Some Thoughts on Perfection

I saw this video about the Betamax vs. VHS technological conflict.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYZITaxlTQ
It is interesting to note that (contrary to some myths: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-VHS-beat-out-Betamax-because-Betamax-refused-to-allow-pornographic-films)VHS won partly because it was an inferior product.  Imagine the engineers and designers at Sony putting in extra effort to make the opening mechanism smooth, giving it a nice wooden finish.  Their efforts to achieve perfection actually put them at a disadvantage.  On the other hand, I am sure that JVC could have made a better product had they chose to, but I can imagine the corporate strategy meeting where they realized that this would put them at a disadvantage in the marketplace, which was the contest they were trying to win in the end.

I am also reminded that, for all of their thoroughness and attention to detail, the Japanese have a concept of 'beauty in imperfection'.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
Do you see the connection? I think the above scenario (with the tapes) is a perfect example.

New Years Resolution

My 2015 New Years resolution was to floss every day.  I have successfully done this so far, and plan to continue this practice for the rest of my life.  As 2015 is winding down, I already have my 2016 resolution in mind.
Update, Dec 22 2015: Forgot what that resolution was, have a new one: Do 10 pushups every morning when I wake up before anything else. Every day.

Still flossing.

Hopkins

I have just spent my first few days at Johns Hopkins, and it is pretty sick.  There is always something to be doing, somewhere to be going to, people to meet, parties to go to.  The day after tomorrow, classes will be part of the picture.    The whole frat party scene is alright, a good way to meet people.  Hillel and the Jewish Frat seem to be great places to meet fellow Jews.  I could talk about this, and do a well-written narrative, but I won’t because this blog is just a side project, and I have to get stuff done. 

So, anyway one absolutely amazing experience that I just had was, believe it or not, diversity training.  We all were reluctantly shepherded to the gym.  We all groaned when we heard that it would be two hours long.  My expectations were that it would be kind of lame, like some sort of reminder not to be a racist, which I already am not.   We all walked away with our mouths wide open (the website for the diversity trainer is http://www.cookross.com/).  It was so good that I started taking notes on my orientation booklet.  Many are illegible (not a good standard to set for my organic chemistry class that will be meeting on Monday morning, but I will try to hash out the nature of what he said.  Freud said that our conscious minds are just the tip of the iceberg.  This guy says that our conscious minds are just snowballs.  He played a video of someone saying ga-ga, but their lips were moving to the shape of la-la.  Whether you had your eyes open or not changes what you hear.  He told us that people with darker skin get the death penalty more often.  We form are controlled by our subconscious mind, to a greater extent than we know.  He showed us a complicated video of people dancing around, throwing a ball, but you ignore a gorilla that walks by because you are so transfixed on counting the ball throws.  There is a direct correlation between height and salary.  People prefer people who are sitting on their dominant side.  Obese people are looked upon unfavorably.  So are people who sit next to them.  Corporate CEO’s are generally talker than average.  Being tall makes other people’s subconscious minds of others look favorably upon you.  “Freedom is the pause between stimulus and response”.  This, the tiny bit of consciousness of action that humans have managed to gain, and pass on descendants is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.  Humans, however, are proud, and think that they have more control over their actions than they do.  We are all still controlled to a highest degree by our subconscious animal instincts, that control our response to small things like body language, and that control our own body language, and our response to unimaginably small things.  For example, someone who says something really smart, but with bad body language, might be ignored.  Another example is a teacher who was totally chill for most of the time, but got angry when children pointed at each other.  The phenomena came from when her brother would tease her by placing his finger on her forehead, a stored subconscious caustic annoyance.  Once this was discovered and recognized, she was able to better control herself. When there were glaring eyes on an honors system paying coffee poster, people were more honest with paying.  Same with people reading the ten commandments and cheating on tests.   A kalihari bushman will notice dung beetle tracks, when we would not, because it has been engrained into the bushman’s mind that those tracks mean “food”. This all relates to diversity training, because the sources of bias in our lives are generally subconscious in the same manner.  An example includes an experiment where resumes were given greater recognition when they have names that are of the societal “dominant race” (e.g. Caucasian in the USA, Chinese in Singapore).  Another is car dealers.  They tend to discriminate against black people, but they do it unintentionally, trying to make the sale at all costs, and ward off people who just want to test drive.  The data, however, show that this prejudice does not help them.   None of these people hurt their own business prospects intentionally.  Instead, they have developed false subconscious prejudices which they must recognize.  This subconscious prejudice comes when different societies have mannerisms that makes people from other cultures uncomfortable. They must practice “constructive uncertainty”, and not be so convinced that they are in control of their own mind, recognize a certain limitedness of power.  They must use these facts to their advantage, using body language and customs that are appropriate for each culture.  Finally, we can expand our awareness, mindfulness to gain more conscious control of mind, and have a much greater control of our lives.

As an aside note, we all must take appropriate responsibility for our actions, both in the form of attitude and further action and let guilt fall away.

OK, now on to another subject.   Today, we were discussing the excellent book that was the JHU class of 2015 Freshman summer book read,  Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder and the relationship between help from others, pride, and the appropriate response to make once help has been given.  One girl told us about how Benjamin Franklin used to notice that people who he asked favors of tended to like him better.  This is anecdotal evidence that shows how people appreciate it when you make them feel important.  By asking a favor of someone, you say “you are a valuable part of my life.  This is not to say that you should go out of the way to ask favors when you don’t need them, or that you should be an obnoxious freeloader.  Instead, you should just be appreciative.  The polar opposite of this is doing your best to be over-helpful, or being, or making yourself feel self-important.  This is generally obnoxious and rude.  I have been guilty of this.  In my old school, where I was one of the top math and science students, I would occasionally help people out with math.  I am sure that I was of some good, but sometimes my motivation was just to make myself feel smart. It was in error.

Now, I am at Hopkins, and If I were to do anything like that, I would make me a major asshole.  Everyone here is smart, and motivated, even if they do not “seem to be the kind of person who would be like that”.  The football player jocks, who were numbskulls in my home town are good at math.  The smart people know how to break dance, and spin like a table top.  Certain girls who one might expect to be kind of ditzy are in majors like mechanical engineering… everyone here is, well, a Hopkins student.    The majors that are normally fluffy and loose are all intense and legit at Hopkins.  Even though this is a heavily math and science focused school, it is still a confluence and collision of ideas, where all parts of the noggin are spinning and spinning and spinning.  In spite of all of this, people are generally kind, and down to earth, satisfied in their pursuits.  In other word, all my subconscious stereotypes are broken down by the amazing intelligence and diversity of the people here, in a mind bending, mind expanding process that is identical to that described at diversity training.  At the playfair orientation event there was a rock paper scissors tournament, where everyone would pair up, and, once you were beaten, you would become the victor's "biggest fan".  This is directly analogous to the way to approach the amazing talents of others in such a balling-ass community as Johns Hopkins.  Even in my first days at Hopkins, I am seeing myself, my mind, my peers, and my world in a new way, and I am deeply humbled.

Cut me some slack guys, I am really busy, and I am working on my writing skills.