http://www.freakonomics.com/pdf/StudentFREAKONOMICS.pdf
This is way shorter then the book and makes most of the same statistical observations.
The most important to me being;
"Levitt et al. conclude that the variables most correlated with academic success (in children) tend to be variables which are related more to what a parent is, than what that parent does for the child."
And it was more then academic success. It is all of who your children turn out to be. I loved this because if you extrapolate it it says, the best thing you can ever do for your children, is to become a better person. For example it didn't matter if your read to your children, but it did matter if you had books in your house. It doesn't matter if you do the right things for them, it matters if you care about them. It doesn't matter if I get great techniques from parenting classes, it matters that I care about going. That is to say that even on my own, being a conscientious parent, I will figure out things that work and help, and that caring about parenting is somehow contagious to your children.
The age old saying, the apple doesn't fall far, does seem to be very true, but inadequate. It doesn't remind you that you, Mr. Tree, are still growing. And that your apples will see you doing a good job growing and grow themselves.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Same thing applies in business
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but the one most responsive to change."
--Darwin
--Darwin
Philosophizing makes a better world
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
--Aristotle, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (384 BC - 322 BC)
--Aristotle, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (384 BC - 322 BC)
Galileo on critical thinking
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
It implies that even if you are an intelligent designer or simply religious, it is possible or even likely that your mind is there to question things.
If you are not religious well, then its there to keep you alive and you might as well use it to do so. Since your here, and you don't know what's there, you might as well be practical about it and use what you've got.
It implies that even if you are an intelligent designer or simply religious, it is possible or even likely that your mind is there to question things.
If you are not religious well, then its there to keep you alive and you might as well use it to do so. Since your here, and you don't know what's there, you might as well be practical about it and use what you've got.
Philosophy Talk - Moral Dilemmas
FYI - Philosophy Talk is a radio show out of Standford with a best of available on Stanford on iTunes (Google it).
Symetric cases are almost impossible. I have to choose between my children, Sophie's Choice etc.
Culturtal relativism: Some believe abortion is murder. Those who perform abortions do not. So its only would be mothers with a dilemma.
"Good is a simple notion, just as yellow is a simple notion. Just as you can not, by any manner or means, explain to somebody who does not already know it, what yellow is. So you can not explain what good is."
--G.E. Moore
This view makes good undefinable to anything but your own intuition. And thus different people withe the same dilemma respond differently.
Most cases are between two morals of your own. Do I kill a suffering person, save them pain, but become a murderer?
On the opposite end, if there is absolute morality, how can a moral dilemma even exist? There would be one true path.
Moral Relativism: "If to save one man, you run the risk of letting 10 die, it is reasonable to sacrifice him. We can only ask that such decision not be taken hastily or lightly and that the evil it inflicts be less that that which was forestalled."
Even to a utilitarian, the less of two evils is a long way from the greatest good for the greatest number.
"The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil."
--Albert Schweitzer
So, if you damned if you do and damned if you don't, just make the best choice you can.
Symetric cases are almost impossible. I have to choose between my children, Sophie's Choice etc.
Culturtal relativism: Some believe abortion is murder. Those who perform abortions do not. So its only would be mothers with a dilemma.
"Good is a simple notion, just as yellow is a simple notion. Just as you can not, by any manner or means, explain to somebody who does not already know it, what yellow is. So you can not explain what good is."
--G.E. Moore
This view makes good undefinable to anything but your own intuition. And thus different people withe the same dilemma respond differently.
Most cases are between two morals of your own. Do I kill a suffering person, save them pain, but become a murderer?
On the opposite end, if there is absolute morality, how can a moral dilemma even exist? There would be one true path.
Moral Relativism: "If to save one man, you run the risk of letting 10 die, it is reasonable to sacrifice him. We can only ask that such decision not be taken hastily or lightly and that the evil it inflicts be less that that which was forestalled."
Even to a utilitarian, the less of two evils is a long way from the greatest good for the greatest number.
"The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil."
--Albert Schweitzer
So, if you damned if you do and damned if you don't, just make the best choice you can.
Forensic Phsychology moral Dillema
On a legal note, there was a call in to a philosophy show I listen too from a guy who does forensic psychology (the guy who says if your sane enough for trial). The show was on moral dillamas and he was saying that he has the daily issue of knowing that if he labels a person mentally ill they get caught in the mentally ill system for 25 years. But if he labels them sane they will serve their 5 and be done. And since most of the cases are not cut and dry insane he ends up factoring the issues with the mental system into his decisions to label people insane. I think he was in CA.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Stress and Coping, What baboons can teach us -- Robert Sapolsky
Past humans did not get a lot of the diseases we get these days simply because they did not live as long. A lot of these diseases are effected by stress. So stress has become more important to us. The more immediate effects are probably anxiety issues but there are a lot of long term effects also including stress related diseases. However, some people and psyches deal better with stress then others. Why?
Since you can't study a 20 year tie between people who got depression and people who got cancers later you can't do this in humans. Rats are not a good model for you emotional capabilities. Rats can't take things in stride and look on the brights side. So, he studied baboons.
They have personality and a social structure involving a very rigid dominance hierarchy. They have a lot of stress responses, they do a lot of boasting and eventual fighting.
So, what makes an event stressful. You are more likely to handle stress poorly if;
1) You have no outlets for your frustrations.
2) You have no predictive information, how bad will it be.
