"Quick is Beautiful"

>One of the most beautiful pieces of technology I have ever seen is the factory in Everett north of Seattle where they build Boeing 747s. The Boeing 747 is not small and neither is the factory. But the factory is wondrous quick. At the time I visited, they were turning out 747s at the rate of one a week. That is the sort of operation which I have in mind when I say, "Quick is Beautiful."<

Freeman Dyson

"To be a 'nerd' is a lifestyle only possible in the modern information-rich environment."

Razib Khan

-----

"The thinking man cannot comprehend that thinking is not the apotheosis of what it is to be a man[.]"

Der Geschmack:

Ein entwickelter Geschmack ermöglicht dem Menschen insbesondere zwischen guten und richtig guten Sachen unterscheiden zu können. Z.B. finden sich viele gut geschriebene, informative Bücher in der Welt. Und ein Menschenleben reicht kaum aus, um auch nur einen kleinen Bruchteil von ihnen zu lesen. Um den Fokus nicht zu verlieren, kommt es eben darauf an, auch unter ihnen deutliche Unterschiede erkennen zu können. Auch unter ihnen sich bevorzugt den besseren zuzuwenden.

Begeisterung:

Wenn "gute Geister" vorübergehend besonders starken Einfluss über unser Verhalten gewinnen, d.h. wenn höhere Motive, wie beispielsweise das "Erkenntnis- oder Wahrheitsmotiv", vorübergehend besonders starke Zugkraft auf unser Verhalten ausüben. Zwar lässt sich Begeisterung nicht herbeizwingen, doch kann man sie vertreiben.

Dolphins escorting the USS Greeneville

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/KHzKEmb

Erkunden oder Ausschöpfen?

"I had reached a juncture in my reading life that is familiar to those who have been there: in the allotted time left to me on earth, should I read more and more new books, or should I cease with that vain consumption - vain because it is endless - and begin to reread those books that had given me the intensest pleasure in my past."

Lydia Davis

-----

Neue Urlaubsziele wählen oder die besten bekannten Urlaubsziele erneut aufsuchen?

Ein neues Buch zur Hand nehmen oder sich erneut in eines der besten bekannten Bücher vertiefen?

Einen neuen Artikel lesen oder einen der besten bekannten Artikel erneut zur Hand nehmen?

Ein neues Thema wählen oder sich in eines seiner Lieblingsthemen vertiefen?

Neue Personen kennen lernen oder mit guten Freunden Kontakte vertiefen?

-----

[Siehe auch: Early exploration and late exploitation]

Long paths of association:

"while [some] work implies that creativity is a process of random association, [other] studies ... pointed to another explanation more directly connected with intelligence: long paths of association. ... individuals who are more likely or more able to search longer paths through the network of associations in their mind can arrive at a connection between two ideas or facts that seems unexpected or strange to others. What appears to be random may not be random at all - it is just difficult for other people to see the association because they are not following as long a chain of associations."

Melissa A. Schilling

-----

"There is a path to the conclusions they make, but they fly down that path so fast that others don't see the route they have taken. Something that seems obvious to them may seem far-fetched to people who have not already followed all of the steps[.]"

Verwunderung:

Z.B.: Wenn etwas, das uns vertraut ist, plötzlich fremd, neu, unbekannt und interessant erscheint.

[Siehe auch: das Fragegefühl]

Anteil nehmen:

Ein jeder Mitmensch trägt eine eigene Welt mit sich. Es kommt darauf an, sich darüber klar zu werden, an welcher dieser Welten man Anteil nehmen will, und an welchen nicht.

-----

Z.B. wird man kaum Interesse dafür empfinden, an der Innenwelt eines kleinlichen, boshaften, gehässigen, neidigen oder verbitterten Menschen Anteil zu nehmen.

Using the 5/25 rule to learn to say "no"

James Altucher:
https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/using-525-rule-learn-say-no/
https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/most-valuable-things-everyone/

-----

Die Kernidee dieser "5/25-Regel" besteht darin, dass man nicht bloß zu schlechten Sachen, sondern auch zu guten Sachen in seinem Leben Nein sagt. Da gegebenenfalls nur hierdurch eine intensive Konzentriertheit erreicht wird. Vermutlich ist es dennoch eine Frage des Temperaments, ob jemanden das befolgen dieser "Regel" empfohlen werden sollte. Manche Personen interessieren sich für so wenig, dass man das Gefühl hat, es wäre wesentlich besser, wenn sie mehrere Interessen hätten. Ein James Altucher stellt hier wohl das entgegengesetzte Extrem dar.

"I read about one-fifth the pace that Bill does, but I still spend five or six hours a day reading."

Warren Buffet

Das Aufgehen in einer Erfahrung:

>There's a certain opera singer who, when she finally masters an extremely difficult aria, is so totally focused on singing it that when she's finished, she doesn't even remember performing. "It's almost as if an experiential mind-set has replaced the instrumental one required to learn the piece," he [Tellegen] says, "so that her singing no longer requires effortful attention. A talented cellist might play a Bach sonata the way an average person can relax his frontalis muscle. The high-level instrumental skill has become so well assimilated that it happens automatically."<

Winifred Gallagher

[Das Aufgehen im Schreiben, Vortragen, Sprechen, Betrachten, Anhören, Nachdenken, Lesen, Musizieren, ... Wenn das Handeln den Charakter der Entschiedenheit und Bestimmtheit annimmt und man während des Handelns nicht denkt oder fühlt, als ob man anders handeln könnte.]

"At the root of our effectiveness is our ability to grasp the world around us and to take the measure of our own performance."

Brown, Roediger, McDaniel

Episodisches Gedächtnis:

Erinnerungen an gelebtes Leben.

-----

Das Vermögen zur episodischen Vorausschau ließe sich somit als eine Fähigkeit zur Vorstellung von möglichem Leben bezeichnen.

Expressing likes and dislikes:

"People derive an inherent pleasure from just simply expressing their likes and dislikes, reflecting a fundamental human need to make statements about who one is."

