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This page republishes entries from my personal blog.
- Books that defy rationality
Bad books are the ones you can choose not to read or throw away after a few pages. Frustrating books are the ones that you are torn between throwing it away and keeping reading for the mixed bag of quality.Both of Dan Ariely's books on "irrationality" are such frustrating ones - books that contain interesting experiments and insights but mixed with gaping logic holes, false assumptions, and stretchy conclusions.
The whole premise of the first book - Predictable Irrationality is to deliberately overlook some long-term and strategic, but still tangible and monetary factors (lumped together as irrational "emotions") in decision making. For example, seeking revenge may appear irrational if you only consider the effort involved and what you can get immediately. But if you consider the warning effect you exert on the offender, and more importantly, the people around you to prevent future victimisation, it might be very rational to seek revenge. By removing these types of factors in a decision, you can easily call any decision irrational - a bit of playing with words. No wonder he was even hackled during his TED talk - his talk was equally frustrating to listen to.So I predicted that his new book - "the Upside of Irrationality" is his shy way of admitting the problems by "calling" (another word game) those omitted factors the "upside of an irrational decision". (If you consider the whole spectrum of factors, those so called irrational decisions are very rational and reasonable).
- Kindle 3 Arrived
Loving the feel of it! Smaller, lighter and better contrast is all I want.
The package was delivered to my work-place this morning. The DHL package tracker prompted me first even before our receptionist had a chance to notify me. So I paid a surprise visit to her. :-)
- Firing-friendly building facade
Mark also wondered why people can always put their stuff into a single box when leaving. I personally need two trolleys to get my stuff out if that day comes.. ;-)The facade of our NICTA building is obviously very amenable to a modern firing scene - employee walking out of a "menacing" building with a huge box...A crew is filming such a scene downstairs for a popular show (whose name I cannot reveal as I was told). :-)
(NICTA building)
(not the actual scene.. a reenactment from Lehman Brothers where the whole drama was distilled into employees walking out with boxes.)
- Twenty Up
It was a scary experience to go to the concert of a singer you listened to twenty years ago... it reminds so much about yourself, your age cohorts and the music taste. Maybe not as bad as those concerts for empty-nesters. :-)(Don't ask me which one I went to.. :-P)
(Btw, The Eagles is coming to Sydney.....)
- I can finally ditch my iPod Touch
Found some time tonight to download my Audible.com library into the recently released Audible for Android app. Now the final piece of the puzzle is in place (Kindle for Android was the second last piece). I then switched my Sony bluetooth headphone from iPod to Android (which, unlike iPod Touch, has proper support for A2DP and can use the microphone). I am now finally satisfied with this all-in-one device. :-)
- Nothing worse than bad sax
quite enjoyed the Jazz Visions at Seymour Centre last night (Charmaine Ford + Katie Noonan + George Garzone). But I don't like unnecessary saxophones in songs, let alone a bad one. :-)
- PHD = Pimples of Human Discovery?
via matt.might.netSee the link for the full illustration. But let me just first coin this new meaning of PHD - Pimples of Human Discovery.
Nice illustration. Sometimes pushing itself could be simple if you know where to push in the first place.
- Tokyo Vice: a remarkable true crime story
I don't often read true crime stories but Tokyo Vice is such an engaging one that I finished it in almost one-sitting. It's a remarkable and almost surreal gangster/yakuza-type of true crime mixed with the struggling story of a Gaijin (foreigner - US Midwest Jew) working for the largest newspaper in Japan as a real investigative journalist; a very vivid depiction of the seedy side of modern Japan.I particularly like the ironic analogy of Yakuza (Japanese gangster) being like "Goldman Sachs with guns". I think the opposite is also true - Goldman Sachs is just like yakuza without guns.. :-)
- I am now sure I was indeed hit by a mini-hail yesterday at Manly beach...
Hail was reported in Dee Why, Turramurra, North Sydney and further west to Baulkham Hills.
- enjoyed Swiss Food Festival
Not many potato dishes though.... too much chocolate. :-)
- How to leave a mark in your design as an architect?
I was touring some Sydney architectures today and saw James Barnet putting himself in the corner of Sydney's GPO Building to leave a mark on his architecture. I was wondering how can a "software" architect leave a mark in his or her software design? Not through quirky UIs or camp Easter Eggs... but a true unique marker about the design. I was then thinking about The Matrix - perhaps a marker being an "emergent" property, not some architecture syntactic sugar. :-)
- The art of procrastination
My friend John sent me a perfect picture about procrastination. I replied him with "structured procrastination" as I am a proud practitioner of this black art. :-) The trick of structured procrastination is to pick the "right" items for the top of your to do list. These items should have clear deadlines (but really don't) and are very very important (but really aren't). You then try to avoid doing these things by actually doing some other important things! People rarely procrastinate doing nothing.
