Following your Bliss

This article was a good shot in the arm, a validation and a wake-up call all at once. There are lessons here, to be considered at length.

Follow your Bliss, Right Off the Cliff

Wuxia, Part 2

I still can't stop thinking about the movie I saw yesterday. "The Blade" is haunting me. The land of rivers and lakes where countless heroes leave their mark, has no water to be seen except when it rains. And the heroes are no different from the villains, except maybe that the heroes have less of a body count since they only started recently. I wonder, how many people were inspired by these stories? As the feudal knights probably imitated the conventions of Sir Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

It's kind of sobering to someone who practices martial arts that came from the same cultural milieu. In the film, people who are purported to fly do so with the help of ropes. People leave after every bloodbath - why? To evade justice? To avoid revenge? Because they can't fix anymore what they broke? Or is it because that's what heroes are supposed to do? And the martial arts they learn - these forms that I work on, these techniques and conditioning; sure they've been refined, but in the beginning were they the result of nothing more than someone getting lucky?

Wuxia

I just had the pleasure today of watching "The Blade," a wuxia flick by Tsui Hark. It shares a lot of parallels with  "One-Armed Swordsman," which I've also seen recently. I think it's important to view the latter movie first and then watch the former because you won't get the full impact otherwise. Seen the order I recommend, the two films become a sort of tension between fantasy and what-most-likely-was-the-reality. 

"The Blade" is definitely grittier; it's a deconstruction of the typical wuxia fare, and it starts that off by having the plot lampshaded by a female narrator. She points out quite rightly that life for your itinerant warrior isn't romantic at all - you have to deal with poverty and other people would soon as kill you as look at you. Underworld figures are that - underworld figures. As in, bandits and robbers and murderers. 

And you might as well kill yourself if you're a civilian - aside from the same problems I stated above, you have to deal with getting victimized for sport by roving warlords. And it's even worse if you're a woman...

The ending was quite sad - the narrator gets left behind and her man has to walk the earth so that he doesn't become a target - and perhaps because he caught the bug to somehow gain glory for himself in his crapsack world. She spoke something quite memorable to me: she said that the Jianghu that they live in is about getting revenge, from generation to generation. She even admits that if the villain hadn't died before her father succumbed to his wounds she would have gone on to exact vengeance herself. In that kind of a universe, escalation is inevitable. And that now kind of makes me see all kung-fu movies in a different light.

Getting educated

I'm currently taking Dan Ariely's Coursera course on Irrationality (link). I'd been waiting for the course since last year and I have to say it was worth the wait. The production values for his videos are pretty high, he's funny and there's a lot to do on the site once you sign up. There is a lot of readings, and you get tested for reading comprehension and retention - apart from the lecture video quizzes. I don't mind though, since a lot of the information is eye-opening. The thing that's really jumping out at me is the concept of "coherent arbitrariness." The idea is that while we're very good at judging the relative value of things, we kind of suck sometimes when trying to construct the baseline on which those relative value judgements are based on. In fact, they could even be influenced by completely unrelated and inconsequential factors - think the weather when you're visiting a prospective college you're thinking of joining, for example. And the scary fact is once that first choice is set, we tend to base future decisions that share a connection with that first choice on the thing that we chose. In my case, I had the choice when applying for my first JLPT exam to go for the N5 or N4 level; N5 was a cakewalk while N4 would be substantially harder. I chose the N4 level and failed that exam, and I again failed the N4 exam the next year. All that grief and wasted resources and no certificate to show for it - I remember rationalizing to myself before all this started that N5 was common since most people in my school were going to go for it, so I should go for N4. Except now that I'm taking the Irrationality class I realize that since the level had a "4" in it and 4 is my favorite number, it may be that I chose the N4 because there was a four in the title.

Week 1 also had a discussion on defaults and how this can change how we perceive things as well as the decisions that we make. It resonates with me since when I passed the entrance exam for the college I took I managed to qualify for two scholarships. Taking them came with the restriction that I had to choose my major from a list of subjects. I'd initially wanted Psychology, but it wasn't in the list. Not taking the scholarship would have been a financial blow, not to mention the phone calls and notifications that would need to be sent. There was also an appeal to being chosen as a scholar, and giving up the scholarship would have meant turning my back on that state of being "special." Plus there were so many discussions and arguments with my parents since they wanted me to take a course in the approved list. I eventually capitulated and went for the default. Let me just say that was the worst decision of my life so far, and I think my life would be very different today if it hadn't been for that first choice.

This is why I recommend everybody take this course - and while we're at it, study rationality and decision theory and game theory and scientific thinking and mathematical thinking as well. Why this isn't being taught in grade school is beyond me.