Rolf Degen

Experimentally Inducing Disgust Reduces Desire for Short-Term Mating

Experimentally Inducing Disgust Reduces Desire for Short-Term Mating
Laith Al-Shawaf et al.

Abstract

Short-term mating strategies involve casual sex, multiple partners, and short-time intervals before initiating intercourse. Such strategies should be difficult to implement in the presence of high levels of sexual disgust. Researchers have therefore suggested—and found evidence for—the hypothesis that individuals with a stronger proclivity for short-term mating have lower levels of sexual disgust. Here, we suggest a related hypothesis: inducing sexual disgust should reduce desire for short-term mating. Experiment 1 (N = 341) and experiment 2 (N = 361) investigated the effects of disgust induction on desire for short-term mating. Both studies found that inducing disgust reduces desire for short-term mating, and that the effect of sexual disgust is particularly strong. These results support the novel hypothesis advanced here and corroborate the broader hypothesis that reduced sexual disgust is a previously undiscovered design feature of short-term mating strategies.

Kin terms and fitness interdependence:

Kin terms and fitness interdependence

Dieter Steklis, Netzin Steklis, Olmo van den Akker, AthenaAktipis, LeeCronk

Abstract

Although genetic relatedness has been shown to be an important determinant of helping and other forms of cooperation among kin, it does not correspond well to the different types of kin designated by the kin terminologies used in human societies. This mismatch between genetic relatedness and kin terms has led some anthropologists to reject the idea that kin terms have anything to do with genetic relatedness or anything else biological. The evolutionary and cultural anthropological approaches can be reconciled through an appreciation of the concept of fitness interdependence, defined as the degree to which two or more organisms positively or negatively influence each other's success in replicating their genes. Fitness interdependence may arise for a variety of reasons, including not only genetic relatedness but also mating and marriage, risk-pooling, mutual aid, and common group membership. The major kin term systems correspond to cross-culturally variable but recurrent patterns of fitness interdependence among different types of kin. In addition, changes from one kin term system to another are associated with corresponding changes in recurrent patterns of fitness interdependence among kin, and kin terms are often used metaphorically in situations in which fitness interdependence has arisen among non-kin.

[In analogy: the concept of "status interdependence"]

Scientific Work:

"Work came later in human history than conversation. We invented work when we became civilized. Unlike friendship, work is a mixed blessing. At its worst, work is slavery. At its best, work is a sustained and lifelong conversation. The more satisfying and enjoyable work is, the more it partakes of the nature of conversation. Science at the working level is mostly conversation. The building where I work has twenty people in twenty rooms. Most of the doors are open. From morning till night the buzz of conversation seldom ceases. That is the way science is done. When I am not talking with friends down the hall, I am writing papers for friends around the world. Without the friends, my activity would be pointless. Scientists are as gregarious a species as termites. If the lives of scientists are on the whole joyful, it is because our friendships are deep and lasting. Our friendships are lasting because we are engaged in a collective enterprise. Our enterprise, the exploration of nature’s secrets, had no beginning and will have no end. Exploration is as natural an activity for human beings as conversation. Our friends the explorers are scattered over the centuries, from Archimedes and Euclid to the unborn genius who will one day understand the mystery of how our exploring minds work."

Freeman Dyson

Interest and Learning (II):

"If interest doesn't enhance learning because of heightened attention, then how does interest affect learning? Research suggests that depth of processing might be responsible. ... Perhaps interest leads people to process text more deeply. In turn, deeper processing leads to better comprehension and recall of the text. Many experiments support this position (see Schiefele, 1999)." 

"Interest appears to promote learning through several mechanisms. Intuition to the contrary, interest doesn't seem to increase attention. Early experiments found that interest increased attention to text (Anderson, 1982; Asher, 1980); recent experiments found that interest reduced attention (McDaniel et al., 2000; Shirey & Reynolds, 1988). A second mechanism, depth of processing, has received stronger support. The interested reader approaches and processes text differently from the uninterested reader. Interest promotes focusing on the text's meaning and building a propositional representation, whereas boredom promotes focusing on the text's superficial aspects (Schiefele, 1999, 2001)."

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Science, Art, Religion & Intuition (II):

"The difference between science, on the one hand, and religion and the arts, on the other, is obvious in general terms to everyone. Science applies empirical search, as in experiment and discovery, along with explicit logical reasoning, whereas leaders of religion have applied intuition, and have made claims also to a direct, divine revelation. Incidentally, if we define intuition as reaching a conclusion without specific awareness of (not without resort to), all the logical steps and factual supports taken into the final judgment, then both the bulk of everyday reasoning and some of the finest first steps in science itself must also be recognized as the product of intuition. Here the only difference of science and religion is that in the former the intuition is subsequently checked by logic and experiment."

Raymond Cattell, Beyondism - A New Morality From Science, 1972

Intuition (II):

"Does measurement of creativity throw some light on the rather nebu­lous concept of intuition? Can we measure intuition? Professor M. Westcott has shown that even elusive traits like intuition can be mea­sured. He argued that what we mean by intuition is essentially the ability to jump to conclusions on the basis of insufficient evidence; we literally take an intellectual leap instead of plodding along lines of logic to a predestined conclusion. This brief argument led to his experimental de­sign. Set your subject a problem that is insoluble as it stands. It can be solved logically if you are given a number of cues. But these are hidden, and you can ask for the first one to be disclosed, making solution a little easier. You can then ask for the second one, then the third, and so on until you feel you can guess the answer. Some people (the plodders) require to look at all or most of the cues; your intuitive person takes a leap at the solution after only receiving a few cues. This tendency can be measured reliably; in other words, a given person behaves in the same fashion time after time. And it has nothing much to do with intelligence; dull people can be intuitive, bright ones can be plodders.

