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THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos.REALITY CHECK
Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. LANGUAGES | THE NEURAL SPARK English: Time to take a nap, pal. Spanish voice: Don’t move, I’ll send you a doctor. Subtitles: Time to take a nap, pal. Apparently the voiceover team, which might not have felt as supportive of the beat-down as Americans, saw the need to soften the tone. THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. 2010 | THE NEURAL SPARK Here are the real numbers: Neurons (rough overestimate for adults): 10 ^11, or 100 billion. Synapses (based on 1000 per neuron estimate): 10^ 14, or 100 trillion. Stars (estimate for observable universe): 7 x 10^ 22; that’s 70 sextillion!. For every brain synapse (“connection”) we have, there are (at least) 700 million (700,000,000) stars somewhere out there. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming CALCULATING SAMPLE VARIANCE IN PYTHON I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. I'm quite sure both the code GLADIATOR 5K PITS YOUNG AGAINST OLD, MEN AGAINST WOMEN Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. I had good fun as a participant. Though I scraped up my knees and I was unimpressed by thepuddle
THE POLITICAL BRAIN: HOW OBAMA GOT IT RIGHT When I first glanced at Drew Westen’s The Political Brain, which promises to explore “the role of emotion” in the success of political campaigns, I braced myself for two disappointments typical of the pop psych genre: either Westen was a political pundit who did not really understand the brain, or he was a researcher trying to force his lab experiments to tell a coherent and important story.THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos.REALITY CHECK
Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. LANGUAGES | THE NEURAL SPARK English: Time to take a nap, pal. Spanish voice: Don’t move, I’ll send you a doctor. Subtitles: Time to take a nap, pal. Apparently the voiceover team, which might not have felt as supportive of the beat-down as Americans, saw the need to soften the tone. THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. 2010 | THE NEURAL SPARK Here are the real numbers: Neurons (rough overestimate for adults): 10 ^11, or 100 billion. Synapses (based on 1000 per neuron estimate): 10^ 14, or 100 trillion. Stars (estimate for observable universe): 7 x 10^ 22; that’s 70 sextillion!. For every brain synapse (“connection”) we have, there are (at least) 700 million (700,000,000) stars somewhere out there. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming CALCULATING SAMPLE VARIANCE IN PYTHON I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. I'm quite sure both the code GLADIATOR 5K PITS YOUNG AGAINST OLD, MEN AGAINST WOMEN Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. I had good fun as a participant. Though I scraped up my knees and I was unimpressed by thepuddle
THE POLITICAL BRAIN: HOW OBAMA GOT IT RIGHT When I first glanced at Drew Westen’s The Political Brain, which promises to explore “the role of emotion” in the success of political campaigns, I braced myself for two disappointments typical of the pop psych genre: either Westen was a political pundit who did not really understand the brain, or he was a researcher trying to force his lab experiments to tell a coherent and important story. PERSONAL | THE NEURAL SPARK My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. MATH | THE NEURAL SPARK Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. RESEARCH ON MEDITATION, MINDFULNESS AND RELATED Buddhism involves not just a set beliefs but also a set of practices. Two of the most important and interrelated Buddhist practices are mindfulness and meditation. Both of these concepts have many formulations in different schools of Buddhist thought, but I’d like to zero in on a simplified definition of mindfulness that has guidedWestern
‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming 2010 | THE NEURAL SPARK Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. RELIGIONS AND SPIRITUALITY In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
CHASING PERFECTION: A TALE OF SEQUENTIAL DECISION-MAKING My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. SIMPLIFYING ENGLISH SPELLING? NOT SO SIMPLE. Wouldn't it be great if every letter in English spelling only made one sound? Why can't our language be more "phonetic" like Spanish? Well it could be, but in some respects it is "too late," and in any case our way has its perks. To briefly make my point, here are a few practicalobstacles
THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit.THE NEURAL SPARK
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, layingpeople off.
THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit.THE NEURAL SPARK
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, layingpeople off.
STORIES | THE NEURAL SPARK This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indiansubcontinent.
ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
RELIGIONS AND SPIRITUALITY In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CALCULATING SAMPLE VARIANCE IN PYTHON I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. I'm quite sure both the code NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. CHASING PERFECTION: A TALE OF SEQUENTIAL DECISION-MAKING My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. 2010 | THE NEURAL SPARK Here are the real numbers: Neurons (rough overestimate for adults): 10 ^11, or 100 billion. Synapses (based on 1000 per neuron estimate): 10^ 14, or 100 trillion. Stars (estimate for observable universe): 7 x 10^ 22; that’s 70 sextillion!. For every brain synapse (“connection”) we have, there are (at least) 700 million (700,000,000) stars somewhere out there. DIE HARD IN SPANISH (THE FUN AND MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION I recently popped Live Free or Die Hard from Netflix into my DVD player only to realize that I had already watched it. Undeterred by my memory mishap, I made the movie more interesting by adding Spanish dubbing and subtitles. I was in for a surprise. As amusing as it was to watch Bruce Willis SIMPLIFYING ENGLISH SPELLING? NOT SO SIMPLE. Wouldn't it be great if every letter in English spelling only made one sound? Why can't our language be more "phonetic" like Spanish? Well it could be, but in some respects it is "too late," and in any case our way has its perks. To briefly make my point, here are a few practicalobstacles
2011 | THE NEURAL SPARK 10 posts published by Jose Drost-Lopez in the year 2011THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit.THE NEURAL SPARK
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, layingpeople off.
THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit.THE NEURAL SPARK
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, layingpeople off.
STORIES | THE NEURAL SPARK This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indiansubcontinent.
ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
RELIGIONS AND SPIRITUALITY In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CALCULATING SAMPLE VARIANCE IN PYTHON I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. I'm quite sure both the code NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. CHASING PERFECTION: A TALE OF SEQUENTIAL DECISION-MAKING My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. 2010 | THE NEURAL SPARK Here are the real numbers: Neurons (rough overestimate for adults): 10 ^11, or 100 billion. Synapses (based on 1000 per neuron estimate): 10^ 14, or 100 trillion. Stars (estimate for observable universe): 7 x 10^ 22; that’s 70 sextillion!. For every brain synapse (“connection”) we have, there are (at least) 700 million (700,000,000) stars somewhere out there. DIE HARD IN SPANISH (THE FUN AND MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION I recently popped Live Free or Die Hard from Netflix into my DVD player only to realize that I had already watched it. Undeterred by my memory mishap, I made the movie more interesting by adding Spanish dubbing and subtitles. I was in for a surprise. As amusing as it was to watch Bruce Willis SIMPLIFYING ENGLISH SPELLING? NOT SO SIMPLE. Wouldn't it be great if every letter in English spelling only made one sound? Why can't our language be more "phonetic" like Spanish? Well it could be, but in some respects it is "too late," and in any case our way has its perks. To briefly make my point, here are a few practicalobstacles
2011 | THE NEURAL SPARK 10 posts published by Jose Drost-Lopez in the year 2011THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit.THE NEURAL SPARK
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, layingpeople off.
THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CLOONEY | THE NEURAL SPARK In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times. ABOUT | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science--an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and artificial intelligence. Some tangential musings are in the mix. Join the discussion with comments, and follow posts using the RSS link. STORIES | THE NEURAL SPARK This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indiansubcontinent.
