tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21392116729876969302023-11-15T05:47:14.390-08:00Learning to thinkYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-35492824613320151552011-07-31T19:48:00.000-07:002011-07-31T19:48:53.965-07:00Ingroup nurturing and socialismI was listening to the podcast, Point of Inquiry, as they were interviewing George Lakoff. I really recommend this episode, as it discuss on the neural basis of rationality, and how you can't separate your "feelings" from your thought processes, mainly due to the fact that you don't control most of you thought processes, as they occur subconsciously.
The main point that I wanted to discuss, Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-42063632995002488232011-06-23T22:00:00.000-07:002011-06-23T22:00:06.031-07:00Different ways to say the same thing?Recently I was listening to the great biotech podcast Future in Biotech episode 77 when they were interviewing the great Susan Lindquist and her postdoc Daniel Jarosz about a paper just published. I will not go through the paper here (go to the link, great interview), but the gist is that they discovered another layer of subtle control on the expression of proteins by a cell, that can Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-76358469160581403762011-06-05T20:21:00.000-07:002011-06-05T20:21:25.440-07:00Skepticism and EthicsRecently, the new blog Skepticism and ethics asked for submissions. You can see the winner here . Clearly well deserved. I did submit something, and clearly it was inferior to the winner. But as this is my blog, then I can put it here. Well, it's call "Learning to think", not "I know how to think already".
Oh, and goodness, I am a pompous writer...I have to work on that Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-13821176864502018482011-05-12T00:45:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:44:37.097-07:00To the victor belong the spoilsRecently I was reading an old article, The Croonian Lecture 1991 about Genostasis and the Limits to Evolution , and I realized that the fact that evolutionary biology is a historical science (in the general sense of the word) colors how some of the reasoning about it. In this article, A. D Bradshaw remind us that even though the current natural world is the result of the different Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-40479332749275531582011-05-05T19:52:00.000-07:002011-05-05T19:54:02.074-07:00The Einstellung effect or why are you doing that in autopilot?I am again reading through the excellent The Edge series of answers to What important tool should you have in your cognitive toolkit? . This is one of the most important series or articles/post that I've ever read online or offline. Not only because they found legions of really smart people, which gives you, predictably, lots of good answers, but because you can contrast what is important toYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-1264938960609227832011-04-30T00:36:00.000-07:002011-04-30T00:36:34.928-07:00Hidden assumptionsEarlier in the week, I stumbled upon this article, Unearthing deeply rooted plant 'myths' . It is about Dr. Henry Oakeley, the garden fellow for the London's Royal College of Physicians, and his view about herbal medicine.
He posits that most plants are actually trying to harm us, or at least are neutral, going against the usual view that "herbals" are more "natural" and therefore better forYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-37618265859253530372011-04-21T21:28:00.000-07:002011-04-22T22:38:52.293-07:00ResponseAs Monty Python used to say: And now for something completely different...
I recently read a great post by Jade at http://www.labspaces.net/blog/1304/Why_I_am_not_a_SciMom
It made me think. And it made me write. Not very well, but what can we do. I wish I could have done honor to Jade's post. But I tried my best. And I really want to have this somewhere.
So here is my reply to her post:
Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-39095920879339447952011-04-18T00:16:00.000-07:002011-04-18T00:30:36.316-07:00Examining the man behind the curtainI was reading earlier on "The man behind the curtain"
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/num2/2011/3/the-man-behind-the-curtain/2 , where Tony Rothman describes how the lay person understanding of physics ascribes a higher level of clarity to them than what they really have, and that the scientist have been hiding this, equating it to the way Dorothy saw the Wizard of Oz for the first Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-88876939668529040962011-04-14T00:45:00.000-07:002011-04-14T00:45:07.770-07:00ProcrastinationA couple of days ago, I was listening to the podcast "Philosophy Talk", about procrastination. As probably anybody that has ever blogged in their life knows, it is so easy to leave a post for "later on", when you have more time to "concentrate" on the blog post, when you can "really write" what you want.
Most of the time, this means..., well, no post.
