EclecticLip

Over the months, one of the themes for book club selections has been self-knowledge; a tradition that goes back to the “Know Thyself” carved into the side of the Temple of the Oracle of Delphi (and surely earlier still).  As a side note, “Nothing in Excess” (the old golden mean of Aristotle) and somewhat more verbose “Make a Pledge and Mischief is Nigh” were also apparently engraved into the structure.

Given the interest in self-knowledge, Gerd Gigerenzer’s book Gut Feelings — a primary source for Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink — was a natural fit.  Gigerenzer’s data supports the idea that less is more, an idea with enormous implications when it comes to data analysis for the modern researcher / knowledge worker.

As always, if you enjoy the book review, please consider supporting the author by purchasing the book. 

- - - - - -

Gut Feelings - summary 

I recently had a chance to catch up on some podcasts.  (Much like my “not-yet-read books” bookshelf, I’ve got many a megabite of unheard podcasts on my hard drive.)  This one was a CBC Ideas episode called The Moral of the Story Is; it’s dated March 22 2010.  It starts off with Bertrand Russell’s remark that:

“Most of the greatest evil that man has inflicted upon man comes throuhg people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.”

Partway through, the narrator interviews one Dr. Robert Burton, a neurologist at Mount Zion University of California Hospital.  At about the twenty-minute mark, he suggests that the brain’s reward system activates, when one has the sense of being right — in the same way it activates when people smoke, drink, use drugs, or engage in other addictive behaviours.  Basically, feeling indignant gives you an upswell of (bio)chemical pleasure.

At about 22 minutes, there’s a wonderful exchange:

Narrator: are you suggesting Bill O’Reilly is some sort of junkie, in a way?

Burton:  I’m not suggesting.

This rings true for me.  I’ve experienced the intoxicating sense of indignant righteousness when arguing with people who were “clearly wrong”.  Nowadays, I try to maintain an unrippled calm; and temper any anger with humour.  My media habits reflect this: I used to enjoy listening to American progressive talk radio, but now tend to find it agitating, again on account of the subsurface exasperation.  Of course, that’s nothing compared to what relatively little I’ve experienced of its conservative cousin.  I prefer The Daily Show, Colbert Report and Bill Maher, as their jeremiads are leavened with humour.  Our modern jesters, I suppose.

- - - - -    

While Dawkins maintains his composure here, he carries a lot of anger — indignation — towards the shallower strands of various religion traditions.  If memory serves, he gives Buddhism a pass in The God Delusion; his real problem is with literalism in the Abrahamic faiths, and Christian fundamentalism in particular.  Brutish and backwards as they may be, they’re not worth tripping into addictive indignation over.  Surely other approaches are better.

(Originally written June 5.  Posted July 9)

Kid-oriented movie “Marmaduke” opens this weekend, with Owen Wilson voicing the title canine and the surprisingly-not-a-one-hit-wonder Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of “McLovin” fame) also pitching in a voiceover.  I suppose Marmaduke is to Scooby Doo, what Heathcliff is to Garfield, and Bing is to Google — the overwhelmingly overshadowed runner-up in its category.

The movie also features, in the role of “Male Executive“, the Hollywood debut of Ashley Liu, a former work colleague.  Who did the modern equivalent of running away to join the circus, quitting his day job to pursue a full-time career in the fine arts.    He was doubly happy to have snagged the role, because the spec didn’t call for an Asian character.  (Lots of non-Caucasian actors have difficulty getting roles which aren’t ethnic-specific.)

Given that in the summer movie schedule, blockbusters drop every week, I didn’t think I’d have time to arrange a teambuilding movie night.  Nor did I think that many co-workers would want to pay $12 to sit through what appears to be a movie really, really aimed at kids: on Rotten Tomatoes, it gets an 11% rating, just squeaking above Ashton Kutcher / Katherine Heigl vehicle “Killers” with its 6%.  (And Killers was so bad, they didn’t even have previews, in an attempt to contain their losses!)

But there you go — to see a movie with a fuel cell tie-in which doesn’t involve disaster (Apollo 13), explosions (Terminator 3), George Lucas-penned dialogue (Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones), or corporate logo placement (”I, Robot”)…  you can go see Marmaduke. 

Oh - and to follow on the titular promise of this email, Ashley made his acting debut in a local theatre production of Sex in Vancouver, a transposition of a play called Sex in Seattle, itself a reimagining of what Sex and the City would be like if it was a bunch of (East) Asian women’s lives in the Starbucksian Pacific Northwest. 

Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm was chosen as the seventh book for the book club.  I’d come across it in an undergraduate course, and thought its treatment of the technology adoption lifecycle was relevant in light of the book club members being in the tech sector.

Moore’s insight was that, for disruptive innovations, there was a large gap — the titular “chasm” — between innovators and early adopters.  To mangle my metaphors in the manner of Thomas Friedman, many a would-be tech titan has shipwrecked itself trying to cross the chasm to the Shangri-La of profitability.

As usual, if you consider the review useful, please consider supporting the author by purchasing the book — or by enlisting his consultancy’s services. 

- - - - - -

Crossing the chasm - summary

James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore’s public-relations handbook Do The Right Thing was the fifth volume covered in the book club.  The book’s selection was part of an effort to broaden the team’s exposure to ideas not generally covered in engineering education or their day-to-day work. 

The book was covered in late 2009.  Given that the Olympics would descend on Vancouver a few short months later, a book on public relations seemed topical.

In the interest of disclosure, I should note that I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with both authors.  Given that I’m concerned about the framing of environmental issues, and not averse to sending emails to complete strangers, and given that Hoggan & Associates is a leading Vancouver PR firm with an interest in environmental issues, it was probably inevitable our paths would cross.

