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Robin Hanson points us to a study that shows kids should only do math homework. He takes the opportunity to bang on his drum of school as indoctrination, but I was reminded of a few of my own experiences.

Most of my worst academic decisions had to do with me deciding not to work harder at more technical kinds of subjects: math, science, etc. The cake was taken when I studied for a finance exam by doing word problems instead of math problems and got blown out of the water.

It was years before I realized finance was what I should have been doing in University all along.

It was years after that that I realized what I SHOULD have been doing was engineering.

It all comes down to me taking the easier, less intellectually painful route. Practicing logic/math-related subjects is difficult. Progress is slow because foundational knowledge is not obviously related to the fun stuff you get to do at the end. And for me, if it wasn’t crystal clear how I was going to benefit from something, I just wasn’t going to do it.

I’m a selfish bastard like that.

At work, I was finally liberated to explore these subjects by learning through doing actual projects. No tests, no homework, no BS I don’t care about.

And now at home I’m exploring a deeper counter-factual about my life and learning programming.

I am obsessed and have mostly sacrificed my other hobbies. It’s a miracle I’ve kept the blog streak alive.

I’m the happiest I can ever remember being.

 

Here is Barker:

Ironically, the bias toward seeing ourselves as better than average causes us to see ourselves as less biased than average too. As one research team concluded, “Most of us appear to believe that we are more athletic, intelligent, organized, ethical, logical, interesting, fair-minded, and healthy—not to mention more attractive—than the average person.

We’re more similar to others than we are different. Don’t fight this, embrace it. It is, apparently, the key to a much happier life.

It makes sense. If you had yourself convinced of your superiority, constantly facing reality would be a terrible source of stress. There’s always someone smarter, faster, stronger, richer, cooler.

Stay too humble, though, and you’d never achieve anything!

I love the idea of an ideological Turing Test:

Put me and five random liberal social science Ph.D.s in a chat room.  Let liberal readers ask questions for an hour, then vote on who isn’t really a liberal.  Then put Krugman and five random libertarian social science Ph.D.s in a chat room.  Let libertarian readers ask questions for an hour, then vote on who isn’t really a libertarian.  Simple as that.

What a delightful idea.

There are a lot of problems in the world that could be eradicated if people were more easily able to adopt others’ perspectives.

The idea of a comfort zone is a powerful one. Carl Froch offers some fascinating commentary in the video in this link:

I could do 15 or 20 rounds in the gym at my own pace against guys lighter than me or not skillful enough to match me technically. But I was sparring with a guy who was a Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight and after 5 or 6 rounds I was feeling the pace, thinking “what’s going on?”

We’re also told that Wladimir Klitschko’s trainer has been concerned with the pace of training and WK pulled rank, basically saying “it’s my gym, I’m the star, I dictate the pace.”

Doesn’t bode well, does it!

Here is the Washington Post with a depressing article, summed up thusly:

The Republican-led House voted to slash domestic and international food aid Thursday while rejecting cuts to farm subsidies.

Shove this one firmly into the “fuel for leftist fire” file. Stop helping low status people! Keep helping (GASP!) Agribusiness!

Maybe that’s the right analytical conclusion. I doubt it.

The great power of ideology is that it lets you infer motivation from outcomes. The great weakness of ideology is that it’s wrong.

It’s wrong because its input isn’t real information (is it even possible to understand who all the losers and winners are in this bill, much less why?) And it’s wrong because nobody actually makes decisions based on ideology.

That’s a reason why voters find politics so frustrating. Why won’t candidates genuinely bind themselves to actions during the election process when ideological posturing is at its peak?

Well, because decisions driven by ideology are usually nonsense. Real decisions are made with far more information than the public could possibly process during a campaign.

So here we have a narrative developing that is cloaked in a powerful ideology. And it’s no accident, either. The press knows that’s the only way they could hope to interest readers in all this byzantine garbage. And again, maybe it’s what is really happening. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I refuse to get worked up about something I don’t understand and I refuse to spend the time trying to understand what is really going on.

So I’m gearing up for a trip to Buffalo to meet the old man for father’s day. How am I getting there?

