenter on the Top 10 Christ Figures questioned why The Boy Who Lived was not on my list. This is the way that we would have had the debate, say, 10 years ago.
My first move would have been to claim my credentials on the subject. I have read Harry Potter (especially the earlier books) more times that you can possibly imagine. I used to play a game where I would close my eyes and have my mom read a random line from one of the first three books and I would try to guess what page it was on. I was pretty good at this game. Also, my blog is the tenth result on google when you search for christ figure (I'm coming for you, Wikipedia!). Clearly I have a degree of authority on the matter, which in the old days I would have swung to my advantage.
Although the argument would have probably been over after my credentials were established, I would still have indulged my audience. I would have made flowing statements like, "Potter may be the paragon of religion for some readers, but in a very Orwellian sense he remains a steadfast member of the Austrian school." I would said that if Harry is Christ, then it follows that Hermoine is Eve and Dumbledore's cloak must be the biblical coat of many colors. And I would have made pithy attacks on my opponent, such as "Mr Matt's nonsensical arguments lack form, structure, and are revealing of his lilliputian disregard for scientific vigor." The audience would cheer and applaud me, although my argument would likewise lack empiricism.
But that was then. This is now. I found some data from Belief Net on Harry Potter, where they had a vote on this specific question, and the results render any such discussion useless:
The future is data. The revolution will be charted and regressed.
A commenter on the Top 10 Christ Figures questioned why The Boy Who Lived was not on my list. This is the way that we would have had the debate, say, 10 years ago.
My first move would have been to claim my credentials on the subject. I have read Harry Potter (especially the earlier books) more times that you can possibly imagine. I used to play a game where I would close my eyes and have my mom read a random line from one of the first three books and I would try to guess what page it was on. I was pretty good at this game. Also, my blog is the tenth result on google when you search for christ figure (I'm coming for you, Wikipedia!). Clearly I have a degree of authority on the matter, which in the old days I would have swung to my advantage.
Although the argument would have probably been over after my credentials were established, I would still have indulged my audience. I would have made flowing statements like, "Potter may be the paragon of religion for some readers, but in a very Orwellian sense he remains a steadfast member of the Austrian school." I would said that if Harry is Christ, then it follows that Hermoine is Eve and Dumbledore's cloak must be the biblical coat of many colors. And I would have made pithy attacks on my opponent, such as "Mr Matt's nonsensical arguments lack form, structure, and are revealing of his lilliputian disregard for scientific vigor." The audience would cheer and applaud me, although my argument would likewise lack empiricism.
But that was then. This is now. I found some data from Belief Net on Harry Potter, where they had a vote on this specific question, and the results render any such discussion useless:
The future is data. The revolution will be charted and regressed.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Don't trip
There is a lot of pressure on college graduates to get a money pumping position immediately upon receiving a degree.
My friends Jer and Joe followed a different path (which I would say most people probably end up in to some extent) and Jer chronicles their adventures in his post this morning. It's a cool idea, transparency about what's going on in your life, and he accomplishes it eloquently. I'm happy to see heterodox viewpoints getting their outlet a fuera de traditional media. Check it out.
It also leads me to a bigger question. Will people continue blogging their whole lives? The internet as we know it may change, but if that happened there would probably be some way to transfer content. I remember somebody asked me a couple of weeks ago if I was ever bored at college, and I replied that I don't think I could ever be bored anywhere with an internet connection. In large part that is due to the blogosphere. Keep writing your whole life, Jer. I'll be listening.
My friends Jer and Joe followed a different path (which I would say most people probably end up in to some extent) and Jer chronicles their adventures in his post this morning. It's a cool idea, transparency about what's going on in your life, and he accomplishes it eloquently. I'm happy to see heterodox viewpoints getting their outlet a fuera de traditional media. Check it out.
It also leads me to a bigger question. Will people continue blogging their whole lives? The internet as we know it may change, but if that happened there would probably be some way to transfer content. I remember somebody asked me a couple of weeks ago if I was ever bored at college, and I replied that I don't think I could ever be bored anywhere with an internet connection. In large part that is due to the blogosphere. Keep writing your whole life, Jer. I'll be listening.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Notes from the Buddha, part V
Probably the facet of Buddhism that I appreciate the most is that they wouldn't mind any of my jokes about the religion. I'm pretty sure that the lama would laugh if he saw my chart on the Buddha's caloric intake, and then he would probably shrug his shoulders.