As usual, if you consider the review useful, please consider supporting the authors by purchasing the book.

- - - - - -

Do The Right Thing - summary

(Originally written April 19; posted May 12) 

The unpronounceable Icelandic volcano (”Eyjafjallajokull”) that recently disrupted air travellers — including my then-Dubai-bound brother — is small enough that it probably won’t have a cooling impact on the global climate, like other volcanoes.

As such, 2010 remains on-track to exceed 1998 as the hottest year on record based on satellite measurements, as per these charts.  1998 was particularly hot on account of that year having a strong El Nino (2010 in contrast has a moderate El Nino). 

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

A colleague told me recently that FORTRAN still finds strong use in academia — outside of computer sciences, that is.  (I can only attest that FORTRAN was being used by chemical engineering professors in the late 1990’s at UBC.)

Evidently, FORTRAN was the language that computer-savvy professors in the 1960’s and 1970’s used for their work.  In the 1980’s and 1990’s, enough young professors building on their predecessors’ work, found it easiest to continue using FORTRAN.  With the result that FORTRAN still finds considerable use in academic circles.  Or, so says my anonymous source with the unverified information. 

- - - - - -

If true, there would be strong parallels with Latin and Sanskrit.  (Technically the closest parallel might be Proto-Indo-European, but franky, “FORTRAN - the Proto-Indo-European of computer languages” sounds ridiculous.)

Latin and Sanskrit were languages that survived in academic / “elite” circles, long after they had been supplanted by a myriad of vernacular languages in everyday use.  And outside academia, FORTRAN must have the programming-language-equivalent market share of, like, the Opera browser.  Or Netscape Navigator (I remember when you were cool!).  See Wiki here.

My employer recently gave me permission to make our book reviews available to the public (once company-specific information was removed), for which I am deeply appreciative.

Here’s the summary for the book club’s first book, The Geography of Hope. 

If you find the review useful, please consider supporting the author by buying the book. 

- - - - - - -

The Geography of Hope - summary

- - - - - - -

It’s an odd decision, but I guess it’ll satisfy traditionalists…

LEED-Monument Rollout     (click to… yeah, you know the drill)

- - - - - -

(Originally written March 15.  Posted March 28) 

We’re back from the Diamond Capital of North America(tm), with tales of our quartz-priced travels and gypsum-level accomodations. 

On the flight over, I was struck by the vast expanse of the north — most of the landscape was as empty as the mind of a Zen adept.  It was astonishing, thrilling in a way, to see an entire landscape under the horizon, unoverrun by civilization and unblemished by the mark of man.

On the other end of the spectrum, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the oil sands from 35000 feet, but sadly Fort MacMurray and its environs were crowded over.  So much for seeing one of the “7 eyesores of the industrial world” with my own eyes.*

The first thing I noticed when stepping off the plane and into the frosty frontier, was that the airport was very small.  You walk off a ramp onto the tarmac and into the terminal building.  Mind you, Yellowknife does have a third small baggage conveyor, to Whitehorse’s two.  And it’s got bilingual ads at the airport — English and Japanese!  Playing to the tourist base, the audio tour of the legislative assembly building is also available in Japanese, as well as the expected English, French, and nine other official languages of the territory.  While there seemed to be more Japanese folks in Yellowknife than Aussies at Whistler, it’s apparently a big draw for German tourists too.  Which means *both* sides of my family tree predisposed me to visit.  In a sense, it may have been my genetic destiny!  (That and invading Russia…  hmm, maybe it’s an Arctic wanderlust thing.)

Back to the igloo-esque legislature building: it’s open on weekends, staffed by a volunteer and a security guard.  Built in 1993, it’s the first permanent legislative building for the Territories.  Prior legislatures met in the ballrooms of Yellowknife hotels, with occasional “road trips” hither and yon; maybe an attempt to neutralize the Yellowknifers’ home field advantage.    The NWT flag was actually designed by a Manitoba high schooler, who in 1969 won $1000 for his inspiration, about thirty times what graphic design student Caroline Davidson was paid three years later, for designing the Nike Swoosh.  (To Phil Knight’s credit — did I just write that? — he later gave her an envelope-full of Nike stock.)

Fair to say that things are pretty relaxed up in the Territories — someone outside can look all the way into the legislative chamber while they’re in session.  Reinforcing this impression, the security guard at the offices of Joint Task Force North told me that, even though the Canadian Forces were a “diet Coke of a military” he was “pretty sure” the building didn’t offer tours.  He then suggested a couple tourist venues I might consider visiting during my stay.

- - - - - -

* this is my list, in no particular order; readers’ private lists may vary:

- Ohio’s pride, the Cuyahoga River, which caught fire a record thirteen times over the years  
      (note: since cleaned up)
      (note 2: I sure hope that’s a record…)

- the great manure lagoons of the factory farms of the American midwest

- the Yanacocha Mine in Peru: a “cyanide fortified” open pit gold mine as big as the tax havens where its investors probably hide their winnings: bigger than Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, it’s a whisker smaller than the Cayman Islands

- the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch         (filed in Wikipedia under that very name!) 

- the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 
      (note: in the quarter-century since 300,000 people were evacuated, wildlife seem to be thriving there)

- Alberta’s oil sands tailing ponds

- Exxon Headquarters in Texas - scientific illiteracy central

(incidentally, three score and ten years before Exxon started funding global warming deniers, the President of Union Oil bankrolled the publication and distribution of three million copies of the first American Christian Fundamentalist tracts.  Fun guys, those oil barons…)