RELIGIONS AND SPIRITUALITY In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception. CODE | THE NEURAL SPARK I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. CHASING PERFECTION: A TALE OF SEQUENTIAL DECISION-MAKING My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. DIE HARD IN SPANISH (THE FUN AND MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION I recently popped Live Free or Die Hard from Netflix into my DVD player only to realize that I had already watched it. Undeterred by my memory mishap, I made the movie more interesting by adding Spanish dubbing and subtitles. I was in for a surprise. As amusing as it was to watch Bruce Willis HAPPINESS EXPLAINED IN 5 MINUTES My recent Associated Content piece titled The Happiness Explosion reveals how a new “science of well-being” emerging in psychology and economics is making meaningful discoveries about human flourishing. It’s a gentle read backed up with plenty of research (check the links and references). If for some ungodly reason you’re not interested in happiness, here is an excerpt to whet your SIMPLIFYING ENGLISH SPELLING? NOT SO SIMPLE. Wouldn't it be great if every letter in English spelling only made one sound? Why can't our language be more "phonetic" like Spanish? Well it could be, but in some respects it is "too late," and in any case our way has its perks. To briefly make my point, here are a few practicalobstacles
GLADIATOR 5K PITS YOUNG AGAINST OLD, MEN AGAINST WOMEN Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. I had good fun as a participant. Though I scraped up my knees and I was unimpressed by thepuddle
THE POLITICAL BRAIN: HOW OBAMA GOT IT RIGHT When I first glanced at Drew Westen’s The Political Brain, which promises to explore “the role of emotion” in the success of political campaigns, I braced myself for two disappointments typical of the pop psych genre: either Westen was a political pundit who did not really understand the brain, or he was a researcher trying to force his lab experiments to tell a coherent and important story.THE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. LANGUAGES | THE NEURAL SPARK English: Time to take a nap, pal. Spanish voice: Don’t move, I’ll send you a doctor. Subtitles: Time to take a nap, pal. Apparently the voiceover team, which might not have felt as supportive of the beat-down as Americans, saw the need to soften the tone. NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama.JOSE DROST-LOPEZ
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. DIE HARD IN SPANISH (THE FUN AND MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION I recently popped Live Free or Die Hard from Netflix into my DVD player only to realize that I had already watched it. Undeterred by my memory mishap, I made the movie more interesting by adding Spanish dubbing and subtitles. I was in for a surprise. As amusing as it was to watch Bruce WillisTHE NEURAL SPARK
This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. MORE BRAIN CONNECTIONS THAN STARS IN THE UNIVERSE? NO, NOT Let me clarify that the brain is a magnificent organ no matter how you spin the numbers. As early as two millenniums ago Hippocrates realized its importance: “from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.” But no matter the intricacy of our brains, let’s not belittle the majestic scale of the cosmos. LANGUAGES | THE NEURAL SPARK English: Time to take a nap, pal. Spanish voice: Don’t move, I’ll send you a doctor. Subtitles: Time to take a nap, pal. Apparently the voiceover team, which might not have felt as supportive of the beat-down as Americans, saw the need to soften the tone. NUMBERS | THE NEURAL SPARK This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. THE STORY OF BUDDHISM The Story of Buddhism. This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. This prince was named Siddhārtha Gautama.JOSE DROST-LOPEZ
In Up in the Air (2009), an Oscars-nominated dramedy, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies constantly for his job, laying people off. One of the pivotal early character-building scenes shows Clooney going to an airport and treating it like home. In fact the director Jason Reitman cared about this scene enough to break it down with the New York Times. ‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming THE SELF: BUDDHISM VS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY The Self: Buddhism vs Neuropsychology. In Cognitive Sciences, Religions and spirituality on November 13, 2011 at 12:54 am. The Buddhist view of the self has fascinating overlaps with the orthodox view among today’s neuroscientists. To Buddhists, the sense of self is an harmful illusion in the mind, a fiction foisted onto perception.BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. DIE HARD IN SPANISH (THE FUN AND MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION I recently popped Live Free or Die Hard from Netflix into my DVD player only to realize that I had already watched it. Undeterred by my memory mishap, I made the movie more interesting by adding Spanish dubbing and subtitles. I was in for a surprise. As amusing as it was to watch Bruce Willis STORIES | THE NEURAL SPARK This is the first of a series of posts on Buddhism and psychology, based on my PsychTalk interview on the same topic. Without further ado, let’s start off with a story: Buddhism began with a prince born in a small kingdom in the Northeastern part of the Indiansubcontinent.
