Category: Musing

• If I have anything against my UP EEE education, it would be that failure was always too costly, this is probably one of the reasons why only the braniacs leave EEE with lot’s of confidence. I feel I’m not alone in feeling initially insecure with my skill and competence. It took about 2 years before I regained my confidence again.

QUOTE:
Today, many critics lament the lack of innovation in our society and draw the conclusion that more emphasis on teaching mathematics and science will lead to innovation. That will probably fail. Innovation comes from repeated successes in innovating. Innovation means trying ideas outside the accepted patterns. It means providing the opportunity to fail as a learning experience rather than as an embarrassment. … the traditional school powerfully suppresses any tendency toward being innovative. Both teachers and students are driven to conform.
from this book : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568814763?ie=UTF8&tag=theende-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1568814763
via: http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/06/01/preparing-students-for-innovation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheEndeavour+(The+Endeavour)

Now for the hard question: What to do with your life?

First, it’s important to understand that once you have the basics, happiness comes primarily from healthy social connections and a sense of purpose. If you quit your job and move to a new city where you don’t know anyone or have a clear purpose, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up depressed or even suicidal. So unless your current life is very broken, don’t do that. Take it slow.

Many people with jobs have a fantasy about all the amazing things they would do if they didn’t need to work. In reality, if they had the drive and commitment to do actually do those things, they wouldn’t let a job get in the way. Unfortunately, if given a lot of money, they are much more likely to end up addicted to crack, or even worse, World of Warcraft. (edit, since people are getting offended: there are, as always, exceptions, but the point is that actually doing stuff is about a million times harder than just dreaming about it, which is why 99% of people wouldn’t actually do it even if money weren’t an issue) If you’ve been institutionalized your entire life (school, work, etc), it can be very difficult to adjust to life on “the outside”.

from here: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-to-do-with-your-millions.html

The evidence strongly suggests that students learn better when they are not graded and certainly not when they are graded on a curve.  … When drill instructors were tricked into believing that certain randomly selected soldiers would achieve superior performance, those soldiers subsequently performacned far better on tasks like firing weapons and reading maps.  (p.38)
from here : http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/03/hard-facts-teaching.html