Sep. 17th, 2010

mattbell: (Default)
This is fascinating:


As a child I very much shied away from and often ridiculed the "jock" approach to things.  "Jock" was often synonymous with "dumb".  This probably was aided by the fact that the cool kids in my school were not the jocks but the academic overachievers.  (I went to a well-funded public school that was full of Stanford professors' kids).  However, it's interesting to come around and realize that the jock approach can often have a lot of value.  It should be seen not as an antithesis to the "nerd" approach, but as a separate skill that's worth using when appropriate.

Back to the video...  The weightlifter, Kirk Karwoski, has spent years building up his strength via a variety of exercises and fine-tuning his proprioception so that he knows exactly how far he can push himself.  It's not the most intellectually demanding work, but it involves an incredible amount of willpower, perseverance, and an ability to be extremely in tune with his body.  When it comes time to do the record-setting lift, the movement sequences and possible contingencies are all completely mapped out into muscle memory and learned procedures, requiring little to no deliberative conscious input.  When there's 1000 pounds of weight on his back, he has to know exactly what he's doing.  He also has to set aside any doubt, minor pains, or other mental obstacles in his way.  All the animal grunting serves a purpose -- it gets him purely focused on the task and ready to push his abilities to the limit.  Nike understood this when their marketing department, after I'm sure was a long and extensive deliberation, chose the slogan of "just do it".

What can "nerds" learn from the jock approach?  When is it applicable outside scenarios where large amounts of mass must be moved using human muscle power alone?  I've noticed a lot of objectively highly intelligent people suffer from indecisiveness, hyper-rationality, procrastination, getting lost in details, timidity, lack of focus, poor body awareness, and poor body care (lack of exercise, poor diet).  Often these issues are over-expressions of a trait that is good in moderation; indecisiveness is overactive comparative analytical skill, procrastination is overactive perfectionism, etc,  However, these issues prevent their intelligence from translating into making a significant impact in the real world.  I believe that having some fluency in the "jock" approach, and knowing when to apply it, can go a long way toward correcting hyperactive "nerd" abilities. 
mattbell: (Default)
Yesterday I managed to climb my first 5.11 b/c.  Prior to this, the hardest route I had completed was a 5.11a.  Granted the grading systems are somewhat uneven and arbitrary, but I'm still drawn to curated semi-official achievement validation.  :-)

I did have an exciting first couple of months where I went from 5.8 and 5.9 to 5.10d in the span of just a few visits.  I remember remarking on how great and smooth the challenge ramp was.  However, I soon hit a metaphorical wall, and it took another ~2 months of almost no progress before I had a successful 5.11a run.  At this point I still can only do some of the 5.11a runs cleanly and the majority of the 5.10d runs cleanly. 

I can think of several reasons for this:
- The gradings are designed to allow for rapid progress at the beginning
- In the beginning, I was climbing with people who were substantially better than I was.  Now my climbing partners are about of equivalent skill to me.  Perhaps I need to find more advanced climbers to mentor me.
- I've been spending more time bouldering lately, which is a different skill as it emphasizes strength over power endurance.  I have been making progress in bouldering -- I did my first V3 around a month ago, and now I can do most of the V3s on the wall. 
mattbell: (Default)
This is Apple's original logo:



It seems like the sort of thing that a couple of young idealistic hippie-ish founders, one of whom lived on an agricultural commune for a while, would come up with. 

The apple, in this case Newton's Apple, is a tool for the pursuit of insight, transformation, and progress.  It's a nice metaphor.  I am curious if the second Apple logo, with the bite on the side, is a metaphor for the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden.  It would be a similar idea.



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My friend Paul took me for a short flight around the Bay Area today.  We flew around sunset, and the views were beautiful.

Some of the highlights:

Oakland  Oakland
Oakland  Oakland

Bay Bridge construction:

Bay Bridge construction  Bay Bridge construction

Downtown Oakland  Downtown Oakland

Closeup of BART:

Downtown Oakland

Strange salt ponds (?) near Palo Alto:

Salt ponds (?) near Palo Alto

Paul:

View of Oakland  Palo Alto airport

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My friend Ed made me this rather hilarious narcissistic photoshopping.  When he gave me the gift, he said (in a classic British understated sort of way).  "I got you a frame, but I felt weird giving it to you with no pictures, so I just stuck some random images in there"



Also, the birthday at 8pm vs the birthday at 10am the next morning:

Birthday party  Paul & Kristi on the foof
mattbell: (Default)
I knew about the NYPD crime quota scandal, but hearing the tapes firsthand and hearing how the whistleblower was treated was shocking.

It's worth a listen.  It's very disturbing, and it will not make you happy. 

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent
  (Listen to Act II... Act I is more of a puff piece)

TAL has made a recent effort to run fewer puppy-dog stories and more hard-hitting news, and they've done rather well.  I liked their stories on the banking crisis as well.

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