cunard3's comments

Very nice

This link to an audio interview was posted previously: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4325.html Gamow talks about meeting Bohr and his wit: He says that he was startled to see a horseshoe nailed above the door to Bohr's house. Gamow asked Bohr why he had it there. Bohr said "I've heard that it works even if you don't believe in it."

How sad. Because when the older ones die it seems for the first while like the rest of us have no one. No one to look up to, no one to stick up for us.

Class war is also war. There is more to psychology than self-medication for the troubled, SSRIs for the moderately dysfunctional, and anti-psychotics for the very troubled. Isn't there? I couldn't help but notice that the little trick memory plays on our conscious minds of forgetting about trauma, kind of scabbing and healing is very like what happens on this site: We meet interesting people and get to sample their thoughts and then we immediately forget what we didn't know five minutes ago, or that we didn't know it.It seems to me that war-mongering takes advantage of these blind spots by hammering away at our attention It always seems to start with something new. Did you know they sank a patrol boat in the golf of Tonkin? Did you know...whatever, and builds from there. I have to thank MG for reminding us that we can actually get up, dust ourselves off and walk away. A lesson that doesn't require action or revenge, just awareness.

Thanks. I feel like the cold sweat realizations of "after the meeting" are all right there in this slide show. Nice to have them before the meeting...

One of Chomsky's strongest works as a non-linguist is his "American Power and the New Mandarins." (1967, 1968) In it you can find sections titled: "On the responsibility of intellectuals" and "some thoughts on Intellectuals and the Schools." He also co-authored "Manufacturing Consent."

In "Power" he relays an anecdote about seeing, in the Smithsonian, I believe, an exhibit wherein museum goers could interact with a (Vietnamese) jungle scene. The interaction was to take hold of a 50 caliber mounted in a mock-up of a helicopter and shoot at villagers. That exhibit was designed and constructed by someone. Presumably someone who had a "good job" at the museum.

We are designers, most of us. And I for one can't help thinking sometimes: How much designing do I really do? Clearly if I define myself as a non-intellectual, my responsibility doesn't really change. I know that I am both educated and trained but that has not yet made me free. So what do I have: Theoretical freedom without socialism. Oh, and illusion...lots of illusion.

Agreed, but for that you need money:(

I think that for myself identity got formed by a progression of feeling-states informed by listening, writing, and learning. I can't feel proactively. I feel re actively and am formed. I think these feelings are like polarized or fissile material. The big polarized feelings get shaped by reading and listening.(by great books, for instance) Without identity, would a person have any motivation to act, is my question. I've tried hard not to be co-opted by isms or identity politics, but to participate, to have passion, you rely on the polarized core. Or at least, I do. In starting a business, or doing something for myself that takes passionate intensity I have always had to take a leap of faith. The faith is in myself and in the direction my inner polarized identity seems to be taking me. This is akin to what startup advocates mean when they say:"I couldn't have worked that hard for that long if it was only about the money." I agree with keeping a close eye on what you allow into your identity. keeping it small is a Tauist ideal that I find doesn't gibe with real life sometimes. Ego and pride can be really useful. Ghandi had an ego, as did MLK. It's a high ideal to be and to remain an uncarved block. A very high standard. Confucianism has sort of displaced the Tau in general society. I think because rules make it possible for people with all kinds of identities to make agreements and find ways of going forward.

Any takers for the idea of identity being required for motivation?

It kind of seems like self-righteous crowing IS the point. I there no mercy anywhere? This woman has woken up in a nightmare. It's a worst case scenario. Maybe she gambled and lost. Don't make it about morality. Give her some credit for chutzpah, say something nice, get down off your soap-box and start talking like christians (even if you're not). There's got to be more to life than stoning those less fortunate. jeesh. I'm embarrassed for y'all.

Another (earlier) thread on a similar theme: Ken Robinson says that the teachers who can encounter their kids and allow them to be creative can thereby allow them to have tools they'll need in the present post-industrial world. He specifically mentions what he calls "inflation" meaning a BA used to be something, then it was an MA, and now a PHD. I've watched it a few times now. His point about valuing math above music or art is well taken, by me anyway. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools...

Checks have a cost, for sure. What about Eric Reis's split-testing axiom? If in a startup the developer/coder is basically the customer of the enterprise because the cost of the check is paid by the rising frustration of the coder, then should split-testing be looked upon as a check? Even if it is, the idea of an available metric to backup claims of efficacy is really compelling.