3) You feel like you have no control over the event.
4) You interpret events as worsening.
5) Your socially isolated.
Having your stress systems on causes you to produce fight or flight hormones and other systems of your body. Modern humans are having trouble with anxiety because like low ranking baboons, we turn on our flight systems too often. We worry too much, perhaps for good reason, but none the less, we do.
Baboons do the same thing and they do it more often the further down the baboon hierarchy they are. Other animals experience the same phenomena. If your low ranking you you have more things to be afraid of. the above 5 scenarios happen more often. One example is good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, vs. bad cholesterol LDL. This is documented in humans as well and is present in baboons. What is this do to? Controlling for this, the higher your glucocordicoids?, stress hormones, the lower your good cholesterol. You can even map this to heart disease in baboons. The lower baboons get it more often for the same reasons humans due when they have bad cholesterol. Also your white blood count is lower, so you get illnesses, you get infections, etc. The scientist claimed many other systems have the same experiences. So we've established that stress is bad and the lower you are in rank the more stress you have and the unhealthier you are because of it.
Now that was the end of it for a while. However social revolutions thought him something further. During a revolution of the social order everybody gets stressed, baboon village wide pandemic. He saw that it wasn't just rank, two other things, one interesting, one not. The uninteresting was if you managed to a bystander to the revolution, you did alright.
the interesting one was, it was how you took your situation. Your personality. And he defined the types.
Turns out rank didn't matter, its was personality. You could be way down the scale and have good physiology even at the bottom of the ladder.
You would have this personality. 5 traits.
1) Can you tell the difference between big and small things? Don't sweat the small stuff. If your baboon enemy gets in your face, you get excited, if your enemy is 100 yards away, you get excited. Most baboons couldn't tell the difference and suffered.
2) Do you control the situation, do you start the fight.
3) Can you tell if you won or lost?
4) Do you mope or displace aggression? Displacers do better, those with an outlet.
5) The last was the most powerful and has been well documented in humans. Social isolation. Do you have friends? About 25% of male baboons have friends (females but not sexual) and it mattered.
You'll notice these are very similar to what people teach you about happiness and stress.
In humans, other studies have shown this ranking, too things best predict a bad physiology and disease succeptablility, you do poorly if you are;
1) poor
2) socially isolated
3) smoke
4) drink
And this is controlling for people taking their medicine, eating well, its not the other effect of not having friends you might guess to effect your health. Its having friends. And its something to consider about those you know who are aging and have lost some of their social network.
Since you can't study a 20 year tie between people who got depression and people who got cancers later you can't do this in humans. Rats are not a good model for you emotional capabilities. Rats can't take things in stride and look on the brights side. So, he studied baboons.
They have personality and a social structure involving a very rigid dominance hierarchy. They have a lot of stress responses, they do a lot of boasting and eventual fighting.
So, what makes an event stressful. You are more likely to handle stress poorly if;
1) You have no outlets for your frustrations.
2) You have no predictive information, how bad will it be.
3) You feel like you have no control over the event.
4) You interpret events as worsening.
5) Your socially isolated.
Having your stress systems on causes you to produce fight or flight hormones and other systems of your body. Modern humans are having trouble with anxiety because like low ranking baboons, we turn on our flight systems too often. We worry too much, perhaps for good reason, but none the less, we do.
Baboons do the same thing and they do it more often the further down the baboon hierarchy they are. Other animals experience the same phenomena. If your low ranking you you have more things to be afraid of. the above 5 scenarios happen more often. One example is good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, vs. bad cholesterol LDL. This is documented in humans as well and is present in baboons. What is this do to? Controlling for this, the higher your glucocordicoids?, stress hormones, the lower your good cholesterol. You can even map this to heart disease in baboons. The lower baboons get it more often for the same reasons humans due when they have bad cholesterol. Also your white blood count is lower, so you get illnesses, you get infections, etc. The scientist claimed many other systems have the same experiences. So we've established that stress is bad and the lower you are in rank the more stress you have and the unhealthier you are because of it.
Now that was the end of it for a while. However social revolutions thought him something further. During a revolution of the social order everybody gets stressed, baboon village wide pandemic. He saw that it wasn't just rank, two other things, one interesting, one not. The uninteresting was if you managed to a bystander to the revolution, you did alright.
the interesting one was, it was how you took your situation. Your personality. And he defined the types.
Turns out rank didn't matter, its was personality. You could be way down the scale and have good physiology even at the bottom of the ladder.
You would have this personality. 5 traits.
1) Can you tell the difference between big and small things? Don't sweat the small stuff. If your baboon enemy gets in your face, you get excited, if your enemy is 100 yards away, you get excited. Most baboons couldn't tell the difference and suffered.
2) Do you control the situation, do you start the fight.
3) Can you tell if you won or lost?
4) Do you mope or displace aggression? Displacers do better, those with an outlet.
5) The last was the most powerful and has been well documented in humans. Social isolation. Do you have friends? About 25% of male baboons have friends (females but not sexual) and it mattered.
You'll notice these are very similar to what people teach you about happiness and stress.
In humans, other studies have shown this ranking, too things best predict a bad physiology and disease succeptablility, you do poorly if you are;
1) poor
2) socially isolated
3) smoke
4) drink
And this is controlling for people taking their medicine, eating well, its not the other effect of not having friends you might guess to effect your health. Its having friends. And its something to consider about those you know who are aging and have lost some of their social network.
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