Advice – Page 13 – On The 8 Spot

March 5, 2009

rePost:Closed and Skeptical Minds : Musicians, drunks, and Oliver Cromwell — The Endeavour

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I forgot from what blog I got the advice but I remember distinctly an advice I got that said “be wary with people who say impossible” or something to that effect. I realize now after reading this post from chuck’s shared items what that really meant.
People who love or are in a habit of saying impossible is more probably of the closed/skeptical mind type, there is nothing wrong with being skeptical but there is for me something wrong with being close minded. When you are close minded you are living a life ruled by bias that you may or may no longer know how you came about having. When you live like this for a long time you end up with outdated/no longer true beliefs/ideas.
Why? This is because the world changes so fast and if you are not aware of a lot of the reason(like the previous post a lot of the evidence that influence our beliefs are somewhat invisible to us) you think/act a certain way you maybe doing something that is going against what you originally intended to do or achieve.
The take away in my view is three things:
-Try to journal what is influencing your thoughts.
-Constantly reexamine beliefs to understand if these beliefs/actions/habits are already outdated and should be stopped.
-Finally creating your own personal framework to make this as normal as breathing!

Dennis Lindley coined the term “Cromwell’s rule” for the advice that nothing should have zero prior probability unless it is logically impossible. The name comes from a statement by Oliver Cromwell addressed to the Church of Scotland:

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.

In probabilistic terms, “think it possible that you may be mistaken” corresponds to “don’t give anything zero prior probability.” If an event has zero prior probability, it will have zero posterior probability, no matter how much evidence is collected. If an event has tiny but non-zero prior probability, enough evidence can eventually increase the posterior probability to a large value.
The difference between a small positive prior probability and a zero prior probability is the difference between a skeptical mind and a closed mind.
Musicians, drunks, and Oliver Cromwell — The Endeavour.

March 3, 2009

Stumbling and Mumbling: The power of stereotypes

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This is sad to read. In the Philippines people are labeled early on because of close family ties, where 2nd or 3rd degree relatives see each other at least once a year. One thing I observe in these awkward situation is the way people give young kids labels that tend to be based on superficial reasons that then I believe sometimes become self fulfilling.

The power of stereotypes
Reputations can be self-fulfilling prophecies ; if you give a man a bad name, he‘ll live down to it. A new paper (pdf) by Thomas Dee shows this.
He did an experiment at Swarthmore College, asking a group of students to take a GRE test. Before the test, some students were asked about their sporting activities, and whether these conflicted with their academic work, whilst others were not asked.
And Mr Dee found that the athletes who were asked these questions performed significantly worse than the athletes who weren’t.
This suggests that when people are primed to be aware of a stereotype – “jocks are dumb” – they are more likely to behave in accordance with it.
Stumbling and Mumbling: The power of stereotypes.

March 3, 2009

rePost:Vesess » The Second Age of SMEs

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Explains why the authors think that the present financial crisis is the start of the Second Age of SME’s. Excellent read.

Think small. Think efficient. Share the returns.
…
The point we’re trying to make, however, is that in an economic climate like this, only a SME could afford to offer such discounts, and that it is precisely this ability that will enable such businesses to flourish despite the problems we face. For the first time in years, small businesses have the ability to truly shine, and we’d love to hear how some of our fellow players are using small and efficient business practices to attract customers and grow, despite everything going on around them.
Vesess » The Second Age of SMEs.

March 3, 2009

rePost:Notes for Students Working on Projects:Knowing and Doing: February 2009 Archives

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This is a nice short list of advice for students working on projects skewed towards software projects! Excellent and short read so go read it!

Notes for Students Working on Projects
My compiler students are getting to the point where they should be deep in writing a parser for their language. Walking back from lunch, I was thinking about some very simple things they could do to make their lives — and project — better.
Knowing and Doing: February 2009 Archives.

March 3, 2009

Marginal Revolution: Sentences to ponder

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I’ve been something of a nagger , telling friends to not mortgage their lives for “toys“. The newest cameras, laptops, other gadgets. Most think that doing what I was saying is a way of taking the fun out of their lives. This is not what I am trying to tell them.

Sentences to ponder
Recent research by economists Amy Finkelstein, Erzo Luttmer, and Matthew Notowidigdo suggests that you’ll get a bigger bang for your consumer buck by spending while you’re healthy, before old age starts to take the fun out of life’s indulgences.
Here is more. I worry about the asymmetry between gaining happiness and avoiding pain. Surely money for the young is better for the former but how about the latter?
Marginal Revolution: Sentences to ponder.

