"I Love Everything"

"Look Who FINALLY Decided to Show."

Deer Tick on Letterman

Lao-tzu Quote

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
- Lao-tzu

How to Memorize Words

I put my tuition deposit down this week at the California School of Podiatric Medicine here in Oakland, California. I'm looking forward to going back to school again, but I definitely need to brush up on my study skills before I start tackling Anatomy and Physiology classes in the fall.

Fortunately, Psyblog wrote a useful entry about memorizing words this week. They suggest 4 tried-and-true methods:

1) IMAGERY -- Create an image of what you want to remember
2) ELABORATION -- Think of associations that help anchor the word in your mind
3) GENERATION -- Put some work in to generating the target (using fill-in-the-blanks or flash cards)
4) VOCALIZATION -- Speak the word aloud

I'll be mindful to include all of these methods in my studies this fall.

What Really Motivates Us

Dan Pink argues that money does NOT make people perform better. When people are financially driven, bad things happen -- people perform worse, they end up with inferior products and services, and they behave unethically.

Pink argues that people are truly motivated to perform by a sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Innovative ideas aren't generated by financial incentives; they are created when people are given the autonomy to work on their own ideas.

The Story of Cap and Trade

see also the Story of Bottled Water and the Story of Stuff.

The Secret Powers of Time

via kottke:

A fascinating 10-minute animated talk by Philip Zimbardo about the different "time zones" or "time perspectives" that people can have and how the different zones affect people's world views.

The six different time zones are:

- Past positive: focus is on the "good old days", past successes, nostalgia, etc.
- Past negative: focus on regret, failure, all the things that went wrong
- Present hedonistic: living in the moment for pleasure and avoiding pain, seek novelty and sensation
- Present fatalism: life is governed by outside forces, "it doesn't pay to plan"
- Future: focus is on learning to work rather than play
- Transcendental Future: life begins after the death of the mortal body

See more talks by Stanford psychology professor Philip Zimbardo on TED.

Ask vs. Guess Culture

In some families, you grow up with the expectation that it's OK to ask for anything at all, but you gotta realize you might get no for an answer. This is Ask Culture.

In Guess Culture, you avoid putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes. Guess Culture depends on a tight net of shared expectations. A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won't even have to make the request directly; you'll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept.

All kinds of problems spring up around the edges. If you're a Guess Culture person then unwelcome requests from Ask Culture people seem presumptuous and out of line, and you're likely to feel angry, uncomfortable, and manipulated.

If you're an Ask Culture person, Guess Culture behavior can seem incomprehensible, inconsistent, and rife with passive aggression.

I'm a Guess. Let me tell you, it's great for, say, reading nuanced and subtle novels; not so great for, say, dating and getting raises.

Thing is, Guess behaviors only work among a subset of other Guess people -- ones who share a fairly specific set of expectations and signalling techniques. The farther you get from your own family and friends and subculture, the more you'll have to embrace Ask behavior. Otherwise you'll spend your life in a cloud of mild outrage at the Cluelessness of Everyone.

by Andrea Donderi from Ask Metafilter via The Guardian.

The New Lucys

Two of my friends in New York recently gave birth. I think they look eerily alike, given that they're both named Lucy...

Turkish Red Lentil Soup

When I was visiting DC two weeks ago, my friends Dannie and Andrew took me to a restaurant near Dupont Circle called Levante's. The highlight of the meal was the lentil soup, described as "Turkish style, with red lentils and seasonings, complimented with a bit of peppermint."

When I came home, I searched the Internet and found a recipe that seemed to resemble the soup I had at the restaurant. I had just about all of the ingredients at home, though I picked up some fresh mint at the grocery store to garnish the soup. It ended up being delicious! The bulgur wheat gives the soup a creamy body, and the mint gives the soup a nice kick at the end. It's fairly simple to make too.

You can find the recipe here.

The Russian Monk Zossimov on Freedom

The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says:

"You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiplying your desires." That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? In the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for they have been given rights, but have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants. They maintain that the world is getting more and more united, more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air.

Alas, put no faith in such a bond of union. Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature, for many senseless and foolish desires and habits and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They live only for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation. To have dinners, visits, carriages, rank and slaves to wait on one is looked upon as a necessity, for which life, honor and human feeling are sacrificed, and men even commit suicide if they are unable to satisfy it. We see the same thing among those who are not rich, while the poor drown their unsatisfied need and their envy in drunkenness...

...And it's no wonder that instead of gaining freedom they have sunk into slavery, and instead of serving the cause of brotherly love and the union of humanity have fallen, on the contrary, into dissension and isolation...

...And therefore the idea of the service of humanity, of brotherly love and the solidarity of mankind, is more and more dying out in the world, and indeed this idea is sometimes treated with derision. For how can a man shake off his habits, what can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying of the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? They have succceeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.

-- from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wisdom Quote

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

- Lin Yu-Tang

Problem Solving Quote

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

- Albert Einstein

Deliberate Practice

Talent is waaaaaaay overrated. According to the research of psychologist Anders Ericcson, experts are no more talented, intelligent, or capable than the rest of us. Instead, these skilled performers -- ranging from professional stockbrokers, hockey players, concert violinists, cardiac surgeons, and writers -- benefit enormously from 10+ years of deliberate practice.

So what is deliberate practice? Well, it's more than just repeating the same exercise over and over. Deliberate practice involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback, and focusing on process rather than outcome (source). Exceptional performers all benefit from these environmental advantages.

Still, there are no shortcuts -- everyone have to work hard (and work smart) to become exceptional. Even so-called "child prodigies" like Bobby Fisher and Tiger Woods required the same amount of training as their peers; they just started much earlier (source).