But of course you can arrive at the wrong solution, whether you are intuitive or a plodder. Hence Westcott finished up with four groups: Intuitive-correct, Plodder-correct, Intuitive-wrong; Plodder-wrong. The personality characteristics showed that the intuitives were similar to creative people, the plodder to noncreative ones. Thus, this test of intu­ition could also be used to identify creativity. When we look at ge­niuses, do we find a similar distinction between those who get the answer right, and those who get it wrong? Newton and Einstein were hugely intuitive, and mostly right; Marx and Freud were hugely intuitive, and mostly wrong."

Intelligence - A New Look, Hans Eysenck

Intuition als Ahnung:

Gerhard Roth & Alica Ryba - Coaching, Beratung und Gehirn - 2016:

"Bei Intuition liegen Bewusstseinsinhalte nicht in einer detaillierten Form, sondern als diffuse Ahnung oder vages Wissen vor, z.B. hinsichtlich der Richtung eines Weges oder der Antwort auf eine Frage."

Intuition als Ahnung:

Michael Lipps:

>„Ahnung“ ist das Wort, das Gerhard Roth benutzt, wenn er das auf den Begriff bringt, was Intuition meint. „Es handelt sich um eine Art von Einsicht, die nicht dem schrittweise vorgehenden gedanklich-sprachlichen Abhandeln von Dingen und Argumenten beruht, sondern auf einer ‚Ahnung’, eben einer Intuition, eine bestimmte Entscheidung oder Problemlösung sei die richtige, ohne dass wir dies genau artikulieren können.“ Neurobiologisch erklärt er das folgendermaßen: „Die Informationsverarbeitung in unserem Gehirn besteht nicht nur aus der Ebene des Bewusstseins, die in der Großhirnrinde lokalisiert ist, und der Ebene (oder besser den Ebenen) des Unbewussten, die im limbischen System außerhalb der Großhirnrinde beheimatet sind, sondern auch aus dem Vorbewussten.“ Das Vorbewusste wiederum, so Gerhard Roth weiter, „umfasst alles, was aktuell nicht bewusst ist, aber einmal bewusst war, ins Vorbewusste abgesunken ist und unter bestimmten Umständen bewusst gemacht werden kann. Hierzu gehört unser sprachlich-berichtbares (deklaratives) Gedächtnis. Es enthält alles, was mit uns passiert ist (das so genannte episodisch-autobiografische Gedächtnis) ebenso wie das, was wir an Wissen verfügbar haben.“ Die Inhalte des deklarativen Gedächtnisses „befinden sich sozusagen knapp unterhalb der Bewusstseinsschwelle. Diese Schwelle wird entweder durch aktiven äußeren oder inneren Anstoß überschritten (uns fällt etwas ein, weil wir gerade etwas wahrnehmen, oder wir denken intensiv nach) oder es fällt uns scheinbar ganz zufällig ein. … Dieses Vorbewusste ist gegenüber dem, was wir bewusst verarbeiten können, in seiner Kapazität der Informationsverarbeitung schier unbegrenzt.“ Damit wird ebenso deutlich: Intuitive Entscheidungen sind nicht einfach „Bauchentscheidungen“, die mich irgendeinem Gefühl folgen lassen, sondern Ergebnisse vorbewusster Informationsverarbeitungsprozesse, in denen sich sozusagen Gefühlswissen mit erlebten, erfahrenen, in unterschiedlichen biographisch festzumachenden Situationen reflektiertem und also auch veränderbarem Wissen verbindet.<

[Siehe auch: Intuitives Problemlösen]

"In my view, the way that concepts can bond together and form conceptual molecules on all levels of complexity is a consequence of their internal structure. What results from a bond may surprise us, but it will nonetheless always have been completely determined by the concepts involved in the fusion, if only we could understand how they are structured."

Douglas R. Hofstadter

[See also: Variations on a theme]

"Some people get to be good at perceiving fresh new knobs on concepts where others thought there were none, just as some people get to be good at perceiving mushrooms in a forest where others see none, even when they stare mightily."

Douglas R. Hofstadter

[See also: Variations on a theme]

"deliberate, conscious slippage is most often quite uninspired and infertile. 'How to Think' and 'How to Be Creative' books - even very thoughtful ones such as George Polya's How to Solve It - are, for that reason, of little use to the would be genius."

Douglas R. Hofstadter

[See also: Variations on a theme]

"I am gravely doubtful about courses or books that promise to improve your thinking style or capabilities. Sure, you can add new ideas - but that's a far cry from adding pizzazz. The mind's perceptual and category system are too much at the 'subcognitive' level to be reached via cognitive-level training techniques."

Douglas R. Hofstadter

[See also: Variations on a theme]

Is smart sexy? Examining the role of relative intelligence in mate preferences

Peter K. Jonason et al., P&ID - March 2019


Highlights

• Manipulated level of relative intelligence in potential partners
• Equally intelligent partners were satisficing mates.
• Women wanted long-term partners who were smart.
• Men wanted short-term partners who were less smart.
• Women's mate value predicted preferences for intelligence.

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of research on the role of intelligence in mate preferences. To advance this area of research, in two online studies (N = 743), we manipulated relative, as opposed to absolute, intelligence and examined desirability in long-term and short-term relationships. In Study 1, we also examined the role of mate value towards understanding differences in desirability and, in Study 2, we also manipulated target's level of physical attractiveness. The sexes found less intelligent partners less desirable, a more intelligent partner was no more desirable than partner who was equal in intelligence, and intelligence was particularly valued as a long-term mate. In addition, mate value was correlated with rejecting less intelligent mates and desiring more intelligent ones in women only. And, last, we found that once men and women found sufficient rates of attractiveness for their short-term partners, they care about the intelligence of their partner.