By the way, below are some summaries of the takeaways from two papers in the required readings for the course's first week that I made. Just to whet people's appetite, and to make sure that I have a handy place to  get them from in case my computer croaks.

How actions create – not just reveal – preferences
People do not have on-demand knowledge of their preferences; these preferences have to be constructed every time one makes a decision. The construction process is not perfect. The mind takes in contextual information, it might rely on memories of actions that are devoid of their initial context. The present state of mind of the person, any consequential event that occurs that may trigger any of the mind's heuristics can derail the proper accounting of a decision's benefits and costs. And once this decision is made, it becomes a precedent for decisions that run along the same lines. We then have a situation where a person's life may be influenced by entirely unsound judgments. An example lies in how people do not deviate much from an   arbitrarily assigned number when placing bids for items in an auction.

Tom Sawyer and the construction of value
Although individuals have the intuition that more of a good means that they either must pay more or be paid more for it, they do not have a fundamental grasp on the value of the good in question. The perceived value of the good changes depending on how it is presented - a good that is to be paid for suddenly becoming free will be seen as valuable by more people than if the same good was initially paying off others then suddenly becoming free. There is great uncertainty about the value of something, and people tend to act sensibly instead of according to a grasp of that value. This raises serious problems with mainstream economic models. In coherent arbitrariness, coherence depends on whether the value to be changed is quantifiable, the closeness of the decision to the first decision, and whether the current decision is overtly similar to the initial decision. Arbitrariness depends on the ambiguity of value.

Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter

Planescape: Torment was one of the best games from the nineties. It's an isometric RPG game that had a stellar cast and even more stellar writing. It's the only RPG game I've played several times; the gameplay is close to today's  Japanese RPG's.

They're making a spiritual sequel to the game, and it's called Torment: Tides of Numenera. The fundraising went off on a very fast start but now they need help with closing in on some stretch goals. They are almost at 3.2 million as of this writing; the funding closes in seven days, and if they reach 3.5 million Chris Avellone, who was behind the Planescape: Torment development, will join the design team.

We have here a chance to help produce a thing of great quality, instead of the sometimes hackneyed and exploitative games that get sent our way. If we really want video games to transcend their medium, let's support projects like this.

Link to Kickstarter Page

Numenera Tumblr

Teller Reveals His Secrets

I used to want to become a magician when I was a wee lad. I don't anymore, but it's always fun to read up on people who actually did it and made the big time. The article is a fascinating look into this often-silent magician's philosophy of magic.

Link to Smithsonian article

CNN: Gaming Reality

CNN did this interactive treatment of several facets of gaming. I found myself identifying with the story about South Korean gamers.

Second Thoughts

It's natural for one to question where he is at a certain point in time. It means there is a need to get your bearings, that one may have strayed and reorienting is in order. I'm just thankful that I'm not doing this second-guessing while, say, halfway up a rock face with no other climbing tools aside from my hands. 

I am in the process of achieving mastery in two fields: web development and martial arts. I have been training with my teacher once a week for almost a year now, and I have been training almost everyday. There are a score of drills that we have to practice and I have improved on them all so far, right now I am focusing on refining my understanding and execution of the principles of the style. For web development, I took time to study IT two years ago; I then spent a humbling eight months casting about for any company willing to hire me. After an additional five months of company training, I was made part of a development team maintaining the in-office resource management system. After five months, I was then put into a new project that entailed more advanced technology.

The above seems like such a short paragraph, now that I am looking at it. It doesn't even begin to cover the whole range of my experience - from raised hopes to dashed expectations to minor frustrations to big problems. I've found my performance lacking at times, for both of the things I'm trying to master. Other times I have been completely over my head. I've been lazy and paid the price, and I've also made mistakes that I didn't pay for. There's been good luck and bad luck in equal measures. 

I've had a senior in the style I practice not like me, but eventually he was able to get over it; I've had to fight office politics at my workplace, to not what I'd call a victory but at least I avoided a worse outcome. There's a lot that's been done and learned and discovered in these past three years, and there will be many more. But I'm scared that this might end up a failure. There are no signposts to the future after all, and I've already failed at a previous endeavor that I'd gone into with great energy - only to end it with tears and regret. I am unsure if I am on the best path for me; I am unsure if I am on a path at all.

I am not being guided by some Presence on high. I only have myself to rely on, with all the irrationality that humans are known for. The stakes grow higher every year, pretty soon I will have no one else to support me. I'm not rich, I have no power, and I worry about my family and about starting a family. Somehow, "going with the flow" isn't a feasible stategy anymore. Would that I end up similarly to Malcolm Gladwell, whose career does seem like that of a late bloomer. But there's no guarantee, is there? 

The Less Wrong wiki is a fount of very instructive articles on the subject of, in the words of the author, making sure the map matches the territory. The articles are very easy to digest, and I do recommend everyone to take the time to really absorb the concepts.

