Minecraft in Classrooms

by talkbackty on Apr 14, 2012

Part 13 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.
This is another post in my series zen and the art of teaching. You can see them all here.

Minecraft is the greatest educational tool that has never been used. That's because it is new and a videogame, and if there's anything the educational system hates more than things that are new it is videogames. Minecraft's simplicity is what makes it so compelling. It is basically a version of legos. It lets the player build anything and everything they can imagine. Minecraft is by far the easiest tool that lets a person's imagination be seen by others.


Players could build a cathederal.

Or recreate a set from Lord of the Rings.
The game can be individual or played in groups. As a history teacher I may ask my students to build a French village. They may decide a village isn't challenging enough.
Limitless possibilities rarely present themselves in reality. In Minecraft the only limiting factors are a player's ability and dedication. Reality continually tells people not to try, to take the easy road, to get by instead of thrive. That's why high school is treated like a painstaking process students must survive instead of an opportunity to learn and grow. But what if by changing the manner in which problems are presented we can change the attitude of the participants.


Schools teach facts so that students can take tests where they can answer questions. What schools should teach is the ability for students to answer the question "what do you want to do?" Because when someone knows the answer to that question, all other questions become easier to answer. How do I do that thing? What are the challenges that will present themselves? How can I deal with those challenges?


Currently, schools try throwing a lot of tools at children and expect them to go into the world and know how to use them. Schools teach algebra in case you need algebra, writing in case you need writing, science in case you need science. But this is the worst possible way to go about learning. We have all had that thought, "Why in the world are they trying to teach me this garbage?"


When the first question is "what do you want to do" the second question is always, "how?" The how is what should guide the learning process. How do I become an astronaut? Science, mathematics, diet and exercise. By starting with "what" students will become self-motivated to figure out how. And self-motivation is the only lasting attribute any school can hope to teach.


Schools need to turn away from their roots as places where a person goes to seek facts and become places where people go to learn how to solve problems. Minecraft is a problem-generating simulation that allows for infinite creativity in the player's responses. But, above all else, Minecraft is a game that begins with the simplest of questions, "what do you want to do?" As in life, if you never answer that question then nothing else will work as well as it could.


Minecraft can be student's testing ground for the simple, driving questions that are so important to answer. And with those answers, they can create entire worlds.
~~~~~~~
If you have 20 minutes watch this TED talk by a public school teacher who presents a fantastic example of what I am trying to say.



Lacking

by talkbackty on Apr 13, 2012

Part 12 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

Lacking ideas
Mystified by an inability to think
To create.
Lacking is life's motivator
Without it we would be content
And create.
Lacking fuels our passion
An unquenchable desire to be someone else
Someone creative. 


~~~~~~~~~~
Writing poetry makes me feel incredibly self-conscious. Mainly because it strips away a lot of the bullshit writers can cover their true intentions with. Less words equals less intrepretation equals less confusion. Writing anything other than poetry is just a way of confusing an audience. A way to be vague and mysterious because you are scared of being clear and transparent. 


I wonder if novelists would disagree.

Killing with Honor

by talkbackty on Apr 12, 2012

Part 11 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

As has been the case throughout history, artists are the first to point out the problems of society through their work. Only after decades can historians speak on a topic with the same level of tenacity as the artist.


HBO recently began airing the second season of Game of Thrones. This clip is from the pilot. Ned Stark is lord of the city of Winterfell, he is surrounded by his men and sons as a military deserter speaks his final words. 


 For some reason very few people, and no world leaders that I am aware of, believe what Ned Stark believes. As he'd later say, "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you can not do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is."


I don't know what it says about our society that so few people speak of honor. I just know that artists keep trying to, which means the rest of us must be in short supply. 