MATH | THE NEURAL SPARK My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. CODE | THE NEURAL SPARK I am taking a break from my usual psychology antics to share some statistics-related code with the world. I wrote this Python program using standard libraries (no stats libraries) to verify that using (n-1) instead of (n) to calculate sample variance is a better long-run estimator of population variance. DECISIONS | THE NEURAL SPARK My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming a math-themed book, I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year.As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. ENGLISH | THE NEURAL SPARK This blog is mostly devoted to cognitive science–an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,sociology, and
‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATH This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers. Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming POLITICS | THE NEURAL SPARK Posts about Politics written by Jose Drost-Lopez. When I first glanced at Drew Westen’s The Political Brain, which promises to explore “the role of emotion” in the success of political campaigns, I braced myself for two disappointments typical of the pop psych genre: either Westen was a political pundit who did not really understand the brain, or he was a researcher trying to force his HAPPINESS EXPLAINED IN 5 MINUTES My recent Associated Content piece titled The Happiness Explosion reveals how a new “science of well-being” emerging in psychology and economics is making meaningful discoveries about human flourishing. It’s a gentle read backed up with plenty of research (check the links and references). If for some ungodly reason you’re not interested in happiness, here is an excerpt to whet your GLADIATOR 5K PITS YOUNG AGAINST OLD, MEN AGAINST WOMEN Gladiator 5k Race Times (secs) Two Saturdays ago, a Gladiator 5k took place in Cary, NC. It was a foot race with a few mandatory obstacles like high walls, nets, tunnels, and a mud pit. I had good fun as a participant. Though I scraped up my knees and I was unimpressed by thepuddle
THE POLITICAL BRAIN: HOW OBAMA GOT IT RIGHT When I first glanced at Drew Westen’s The Political Brain, which promises to explore “the role of emotion” in the success of political campaigns, I braced myself for two disappointments typical of the pop psych genre: either Westen was a political pundit who did not really understand the brain, or he was a researcher trying to force his lab experiments to tell a coherent and important story.JOSE DROST-LOPEZ
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Decisions
CHASING PERFECTION: A TALE OF SEQUENTIAL DECISION-MAKINGIn Math ,
Personal on
MAY 29, 2011 at 2:54 AM Now *that's* my kind of piano teacher. My grandest ‘real-life’ use of probability theory until recently was to estimate my odds in Risk and poker. Then, while skimming amath-themed book
,
I singled out a principle that will shape how I will spend $6,000 and about 200 hours of my life in the upcoming year. As far as the math goes, it doesn’t matter whether I’m referring to getting a girlfriend, a pet, an apartment, or a job. But at the moment I am actually picking a piano teacher. The teacher-picking theorem I have in mind is based on an oversimplified scenario that has an optimal strategy. Trying to apply it has been interesting. But before I reflect on my story, let’s glance at what the math says. SEQUENTIAL DECISIONS Start by imaging a series of candidates, among which we want to choose the very best. We have to assess candidates one at a time, and we have to decide whether to accept or reject them immediately after inspecting them. The candidates come to us in random order, so that the first one we assess is just as likely as the last one to be the best. The optimal strategy in this setup is to inspect about 37% (or exactly 1/e) of the candidates and then accept the next one that is better than the first 37%. This approach is optimal (i.e., mostly likely to snag the best option) because 37% of candidates is just enough to estimate which ones are exceptional without rejecting tooexceptional ones.
“Sequential decision making,” as this scenario is sometimes called, first came to my attention in a psychology study. When healthy people do computerized sequential decision tasks—sometimes simulating job interviews or shopping—they tend to jump the gun.However, this study
in
Germany found that people suffering from depression tend to wait longer and more closely approximate the best strategy. While this line of research has interesting implications for the causes and origins ofdepression
,
my main personal reaction was a sense that I probably don’t sample enough options in my life decisions. A prime example heads off my piano story: I picked a piano teacher a two months ago by emailing a music professor I did not know and taking his recommendation. Out of 30 available teachers listed in a directory for my area, I ended up ‘sampling’ only 1/30 ( 3.3%) of them. That’s all the more suboptimal because with piano teachers I can choose earlier candidates, which justifies sampling a _larger fraction_ of teachers than in “37% rule” I’ve described. My only defense is that the recommending professor seemed to be familiar with the candidates, so he probably ruled out some of the least compatible candidates.THE EXPERIMENT
Fast forward to two weeks ago; I was now looking for a new piano teacher. Emboldened by my pet theorem, I emailed nine teachers (about 30% of my options) based on what little information I found online. It was not hard to pick four of the more interesting teachers to meet in person. I have now met three out of those four and I feel glad with my approach, but I am still making sense of the challenges involved. The main challenge is making fair comparisons. I started my search by _de facto_ rejecting all the teachers I did not email based on little or no information; then I rejected some email respondents based on unreliable cues in their messages; and, in the final step, I made snap judgments from meetings that were subject to confounds like mood, time of day, shared expectations, and who knows what else. My two conclusions here are that (1) quality-assessments are imprecise, especially when they involve judging a match between people and (2) “counting” how many candidates have been “assessed” is subjective unless they all receive similar attention under similarconditions.