The past decade has opened up some really amazing fields of study - I wish I knew then about the existence of things like game theory, decision theory, and behavioral economics. I would have paid more attention in school. I'm making up for lost time though, and I am of the opinion that people everywhere regardless of their background or heritage would benefit greatly from taking careful note of how to be more rational. I would start with the wiki, then move on to Nicholas Nassim Taleb's and Robert Greene's books, Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" (of which I'll be writing more about soon), and anything about Charlie Munger.

Fun with Architecture

Definitely worth a look. It's fun to see feats of ingenuity like this. Definitely reminds me of the Dymaxion house.

The Tulous of Fujian Province

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House

Flights of Fancy - or, Pretty Good Harry Potter Fanfiction

Back when I was little I loved to spend time walking around the house while I imagined what would happen if my favorite TV characters got together - or more often, what would happen if they penetrated the veil that is the TV set's monitor and managed to land in my world. It's a fun piece of escapism and I remember spending hours just getting the interactions to mesh with the characters' personalities. 

I find now that I am older that I still retain an interest in "What if?" stories. I love to think about crossovers and team-ups. I'm not the only one - there are those who discuss in forums the myriad ways this character would trounce another in a straight fight, who would have the better abilities, etc.

Today, I submit a worthy contribution to the genre: this fanfiction by Camwyn brings together Harry Potter and John Constantine from Hellblazer. It's certainly funny, and the author has managed to get the characters' voices spot-on. I have to say it's a superior piece of fiction. It also raises another thing about Intellectual Property Rights - I mean, a lot of people really love the author's idea, but if copyright restrictions had their way this work would never have gotten off the ground. Even though the series is incomplete - and has not been updated for seven years now - it's still incredibly creative, and we are the better for having it. In fact, I'm currently looking to it for pointers on good fiction writing. 

It is that good. Please take the time to give it a read!

Remembering 1960s Afghanistan, the photographs of Bill Podlich

I love these pictures. Many of the places you'll see are gone now; I suppose there are those out there who don't miss them, people who would say that losing these things was for the greater good.

Basing it on the pictures, it seems to me that things were looking to be quite well already.

Remembering 1960s Afghanistan, the photographs of Bill Podlich

Do You Believe in Magic?

I did. I even went through the same thing he experienced, poor guy.

Systema - Learning to Hit Deep

Systema is a martial art that fascinates my teacher. The principles that he's seen so far being reflected in their training and fighting would indicate that this martial art is firmly grounded in the internal style of fighting. I myself have a couple of DVD's from this website. My teacher likes how System practitioners sometimes practice pushing hands with more than two players; I prefer the breathing and conditioning techniques that they do.

The video below is from Sharon Friedman's Systema Israel blog. He has a lot of interesting ideas and he periodically comes out with videos on Systema drills. Most of the time the drills need a partner, which is a bit problematic for me. Systema has a lot of emphasis it seems on partner work, while the art I am learning right now has a lot of training methods you do on your own. For partner work like pushing hands or form correction, I have my teacher who checks me once a week when we meet.

I came across these, and I have to say they opened my mind up. I think a large part of why I browse the Internet is to find these gems - pieces that provide a different way of looking at things I haven't thought deeply about before. The author's page is here - please check your knee-jerk reactions at the door.

Trafficking in Wrongs: Why Californians Need to Vote No on Prop 35 and Why the Rest of Us Should Care

What Prostitutes, Nurses and Nannies Have in Common

I came across this article about a Russian family who was able to live in complete isolation for forty years. It's interesting because even after being offered the chance to move back to civilization the family refused. It's most likely human stubbornness and fear of the unknown that prompted this decision, but perhaps there's also in play a little bit of not caring to be stuck so close to strangers. I myself have noted how little I care for my fellowman; they may care for things that I don't give a whit about, or they don't give enough weight to the things that move me. I have elected a life that quietly lets others be, yet some of these people in their perversity still feel entitled to interrupt my peaceful existence. 

What I've noticed is that people have these stories about themselves and others. These stories are largely fueled by their own insecurities and petty thoughts, but invariably are all about them being better than others. Woe be to you if you somehow manage to give cause for someone to think that you could figure as a villain in their stories. In order to gain support for their narrative they will trumpet it aloud to sympathetic ears, give malicious intention to the most ineffectual of actions, make themselves out to be martyrs in some theater of their imagining. People have been baked in ovens because of such fiction being believed by too many.

Where people gather reality becomes soft. However, being alone in Siberia renders reality a bit more objective. That is, you either you find the means to survive or you don't. The food you catch or grow may be enough to fill your belly or it might barely sate your hunger. In this minimalist existence the tiniest of things gains true material significance. Everything is pure.