Before each of his three (short) teachings on Buddhist philosophy, the lama told us that at any point we could ask questions. And afterwards we would have question and answer sessions where he would literally wait until the 10 or so students thought of something to say. It was like being in class when the teacher asks you about a reading on Moby Dick that clearly nobody has done. This was awesome, because they were essentially admitting that there were other viewpoints out there, and that it was OK to voice them.
Another important note is that as much as I joke about not having desires, all of that meditating and chai tea really did put me into good mood. I'm still feeling awesome a week later, although that could be the coffee talking.
This concludes my mini-series on Buddhism, but it may not be the end of my inquisition into the religion. I'm open to finding some more aspects of it to steal and apply to my own life.
Before each of his three (short) teachings on Buddhist philosophy, the lama told us that at any point we could ask questions. And afterwards we would have question and answer sessions where he would literally wait until the 10 or so students thought of something to say. It was like being in class when the teacher asks you about a reading on Moby Dick that clearly nobody has done. This was awesome, because they were essentially admitting that there were other viewpoints out there, and that it was OK to voice them.
Another important note is that as much as I joke about not having desires, all of that meditating and chai tea really did put me into good mood. I'm still feeling awesome a week later, although that could be the coffee talking.
This concludes my mini-series on Buddhism, but it may not be the end of my inquisition into the religion. I'm open to finding some more aspects of it to steal and apply to my own life.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The game theory approach to staying in touch
Staying in touch with old friends of mine has long since been a conundrum. I am infamously bad at articulating myself on the phone. People tell me that they can't understand what I say. Although I am ardently working on my pronunciation, it doesn't come easily.
Moreover, if you put yourself out there in other mediums, you are seen as a little bit cocky. I truly cannot tell you how many times I have been told or had it inferred that writing a blog is narcissistic. Some people think that the internet is a bad thing because it replaces talking on the phone. I could not possibly disagree more.
The problem is that when you call somebody on the phone, a game-theoretic model emerges where both individuals want to extract information, but are faced with difficulties, namely:
1) If you just start spilling out information about yourself (with the expectation that your partner will later reciprocate), you are viewed as self-centered.
2) If you start asking questions, they often will not answer in depth because of fear #1, and the conversation may seem like an interrogation.
3) People often forget what they wanted to say or need a recap of what is going on in the other person's life, which is inefficient. And don't tell me that this inefficiency is a central part of life. I'd prefer to discuss interesting things than recap details that are not of tremendous importance any day.
Now, if people recognized these difficulties and performed what economists refer to as "collusion" to solve them, things would go much more smoothly. But many people try to convince themselves that talking on the phone is the most natural thing in the world, which simply causes more confusion when the conversation is sidetracked.
Listen, it's not like I'm nervous about talking on the phone. As I said recently, I don't desire anything anyways. But don't tell me that having a blog replaces talking on the phone, when clearly it supplements the conversation tremendously.
Moreover, if you put yourself out there in other mediums, you are seen as a little bit cocky. I truly cannot tell you how many times I have been told or had it inferred that writing a blog is narcissistic. Some people think that the internet is a bad thing because it replaces talking on the phone. I could not possibly disagree more.
The problem is that when you call somebody on the phone, a game-theoretic model emerges where both individuals want to extract information, but are faced with difficulties, namely:
1) If you just start spilling out information about yourself (with the expectation that your partner will later reciprocate), you are viewed as self-centered.
2) If you start asking questions, they often will not answer in depth because of fear #1, and the conversation may seem like an interrogation.
3) People often forget what they wanted to say or need a recap of what is going on in the other person's life, which is inefficient. And don't tell me that this inefficiency is a central part of life. I'd prefer to discuss interesting things than recap details that are not of tremendous importance any day.
Now, if people recognized these difficulties and performed what economists refer to as "collusion" to solve them, things would go much more smoothly. But many people try to convince themselves that talking on the phone is the most natural thing in the world, which simply causes more confusion when the conversation is sidetracked.