The Dark Triad's inverse relations with cognitive and emotional empathy

The Dark Triad's inverse relations with cognitive and emotional empathy: High-powered tests with multiple measures, Imani N.Turner et al., P&ID - March 2019


Abstract

Low empathy is a key feature of the Dark Triad traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Nevertheless, prior research, which has used mostly small samples with single measures of each construct, has produced mixed findings. The present study tested associations between Dark Triad traits and empathy using (a) a large sample (N = 1035), (b) multiple measures of each construct, and (c) structural equation modeling. Dark Triad traits, modeled as latent variables using three indicator measures each, were regressed onto two dimensions of empathy—emotional (feeling what others feel) and cognitive (knowing what others think)—which were also modeled as latent variables using three indicator measures each. The model fit the data well. All three Dark Triad traits were associated with low emotional empathy, but the association with narcissism was significantly weaker than associations with psychopathy or Machiavellianism. Psychopathy was unrelated to cognitive empathy, whereas narcissism and Machiavellianism were both positively related to cognitive empathy. The present findings provide a more nuanced and comprehensive theoretical contribution to the links between empathy and the Dark Triad traits.

Der Wille:

Gerhard Roth - Persönlichkeit, Entscheidung und Verhalten:

"Ich muss mir also über die prinzipielle oder faktische Erfüllbarkeit meiner Wünsche in Abhängigkeit von meinen Möglichkeiten klar werden und mich dann unter den faktisch erfüllbaren Wünschen für die Realisierung eines (oder keines) Wunsches entscheiden."

"Nachdem nämlich entschieden ist, was getan werden soll, geht es darum, wie man die Tat verwirklicht."

"Wichtig ist dabei die Konzentration auf das Ziel und die damit verbundene Abschirmung der Handlungsintention von konkurrierenden Wünschen und Motiven."

"Der Wille ist der psychische Aufwand, der betrieben werden muss, um alternative Wünsche und Ziele zu verdrängen."

"Willensstarke Menschen zeichnen sich durch die Fähigkeit dieses Abschirmens aus bis hin zum fanatischen Verfolgen eines bestimmten Zieles. Willensschwache Menschen sind hingegen unter anderem dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass sie sich leicht ablenken lassen und das Ziel aus dem Auge verlieren."

"Every teacher has had the following experience: You ask a student a question (in class or perhaps on a test), and the student responds using the exact words you used when you explained the idea or with the exact words from the textbook."

Wegweiser zum Wissen:

Von einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt an ist es so: All das, was man weiß, wird einem effektiver Wegweiser zum weiteren Wissen. Und man denkt sich dann: "Wäre mir bloß früher solch ein Wegweiser zur Seite gestanden."

Redundanz:

>... In diesem Sinne verstanden, ist die Redundanz ein Maß für innere Bindungen durch bestimmte Gesetzmäßigkeiten und Regeln. Das wird besonders klar, wenn wir uns die beiden idealen Grenzfälle vorstellen, nämlich einmal, dass die Welt ganz ohne innere Gesetzmäßigkeiten, also regellos, aufgebaut wäre und zum anderen, dass wir alle Regeln kennen, die eine von inneren Gesetzmäßigkeiten beherrschte Welt besitzt. Im ersten Falle würde das bedeuten, dass der Empfänger in seinem Verhalten vollständig bestimmt durch die eintreffende Information gelenkt würde. Die Redundanz der eintreffenden Information wäre gleich Null. Im anderen Falle wäre alles Geschehen vorausbestimmt, der Empfänger benötigte überhaupt keine Informationen, die Redundanz aller Nachrichten wäre gleich 1. Die reale Wirklichkeit liegt zwischen diesen beiden extremen Fällen. Die Lebewesen, auch der Mensch, benötigen dauernd Information zur Steuerung ihres Verhaltens. Aber sie nützen sogleich auch schon empfangene Informationen aus, um ihr eigenes Verhalten danach zu richten. Diesen Vorgang bezeichnen wir als "Lernen". Je mehr das Lebewesen gelernt hat, umso größer ist die Redundanz aller später eintreffenden Informationen. Solche Überlegungen haben zu einer kybernetischen Definition des Begriffes "Lernen" geführt; nach MacKay formuliert: "Lernen ist das Entdecken und Ausnützen von Redundanzen".<

Studieren:

Die guten Sachen sollte man studieren, bis sie einem ins Blut übergehen. Es ist zu schade um die Lebenszeit, sie damit zu verbringen, mäßig interessante Lektüre zu lesen.

Interpersonal Warmth:

Kevin MacDonald - Interpersonal Warmth:

"Research on personality shows that people describe themselves as ranging from loving, nurturing, friendly, affectionate, agreeable, and trusting on the high end of the warmth dimension to antagonistic, cold, cruel, and suspicious on the low end."

"People high on warmth have closer, more intimate friendships and are more likely to be trusting, cooperative, and helpful."

-----

"Warmth has also been identified as one of two major dimensions of parent–child relationships, the other being parental control (i.e., discipline and monitoring of children’s behavior)."

Warmth:

Warmth as a Developmental Construct: An Evolutionary Analysis, 1992:

>An ethological analysis of the parent-child behaviors labeled as warm and affectionate utilizes a generalized version of Bowlby's (1974) idea of a "natural clue." A natural clue is a stimulus that results in an affective response as the result of a biologically mediated (unlearned) connection. Thus, for example, if sugar is presented as a gustatory stimulus, the typical result is the pleasant taste of sweetness. Similarly, the stimulus of the mother exceeding the child's attachment set point is a natural clue for the activation of the attachment system. Children do not have to learn these connections by trial and error or as a result of generalization from some more fundamental set of reinforcers or punishers: the basic result of Harlow's experiments with monkeys (e.g., Harlow & Harlow, 1965) as well as similar research on dogs (Igel & Calvin, 1960) is that the secondary drive theory of social reinforcers is incorrect. The list of evolved motivational systems must be expanded beyond the list of a few basic drives posited by behaviorists and psychoanalysts as the basis of human motivation.

The essential proposal here is that the human affectional system be conceptualized as an evolved reward system. The stimuli that activate this system act as natural clues for pleasurable affective response. Intimate relationships are thus pleasurable to the participants and are actively sought after. Their termination is met with disappointment and grief, while there is eager anticipation of reunion with a loved one.