For further reading, check out kottke's collection of links on deliberate practice along with another related topic, relaxed concentration.

Trip Report: The Avenue of the Giants Marathon

At the last minute, I decided to participate in my fourth marathon, the Ave. of the Giants, this past Sunday. I had been on the fence for the past week, because I hadn't trained in over four weeks (since my hand gliding injury). I was worried most about my sore ribs, which had kept me sidelined for the past month, but they didn't turn out to be an issue. I started out fine -- I even had a brief hope of setting a PR -- but soon enough my legs started getting sore, beginning at mile 8. The lactic acid continued to build up and I thought about quitting at about mile 16-18. At that point I felt like I was barely moving. Luckily, my soreness went away a bit and I finished in 4:42, 40 minutes slower than my time last year.

During the second half of the race, I struck up a conversation with another runner who was struggling as much as I was. She was a 26 year-old in great shape, but she signed up for her first marathon with little preparation. The two of us hobbled along the second half of the course together, getting passed by loads of people, including a 76 year-old speedster who finished in 4:34. Consider it a lesson learned -- be prepared for to run 26.2 miles or you (and your ego) will suffer!

After finishing the marathon and returning to my campsite, I met two other finishers also spending the night, Ruthanne and Bonnie. Ruthanne was also disappointed with her time. She had run a 3:52, about 30 minutes behind her recent PR. I learned that she had also recently finished a 50 mile ultra named Copper Canyon, and she is training for the Leadville Trail 100 mile race this fall. Ruthanne described the experience as "transcendental," and she convinced me to train even harder for my upcoming ultra. Bonnie is a Bay Area marathoner who has completed ~40 events in the past 10 years. She gave me a tip for my next race: The Nisene Marks Marathon next month near Santa Cruz. I already sent in my registration, and Jess and I booked two nights at a beach site campground off of the PCH. Hopefully, I'll have a good training month so I'll be prepared for the single track trail and 2,500 ft. of climbing I'll need to complete in the first half of the course.

Trailblazing with Non Sequiturs

I made my way into the Russian White House in the middle of a coup attempt when [Boris] Yeltsin was President. No one was being allowed in the building. I went up, and the guard said women would not be allowed in the building. And I said, "I'm not a woman. I'm an American journalist." There was a momentary perplexed look on his face, and he said, "O.K." It worked. Sometimes a non sequitur is as good as strategy.

- Diane Sawyer

From her interview with Time.

Bill Moyer on Public Broadcasting

The mission of public broadcasting was to create an alternative channel that would be free of not only commercials, but free of commercial values...[NBC, ABC, and CBS] had made their peace with the little fantasies and lies of merchandizing... There are things in this country that the market will not provide: public education, public art, public schools, public broadcasting, public toilets. I mean there are things that are not profitable but that still serve a value. I think the most important thing we [public broadcasting] can do is to continue to treat Americans as citizens not just as consumers. If you look out and just see an audience of consumers, you want to sell them something. If you look out and see an audience of citizens, you want to share something with them. And there is a difference.

- Bill Moyers on Fresh Air 4-30-2010.

Do You Have Time to Love?

To love is, above all, to be there. But being there is not an easy thing. Some training is necessary, some practice. If you are not there, how can you love? Being there is very much an art, the art of meditation, because meditating is bringing your true presence to the here and now. The question that arises is: Do you have time to love?

I know a boy of twelve whose father asked him one day: "Son, what would you like for your birthday present?" The boy did not know how to answer his father, who was a very rich man, able to buy anything for his son. But the boy did not want anything except his father's presence. Because the role the father played kept him very busy, he did not have time to devote to his wife and children. Being rich is an obstacle to loving, When you are rich, you want to continue to be rich, and so you end up devoting all your time, all your energy in your daily life, to staying rich. If this father were to understand what true love is, he would do whatever is necessary to find time for his son and his wife.

The most precious gift you can give to the one you love is your true presence. What must we do to really be there? Those who have practiced meditation know that meditating is above all being present: to yourself, to those you love, to life.

Do you have enough time to love? Can you make sure that in your everyday life you have a little time to love? We do not have much time together; we are too busy. In the morning while eating breakfast, we do not look at the person we love, we do not have enough time for it. We eat very quickly while thinking about other things, and sometimes we even hold a newspaper that hides the face of the person we love. In the evening when we come home, we are too tired to be able to look at the person we love.

We must bring about a revolution in our way of living our everyday lives, because our happiness, our lives, are within ourselves.

--Thich Nhat Hanh

Surprising Results from The Marshmallow Challenge

Tom Wujec compares the performance of various teams in a marshmallow building challenge and discovers a few results that might shock you.

The task is simple: in 18 minutes, teams of four must build the tallest free-standing structure out of spaghetti sticks and one marshmallow on top. The apparent simplicity of the task trips up many teams; about 40% of the teams end up with structures that buckle and collapse under the weight of the marshmallow.

Interestingly, kindergartners perform better on this task than business school students, lawyers, and CEOs. Kindergartners "produce not only the tallest structures, but also the most interesting structures of them all."

Why? The key to the kids' success is their "iterative" process -- trial-and-error that gives the team instant feedback on what works and what doesn't. Business school students, on the other hand, tend to rely on a single plan that ends up failing.

Wujec also finds that incentives have a strong impact on performance. When he "ups the ante" and offers a $10,000 reward, all of the teams during one challenge fail to build a standing structure. When he offers the same reward to the same group of design students four months later, the structures are much better than most other groups. Wujec concludes that
incentives + low skills = failure
incentives + high skills = success

Interesting stuff. If I were still a teacher, I'd run the experiment on my own students. You can view the instructions for the Marshmallow Challenge here.