Listen, it's not like I'm nervous about talking on the phone. As I said recently, I don't desire anything anyways. But don't tell me that having a blog replaces talking on the phone, when clearly it supplements the conversation tremendously.
Notes from the Buddha, part IV
The lama and his brother were probably the two happiest people I have ever seen. They came from a family of 10+. When we asked the lama his age, he said 61, or maybe 62, with a wave of his hand.
The lama was so happy about silly things that he was almost as immature as a child. He would laugh at things that "normal" adults wouldn't find funny, like somebody cutting in line for tea. He also loved pictures in a way that I will never be able to understand.
His brother, on the other hand, did not speak English at all. He set up our tents and taught us how to carve prayer stones, but he was never able to communicate at all. Somehow, he seemed even happier to see us. His natural face was a semi-smile, and he would break into a full laugh at the drop of a hat.
But his language barrier didn't isolate him from us, instead it brought him closer. There was literally no way that any of us could have gotten into an argument or any sort of disagreement with him. All that he offered us was his happiness. At the end of the weekend he said goodbye to everybody, and tapped people's foreheads with his forehead, which was disarmingly endearing. Nobody knew how to react.
The lama was so happy about silly things that he was almost as immature as a child. He would laugh at things that "normal" adults wouldn't find funny, like somebody cutting in line for tea. He also loved pictures in a way that I will never be able to understand.
His brother, on the other hand, did not speak English at all. He set up our tents and taught us how to carve prayer stones, but he was never able to communicate at all. Somehow, he seemed even happier to see us. His natural face was a semi-smile, and he would break into a full laugh at the drop of a hat.
But his language barrier didn't isolate him from us, instead it brought him closer. There was literally no way that any of us could have gotten into an argument or any sort of disagreement with him. All that he offered us was his happiness. At the end of the weekend he said goodbye to everybody, and tapped people's foreheads with his forehead, which was disarmingly endearing. Nobody knew how to react.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Notes from the Buddha, Part II
The lama told us a story about a young monk who really wanted enlightenment, and went about accumulating as much merit as possible in order to prove his enlightened state. Then he went to the abbot of his monastery and asked about his progress.
"You are far along in your accomplishments, but your mind is cloudy. You need to learn to control your thoughts," is what the abbot told him.
So the monk sat down at a table with a pile of black stones and a pile of white stones. Whenever he had a negative thought, he would pick out a black stone and put it into the center. Whenever he had a positive thought, he would pick out a white stone and put it into the center. By the end of the day, he had many more black stones than white stones.
But the monk kept at it, repeating the exercise daily. Over time, he began to place more and more white stones into the middle, as he trained his mind to think positive thoughts.
Sounds like my kind of monk.
"You are far along in your accomplishments, but your mind is cloudy. You need to learn to control your thoughts," is what the abbot told him.
So the monk sat down at a table with a pile of black stones and a pile of white stones. Whenever he had a negative thought, he would pick out a black stone and put it into the center. Whenever he had a positive thought, he would pick out a white stone and put it into the center. By the end of the day, he had many more black stones than white stones.
But the monk kept at it, repeating the exercise daily. Over time, he began to place more and more white stones into the middle, as he trained his mind to think positive thoughts.
Sounds like my kind of monk.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
A few thoughts on Shelfari
As you can see from the widget on the side of this blog, I don't mind Shelfari. It's a good way to track which books you've read and since I'm aiming for 50 on the year, I need all the help I can get. Shelfari right now is the best of the worst.
What I really want is to find the imdb of books. While Shelfari obviously can't compete in terms of scale--in large part because people generally watch tons more movies than they read books--they can compete with their interface.
The one particular suggestion I have to make is that they change their voting system from 5 stars to 10 stars. 5 stars makes no sense, because people are extremely unlikely to give a book 1 or 2 stars, and every rating oscillates somewhere around 4.
The most annoying part is that imdb has proven how successful a 10 star system can be. Their top 250 is unrivaled, and there's no way it could exist with a 5 star voting system. Plus, it's not like 10 stars is any harder from the voter's side, as you're still just clicking on one button.