My next big hitch is about social emotions, not strategy. Specifically, my meetings so far were all at some point comically awkward, because in each case I did not want to admit how widely I had casted my net. I vaguely mentioned “considering my options” and, at most, I acknowledged meeting one other teacher. Although I don’t feel ashamed about my attempts to find a good match, I don’t want to upset teachers who might frown on my approach. After all, no one likes being compared to others or facing rejection. Thus I tried to treat each teacher as my top choice without making false promises. Looking to the future, I also wonder if more awkward situations will develop. Will any teachers gossip disapprovingly of me? Will I bump into “rejected” teachers at future recitals? These questions suggest that trying out multiple teachers has had a minor “emotional cost” for me. I imagine this type of cost could be much heavier in other choice processes like child adoption. My final complaint with my piano teacher experiment is that it has been resource-intensive. The time and effort spent emailing, driving to and meeting people has felt subjectively like “too much.” The root of this complaint is that sequentially finding the best piano teacher in my area is not my only goal in life. I have other uses for my time, energy, and gasoline, like finding a part-time job, catching up with friends, and sleeping. Therefore I constantly have to weigh the value of finding a slightly better teacher against improving some other aspect of my life. At some point, my search is no longer worth it (economists, read: diminishing returns or increasing opportunity costs). The inevitable trade-offs we all face could partly explain, from both evolutionary and practical perspectives, why we tend not to sample quite enough alternatives to make the ‘optimal’ choice. Satoshi Kanawaza makes a related point about dating in densely populated cities like New York—at some point there are so many eligible bachelors around that meeting or speed-dating 37% of them is infeasible. We usually settle for “good enough,” and most times we have to. MURKY MATH AND PUPPY PARADOXES These reflections should make clear that an idealized model of sequential decision making cannot replace mental assets such as good intuition, resourcefulness, and common sense. In spite of the apparent certainty of the “37% rule,” its most useful lesson for daily choices is vague: get a good sense of the candidate pool. In my search for piano teachers, the easiest way to scope out the field has been to contact a lot of teachers directly. But other ways to do that include asking experts or reviewers and drawing on relevant past experiences. Unfortunately, knowing our options can be just as counterproductive as it is helpful for some highly subjective decisions. As Sheena Iyengarand Barry Schwartz
are fond of pointing out, we humans are susceptible to “choice overload.” When we see _too many_ retirement plans or job offers, we take irrational shortcuts and sometimes _we feel less satisfied_ with whatever pick we make. For some of us (depending on culture, personality, and exact circumstances) the most adorable puppy possible is one of the first we see. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the beholder is liable to get fatigued and jaded by alternatives. It's easiest to have the puppy pick you. It’s no surprise that marrying a mathematical theorem like the 37% rule with the complexity of human decision-making requires a laundry list of caveats. But even with the caveats, mathematicians and other logical sorts are on hand to help us if we ever get the urge to approximate “rational” thinking. The rest of the time, our unconscious brains can run a decent autopilot for us—and thankgoodness for that.