On the other hand, individuals who do not seek to engage in intimate relationships lack an understanding of the attractions of close relationships. Freeman and Leaf (1989) describe schizoid individuals as seeming "to have little or no idea about why people affiliate. They see other people involved in relationships but see relating as part of a different language, culture, or universe" (p. 419). From the present perspective, these individuals are like people who cannot taste sugar: such a person would have no subjective basis by which they could come to value foods with sugar.<

-----

>Attachment research and the research on early parent-child interaction clearly indicate highly pleasurable interactions to be charac- teristic of parent-child relationships labeled as warm and affectionate - the dance of affective modulation whose goal is "to be with and enjoy someone else" (Stern, 1977, p. 71) or to "maintain a relational state that is eval- uated positively" (Tronick, 1982, p. 3).<

-----

"much of the psychological research in the areas of altruism and prosocial behavior is concerned with emotions such as guilt, empathy, and sympathy, as well as negative emotions resulting from nonreciprocated altruistic behavior (Charlesworth, 1990; MacDonald, 1988)."

"The question is how important good memories are relative to the experience itself."

Daniel Kahneman

Vernunft:

~ Das Vermögen des Menschen, ...

• Sachverhalte aus der Innen- und Umwelt sprachlich abzubilden,
• sprachliche Abbildungen zweckvoll zu verwerten.

"A lot of times I'll have to read through a lot of material just in order to write one sentence ... because my sentence will then have ... I'll choose words that make it more convincing ... if I really don't have the knowledge it'll somehow come out implicitly in my writing."

Donald E. Knuth

"Beginning at birth, the self-directed individuation proceeds mostly outside conscious awareness. Our genotypes operate more like whispers than shouts, nudges than shoves, and their messages are hard to distinguish from the other influences on our behavior. Genetic propensities may typically provide only faint directional signals and seldom decide any of the single actions among the myriad constituting daily life. But no matter how faint they may seem at any single moment, those signals are the most constant and consistent directional force in our behavior and thereby become discernible by the patterns they create. Its emergent pattern of effects gradually makes our inner compass somewhat available to conscious reflection."

Linda S. Gottfredson

"And I think that's what we've lost now in sort of science today is leisure."

James Watson

-----

"we may be training too many scientists. That is, we're training people who really don't want to think, they just want to have jobs."

-----

"And you were reading the great books, not to be a teacher, but to let you go beyond the great books and produce another great book."

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation ... Grow wild according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will never become English hay."

Henry David Thoreau

An evolutionary perspective on paranoia

An evolutionary perspective on paranoia

Nichola J. Raihani & Vaughan Bell

Abstract

Paranoia is the most common symptom of psychosis but paranoid concerns occur throughout the general population. Here, we argue for an evolutionary approach to paranoia across the spectrum of severity that accounts for its complex social phenomenology — including the perception of conspiracy and selective identification of perceived persecutors — and considers how it can be understood in light of our evolved social cognition. We argue that the presence of coalitions and coordination between groups in competitive situations could favour psychological mechanisms that detect, anticipate and avoid social threats. Our hypothesis makes testable predictions about the environments in which paranoia should be most common as well as the developmental trajectory of paranoia across the lifespan. We suggest that paranoia should not solely be viewed as a pathological symptom of a mental disorder but also as a part of a normally functioning human psychology.

Effektives Lernen:

Will man effektiv lernen, so kommt es im Rahmen der Lernbemühungen darauf an, Personen, Bücher und Artikel zu identifizieren, von denen man extrem viel lernen kann, und um dasjenige einen großen Bogen zu machen, das solche extremen Effekte nicht garantiert.

Mathematics and Physics:

"it's the beauty of mathematics, as opposed to physics, that it's forever. I published my selected papers recently in one volume, and I found out that when you publish your selected papers most of the physics is ephemeral, that you don't want to publish stuff that was written 10 or 20 years earlier, but the mathematics is permanent. So essentially everything I've ever published in mathematics is there, whereas only about a quarter of what I published on physics was worth preserving."

Freeman Dyson

Balanced risk portfolios:

"Managing a balanced risk portfolio doesn't mean constantly hovering in the middle of the spectrum by taking moderate risks. Instead, successful originals take extreme risks in one arena and offset them with extreme caution in another."

Adam Grant

Should you worry about what your IQ score is?

Arthur R. Jensen, 1970:

"Recently I received a letter from a high school senior who described himself as coming from a disadvantaged background. He had a strong desire to go on to college in hopes of becoming a lawyer, and he was wondering about his IQ and how much stock he should put in it in deciding his further course. I doubt if there is much more sense in worrying about one’s own IQ than in worrying about the age at which one will die, as predicted by the insurance company’s actuarial tables. Among other things, I wrote the following to my student inquirer: ‘My own attitude toward tests, when I was a student, was not to give much thought to them but simply to set my sights on what seemed to me a realistic goal and then do my best to achieve it. You find out from those who have already made it what you have to know, what you have to be able to do, what skills you need to develop, and you set about doing these things just as you’d go about doing any kind of job that you know has to be done. If you set your goals too low, it’s too easy and you won’t develop your potential. If you set goals that are unrealistically high, you become discouraged. I recommend one step at a time, each step being something you really think you can achieve if you really work for it. When you have made the first step successfully, then you will have a better idea of how to take the next step. That way, if you have whatever it takes, you’ll make it; if you haven’t got whatever it takes, you’ll find this out. But you’ll never really know without trying your best. I wouldn’t let any kind of test score determine what I try for. The reality of your own performance is meeting the competition in striving toward your goals is the only real test. I believe this approach gives one the best chances of finally doing what he is best suited for, and this is one of the conditions for a satisfying life."

