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And I have this fear...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: To Do
- Hits: 903
...that all this downsizing is just a step in another direction, the wrong direction, you know the one, but life is metaphor and this is just a new beginning I reassure myself ...
No. I planned for 85, I'll get to 85, there's a lot of terror left to inflict, grandchildren yet unborn, and a thousand other projects to wrap up first ...
2 Bozos on Brexit
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Conversations
- Hits: 3150
I've chosen the worse seat in the cafe. Beside 2 older Bozos, maybe sixties-something, one, dressed in a black jogging leotard with bright shorts and tanktop, grey beard and goatee, florid, oversized features, his guest, a little calmer, beside me, respectably dressed.
They're talking about Brexit, the Florid one, loudly, I'm not eavesdropping, I'm trying to read my book, but they're too loud. Talking about Brexit, and it's obvious - within 30 seconds - that they've read some headline off of the Star Metro,, the free daily paper, and they're discussing it, they've got opinions...
...by opinions I mean they neither of them read the article, and for all their ejaculations and questions not one has ever thought to ask it to say their phone or google...and I want to interrupt, interject, see if they've considered the social, political, economic environments, but they haven't, clearly, this is the circle-jerk of "I love to hear me speak and don't you love to hear me too?", and after a few minutes it's too much, they're too old for such stupidity, it's like listening to an 18 year old car salesman tell you all he knows about pleasuring women, 'cause HE knows, but - in the end he's 18, these are men and somehow they're still going at it with their opinions, get up to leave, you want to smack them both, they're not smart enough for opinions, they haven't done their research, just-knee-jerking-off to a headline in a paper they couldn't be bothered to read...
It really pisses me off, but if there were conversational police in Calgary of all places they'd be busy. Real busy.
Daryl Bem Proved ESP Is Real. Which means science is broken.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 829
An interesting long read on the consequences of "proving" the existence of ESP: https://slate.com/health-and-science/2017/06/daryl-bem-proved-esp-is-real-showed-science-is-broken.html
A lot there to digest.
The Value in Being Wrong
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 10
This is undervalued in education today. I mean, in areas of rote memorization it's important that you understand the "facts" as stated, somewhat, or merely be able to repeat them as required, although perhaps not as much as we think.
But for all the rest - and by this I mean "reasoning" and "skill" - wrong is every step on the stairway to being right. The fact that our education system penalizes wrong - well - perhaps the word itself is "wrong". Maybe instead of wrong we should assign a label of "persist" or "persist and correct" the orientation or direction of reasoning. We should be praising wrong as another step on the way to right.
In reasoning, and in everything involving effort, trial and error, experimentation, what-have-you -
...is that if you persist, and know that you are wrong, eventually you will be right. Eventually you'll paint better, etc etc - that we throw it out, but our mistakes are for learning - and for others as well,
too long discouraged by painting, writing shit, panning for....wrong, wrong, wrong, but - if the fool would but persist in his folly he would become wise -
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