Joker: The Perfect Villain

by talkbackty on Apr 11, 2012


Part 10 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight is one of the greatest performances ever captured on film. Any person on the planet could spend a lifetime studying every frame of that movie and never be able to copy Ledger's performance. An actor's ability is just one part of the overall impression viewers are left with, the rest is created by the script, stylists, make-up artists, editors, cameramen, and, obviously, the director's vision. However, Nolan's Joker will be remembered as one of the greatest villains of all time because he represents a portion of humanity that exists within all of us, that bubbles underneath the surface, encompassing the thoughts we think in those still, small moments when we are alone. Joker is us, and that is why he is terrifying.


The first scene that attempts to explain Joker's particular brand of insanity occurs between Bruce Wayne and his faithful butler Alfred.

Joker is presented as a man "who wants to watch the world burn." A psychopath to the fullest extent imaginable, uninterested in any logical process and solely invested in bringing about chaos. A far cry from most "normal" people who only wish to live their lives pursuing the things that make them happy. But when Wayne questions Alfred about why a man would steal if uninterested in making money the butler's only response is, "...because he thought it was good sport." The Joker finds enjoyment and meaning in the things he does, that is what drives him. Is that not the same thing we are all seeking, to find enjoyment and meaning in the things we do?


Later in the film, when Batman is interrogating Joker, the villain comments on the "bad joke" society has created.
By saying that individuals are "only as good as the world allows them to be," Joker is setting up his final soliloquy. Of course, he is hardly the first to point out this fatal flaw in humanity. Every post-apocalyptic story ever told, written or filmed is about how quickly civilization can come undone. And those stories are a reflection of the horrors all around us, from poverty-stricken third world countries to the looting and rioting after Hurricane Katrina. Like an assembly line, the safest, more profitable areas of our world produce men and women of impeccable morality. But move those men and women to a place where they are continually threatened or fighting for the basic necessities and how long before their morals evaporate?


Joker's confrontation with Harvey Dent allows us to witness the creation of a villain. From high atop the social ladder, given everything the world had to offer, Dent follows the Joker's rhetoric down the rabbit hole until he becomes Two-Face.
Villains are two sides of the same coin. On one side are the schemers, those who believe that through planning and process power can be attained. On the other side are the doers, like Joker, who just act because it feels right. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, bouncing back and forth between schemers and doers. So if Joker is an example of a doer, who represents the schemers? The corrupt politicians and world leaders. The dictator who's people starve while he eats off a gold plate. All the people who figure out the system, and take advantage of the rest of us.


"You see, nobody panics when things go according to plan." The recent Trayvon Martin/George Zimmeran case demonstrates Joker's point. Passions are stirred and tempers are enraged for one simple reason...seventeen year olds are not supposed to die on the street while carrying a bag of skittles. That's not part of the plan. And when they do die on the street, society panics. 


Now imagine you could introduce a new way of thinking, a better way of thinking. A way that guaranteed everything was fair for everyone. How far would you go to insure that the world was fair? Would you tweet about it? Write a blog? Tell a friend? Protest in the street? Destroy a building? Would you be an agent of chaos if the cause was right?


As Joker says, that is all he is, an agent of chaos. Terrifying because viewers can see where he is coming from. Terrifying because he seems to say the things we feel. Terrifying because he blurs the line between fiction and reality. Joker is the perfect villain because everyone is afraid of becoming him. 



Institutional Memory

by talkbackty on Apr 10, 2012

Part 9 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

Whenever you start a job at a new company it is likely that some middle-manager type will eventually give the introductory talk. This is their moment to wax poetic about the company's values, the mission statement and the family that you have now entered into. Really this is the moment when the company does its best to instill some institutional memory upon its newest employee.


A simple guess can give one a good definition of institutional memory, "The collective memory of a group, organization or institution." It is most easily seen in government bureaucracies. High turn-over at the upper levels, usually because of elections/appointments, would lead to utter chaos if it actually lead to drastic changes. Institutional memory is preserved by low turn-over in all areas other than the very top. Imagine a newly elected head-of-state trying to lead the government to the right or left, institutional memory allows the group to walk in whatever direction its head points.


