Tuesday, July 27, 2010
All humans have the same intelligence
From a talk by Noam Chomsky : All humans have the same intelligence, it is known for example that if one took a child from Amazon tribals and raised the child in Cambridge, the child will soon be doing quantum physics in MIT. Apparently the converse is also true. This means that there is not much difference in the intelligence between people, it is only a question of how one gets brought up.
Misquotes
It was only a short while ago that there was a firing from the Obama govt. on the basis of a misquote. Another instance of it has appeared again : It can be found here.
I wonder why people misquote. With internet, it is so much easier to bring the truth to light, especially if the original version was made on a public platform. Dont they realize that they will lose their credibility when the real thing comes out? Are they doing this out of a habit thats hard to get rid of? Does this mean the people have been misquoting for a long time and that it is only coming out to the general public now?
I wonder why people misquote. With internet, it is so much easier to bring the truth to light, especially if the original version was made on a public platform. Dont they realize that they will lose their credibility when the real thing comes out? Are they doing this out of a habit thats hard to get rid of? Does this mean the people have been misquoting for a long time and that it is only coming out to the general public now?
Friday, July 23, 2010
Neetha's corollary to Sapir Whorf hypothesis.
My corollary to the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis posted here :
If you cannot articulate a particular concept, you dont understand the concept well enough.
If you cannot articulate a particular concept, you dont understand the concept well enough.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Connecting music and memories..
Ever noticed how some pieces of music simply bring back memories of certain places and people? It happens with me, all the time.... I am not a big music person, and I sort of like only one type of music. But whether or not I like the music, it always makes memory associations for me.
When I was growing up, my mother used to listen a lot to Abba.. She likes to listen to them while she cooks... and she almost always has it on while baking on Christmas eve. Years later, when I went away to hostel, simply listening to Abba would make me miss home and remember long forgotten events. While in IIT, perhaps the music I listened to the most was from Deep Forest. Now when I listen to Deep Forest, the first image that comes to mind is my hostel room... Similarly, Metallica, or in fact any kind of rock music makes me remember my brother. Sometimes it brings back Saarang. And there are other pieces that bring back friends.
Isnt it wonderful, how the mind works? Exploring memories and remembering things with little effort, based on music suggestions... wonder why people havent thought of using this in teaching. I mean, will I ever be able to recite off Wurtz reaction just because I associated a particular musical piece with it?
When I was growing up, my mother used to listen a lot to Abba.. She likes to listen to them while she cooks... and she almost always has it on while baking on Christmas eve. Years later, when I went away to hostel, simply listening to Abba would make me miss home and remember long forgotten events. While in IIT, perhaps the music I listened to the most was from Deep Forest. Now when I listen to Deep Forest, the first image that comes to mind is my hostel room... Similarly, Metallica, or in fact any kind of rock music makes me remember my brother. Sometimes it brings back Saarang. And there are other pieces that bring back friends.
Isnt it wonderful, how the mind works? Exploring memories and remembering things with little effort, based on music suggestions... wonder why people havent thought of using this in teaching. I mean, will I ever be able to recite off Wurtz reaction just because I associated a particular musical piece with it?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Shopaphobic
I once happened to listen to someone extol the virtues of Morton Williams - she went on and on about how she loved walking through the aisles, how show loved looking at all the different things that were available, and about how she could stay in that shop for hours on end.
I loathe going to Morton Williams. And ShopRite. Or any other big shop with no one on the aisle to help out the poor shopper. I find it impossible to manage to locate all the things I need in a reasonable amount of time - I go with a list of things I need, never waste time looking at things I dont have on my list and it still takes me at least an hour and a half to get the stuff I need and walk out. Trust me, my lists are usually not very long. The time goes in locating the precise thing that I want to buy. I consider that a huge waste of time, and so cannot stop hating big shops.
It wasnt so bad when I was in India.. back home, when you shop, all you do is run to the little grocery store next to you and ask the guy there to find the stuff you need. All I had to do was tell him what I needed, and all the things I wanted appeared magically. If I said "sugar - 1 kg", he would take 1 kilo of sugar and pack it right in front of me. If I said "oats", he would automatically pick up the brand that I usually bought, because he knew which one I liked. It was all so simple...
After coming here, things have been nightmarish. It started with me looking for oats - I wanted plain oats. I went to the Mortan Williams store near us, and found the aisle with "breakfast cereal" written on it. Once there, however, things were hard. There was everything imaginable in that aisle, except what I wanted. I started out with a random search, looking on either side for anything with "oats" written on it. I found grits, "breakfast cereal", " granola", and God knows what else on that aisle. Each of these had at least 10 different flavors. And at least three different companies. And I was still to find oats. Finally I realized that random search wasnt working here, and decided to go sequential - I scanned the aisle from one side to the other. And finally found oats - but oh.. I found oats that already had maple syrup and apples in it, or brown sugar and cinnamon and some other stuff like that. I wanted plain oats, and that was nowhere in sight. I looked at every single packet that was near these packets of oats, thinking I might miss the only packet of plain oats if I didnt look carefully enough. After about a minute I realized I was still applying random search, on the packets that were arranged from the top of the shelf to the bottom. I decided on a sequential search again, and finally found the oats packet on the bottommost rack, almost hidden out of sight. The whole process took 15 minutes. Just to find plain rolled oats.
