Joe O

the chatty versus unchatty elites

There was an article in the new york times about how stewardesses are so much more chatty now than they used to be and about how the author (and all his writer friends) hate it.  I am pretty introverted so this would probably annoy me too if this happened in coach, but of course it doesn't.  The author was really talking about first class, but he never said so.

The author asked airline personal and it turns out, unsurprisingly, that most people like chatting up the stewardesses.  That is because most people flying first class are business managers who are used to chatting people up.  That is their job and they like it.

 

I think this points to a reason Republicans can get away with charging liberals as an "elite".  Clearly Republicans control the money and power.  They should be the "elite", the populists ridicule, but the current egalitarian workplace cultural style serves the Republicans in good stead.  The Republican business managers, and Bush, want to increase the stewardesses tax burden and decrease her union protections, but at least they will talk to her.

superman

I just watched the forties Fleischer Superman cartoons with my kids.

They are visually stunning. My kids like them because they are fast; all action-no filler.  Superman doesn't spend his time chatting people up.  Limited animation has horrible pacing.

The most suprising thing to me is the smart scene transitions.  They will cut between a scene at one location and time to a visually analogous scene at another location and time. Pretty easy to do with animation, but also pretty easy to oversell if the pacing is too slow.  They also don't over-explain things.

nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is in something of a bind.  The ideas that make nanotechnology interesting (super small scale machines, self replication,  etc.) are nowhere near being implemented. They aren't even major targets for research money.

A lot of things work on a nanometer scale but it isn't clear to me that combining these concepts under a single heading is particularly useful. Its like defining indigotech as "technology concerning devices visible at  wavelengths of about 445 nm".  You could probably come up with a lot of interesting devices for this category but it wouldn't make studying indigotech worthwhile.

decision making

This book by Gary Klein describes expert decision making.  According to the book, expert decision makers don't select between competing alternatives, they just do the first thing that pops into their head. This is usually the right decision.  The decision makers' brains survey the situation, match the situation to a model, and select a plan for the model.  When the the plan isn't working, they do something else.

This snap decision making is a lot different from the decision making process that is usually taught as the best method of decision making, the process of weighing the pros and cons of competing alternatives.  That decision making process is the process done by novices; it typically results in poorer decisions (because it is done by novices) and is unpleasant. 

The book, The paradox of choice, describes how choices can sometimes be undesirable.  The Klein book makes it clear why such choices can be unpleasant.  Choices make you feel like you don't know what the fuck you are doing.  Because you don't. Otherwise, you would just do the first thing that pops in your head.

The other thing that the Klein book describes is the importance of feedback for good decision making.  Many jobs, even professional jobs, don't get enough feedback to get the decision making as good as it can be.  Without good feedback, you make the same snap decisions over and over and don't improve.   

The pleasurableness of decision making with feedback is shown by video games.  The reason video games are fun is that you are continually learning the best way to handle situations with immediate feedback.  The challenges get harder as you get better in the game, so you keep learning.

Craigslist and surfboards

Craigslist  pretty much sucks for buying surfboards.  Most of the boards are too expensive and the ones that are a good deal sell way too fast.  For one board, after some guy promised I could buy it, I drove down to San Mateo after work just to have him tell me he sold the board to someone else who came by earlier.

Someone promised to meet me in Santa Cruz to sell me the board on the left on a Saturday, but they backed out on the Friday night.  Not that I am still bitter. But at least they called.  Buying things off craigslist is probably  best when you can meet the seller right away.

San Francisco is a pretty bad place to buy used surfboards in general.  Boards tend to break more often in beach breaks, like in San Francisco, than point breaks, like in Santa Cruz  There are a lot more older boards for sale in Santa Cruz.  The Arrow surf shop on mission street in Santa Cruz is a pretty good place to look.

santa claus

I told my kids that there is no santa claus.  That it is just a story like Dora the Explorer. It's not working out.  My three year old son believes me. My five year old daughter believed me last year, but not this year.  Her friends flipped her. 

I'm reading  the Nurture Assumption  by Judith Harris.  Her theory is that the socialization of kids comes through their peer group.  Short of abuse, parents don't have direct non-genetic effects on personality.  Kids act to obtain status in their peer group, and the best parents can do is make sure the peer group is OK.  If you want your kid to believe what you believe, send them to school with kids whose parents believe what you believe. Her theory is pretty persuasive.

rock paper sissors

Tyler at Marginal Revolution says that the best stategy for Rock,Paper, Sissors is to be as random as possible.  This prevents your opponent from developing any countermeasures.  The best stategy is actually to cheat.  My brother could win every time against most people by seeing what the person was about to throw, then tossing out the counter-measure as quick as possible.  It was trully amazing and undetectable.  It looked like both people selected at the same time.

Unsafe Playgrounds

Arts and Letters Daily links to  this  stupid article from Psychology Today about the wimpification of today's kids.  The article works hard to blame any real or imaginary faults of today's kids on some new type of wimpy "upbringing"; it just isn't convincing. The links between the faults and the wimpyness is not proven and the examples are cherry picked and not thought out.

The first example it gives is about today's playgrounds with an "all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees".  What this article ignores is that playgrounds are actually getting more exciting and dangerous for about the last ten years.  Monkey bars are coming back, swings and slides are getting higher.

On hot days, kids shoot out the the tall slide in this downtown San Francisco playground at such high speeds they are launched on their asses.   Playground designers figure the all rubber cushion will protect kids so why not make it more exiting. It is pretty common for safety measures to be compensated away in this manner.

The article goes on to say kids react to the wimpy upbringing in college:

Drinking, too, has changed. Once a means of social lubrication, it has acquired a darker, more desperate nature. Campuses nationwide are reporting record increases in binge drinking over the past decade, with students often stuporous in class, if they get there at all.

Besides the fact that binge drinking isn't very wimpy to begin with, this paragraph is carefully worded to avoid admiting that binge drinking rates were at their highest in the early and mid 80's when I went to college. (even then students were not "stuporous" in class unless "stuporous" somehow means hungover)  Apparently, the first derivative of the binge drinking rate is what is so concerning for some reason.