All corporations, groups, organizations have some type of institutional memory in place. The difference between a company like Apple or Microsoft is in how dedicated individuals are to preserving that institutional memory. Therefore, it is incredibly beneficial for corporations, groups and organizations to work hard at perfecting their specific brand of institutional memory.


This is precisely why the public school system was invented. To further the institutional memory of a government and the supporters of governments- corporations. Regardless of what is said about the goal of schools today, historically, schools were designed to produce obedient workers who were intelligent enough to assemble things on a factory line.


As our society becomes more industrialized and corportized, it is more important than ever to realize the extent of institutional memory. Right now, buying an iPhone versus an Android is a big decision that can lock consumers in to various contracts, both legal and social. And companies are always attempting to increase their institutional memory by recruiting more willing spokespeople, namely, their own customers. Think about what is more valuable to you: The review of a close friend or a commercial on TV? Companies, governments and groups of every color know the answer is a close friend, and they will do everything in their power to encourage customers to speak favorably about them. When you buy a product or vote for a politician you are joining a club, often one with a long history that may or may not be important to you.


It is always valuable to keep the big picture in mind. We are so busy trying to put together the puzzle pieces of life that we forget to check the box every now and then for guidance. Institutional memory can be a blessing and a curse, but we should always be aware of it, and other large social forces that influence our thought process.



Hiking and whatnot

by talkbackty on Apr 9, 2012

Part 8 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.


Today, I went hiking with some friends.



It was excellent.


That is all.

Gaia Theory

by talkbackty on Apr 7, 2012

Part 7 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

Ever have one of those moments when you desperately wish you were smarter? It happened to me as I was trying to formulate some thoughts on the Gaia Theory. It's a strange thing to read sentences, understand specific words, but be unable to fully grasp the meaning. My mental chatter went like this, "Okay. Got it. Interesting...I have no idea what this guy is talking about."

While the Gaia Theory at first glance sounds like some hippie version of, "everything is one, man" the actual science is fascinating. Even if it is a little above my head. The original hypothesis was suggested by James Lovelock who said that "all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet." Instead of a planet that has trillions of individual organisms living on it, the planet herself is one system, exactly like our own bodies.

Think of that basic model children are taught about streams flowing to rivers flowing to oceans where precipitation occurs and rain falls, beginning the process all over. The Gaia Theory states that our planet and ecosystem are in the same type of closed loop, with all inputs forwarding the goal of keeping the planet primed for life to flourish.

The theory was proposed originally to address the unexplainable balances our biosphere has pulled off for billions of years. For example, ocean salinity has remained at 3.4%, oxygenation of the atmosphere hovers around 21%, and the surface temperature has not drastically altered for millennia (remember we are talking cosmic scale, yes temperature fluctuates between hot and cold, but it's never 78 degrees and sunny one day and -310 degrees the next. Think big picture). Despite the fact that according to models at the time none of these things should remain constant. Rivers continually dump salt into the ocean, atmospheric gases continually expand, contract and mix above our heads, and the sun puts out 25-30% more energy today than when life originally began.

Back when the Gaia Theory was still the Gaia Hypothesis, James Lovelock came up with a brilliant simulation that could test the concept of a planetary regulatory system. Named Daisyworld, the simulation used a planet with only two types of daises- one species black and the other white. The sun upped its energy production over time (just as ours does), which should have increased the surface temperature of the planet. When the planet was cool (think early in development) black daises flourished because they absorbed more light and eventually warmed the surface temperature of the planet enough for white daises to bloom. White daises reflect light, thus cooling the planet and acting as a balance to the black daises. What the simulation showed was that despite the sun's gradual increase of solar energy the surface temperature never fluctuated beyond the "prime zone" for daises to bloom. If the sun was turned down, black daises grew to raise the temperature of the planet, when the sun was turned up, white daises replaced the black ones and the planet cooled. This, effectively, was the first step in proving the Gaia Hypothesis.