I’m spending 9 hours on a bus. Each way.

My wife and coworkers think I’ve lost my mind. But I have a few projects on the go that could, in ideal circumstances, easily wipe out 18 hours of my life. Actually, the chance to bash away at them for this kind of stretch has me excited.

There’s allegedly wifi on this bus (accused on the interwebs of being inconsistent and slow) and, more importantly, plugs, so I’m bringing my laptop to code.

I’m expecting the web not to work, so I’m using this post to warm up the wordpress email interface (on my bb right now) so as to keep the post-a-day streak alive.

I have fond memories of long train journeys in my college days, so hopefully the assuredly less comfortable bus is at least tolerable.

No, my dad isn’t getting any other gifts.

From Mark Suster:

Best quote in a long time “If you can’t code and you can’t sell – get the fuck out!” – @arijacoby of @solvemedia

[Watching the hockey game…]

I like to cook. I enjoyed this.

It’s true that the easiest way to make your food taste better is to add fat and salt to it. I’ve done it and been impressed with the results.

But I think there are a few more complex things that I feel like I’ve learned that seem to work.

1. Cook it longer and undercook it.

A paradox! Sorta, but it’s important to present these things together. Cooking does something amazing to strong flavours; it blunts them, softens them, makes them harder to pick out but ‘complex’ to the palette. But don’t overcook. Overcooking destroys texture, which is a seriously underappreciated quality to food for us amateurs. Solve the contradiction by finding foods that can take a beating from the heat.

2. Rest food after it’s done.

I noticed that the stuff I cooked tasted better at seconds. Something happens when food sits for 5 minutes.

3. Don’t use water.

There are lots of alternatives, believe it or not. For instance, never throw away the ‘juice’ from canned food. Cook the rice in it! Canned tomatoes are best for this. Use wine, use beer. Seriously!

4. Oh, yeah, and never cook with fresh tomatoes.

They’re tasteless garbage. Michael Smith taught me (from his show) that canned whole tomatoes are cooked (once) right after being picked, while chopped tomatoes are cooked twice. ‘Fresh’ tomatoes are NOT fresh, but ripened en route. Ugh.

5. Cook with Canola Oil. Only.

I read something recently about how all oils all taste the same after they’ve been heated. This means your super-expensive olive oil tastes just like cheapo canola when coating your frying onions. Don’t throw away the nice olive oil, though, just put it on later with minimal heat.

6. Except. Butter does taste different.

And better. Cook with butter when you can.

Here’s David Brooks:

 one could distinguish between actions that are done expressly to raise self-esteem (like buying a fancy car) and events that are done for other reasons that obliquely raise self-esteem (like writing a great symphony).

Along these lines, Crocker described the tension between self-transcendence and self-affirmation. Self-affirmation is about being proud and powerful and in control. Self-transcendence is about being engaged in activities in which the self is melded into a task or a relationship. According to various studies Crocker cited, people who have experienced self-transcendence are more open to evidence that counters their own views, and feel more connected to others.

read it all.

It rages on.

This post was interesting, though, for this graph:

I moved to the US from Canada six months ago and obviously the system is quite different. No wait times, etc. But there was one change that I didn’t expect:

Doctors are nicer here.

And I think I know why.

In Canada, doctors are higher status. I’ll exaggerate the difference and call Canadian Doctors Gods of Medicine and US Doctors Counselors of Medicine.

Gods of Medicine have appointment calendars stretching off into infinity. They have the POWER to bestow HEALTHCARE upon worthy or unworthy as they see fit.

Counselors of Medicine are more like accountants or lawyers. They have a business and have clients they want to retain. Your health is a bit more important than your taxes, sure (maybe), but these folks are happy for your business just the same.

Gods of Medicine bow to no man or worman. Their will is absolute and they control your access to the entire healthcare system.

Counselors of Medicine are in business. They can be jerks, but they’ll lose customers. They can be sued and go out of business. Mostly, though, they want to assist you in getting what you want from the healthcare system.

Life is harder as a Counselor of Medicine. Maybe that’s why ‘Gods’ are more satisfied with their jobs?