[h/t E. Kirkegaard]

Models and Theories:

"As a scientist I make a sharp distinction between models and theories. A theory is a construction, built out of logic and mathematics, that is supposed to describe the actual universe that we live in. A model is a construction that describes a much simpler universe, including some features of the actual universe and neglecting others. Theories and models are both useful tools for understanding nature. They are useful in different ways, and it is important to keep the difference in mind. A theory is useful because it can be tested by comparing its predictions with observations of the real world. On the other hand, a theory may be useless because its consequences are too complicated to be predicted. A model is useful because its behavior is simple enough to be predicted and understood. On the other hand, a model may be useless because it leaves out too much and looses any connection with reality. As we explore the universe, we move out from well-trodden ground into the unknown. On well-trodden ground we build theories. On the half explored-frontiers we build models."

Freeman Dyson

"Since I am a scientist, I am a specialist in unpredictability. Science is even more unpredictable than history. Every important discovery in science is by definition unpredictable. If it were predictable, it would not be an important discovery. The purpose of science is to create opportunities for unpredictable things to happen. When nature does something unexpected, we learn something about how nature works. It used to be said, before the recent era of revolutionary discoveries, that science was organized common sense. In the modern era it would be more accurate to define science as organized unpredictability."

Freeman Dyson

On the utility of ignorance:

"First of all, it helps to be ignorant. The time when I did my best work was when I was most ignorant. Knowing too much is a great handicap. Especially if you’ve been teaching for some years, things get so fixed in your mind and it’s impossible to think outside the box. I was in the lucky position of jumping into physics without ever having taken any courses in physics. I’d only been a pure mathematician up to that point."

Freeman Dyson

The meaning of the PE:

Bruce Charlton:

"If peak experiences are not a guarantee of objective truth; what do they signify? My hunch is that a scientific PE is some kind of personal guarantee of the subjective truth of an insight. In other words, scientific PEs are a marker which the mind attaches to those of its insights the mind considers most profound - albeit having made that decision largely as a result of subconscious, inaccessible processing. The PE is therefore a signal that states: 'This is good stuff, by your standards - maybe the best you are capable of, under current circumstances. Don't ignore it, don't forget it, and try to understand it'. The PE seems to function as a means of focusing attention - the characteristic emotion asserts that the marked insight is something we should dwell upon, puzzle over, sort out - do something about. It seems to me that a vital component of the PE is exactly this sense of a call to action in the sense of making a decision, changing our lives. The PE is not - or should not be - simply a passive feeling of happiness and insight. Indeed, episodes of quiescent bliss and idiosyncratically personal insight are easily confused with PEs."

-----

"Peak experiences may be associated with insights that are wrong but for the right reasons. In other words, the scientist has done the best possible job of making sense of things at that particular stage in history - but later developments will overthrow their insight."

-----

"The typical insight associated with a PE is integrative in nature, with the sense of meaningfulness that comes from assembling the right things in the right order to make some kind of sense from them."

-----

"The peak experience of scientific creativity does not merely constitute a simple elegant and compelling arrangement of data that is already in the mind; the PE involves an insight into which of facts are the important ones, and how they are related to one another by causal processes."

The impact of relationship‐contingent self‐esteem on mate retention and reactions to threat - C. J. Holden, V. Zeigler‐Hill, T. K. Shackelford, L. L. M. Welling - Dec 2018

-----

"An important aspect of self‐esteem is the extent to which feelings of self‐worth are contingent (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Deci & Ryan, 1995). Contingent self‐esteem develops when an individual derives feelings of self‐worth from successes or failures in a particular life domain. Contingent self‐esteem refers to an individual believing that there are goals or standards that he or she must meet to have value and worth as a person."

"individuals with low and high self‐esteem engage in different behaviors and have different responses to conflict in the relationship."

"Benefit‐provisioning behaviors incentivize continued investment in the relationship by highlighting the positive aspects of the relationship for the partner and include acts such as displaying love and affection toward the partner, enhancing one's appearance, and bestowing gifts on the partner. In contrast, cost‐inflicting behaviors impose costs on the partner if he or she should decide to leave the relationship or behave unfaithfully. Cost‐inflicting behaviors increase the probability that partners will continue investing in the relationship by making their defection appear to be a risky strategy."

"personality traits such as agreeableness and honesty–humility have been found to be negatively associated with the use of cost‐inflicting mate retention behaviors, whereas pathological forms of personality (e.g., detachment, antagonism) are positively associated with cost‐inflicting mate retention behaviors (de Miguel & Buss, 2011; Holden, Roof, McCabe, & Zeigler‐Hill, 2015; Holden, Zeigler‐Hill, Pham, & Shackelford, 2014; Pham et al., 2017)."

"individuals with high levels of self‐esteem report engaging in more benefit‐provisioning behaviors, avoiding cost‐inflicting behaviors (Holden, Shackelford, et al., 2014). This suggests that individuals who have relatively positive views of themselves may be more likely to focus the attention of their partners on the benefits that can be derived from the relationship, whereas individuals who have relatively negative evaluations (i.e., low self‐esteem) — or are uncertain about how they see themselves — may be more likely to resort to the imposition of costs to keep their partners investing in the relationship."

"The pattern that has emerged from these studies is that contingent self‐esteem is an indicator of vulnerability for individuals with high levels of self‐esteem, such that they behave in ways that are similar to individuals with relatively low levels of self‐esteem. This pattern is consistent with the view that contingent self‐esteem is an indicator of self‐esteem fragility (Zeigler‐Hill, Dahlen, & Madson, 2017)."

"In addition, contingent self‐esteem often drives self‐esteem level in that successes and failures in the domain of contingency (e.g., relationships) lead to fluctuations in self‐esteem level (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001)."

Two styles of theorizing / Dirac:

From Eros to Gaia, 1992:

>To give to nonexperts a true impression of the Dirac style, it is best to use his own words. Here is Dirac, at the age of seventy, talking to a mixed audience at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. The title of his talk was “Basic Beliefs and Fundamental Research.”

There is one fairly obvious way of getting a new theory. Keep close to the experimental results, hear about all the latest information that the experimenters obtain, and then proceed to set up a theory to account for them. That is a more or less straightforward procedure and there are many physicists working on such lines, competing with one another, and it might develop somewhat into a rat-race. Of course it needs rather intelligent rats to take part in it. But I don’t want to speak about this method of procedure.