Daisyworld was controversial when first introduced. Many scientists stated that because of the simplicity and lack of realistic variables the experiment was invalid. With the rise of computers capable of handling massive amounts of data, Daisyworld was revisited to prove/disprove the naysayers. Other factors were added, from the incredibly simple things like gray daises, rabbits and foxes to the complex like numerous flora and fauna, weather patterns and random death rates. Each time the simulation added biodiversity the planet became more efficient. The naysayers actually did point out Daisyworld's biggest flaw- simplicity. When complexities were added the system got better at preforming the Gaia Hypothesis.

After thirty years of work and numerous experiments from various scientific fields all pointing in the same direction, the Gaia hypothesis officially became a theory. In 2001, a thousand scientists at the European Geophysical Union meeting signed the Declaration of Amsterdam, starting with the statement "The Earth System behaves as a single, self-regulating system with physical, chemical, biological, and human components."

Which is kind of cool. Even if I barely understand it.



Fermi Paradox

by talkbackty on Apr 6, 2012

Part 6 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

The theme of paradoxes continues! And with all paradoxes it is best to conclude, even before beginning, that we, as a species, know absolutely nothing. With that pleasurable introduction, let us begin.


This particular paradox, noted by Enrico Fermi in 1950, states that given the statistical probability of life on other planets why have we not encountered any alien species. 


First we must address the claim of a "statistical probability of life."  Our observable universe hints at there being 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Even a child can realize that numbers 200 billion apart means that someone is just guessing, and that's accurate. So let's just stick with "a really, really big number of stars."


From that point you play the 1% game. Let's imagine that of 100 billion stars (so I low-balled the guess of the smartest humans on the planet) one percent have any type of life. From bacteria all the way up to god-like beings. The rest of the 99 percent are just desolate stars who's planets have no life whatsoever. Kind of depressing. But we are not done. That one percent gives us 1 billion planets with some type of life. Let's imagine that one percent of those 1 billion planets with life have intelligent life. That's 10 million planets with intelligent life. But intelligent life can include all of human history, and while we were intelligent, things didn't get really interesting until a hundred years ago. So play the game again. Let's say one percent of the 10 million planets have advanced-intelligence, either at or beyond our own. That is one hundred thousand planets with advanced intelligence. Now if we stopped right there that is an incredible statement. 100,000 planets with advanced intelligence. But play the game one last time. Of those 100,000 let's say that one percent have advanced so far ahead of us that they would not even be recognizable, a supreme, god-like species. That is 1000 races bouncing around the Milky Way who are so advanced we could not even comprehend their existence. 


Now back to the beginning. Remember how I low-balled the estimate? Well I did not even bother to take in to account a galaxy other than our own. Scientist believe there are as many as 400 billion other galaxies, each with their own 200-400 billion stars. So those numbers I gave are really just a fraction of the actual number. What we are left with are numbers so staggeringly large that the possibility of advanced, intelligent species is practically undeniable. 


So where are they?


That is Fermi's Paradox. Here's a song that explains if that is more your thing. (Yes, it is an incredibly nerdy song about Fermi's Paradox...this is why the internet exists.)

As you can imagine there are dozens of theoretical answers to Fermi's question. From the utterly depressing ideas that all advanced intelligences eventually kill themselves or that one of the supreme god-like species actively kills anything that threatens it's dominance. To the rather practical belief that vasts distances are just as challenging of problems to overcome for our alien brethren as they are for us. You could probably rattle off four or five theories of your own and, trust me, they will be about as good as the leading experts'.


My personal favorite is the idea that there are intelligent beings (because math tells us so) and that they are broadcasting signals all across the galaxy, the only problem is that we are not listening. Our current methods of measurement are based on human perception- sight (telescopes) or hearing (microphones). We listen for radio waves because that is what we sent out in the 1920's. We block out white noise from our instruments because we can't understand it. Our universal observations are based on the abilities of a species (us) designed to eat fruit and drink water. We are entirely unequipped to contemplate the vastness and complexities of the universe, but we are doing our best. However, there is no reason to believe that other species are excited to communicate with the best we have to offer. When was the last time you chatted up a squirrel? 