Right at the moment, at the top of my todo list is a defence white paper which I should have finished a draft 2-3 weeks ago. I have accomplished a mountain of things procrastinating on it. (Sorry to the guys who are waiting for this. I am working on it now, non-procratination-style! )
Finally, to all my PhD students who may read this, "Work on Thesis" is not such an item, even PhD Comics alludes to it! :-)
- A brief encounter with cityrail-style behaviour economics
1. I chose all the options with a shorter trip. Why?I am a big fan of behaviour economics, especially the follies of human decision making. So I was pleased with the otherwise-boring survey I did this morning on the Chatswood platform when it turned out to be on this topic. Basically, I was asked a number of two-option questions based on three factors (trip time, fare and departure time). For example, Would you pay 2$ more for a 15 mins shorter trip if that trip departs 20 mins later than the normal train you catch (Presented as an A-B choice)? I want to cover two points: the decision I made and the flaws in this survey.I have to start with house hunting. When people buy houses, the more they rationalise, the more they choose size over commute time. People buy big houses in outer suburbs because they "think" they will enjoy more of the size and can live with the long commute time. But this is wrong. Many experiments show that people get used to size very quickly (don't get much pleasure out of it after a while) but are very difficult to get used to commute time/distance. Actually, you can put a dollar amount on it. If you require 1-hour commute time, you need to earn at least 40% more than someone who can stroll to his work to offset the daily misery. This is a classical example on people's attempt to rationalise and "carefully predict their future feelings" leads to the wrong decision.So I would certainly pay more, much more for a shorter trip.2. What is wrong with this survey when you have three factors listed side by side?I have to start this one with magazine marketing. When you subscribe to magazines, you will typically be presented with three choices: A) Digital only edition 30$ B) Print only edition 50$ C) Digital + Print 50$. Option B doesn't make much sense as people will always choose C over B as you get more with the same amount of money. But option B is vital. Without B, you may have to really think "hard" about A and C. It may result in a delay of decision making or a decision of A. But with B, a "lazy" decision maker can easily find a way out. Instead of agonising over A or C, you rush to the easy exit - C over B... so C. In a real world, the existence of option B can boost the sale of C dramatically.So it is a difficult decision comparing departure time, fare and trip time all together in a single option. People may not really think about it but rush for the easy exit. For me, the easy exit is the shorter trip. This may harm the purpose of the survey. I think it would be much better if each question covers two factors at a time.Anyway, it is becoming too long for a micro-musing. If anyone can shorten my 30 mins train trip to 15 mins, I will pay/donate and "vote" for him/her. That is for sure. :-)(Some of the mentioned experiments were covered in the following book: a secondary source)
- Second viewing of"Inception"
It is rare that I would go to see a movie a second time but I did. And I have decided not to write a plot explanation as the plot is not that intriguing by itself. But I do want to say what I think the movie is "really" about on a meta-level:
Christopher Nolan (the director) is the architect of a cinematic dream. He is sharing his dream with all the movie-goers where they bring their own projections - their real-life experiences and different interpretations. No matter how many layers of dreams you think this movie has, there is one more layer that involves you. We eventually wake up from the movie when the movie ends but a seed could have been planted in our mind. The seed may grow into different ideas in different persons.For me, the idea is one about love. :-)
- book page vs. web page: a back-of-the-envelope calculation
As of Aug 5th, 2010, there are 129,864,880 books and 27.53 billion web pages. If abook has an average of 300 pages, we have 38.9 billion book pages.(Some cursory googling shows that the average number of words on a web page or a book page is roughly the same - 250-300 words per page.). Looking forward to the day that all books are digitalised, indexed and searchable. Why? See the byline of this blog for the nature of web pages. :-)
- Hamlet did have a BlackBerry
via amazon.comAmong the one million books out there postulating information overload and technology invasion, Part II of this book offers an interesting angle: how people in the past dealt with it.
From Socrate's dismal view on the once-new accessible writing systems (and his love for real-time conversation, perhaps a "twitter" fan today), to Roman statesman Seneca's critic on explosion of books and leisure travel, to Shakespeare/Hamlet's "Tables" (a pocket-sized erasable notebook, technology darling of the day) and to Franklin's GTD/Goal tracker "artifice", it is often thought provoking and amusing.
- Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception by Pamela Meyer
a bit queasy about the facial/body language part (even with some scientific evidence) but other materials on patterns of lying and questioning techniques are quite sensible. (
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Don't lie to me from now on.. :-)
- THE font - Helvetica
I confess I get a kick out of looking at elegant fonts and I cannot stand using a computer without the right fonts configured. :-) Perhaps it was caused by my childhood exposure to endless calligraphy competitions. So I thoroughly enjoyed the interesting documentary film - Helvetica (2007) - the font of capitalism, globalisation, war, big corporation, the "perfume" of any city (signage) or just "THE" font...I was slightly disappointed to notice that my company's (NICTA) logo uses Arial.. :-) Ok...I won't go into the Arial vs. Helvetica madness.
- Liking Samurai
Samurai (Rank 53) is simple and fast-playing especially with two players. And importantly, the set looks beautiful.(Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy where Tigris & Euphrates is also a gem.)(photos from boardgamegeek)
- My love of my Kindle 2 (now my wife's) extends to Kindle 3 :-)
Lighter, smaller, better contrast... and for only $139. Just pre-ordered one...
(I know, I have an iPad. But for long hours reading.. I still prefer Kindle. iPad is too heavy and a bit eye-straining)