I'm sure that Shelfari has some employee that scans the internet looking for sites that mention them. If you are that employee, and I still have your attention, please forward this to your boss (or maybe you are the boss). Either e-mail me one good reason that it wouldn't work, or let's make this happen.
What I really want is to find the imdb of books. While Shelfari obviously can't compete in terms of scale--in large part because people generally watch tons more movies than they read books--they can compete with their interface.
The one particular suggestion I have to make is that they change their voting system from 5 stars to 10 stars. 5 stars makes no sense, because people are extremely unlikely to give a book 1 or 2 stars, and every rating oscillates somewhere around 4.
The most annoying part is that imdb has proven how successful a 10 star system can be. Their top 250 is unrivaled, and there's no way it could exist with a 5 star voting system. Plus, it's not like 10 stars is any harder from the voter's side, as you're still just clicking on one button.
I'm sure that Shelfari has some employee that scans the internet looking for sites that mention them. If you are that employee, and I still have your attention, please forward this to your boss (or maybe you are the boss). Either e-mail me one good reason that it wouldn't work, or let's make this happen.
Bill Simmons on keeping it real
A long quote, but an example of why Simmons is the one of the top writers on the net. From his most recent column:
"Worst debate coming out of the game: Will Bill Self stay at Kansas or "sell out" and jump to Oklahoma State to become the highest-paid college coach? There's nothing funnier than when sports columnists and radio hosts -- for the most part, a group of people who will appear on any conceivable show no matter how terrible it is, as long as they're getting paid at least $50, and by the way, if you want them to spend three months ghostwriting someone's forgettable biography, they're available for that, too -- complain someone else is selling out. Give it a rest. I guarantee that if you offered any sports media member three times as much money to work somewhere else, 99.99999999 percent of the time, they'd take it. They would. So please, shut the hell up and spare us the "selling out" stories."
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
First, bad impressions
"What's more, there is a well documented asymmetry between the impact of bad first impressions versus good ones. Consider the following: We are quicker to both form and recall bad impressions, and are also more likely to do so. We also tend to be more confident about bad impressions, take less time to arrive at them, and require less information to be convinced of them -- that is, relative to good impressions. Finally, once a bad impression is formed, we seal it away from revision or interference."
That's from a post on The Splintered Mind, a blog on experimental philosophy. There is more about ways to avoid these impressions and counteract the bias.
I would add that this is especially important when we begin to discount people's ideas due to our dislike of their personality. It is even more reason to be a close reader and critical thinker. History is chalk full of scientific advancements that weren't accepted for decades because the person espousing them was considered uncharismatic.
That's from a post on The Splintered Mind, a blog on experimental philosophy. There is more about ways to avoid these impressions and counteract the bias.
I would add that this is especially important when we begin to discount people's ideas due to our dislike of their personality. It is even more reason to be a close reader and critical thinker. History is chalk full of scientific advancements that weren't accepted for decades because the person espousing them was considered uncharismatic.
My favorite part of April 1st isn't all of the fakes...
It's all the serious e-mails that I ignore since they were sent on April 1st.
Pre-registration for classes is due today? Nice one.
I forgot to turn in a tuition form? Good try, "Office of Finance and Administration." Like that place actually exists.
There was a security report issued about me on Saturday and the Poughkeepsie Police were contacted? Suuuuure, "Dean of Sophomores."
Stop lobbing up so many softballs, people. Next time bring some creativity.
Pre-registration for classes is due today? Nice one.
I forgot to turn in a tuition form? Good try, "Office of Finance and Administration." Like that place actually exists.
There was a security report issued about me on Saturday and the Poughkeepsie Police were contacted? Suuuuure, "Dean of Sophomores."
Stop lobbing up so many softballs, people. Next time bring some creativity.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
On Jealousy
"What we have here is a failure... to communicate." - Cool Hand Luke
This is going to be a brutally honest post.
I have some friends that do incredible things. My friend Jeremy has been to Isreal twice and is actively involved in starting an organization to stimulate discussion between real people from both countries. My friend Austin has seemingly traveled everywhere in Europe and speaks, at my last count, 5 languages. My friend Ben (I believe) is planning a trip to Japan on a tour for his book, which he published two years ago. The list goes on. If there was a facebook map that aggregated where your friends have been, instead of just showing where you yourself have been, mine would probably cover most of the world. And their achievements would likewise be outstanding.