I like this concept because it implies that we are merely unaware of something amazing and transformative, and once we figure out how to listen, the changes will come faster than we can imagine. This is basically how we operate our entire lives. As young children we believe the world is much smaller than it is and are blown away when it is revealed how small an area we actually live in. The further we push our understanding, the more clear that pattern is. The more we discover, the clearer it is how little we understand.  


One day, maybe soon, maybe not- I think we will wake up. At that point it will be like looking back at ancient Egypt. We are the half-remembered past of some future generation. School children will giggle at how advanced we believed our technology was as they wake up in the Andromeda galaxy and beam over to Kepler 22-b (nerd alert: those are actual places).  


The Fermi Paradox remains unanswered, but at least it is not because we have stopped trying. It is the trying that eventually leads one person to see or listen in the right way and wake us all up from the lives we lead. Then the process begins anew.





Ease

by talkbackty on Apr 5, 2012

Part 5 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

Life, much like water, always seeks the path of least resistance. Trees bend with the wind instead of fighting it, wolves attack younger prey instead of going after adults, spiders build webs to lure instead of hunting their meals. But humans actively celebrate people doing difficult things.


Think of any accomplishment that has ever been bestoyed upon anyone. They are always for doing something percieved as difficult or challenging. "You climbed Mt. Everst, nice work, here's your photo on the cover of TIME." "You can throw a football really far, awesome job, here's $50 million." Even the participation awards given out to every young kid regardless of performance are still a way of rewarding them for doing something that other people are not doing. "You are here when you could of been somewhere else, here's a ribbon."


We actively seek ways to make our lives easier, but the moment life becomes too easy we start moving in the opposite direction. We build massive homes filled with running water and electricty and comfy beds, but people get bored by the ease of every day life and search for more challenging things to occupy their time. To our ancestors people of the present must appear deranged. "Let me get this straight, you have a magic box that brings you images from every place on the planet and you're so bored with life you're going to jump off a bridge?"


On one hand, it is because of the people who pushed boundaries that we have the amenities to make life easier. But on the other, it's an unsustainable habit that is only going to get worse over time. As technology continues to take the place of day to day tasks our lives will become easier. The question is, how will we fill our time?


I am perplexed by this thought more than anything else. I think that it is important to be happy with less, to find contentment without continually needing more and more. But I also realize that true innovation only comes because things are made easier. What must be understood is that things need to work in balance. To abandon all difficulties, whether it be climbing Mt. Everst or just climbing a set of stairs, would be as counterproductive as returning to the days before mass conveinces made our lives less about survival and more about enjoyment.

Disaster Day

by talkbackty on Apr 4, 2012

Part 4 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.


Humans have developed the paradoxical ability to predict massive, long-term trends through billions of data points while simultaneously ignoring those findings on a day to day basis. Our political leaders tout a return to more prosperous times even when the most educated men and women in our nation point out the unstainability of our policies.


Smart people out of MIT recently created a computing model to forecast different scenarios based on population growth, global resource consumption, agricultural productivity, birth control and environmental protection efforts. The long and short of it: By the year 2030 the world will be pushed into the Greatest Depression due to lack of resources and overpopulation. Article here.


This is an especially big blow to futurists who hoped that 2045 would be the year of the technological singularity (the year given by TIME last year in a cover story). This "saving date" now becomes irrelevant next to MIT's disaster date.


As in most situations, it seems that we are on the cusp of epic, paradigm-shifting future possibilities. On the one hand, mass death and depression because of a lack of resources, and on the other, a technological singularity that could be as important as the creation of language.


My thoughts on the matter can be summarized best by The Imaginary Foundation, "To imagine is to perceive many potential futures, select the most delightful possibility, and then pull the present forward to meet it."


Let's select our future instead of being destroyed by it.

Colors we See

by talkbackty on Apr 3, 2012

Part 3 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.