There is another way in which a theoretical physicist may work which is slower and more sedate and may lead to more profound results. It does not depend very closely on experimental work. This consists in having some basic beliefs and trying to incorporate them into one theory. Now why should one have basic beliefs? I don’t know that I can explain that. It’s just that one feels that nature is constructed in a certain way and one hangs onto the idea rather like one might hang onto a religious belief. One feels that things simply have to be on these lines and one must devise a mathematical theory for incorporating the basic belief.

These two styles of theorizing are well known in the history of science. Historians call the first style Baconian and the second Cartesian. Our young colleagues today, with less awareness of their place in history, are accustomed to call the two styles “bottom-up” and “top-down.” Dirac in his talk went on to explain how the very greatest theoretical physicists, in particular Newton and Einstein, worked from the top down, deducing laws of nature from fundamental beliefs rather than inducing laws from the results of experiment. Dirac himself is in modern times the supreme example of a top-down physicist. Here is what he says about himself:

"My own early work was very much influenced by Bohr orbits, and I had the basic belief that Bohr orbits would provide the clue to understanding atomic events. That was a mistaken belief.… I found out that my own basic belief was wrong and I had to go over to quite a new line of thinking. I had to have some more general basis for my work, and the only reliable basis I could think of, the only basis which was sufficiently general so as to secure me from making the same mistake again, was to set up a principle of mathematical beauty: to say that we don’t really know what the basic equations of physics are, but they have to have great mathematical beauty. We must insist on this, and that is the only feature of the equations that we can have confidence in and insist on.… How can one make beauty a fundamental test for the correctness of a physical theory? Well, it is quite clear that beauty does depend on one’s culture and upbringing for certain kinds of beauty, pictures, literature, poetry and so on.… But mathematical beauty is of rather a different kind. I should say perhaps it is of a completely different kind and transcends these personal factors. It is the same in all countries and at all periods of time.… Well, that is the essence of what I wanted to tell you. In fact one can feel so strongly about these things, that when an experimental result turns up which is not in agreement with one’s beliefs, one may perhaps make the prediction that the experimental result is wrong and that the experimenters will correct it after a while. Of course one must not be too obstinate over these matters, but still one must sometimes be bold."

Dirac was bold. His confidence in his own instinct for mathematical beauty led him in succession to three fundamental discoveries: first, the general abstract formulation of quantum mechanics; second, the correct quantum description of electromagnetic radiation processes; and third, the Dirac equation for the electron. In each case he was led not merely to a new physical law but to a new style of mathematical description of nature. And in each case the experiments proved him right, although, as he hints in the Coral Gables lecture, there were initially some contradictory experimental results which he was bold enough to ignore.

Dirac’s fundamental belief, the belief that the basic criterion for choosing a physical theory should be aesthetic, proved itself in his hands overwhelmingly successful. Nature agreed with his criterion. And this agreement between Nature’s and Dirac’s notions of beauty presents us with a new example of an old philosophical riddle. Why should Nature care about our feelings of beauty? Why should the electron prefer a beautiful equation to an ugly one? Why should the universe dance to Dirac’s tune? These are deep questions which neither scientists nor philosophers know how to answer. Dirac, by his style of discovery, has posed these questions more sharply than anyone else. More even than Newton and Einstein he used the criterion of beauty consciously and directly as a way of finding truth.<

-----

>In the history of science, from its beginnings to the present day, the Baconian and the Cartesian traditions have remained alive, Baconian science emphasizing empirical facts and details, Cartesian science emphasizing general ideas and principles. The healthy growth of science requires that both traditions be honored. Bacon without Descartes would reduce science to butterfly collecting; Descartes without Bacon would reduce science to pure mathematics.<

-----

>I have described the history of science as a dialogue between unifiers and diversifiers. Unifiers are following the tradition of Descartes, diversifiers are following the tradition of Bacon. Unifiers are trying to reduce the prodigality of nature to a few general laws and principles. Diversifiers are exploring the details of things and events in their infinite variety. Unifiers are in love with ideas and equations; diversifiers are in love with birds and butterflies. My friend and colleague, the physicist Chen Ning Yang, told me once that when he was a boy of six in China he looked up at the stars and asked what are the laws that make them move across the sky. But when I was a boy of six in England, I looked up at the stars and asked what are their names. Yang was interested in stars in general; I was interested in stars as individuals.<

Statusfrage:

"Wenn du es dir aussuchen könntest, würdest du dann gern in der Mitte der Gesellschaft, oder gern ganz, ganz oben stehen?"

-----

Ehe man die Frage beantwortet, ist es sicherlich spannend, Status erst einmal sehen zu lernen.

Hubris:

Britannica:

"Hubris, Greek hybris, in ancient Athens, the intentional use of violence to humiliate or degrade. The word’s connotation changed over time, and hubris came to be defined as overweening presumption that leads a person to disregard the divinely fixed limits on human action in an ordered cosmos."

Narzissmus:

Wikipedia:

Der Psychiater und Neurowissenschaftler Raphael M. Bonelli kritisiert 2016 die theorielastige Narzissmusdiskussion des 20. Jahrhunderts und plädiert für ein naturwissenschaftliches Narzissmusverständnis unter Berücksichtigung empirischer Forschungsergebnisse. Für sein Modell des Narzissmus beruft er sich auf die neurobiologischen und genetischen Forschungen von Robert Cloninger, insbesondere die „drei Dimensionen des Charakters“ (Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, Self-Transcendence). Narzissmus ist aus dieser Sicht gekennzeichnet durch den Dreischritt:

• Selbstidealisierung – im Sinne eines überhöhten Selbstwertgefühls und einer überzogenen Selbsteinschätzung. Der Narzisst hat ein grandioses Verständnis der eigenen Wichtigkeit und glaubt von sich, „besonders“ und einzigartig zu sein.
• Fremdabwertung – im Sinne einer Verachtung und aktiven Herabsetzung des anderen, das zu einer Kooperationsunfähigkeit führt. Der Narzisst zeigt deswegen eine Gier nach Bewunderung, legt ein Anspruchsdenken an den Tag, ist ausbeuterisch, unwillig zur Empathie, neidisch und arrogant.
• Selbstimmanenz – als Gegensatz zur Selbsttranszendenz bei Victor Frankl und Robert Cloninger. Der Narzisst kann sich für kein höheres Ideal begeistern außer für sich selbst.