I have more such stories - about the time I went to buy spring roll pastry from shop rite - this time, I asked one of the people in the store if they could help me locate it. The poor guy came with me and searched, to no avail. I spent about 20 minutes searching, before deciding that if I didnt find the stuff in the next 10 minutes, I would stop searching. I finally went home without it. Another time, I wanted something for a fever, and was advised to buy Tylenol. when I went to the pharmacy, I found at least 10 different types of tylenols - AM, PM, pain relief, cold relief, for sore throat, for adults, for children, large packets, small packets... nothing however said anything about "fever". Imagine how irritating this is when you are running a fever and all you want to do is just get that damn pill and walk out the store. Finally I took the cold relief one. (It cost me $9.75 and didnt reduce my fever). It took another trip to the pharmacy, and some advil tablets to reduce my fever.
I have had a story similar to this each time I went to a new store. I think the primary problem is that there are too many choices here. Someone who is not familiar will end up making choices they didnt want to. Unfortunately, it appears that this is exactly what is intended, at least by some types of packaging.
I now avoid visiting new stores. I know the location of the things I need in certain shops, and those are the only shops I go to. The only items I am willing to experiment with are veggies. At least carrots dont come in ten different flavors, and they dont package radish to make it look like carrots. Not yet, at least. Thank God.
Update (26th July) : I just watched a talk on TED by Sheena Iyengar where she talks about choices and how people from a country where there are not too many choices and are thus not used to so many of them will find too many choices overwhelming. I suppose thats exactly what I have been going through. The talk can be watched here. What I liked best was how she named the grocery stores : "MonstroMart".
I loathe going to Morton Williams. And ShopRite. Or any other big shop with no one on the aisle to help out the poor shopper. I find it impossible to manage to locate all the things I need in a reasonable amount of time - I go with a list of things I need, never waste time looking at things I dont have on my list and it still takes me at least an hour and a half to get the stuff I need and walk out. Trust me, my lists are usually not very long. The time goes in locating the precise thing that I want to buy. I consider that a huge waste of time, and so cannot stop hating big shops.
It wasnt so bad when I was in India.. back home, when you shop, all you do is run to the little grocery store next to you and ask the guy there to find the stuff you need. All I had to do was tell him what I needed, and all the things I wanted appeared magically. If I said "sugar - 1 kg", he would take 1 kilo of sugar and pack it right in front of me. If I said "oats", he would automatically pick up the brand that I usually bought, because he knew which one I liked. It was all so simple...
After coming here, things have been nightmarish. It started with me looking for oats - I wanted plain oats. I went to the Mortan Williams store near us, and found the aisle with "breakfast cereal" written on it. Once there, however, things were hard. There was everything imaginable in that aisle, except what I wanted. I started out with a random search, looking on either side for anything with "oats" written on it. I found grits, "breakfast cereal", " granola", and God knows what else on that aisle. Each of these had at least 10 different flavors. And at least three different companies. And I was still to find oats. Finally I realized that random search wasnt working here, and decided to go sequential - I scanned the aisle from one side to the other. And finally found oats - but oh.. I found oats that already had maple syrup and apples in it, or brown sugar and cinnamon and some other stuff like that. I wanted plain oats, and that was nowhere in sight. I looked at every single packet that was near these packets of oats, thinking I might miss the only packet of plain oats if I didnt look carefully enough. After about a minute I realized I was still applying random search, on the packets that were arranged from the top of the shelf to the bottom. I decided on a sequential search again, and finally found the oats packet on the bottommost rack, almost hidden out of sight. The whole process took 15 minutes. Just to find plain rolled oats.
I have more such stories - about the time I went to buy spring roll pastry from shop rite - this time, I asked one of the people in the store if they could help me locate it. The poor guy came with me and searched, to no avail. I spent about 20 minutes searching, before deciding that if I didnt find the stuff in the next 10 minutes, I would stop searching. I finally went home without it. Another time, I wanted something for a fever, and was advised to buy Tylenol. when I went to the pharmacy, I found at least 10 different types of tylenols - AM, PM, pain relief, cold relief, for sore throat, for adults, for children, large packets, small packets... nothing however said anything about "fever". Imagine how irritating this is when you are running a fever and all you want to do is just get that damn pill and walk out the store. Finally I took the cold relief one. (It cost me $9.75 and didnt reduce my fever). It took another trip to the pharmacy, and some advil tablets to reduce my fever.
I have had a story similar to this each time I went to a new store. I think the primary problem is that there are too many choices here. Someone who is not familiar will end up making choices they didnt want to. Unfortunately, it appears that this is exactly what is intended, at least by some types of packaging.
I now avoid visiting new stores. I know the location of the things I need in certain shops, and those are the only shops I go to. The only items I am willing to experiment with are veggies. At least carrots dont come in ten different flavors, and they dont package radish to make it look like carrots. Not yet, at least. Thank God.
Update (26th July) : I just watched a talk on TED by Sheena Iyengar where she talks about choices and how people from a country where there are not too many choices and are thus not used to so many of them will find too many choices overwhelming. I suppose thats exactly what I have been going through. The talk can be watched here. What I liked best was how she named the grocery stores : "MonstroMart".
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