Category: Society
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Focus
We live in a distracting age, with countless forces vying for our attention. The rise of cell phones and social media has only exacerbated the situation. I struggle to deal with distractions now more than ever. This is partly due to a fairly recent change in my daily job responsibilities. It’s also due to factors…
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Alone Time
I’m a bit more of an introvert than an extrovert. While I love working on fun projects with a lot of people, I also enjoy having time alone to recharge. Being around others sparks my creativity and engages me in a way that I crave. Being alone tends to be more relaxing. I like having…
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Humans are Lazy
As I get older, I seem to be more inclined to embrace my own laziness. I could take my daughter swimming, but that’s a lot of work. Even though she still enjoys it, I don’t make the effort to take her swimming as often as I did when we were both younger. There is no…
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Fooling Kids
Sometimes parents think they’re so smart. But kids of smart parents also tend to be smart. There are times when both kids and parents try to fool each other. It usually doesn’t work so well. Parents may think they have an advantage in this game. While experience matters, the advantage isn’t nearly so great as…
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Boredom
It’s interesting to me that we can simultaneously be busy and bored. Many important tasks don’t engage me creatively or intellectually. This doesn’t diminish their value. Therefore, it’s good to be bored. We’re all going to be bored occasionally, so we might as well learn to enjoy it. Sometimes, we can trick our minds into…
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Death Today
For most of human history, there were constant reminders that death was coming. Many babies and mothers died during childbirth. Many warriors died during battles. Many people died of disease without much warning. Today, death appears less frequently in our lives. Our great grandparents die of old age. We can survive more diseases more often.…
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One-Pixel Attack
As A.I. becomes more ubiquitous in our lives, it’s important to learn about its limitations and vulnerabilities. A.I. systems can be hacked. Today, I learned about a particularly devious attack. It’s possible to change just one pixel in an image in a way that is difficult for humans to detect; however, this one-pixel change can…
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Starting from Scratch
We all depend on each other for inspiration. Even if we don’t do research for a bit of writing, we depend on everything that we’ve learned previously throughout our lives. By the time that we are able to write a blog post, we’ve been filled with countless ideas from the people in our lives. What…
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Brats
Last night, I watched a new documentary by Andrew McCarthy called Brats. I watched it because I enjoyed watching the “Brat Pack” movies back in the day. Welcome, nostalgia! One of my favorite scenes is a discussion between Andrew McCarthy and Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm says that at the time, 90% of people in their twenties…
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Simplifying Frameworks
Humans are lazy. We don’t want to work harder than we need to. Especially when it comes to trying to understand something new. Much of what’s interesting in the world is nuanced. Simplifying frameworks help us “cut to the chase”. We use them at the expense of gaining a deeper understanding. For example, we often…