Kognitive Begabung:

"Eine Person ist 'intellektuell hochbegabt', wenn sie sich schnell und effektiv deklaratives und prozedurales Wissen aneignen kann, dieses Wissen in variierenden Situationen zur Lösung individuell neuer Probleme adäquat einsetzt, rasch aus den dabei gemachten Erfahrungen lernt und erkennt, auf welche neuen Situationen bzw. Problemstellungen die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse transferierbar sind (Generalisierung) und auf welche nicht (Differenzierung)."

Detlef Rost

-----

"Intelligentere haben im Vergleich zu weniger intelligenten Menschen in kumulativen Lernsequenzen unter vergleichbaren Zeit- und Instruktionsbedingungen mit einer gewissen Wahrscheinlichkeit in der Vergangenheit mehr und intelligenter organisiertes (tiefer verstandenes, vernetztes, multipel repräsentiertes und flexibel nutzbares) Wissen erworben. Diese bereichsspezifischen Vorkenntnisse erleichtern die darauf aufbauenden weiteren Lernprozesse."

Helmke & F. E. Weinert

Ein Vortrag als ein Gemisch von Bekanntem und Unbekanntem:

Damit ein Zuhörer von einem Vortrag besonders profitiert, muss der Vortrag für den Zuhörer eine sinnvolle Mischung an bekannten und  an unbekannten Elementen enthalten. 

Ein Thema wird manchmal erst dann interessant, wenn wir ein gewisses Anfangsinvestment an Zeit, Gedanken und Aufmerksamkeit erbracht haben. Von da an findet sich in den relevanten Texten zum Thema ausreichend Bekanntes, sodass wir diese mit Gewinn lesen können.

>I’ve created 365 Dilbert comics a year for 19 years. I remembered all of them for about the first four years. Now it is impossible. So I sit there for a few minutes rummaging through my memories and finding nothing but spider webs. At this point I will digress and give you my untested theory about creativity:

Creativity is highly correlated to poor memory.

For me, ideas stream through my head at a frantic pace. I feel like a bear trying to grab a salmon. If my paw misses its target, that salmon is gone for good. I don’t dwell on it. I just lunge for the next salmon. I think people who have fewer thoughts per hour have time to let them settle in and form memories. It’s just a theory.<

Scott Adams

"You can't control luck directly, but you can move from a game with bad odds to a game with good odds. The world is like a reverse casino. In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you're certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you're gambling is, say, your time or your embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you. If you do one thing and stop, you didn't give luck a chance to find you. You only need one thing to work."

Scott Adams

Career Advice:

https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-advice.html

>

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.

2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

<

Curiosity-Driven Data Science:

https://hbr.org/2018/11/curiosity-driven-data-science?utm_campaign=Data_Elixir&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Data_Elixir_211

"These two things, low cost exploration and the ability to measure the results, set data science apart from other business functions."

[via Arthur Charpentier]

The parable of the talents:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/31/the-parable-of-the-talents/

"My last IQ-ish test was my SATs in high school. I got a perfect score in Verbal, and a good-but-not-great score in Math.

And in high school English, I got A++s in all my classes, Principal’s Gold Medals, 100%s on tests, first prize in various state-wide essay contests, etc. In Math, I just barely by the skin of my teeth scraped together a pass in Calculus with a C-.

Every time I won some kind of prize in English my parents would praise me and say I was good and should feel good. My teachers would hold me up as an example and say other kids should try to be more like me. Meanwhile, when I would bring home a report card with a C- in math, my parents would have concerned faces and tell me they were disappointed and I wasn’t living up to my potential and I needed to work harder et cetera.

And I don’t know which part bothered me more.

Every time I was held up as an example in English class, I wanted to crawl under a rock and die. I didn’t do it! I didn’t study at all, half the time I did the homework in the car on the way to school, those essays for the statewide competition were thrown together on a lark without a trace of real effort. To praise me for any of it seemed and still seems utterly unjust.

On the other hand, to this day I believe I deserve a fricking statue for getting a C- in Calculus I. It should be in the center of the schoolyard, and have a plaque saying something like “Scott Alexander, who by making a herculean effort managed to pass Calculus I, even though they kept throwing random things after the little curly S sign and pretending it made sense.”

And without some notion of innate ability, I don’t know what to do with this experience. I don’t want to have to accept the blame for being a lazy person who just didn’t try hard enough in Math. But I really don’t want to have to accept the credit for being a virtuous and studious English student who worked harder than his peers. I know there were people who worked harder than I did in English, who poured their heart and soul into that course – and who still got Cs and Ds. To deny innate ability is to devalue their efforts and sacrifice, while simultaneously giving me credit I don’t deserve.

Meanwhile, there were some students who did better than I did in Math with seemingly zero effort. I didn’t begrudge those students. But if they’d started trying to say they had exactly the same level of innate ability as I did, and the only difference was they were trying while I was slacking off, then I sure as hell would have begrudged them. Especially if I knew they were lazing around on the beach while I was poring over a textbook.

I tend to think of social norms as contracts bargained between different groups. In the case of attitudes towards intelligence, those two groups are smart people and dumb people. Since I was both at once, I got to make the bargain with myself, which simplified the bargaining process immensely. The deal I came up with was that I wasn’t going to beat myself up over the areas I was bad at, but I also didn’t get to become too cocky about the areas I was good at. It was all genetic luck of the draw either way. In the meantime, I would try to press as hard as I could to exploit my strengths and cover up my deficiencies. So far I’ve found this to be a really healthy way of treating myself, and it’s the way I try to treat others as well."