_(Disclaimer: I disavow myself of any responsibility, moral or legal, for terrible choices of piano teachers or puppies that result from your reading this post)._
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Numbers
‘PROOFINESS’: THE WRONG KIND OF MATHIn Book Review
on MAY 4, 2011 at 12:22 AM_
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_This guy must be onto something. Look at all those fancy numbers._ _Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception_ is a lucid exposition of innumerate thinking in its many ugly forms. The author, Charles Seife, notes that a fundamental source of numerical confusion is measurement, which necessarily involves units and a degree of uncertainty stemming from the measuring instrument. Sometimes reported measurements lack units because there is no well-defined quantity to measure: what does it mean for a type of mascara to have “12 times more impact,” as L’Oreal once advertised? Sometimes people treat different units as the same, as New York politicians have done in claiming drastic improvement in their state’s educational performance based on state tests that got easier over time. Even when units are handled correctly, most people misunderstand precision. The commonest mistake is “disestimation”–assuming an estimate is more precise than it is. Take vote counts: due to all kinds of undercounting and double-counting errors, the margin of error will be at least 2% of the total votes. That means that in cases where the difference in votes between two candidates is tiny—the 2000 presidential election especially—the logical response is to declare a tie. But ties do not sit well with most people, so closely contested elections degenerate into squabbles over hundreds of votes, as if those decisive votes were the only ones subject to error. In one of the most hilarious passages of the book, Seife chronicles the fight over one ballot in Minnesota’s close 2008 Senate race; that particular ballot offered the write-in candidate “Lizard people” but also bubbled in Al Franken for governor, leading to a heated fight among lawyers and a panel of judges about whether “Lizard people” is a valid individual (the decision: yes, he/she is). Speaking of error, Seife devotes a chapter to undercutting most polls reported by the press. The typical opinion poll will show the percentage of people who gave each response, along with a “margin of error.” The lurking problem with these polls is that the largest source of error is not acknowledged. “Margin of error” as journalists report it is actually just statistical error due to random variation, which depends on sample size. Much more important is _systematic error_, skewing of the results due to the design of the survey. Examples of design problems include picking a sample that does not represent the population being studied, wording and ordering questions in a way that influences answers, and asking questions which might tempt people to lie. One blaring example of design failure is internet surveys, which can only include people with decent internet access who volunteer to take the survey based on motives that will probably skew their answers. But sadly, people will exaggerate even in careful face to face interviews—that’s why the CDC found in 2007 that heterosexual men somehow have more sexual partners thanheterosexual women.
In surveying mathematical failures, Seife offers his own cutesy terminology. Sometimes I find it dull: he calls misattributed causation “causuistry,” which is neither memorable nor easy to say. Other times I found myself chuckling. He dubs fitting inappropriate lines and curves to data points “regression to the moon.” This is a play on the phrase “regression to the mean”that gets across
the idea that foisting simple models onto complex data leads to wacky conclusions. Case in point: a 2004 _Nature _paper extrapolates a linear fit for sprinters’ times to argue that women will surpass men in the next century. Seife rejects that as ridiculous, pointing out that the same linear extrapolation would predict sprinters eventually breaking the sound barrier and surpassing the speed of light. _Proofiness_ is essentially a series of warnings, anecdotes, and lessons. Those three elements dance together gracefully throughout the book, making for an engaging read. So go out and find yourself a copy! Here is some more background on _Proofiness _if you’re not sold onthe book yet:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/the-dark-art-of-statistical-deception/ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/books/review/Strogatz-t.html http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129972868 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100802980.htmlComment »
English
SIMPLIFYING ENGLISH SPELLING? NOT SO SIMPLE.In Reality Check
on FEBRUARY 26, 2011 at 12:30 AM Wouldn’t it be great if every letter in English spelling only made one sound? Why can’t our language be more “phonetic” like Spanish? Well it could be, but in some respects it is “too late,” and in any case our way has its perks. To briefly make my point, here are a few practical obstacles for creating a 1:1 sound:letter script for English. (1) Transparency of word roots is valuable. “Insane” and “insanity” have such related meanings that spelling them differently to account for pronunciation would be confusing. As another example, the silent /n/ at the end of “column, autumn, condemn” is worth keeping since it gives rise to “columnist, autumnal, condemnation.” (2) Different spellings are helpful for reading homophones, which are common in English (though not as common as in Chinese, which needs much more meaning-specific morphemes). E.g., “eye” vs “I,” “you” vs “ewe,” “two” vs “too” vs “to.” (3) Spelling should not reflect nuances of pronunciation that most people do not notice, such as coarticulation, assimilation, resyllabification, which change the pronunciation of words depending on spoken context. “Cap driver” would be confusing even though we only imagine pronouncing the “b” sound most of the time. Same goes for “apsurd” and for foreign accents (“do you vant somebeer?”).
These ideas aren’t mine–I got them mostly from Stanislas Dehaene’s “Reading in the Brain.”It’s a cool book!
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Sagittal MRI scan of right hemisphere, with added coloring. (AllenBell / Corbis)
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