Some of the concepts in the podcast that Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-5361712804898832342011-04-11T20:30:00.000-07:002011-04-11T20:51:47.256-07:00Coevolution and "species"Reading this article (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-instant-evolution-whiteflies-bacteria.html ), about how a group of sweet potato whiteflies increased their fitness after being infected by a bacteria (Rickettsia, to be specific), made me think about how we define organisms and "species". In today's evolutionary biology there is a large discussion of how to define "species"(Jerry Coyne Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-86799430941725228052011-04-11T00:33:00.000-07:002011-04-11T00:49:28.922-07:003 moral quandaries to think aboutReading this article "Expertise in Moral Reasoning? Order Effects on Moral Judgment in Professional Philosophers and Non-Philosophers", by Eric Schwitzgebel, I had to review some of the most interesting thinking points in morality. Even more because I've realized that everytime I think about them I reach different conclusions.Moral Luck: You can be declared morally responsible for something thatYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-3241813678197840482011-04-08T19:51:00.000-07:002011-04-08T19:56:46.526-07:00How to divide your pirate map.Say you have 5 pirate descendants(you are the pirate King after all). You want them to remain united, at least 3 or more. You left them a map of your treasure. How do you make sure that only one or two can't find it?Make a circle, with the treasure at some point of the circumference (for example the southernmost). Mark 5 points on that circle. Give the direction of a point to each of your Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-54700682836098089002011-04-08T19:50:00.002-07:002011-04-08T19:51:30.181-07:00Trying new approachWell, clearly blogging once a year is not the best.I'm going to try something different. Put one idea/concept that I thought it was great/interesting and discuss it a little bit.This will help me also to remember it and have it for reference later.Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-67962212184652088702009-04-02T22:42:00.001-07:002009-04-02T23:03:55.470-07:00Twitter thinkingAs millions before me, I've discovered twitter (at www.twitter.com). For those who don't know, Twitter is a way of exchanging short messages (of 140 letters or less) between you and your "followers", that is, people that has subscribed to your list of comments. I have to admit that it's a very entrancing way of communicating with other people. The immediacy of it gives you a feeling of personal Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-78761053590234404742009-03-25T20:46:00.000-07:002009-03-25T20:59:08.147-07:00Non conscious misconceptions about value propositionsI was reading Borges "Otras Inquisiciones" (Other Inquisitions) http://www.amazon.com/Other-Inquisitions-1937-1952-Texas-American/dp/0292760027/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238039277&sr=8-1 , and I hit the essay about the cult of books.He postulates that we have a very different perception today of the relative importance of written knowledge over spoken one. One comment Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-12916797723379891482008-09-29T19:24:00.000-07:002008-09-29T19:54:21.742-07:00Still AliveSo I have not updated my blog in more than a month...that is not very good. I think I have the wrong psychological approach to it, as I try to hammer down as many of the deficiencies in any of the thinking pathways that I am exposing. While I still think that this approach is worthwhile, it's making me write down tens of ideas but not expanding them, as I never have all the time I need to go Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-33702424291119264432008-08-09T07:23:00.000-07:002008-08-09T08:03:37.177-07:00Levels of ThinkingThe high gas price is due to the war in Iraq, he said. No, no, says another, it is due to the OPEC countries gaming the system. That is false, says a third, it is due to faerie's dust making disappear the oil reserves in the world...This is only a sample (although slightly ironic) of multiple discussions that we carry with other human being every day. We seem unable to reach an uniform Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-3663424175454919012008-07-15T10:28:00.000-07:002008-07-20T22:59:44.260-07:00Teach your child how to thinkI've been meaning to comment about a book I read recently, it's an old book by Edward de Bono, called Teach your child how to think. Mr. de Bono is a fairly known "thinking" teacher, with several famous techniques (like the six hat reasoning system). I was able to get this book second-hand, so I gave it a try. As most books by de Bono, it's thin, and can be a quick read.My value thinking at the Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-83223792142076410012008-07-06T22:20:00.000-07:002008-07-06T22:59:14.840-07:00Thought blindnessI haven't had as much time as usual to think, due to illness of a family member. Thankfully, that problem seems to have resolved, so I tried to take a thought pathway that I had started a couple of weeks ago but stayed underdeveloped due to the situation previously described.The baseline where I started this thought pathway is based on the fact that I am partially color blind. The pigments that Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-51770130260118097442008-06-23T23:42:00.000-07:002008-06-24T00:11:49.279-07:00Language and thinkingLast week I had to travel by plane, going from one time zone to another that was 2 hours earlier, and then back home, so I had the curious sensation of time dilation where 3 hours converted themselves into 5 hours. Funny if you think about it, but if you apply relativistic considerations to my flight I can actually be dilating the time slightly more, but the effect would be probable imperceptibleYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-34321278845116595322008-06-21T23:28:00.000-07:002008-06-22T00:21:43.419-07:00Let there be DisharmonySo, one post with value thinking for once. Yes, I have a bias against value thinking, because I am bad at it, ja, ja!. But I have to admit that it is the only way to really appreciate art in its multiple manifestations. I am sure that is has to have internal consistency, if not, the appreciation of "master pieces" would be completely random, and there wouldn't be any great masters of any type of Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-78997943005493275732008-06-20T23:14:00.000-07:002008-06-21T23:17:39.813-07:00Irrationality always happensTonight I went home by train. I usually try to get into a car that is as empty as possible because like that I can sleep or even better, I can read the newspapers that the passengers from the previous train time have left in the car. Yeah, I'm cheap. Or you could say I'm "green"? Or I am a "new economy" practitioner?...Nah, I'm just cheap.Interestingly, when I was checking for newspapers, I saw aYannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-85876233460111206902008-06-19T19:05:00.000-07:002008-06-21T23:28:27.885-07:00Another point of viewThe idea of complexity is significant in the evolution of human beings' thought processes.But in some occasions this complexity is apparent, only due to our incomplete knowledge of reality.Beautifully demonstrated in this video is...where do Moebius transformation come from?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX3VmDgiFnYI hope some day when I try to explain something complex I will be able to find Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-61489110590216219752008-06-16T22:47:00.000-07:002008-06-16T22:52:04.385-07:00Out of internet, not able to think?I am traveling right now, and I am not able to have a consistent Internet connection. If you are an Internet addict like me, I am sure you can realize that this is actually a distressing situation. So many little tidbits of information that I want to verify that I am putting in my PDA to check later, so many events that I want to check on that I can’t. This obviously made me think about the Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139211672987696930.post-80551666538438886322008-06-15T07:23:00.000-07:002008-06-15T07:32:10.696-07:00Other interestsI also want to use this forum to add different topics of interest that have popped in my interest radar, either books, movies, videos, etc, that I consider interesting, or thought provoking...Or simply fun and dumb like this video by robyn...there is absolutely no redeeming factor in it, except that it is a fun way to part with 3:06 minutes of your time! http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07225021433431403808noreply@blogger.com0