March 3, 2009

Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

This is the final lesson of the late bloomer: his or her success is highly contingent on the efforts of others. In biographies of Cézanne, Louis-Auguste invariably comes across as a kind of grumpy philistine, who didn’t appreciate his son’s genius. But Louis-Auguste didn’t have to support Cézanne all those years. He would have been within his rights to make his son get a real job, just as Sharie might well have said no to her husband’s repeated trips to the chaos of Haiti. She could have argued that she had some right to the life style of her profession and status—that she deserved to drive a BMW, which is what power couples in North Dallas drive, instead of a Honda Accord, which is what she settled for.
But she believed in her husband’s art, or perhaps, more simply, she believed in her husband, the same way Zola and Pissarro and Vollard and—in his own, querulous way—Louis-Auguste must have believed in Cézanne. Late bloomers’ stories are invariably love stories, and this may be why we have such difficulty with them. We’d like to think that mundane matters like loyalty, steadfastness, and the willingness to keep writing checks to support what looks like failure have nothing to do with something as rarefied as genius. But sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.
“Sharie never once brought up money, not once—never,” Fountain said. She was sitting next to him, and he looked at her in a way that made it plain that he understood how much of the credit for “Brief Encounters” belonged to his wife. His eyes welled up with tears. “I never felt any pressure from her,” he said. “Not even covert, not even implied.” ♦

Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.

March 3, 2009

-rePost-Best Read-Believing in the impossible – Part 1 at Paulo Coelho’s Blog

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– Can’t believe it? – the Queen repeats with a sad look on her face. – Try again: take a deep breath, close your eyes, and believe.
Alice laughs:
– It’s no good trying. Only fools believe that impossible things can happen.
– I think what you need is a little training – answers the Queen. – When I was your age I would practice at least half an hour a day, right after breakfast, I tried very hard to imagine five or six unbelievable things that could cross my path, and today I see that most of the things I imagined have turned real, I even became a Queen because of that.

February 18, 2009

rePost:Belief In A Loving God/ A Loving Life:Who wants to go to heaven? at Paulo Coelho’s Blog

For those who believe in God or even who just believes in life, I’ve come to the belief(too many belief in this sentence) God/the Universe is not conspiring against me at worst it does not care for me/us, thus I try to live life in a manner that if not optimistic at least neutral. I still don’t knwo/understand life but I feel that If I am to continue living here I believe in Love!

Who wants to go to heaven?
Published by Paulo Coelho on February 16, 2009 in Stories
A priest – who saw the devil in the pleasures of life – went to the town tavern and asked everyone there to attend church that evening. Everyone obeyed. With the church filled to the last pew, the priest roared out:
– Stop all this drinking! All those who want to go to heaven, raise their right hand!
The entire congregation raised their hand – everyone but Manoel, who was held by all to be a dignified man who fulfilled all his duties.
Surprised, the priest asked:
– And you, Manoel, don’t you want to go to heaven when you die?
– Of course I do. But I still haven’t experienced the life that God has given me, and you want to take it away from me already!
Welcome to Share with Friends – Free Texts for a Free Internet
Who wants to go to heaven? at Paulo Coelho’s Blog.

February 16, 2009

rePost:Sensible Amish Rules In Technology Adoption: The Technium: Amish Hackers

I’m a geek thus I try the newest shiny thing available, I muck around daily builds/ beta builds etc/ buy robot kits etc, How could I say the Amish rules are sensible?
Simply put I try my best to see where I stand. I constantly ask myself why/how/when/where I am changing. I constanly evaluate myself in how technology changes me and my interactions with people. In a way I follow these rules but with a faster turnover.
An example of this is how I resisted having a phone, when I realized that because of phones people tend to have less respect for meeting times/appointments etc. It took me a long time to grow accustomed to fluid meeting times etc. I used to never be late at anything I am usually 30 minutes to an hour early for anything, but not I see my habits have been changed.
more thoughts on this later!

The Amish are steadily adopting technology — at their pace. They are slow geeks. As one Amish man told Howard Rheingold, “We don’t want to stop progress, we just want to slow it down,” But their manner of slow adoption is instructive.
* 1) They are selective. They know how to say “no” and are not afraid to refuse new things. They ban more than they adopt.
* 2) They evaluate new things by experience instead of by theory. They let the early adopters get their jollies by pioneering new stuff under watchful eyes.
* 3) They have criteria by which to select choices: technologies must enhance family and community and distance themselves from the outside world.
* 4) The choices are not individual, but communal. The community shapes and enforces technological direction.
The Technium: Amish Hackers.

February 15, 2009

rePost: Petzal: The Rules of Gunfighting | Field & Stream

February 04, 2009
Petzal: The Rules of Gunfighting
Normally, this blog is dedicated to peaceful pursuits. However, SFC Frick speaks much wisdom. I am giving him a meritorious promotion to Command Sergeant Major (E-9).
(For more on this subject, visit our list of the five best gunfights of all time).
Drill Sergeant Joe B. Fricks Rules For A Gunfight
23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

Petzal: The Rules of Gunfighting | Field & Stream.