Farewell Jack C. Louis
Jack C. Louis - The loss of a dear friend…
Our discussions over beer at T2 will not be forgotten. I see what you saw.
2006-05-08Getting Things Done
Procrastination vs. “Getting Things Done”. I’m trying to hone my time management skills (again). This time I ran into a methodology known as “Getting Things Done”, which actually seems to make sense. Of course, this means I extract the pieces of it that I consider useful–it’s always too easy to go over the top. At least the guy who developed the approach, David Allen, is making money off it.
[/life/lifehacks] permanent link
2006-01-27Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias apparently affects all of us. Simply put, we tend to first form an opinion, and then look at the evidence supporting that opinion. If evidence to the countrary is presented, we either downplay it or outright ignore it.
Systems intelligence is all about acting in ways that take into account the true systems we participate in, in our daily lives. The point being “true” systems as opposed to systems we would like or believe we participate in. To me, this strongly suggests that a systems intelligent person does his best to avoid confirmation bias.
Systems thinking as a method allows us to consciously assess evidence and reject any bias—including confirmation bias. Systems intelligence gives us the skill to unconsciously reject confirmation bias, to act and react with a suitable amount of skepticism.
To me, this suggests that a systems intelligent person by nature strongly rejects pseudoscientific thinking, and exhibits a clear tendency to apply the scientific method.
[/life/systems intelligence] permanent link
2005-12-22George W. Bush Reaching for Dictatorship?
Bruce Schneier may overshoot his target every now and then, but he summarizes the Bush administration’s actions in a very tought-provoking way in his blog entry “The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power”. Read it, but keep a critical mindset.
A couple of selected quotes:
If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I’m the dictator.
—George W. Bush, December 18, 2000
In the weeks after 9/11, while America and the world were grieving,
Bush built a legal rationale for a dictatorship. Then he immediately
started using it to avoid the law.
—Bruce Schneier
[/life/society] permanent link
2005-08-09Religion considered harmful?
The US Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress has prepared a rather interesting report The Sociology And Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?. The report notes that a new type of terrorists has emerged that does not follow the norms of the society at large. Extreme religious groups divide the world into “them” and “us”, and can easily justify almost any actions aimed at “them”, regardless of the targets.
There is a significant aspect of these new terrorism movements—they are motivated by extreme religion or ideology. I believe that any radical movement that abandons rational thought and focuses on ideology instead can potentially turn to terrorism. Religious groups are a prime breeding ground for such movements, because religion requires you to suspend rationality and believe, “have faith”.
The terrorist is actually quite sane, although deluded by an ideological or religious way of viewing the world. [...] In short, a terrorist will look, dress, and behave like a normal person, such as a university student, until he or she executes the assigned mission.
Religion, however, is strictly speaking not a requirement to become a terrrorist. It is enough to have blind faith in the righteousness of one’s cause. Such faith can also be found in activist groups, especially in groups who recruit gullible teenagers. A low education can be an influencing factor, but quite often even highly educated persons join terrorist cells. The type of education is critical.
Based on this, I would expect to find terrorist traits in groups such as “rights” activists, revisionists, nationalists; basically in any groups who hold a strong ideological belief in being right, typically despite evidence to the contrary, and have an urge to act. I would be especially worried if there is a strong religious motive. Movements such as “Pro Life” and creationists spring to mind.
Beware of strong convictions and belief. Think. Always be ready to challenge established truths. This is the way to eliminate terrorism.
[/life/society] permanent link
2005-08-03Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety
I am currently reading Alain de Botton’s book “Status Anxiety”. It will take some time, as I pick it up again only when I happen to feel like it. It’s an interesting book. I just happened to bash the yellow press a month ago, when I got fed up with the strange news that are flashed as newsworthy these days. In his book, Alain makes a similar observation.
Although Alain puts a lot of effort into defining what “status” might mean, and why it may be a cause for anxiety, I think that the core idea behind the book is very familiar. If you let other people define what you value in life, and what you should aspire to, you may very easily find yourself living a very unfulfilled life. This idea is reflected in the solutions Alain has to offer—philosophy, art, politics, Christianity, and bohemia.
I cringed a bit at first at the inclusion of Christianity in Alain’s list, but it does seem to offer a solution. The thought that your status in life doesn’t matter, because your true status is determined in an afterlife, does offer consolation for status anxiety. In this case, it strikes me that the cure may be worse than the disease.
[/life/philosophers] permanent link
No blogging during vacation
I didn’t bother to write a single blog entry during my four-week vacation. I don’t want to imply that blogging during a vacation is wrong, this time I just chose not to. Being able to choose, even in puny things like this, and being concious about the choice is part of happiness.
[/life/good life] permanent link
2005-06-27No news in the news?
For some time now, I have played a small game with the yellow press. In Finland, we have two leading tabloids, “Iltalehti” and “Ilta-Sanomat”. I challenge myself to find one piece of news on display, and sofar I have always managed to find one piece. Too often, though, that’s all.
A colleague then jokingly asked me to define what I mean by “news”. Although I laughed it off at the time, it’s actually a very valid question. I really should be able to express my intuitive feeling for what is news, or newsworthy. At least beyond the dictionary definition of “Of sufficient interest or importance to the public to warrant reporting in the media.”
After thinking about this for a while, and reading up a bit, I realized
that what I mostly object to is actually things I
do not consider newsworthy. The journalistic definition I
stumbled
upon
noted that prominence is a factor: If you break
your arm it won't make the news, but if the Queen of England breaks her
arm it's big news.
I can buy timing, significance, proximity, and
human interest, but prominence?
There is an amount of circular reasoning behind citing prominence as a source for newsworthiness. News is by definition prominent, thus anything in the news becomes prominent. This leads to a vicious circle where seemingly “prominent” persons figure repeatedly in the news—exactly what today’s celebrity culture flourishes on.
I believe that news should have an element of objectivity, that is, a foundation similar to that of science. This means that news is not entertainment or advertisement, which is often overlooked nowadays. News items that are based on how famous or prominent someone is cannot be news. Actually, I believe that the opposite should be true. The less prominent the news is, the more newsworthy it is.
[/life/society] permanent link
2005-05-30Alain de Botton: A Guide to Happiness
Every now and then I return to de Botton’s book “The Consolations of Philosophy”. It is quite thin, to the point, and is very easy to read. I was thrilled to find that the Finnish broadcasting company YLE chose to broadcast the TV series “A Guide to Happiness”, which is based on the book.
Rather than spending an hour praising the book, I’ll settle for recommending it. If you think life sucks, pop out to the bookstore and see what de Botton has in store for you. You can get it really cheap, and that’s excellent value for money.
[/life/philosophers] permanent link
2005-05-11New bike: Tunturi H81
My old bike was really getting old, and would have required a major overhaul to be useful. Fortunately for me, our company has a bike leasing program which is quite cheap. I decided to get me a Tunturi H81 trekking hybrid. I suppose most manufacturers would call it a “commuter bike”.
I picked up the bike yesterday, a little less than 10 km from home, and the ride home took 40 minutes. Bikes have changed since the 80’s; they are lighter and easier to ride. I suppose that benefit will be gone once I pick up the child seat for the bike and put our 3-year-old on it.
Going to work by bus takes me 30 to 40 minutes, riding a bike may take 45 minutes plus the time to shower and change. Unless my hey fever prevents it, I expect to go to work by bike at least a few times this summer.