Colors are one of those interesting things that we, as a spieces, seem to understand but are entirely self-created. Admittedly, I am not an expert on colors or light so bear with me. It is rapidly becoming clear that I have something of a fixation on perception, since in three days that is where my mind landed twice. And colors are really all about perception. 


What we know is color is the reflection of light off a surface and into the receptors of our eye, translated by our brain, processed, labeled and, finally, understood. Despite the fact that our ability to visually percieve color is based on a narrow field of vision (the rainbow), we are remarkably confident about what things are which color. 


For example, let's look at a chair. Let's look at the chair Morpheus sat in during The Matrix...cause why not, it's the internet.


What color is it?



How about now?


Is it the same color as this?


Or this?


The hint is that I did not adjust the "redness" of any of those pictures. Each picture plays with the light source, turning it up or down. Most people's reaction is to say that the chair is red, just in the dark or light, but always a red chair. That is the brain's rationalization. That is the quick lie the mind tells itself to make sense of a chair our eyes' receptors said was one color and now telling us it is a different color. 


Color always fluctuates. It changes with the light source and with the perception of the viewer. The way we should look at an image is that there are objects and there are colors, not that objects are a color. 


Perceptions are important to constantly check and recheck because of our mind's tendency to seek laziness. Brains are bombarded with stimuli and spend day after day trying to simplify. Taoism talks about water that does not continually flow becoming a swamp. Our perceptions can also become swamp-like if we forget to update them.  


Once again, this observation is meant to point out how wrong we are in our day to day lives. And if someone who understands light better than me comes along and tells me this blog is complete nonesense, well then that is only more evidence- albeit evidence just showing that I am wrong on a day to day basis, not us as a collective. 