There's a part of my brain that admires each of my friends for their accomplishments, and wishes them future success. But I have to admit that there's also a part of my brain that is intensely, viscerally jealous of other people's successes and future plans. Some higher, more cognitive part of my brain recognizes that it comes from our human need to compare ourselves to others, but the base feeling remains nonetheless.
Take this real estate venture that three of my best friends from college are about to undertake. They're going to buy a house (that already has tenants), fix it up a little bit through painting and landscaping, and begin renting it out for a profit. Some of the numbers that they're throwing around are pretty high, and what's more is that after a while they'll actually own the property themselves, at which point the returns will be even higher. And (here's one of the brutally honest parts) one of the main reasons that they are able to do it is because one of their financially successful dads is cosigning the lease.
The whole thing has made me rather jealous in a totally irrational way. First of all, I wish I was fucking involved. Of course, since they all live in Maine and the property is also going to be there, this is impossible. Plus, it's not like I have necessarily anything to offer them. Secondly, the fact that his dad is cosigning the lease seems unfair, but really ought to be irrelevant. Stuff like that happens all the time and my proximity to the situation doesn't change anything. I can't blame either of the parties involved; in fact, it seems like a good idea from both perspectives. My friend is using the resources he has available in the best way he can, and his dad is not simply giving him money. Instead, he is giving his son the opportunity to earn it in the open market.
Nevertheless, I AM STILL JEALOUS. There is a part of my brain that refuses to let this jealousy fade away.
But I think the best way to deal with the jealousy is to channel it as inspiration. You're going to do something awesome? I'm going to do something awesome too. That's another reason for me to encourage my friends to have success in whatever they do. That way, maybe it will encourage me to go out and do cool stuff, too. Any thoughts?
This is going to be a brutally honest post.
I have some friends that do incredible things. My friend Jeremy has been to Isreal twice and is actively involved in starting an organization to stimulate discussion between real people from both countries. My friend Austin has seemingly traveled everywhere in Europe and speaks, at my last count, 5 languages. My friend Ben (I believe) is planning a trip to Japan on a tour for his book, which he published two years ago. The list goes on. If there was a facebook map that aggregated where your friends have been, instead of just showing where you yourself have been, mine would probably cover most of the world. And their achievements would likewise be outstanding.
There's a part of my brain that admires each of my friends for their accomplishments, and wishes them future success. But I have to admit that there's also a part of my brain that is intensely, viscerally jealous of other people's successes and future plans. Some higher, more cognitive part of my brain recognizes that it comes from our human need to compare ourselves to others, but the base feeling remains nonetheless.
Take this real estate venture that three of my best friends from college are about to undertake. They're going to buy a house (that already has tenants), fix it up a little bit through painting and landscaping, and begin renting it out for a profit. Some of the numbers that they're throwing around are pretty high, and what's more is that after a while they'll actually own the property themselves, at which point the returns will be even higher. And (here's one of the brutally honest parts) one of the main reasons that they are able to do it is because one of their financially successful dads is cosigning the lease.
The whole thing has made me rather jealous in a totally irrational way. First of all, I wish I was fucking involved. Of course, since they all live in Maine and the property is also going to be there, this is impossible. Plus, it's not like I have necessarily anything to offer them. Secondly, the fact that his dad is cosigning the lease seems unfair, but really ought to be irrelevant. Stuff like that happens all the time and my proximity to the situation doesn't change anything. I can't blame either of the parties involved; in fact, it seems like a good idea from both perspectives. My friend is using the resources he has available in the best way he can, and his dad is not simply giving him money. Instead, he is giving his son the opportunity to earn it in the open market.
Nevertheless, I AM STILL JEALOUS. There is a part of my brain that refuses to let this jealousy fade away.
But I think the best way to deal with the jealousy is to channel it as inspiration. You're going to do something awesome? I'm going to do something awesome too. That's another reason for me to encourage my friends to have success in whatever they do. That way, maybe it will encourage me to go out and do cool stuff, too. Any thoughts?
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