Think about it.


~~~~~~
Bonus Edit: I found a color test. I scored a 12. Zero is perfect. It takes a little time to complete. Best of luck.



Books Everyone Should Read

by talkbackty on Apr 2, 2012

Part 2 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.


Ever wake up one day and realize that over the years you've become something? Through time and dedication you barely registered as such, you have joined the ranks of some club/group/segment of the population. My realization came in high school when it became clear that I read a lot more than my peers. Even in college, the supposed pantheon of the educated, I still outpaced the men and women around me.


I read a lot. That is all I wanted to say. Because I read a lot and my interests are varied I have had the chance to read things from nearly every genre. And while books are slowly being replaced by online articles, blogs and videos as the go to medium for everyone, including myself, I thought a collection of my favorite books would be worthwhile.


Further ado; these are in no particular order.


The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. I recommend this book to everyone. There's even a few copies I've given to students floating around out there with a message to keep passing it along, pay-it-forward style. Written in the same vein as its more famous cousin, The Art of War, this short book is all about overcoming the forces that stop you from achieving your goals. Is it a little self-helpy? Yes. Will some be turned off my the author's mystical tendencies? Yes. I do not care. It is great and everyone should read it.


The Postman by David Brin. The magnificent thing about a post-apocalyptic setting is that it removes all the social biases we are familiar with as readers. What we are left with is a picture of how the author really sees the world. Brin presents a harsh reality where America has fallen and one man struggles to survive but throughout everything he retains hope. And that's a message worth being reminded of. 


The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Green (and his brother Hank. Nerdfighters!) Have slowly invaded my mind since I found them on youtube a few years ago. Both are inspiring individuals, but John is also one of the best young adult writers in the country. His latest book is a masterpiece. It is the heart-warming (and heart-breaking) story of two teens who meet at a cancer-support group. Funny, endearing and honest. Read it, then check out all the awesome nerdfighter stuff on youtube.


The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. If you are constantly flicking between Bill O'Reily and whoever MSNBC throws up to compete against him you owe it to yourself to check out CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. He is an Indian American reporter who graduated from Yale and Harvard, was a columunist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International and editor-at-large of TIME. The guy is smart, direct and well-spoken. In his third book he looks at the changing global landscape and how America is dealing with "the rise of the rest" (other nations getting power). It should be a staple for all those with an interest in politics, which in my opinion, should be everyone. Which is why it is on this list.


The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The first of the Kingkiller Chronicles. A fictional masterpiece about a young man who retells his heroic rise and fall. The author wrote the entire series years ago and has been editing and refining ever since. The result is some of the best prose one can find. Literary, sweeping and beautiful.


The Illustrated World's Religions by Huston Smith. My college textbook...at two different universities. It has become a staple of every religion department for good reason. Including every religion you've ever heard of and most you have not. Simple and beautiful, and as the title suggests, full of wonderful pictures. Enjoy.


Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. If you are unfamiliar with this novel I will just give you the long-form title in hopes of sparking your interest. Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Code (and Smoking Too Much) Who, as an American Infantry Scout, Hors de Combat as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire Bombing of Dresden, Germany, "The Florence of the Elbe, a Long Time Ago and Survived to Tell the Tale. This is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic, Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where the Flying Saucers Come From. Peace.


Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. A look at behavioral economics in a humorous and easy to understand way. One of the first real efforts to take the heavily mathematically-inclined field of economics and make it digestible by the average person. Levitt seems to know exactly what chords to strike to enlighten and inspire.


Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. A powerful novel about the spiritual journey of an Indian man set around the fifth century BCE. This is a timeless tale and an excellent introduction to Eastern philosophy and religious beliefs.


World War Z by Max Brooks. The zombie book that will define zombie books for many if 2013's movie starring Brad Pitt is a hit. Regardless of the film, this book has it all. It is captivating, emotional and terrifying. Using a "reporter" to interview survivors of the zombie apocalypse, readers are able to experience an event from numerous different viewpoints. Even those not interested in the horror genre should be entertained by this novel.


My goal with recommending these books is not to showcase the greatest writers in the world. Notice how there is no Shakespeare, Twain or Hemingway. Instead, I am hoping to inspire. Each book is a nice intro to big ideas. Freakonomics is a great introduction to economics, and it is a topic I became really interested in during college specifically because of the book I read in high school.


Each book has the capacity to inspire and that is what I have always gotten from books. Whether it is inspiration to save the princess or fight off zombies or see the world. Books have a wonderful ability to transfer our consciousness to another realm. A realm where we create our own reality by dreaming. And I think it is a good idea to share that capacity with as many people as possible.  







Anteaters and Aardvarks: a thought on perception

by talkbackty on Apr 1, 2012

Part 1 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.

A few weeks ago I went to the San Francisco Zoo. I walked around for a few hours and took pictures for Gridlock Magazine, a rather enjoyable use of my Saturday. Then I saw a Giant Anteater. Here's a picture for the uninitiated.

For my entire life I thought I knew exactly what an anteater was, an animal with a long snout and tongue to dig in the ground and eat ants. The only problem was that I was picturing an aardvark.
I guess intellectually I knew that anteaters had more hair and that they are usually brown & black in color, but whenever I thought of an anteater I pictured an aardvark with a slightly longer, more triangular snout. Then seeing a Giant Anteater, as tall as a Great Dane and seven feet long, I was perplexed. I silently had one of those moments when all you think is, "Ooooohhhhhhhh."

The strangest thing is how sure my brain was that it knew exactly what an anteater looked like. There was absolutely no questioning of my aardvark-inspired, anteater look-a-like. The image and thoughts I have about anteaters is, admittedly, minuscule. However, before my trip to the zoo basically all those thoughts were based on some figment of my imagination I created while watching PBS's Arthur.
How many other things have I constructed to the point of comfort in my mind? Thoughts, images, memories that I do not even realize are inherently wrong. I assume that most are small things, like anteaters and aardvarks, but what if the big things are wrong as well? Political affiliations, historical events, the color of my shirt.

The only thing to do when realizing one's infallibility is to seek knowledge while remaining humble. A new day reminds us only of how little we know- and how much we can learn. Hopefully, I can remember that as I continue to move through this world of anteaters, aardvarks and everything else.