Fundamental Attribution Error

Dr. Phil should really do a segment about this. His recent controversy is a textbook example, I think. 

Of course it's not okay if a person is drunk to the point where consent prior to sex is suspect. So why is Dr. Phil talking about it on Twitter? Faced with the choice of his motivations, people overestimate the dispositional factors (he's a pervert seeking confirmation) over the situational factors (he's taking a survey for his show, or he's trying to figure out where people's boundaries are - take note the original tweet did not specify the level of drunkenness or the ability to give consent).

The fun thing is the reason that the FAE is an error is because even if it were explained to us we would still do the same thing. Something to think about, there.

Randmo Sfutf

The Science of Mental Fitness

How We Got "Please" and "Thank You"

What the Psychology of Suicide Prevention Tells Us About Controlling Our Everyday Worries

Beware of Beauty Overload: The Adaptive Eye of the Beholder

Stuff to Remember

I was browsing over some of my previous posts and found one where I realized I had forgotten the context behind it completely. In just a few months I was already a different person who probably would never have written that. Good thing I was able to save it; this blog is becoming a secondary storage space for stuff in my head.

Here's another thing: if you think about it, I am in a way similar to an organism that consumes information. I read and experience things everyday, I process it and then think about the processing that is happening. I shit out ideas and concepts and associations, as well as the information where these things come from. Ideally I add more than I take away, but we can settle for spreading it, like a bird would the seeds it swallows. 

I am a bird that ranges across continents. 

In the sea without lees
Standeth the bird of Hermes
Eating his wings variable
And maketh himself yet full stable
When all his feathers be from him gone
He standeth still here as a stone
Here is now both white and red
And all so the stone to quicken the dead
All and some without fable
Both hard and soft and malleable
Understand now well and right
And thank you God of this sight

The bird of Hermes is my name eating my wings to make me tame.

Bankrupted

Bankrupt By Beanies from Chris Robinson on Vimeo.

I cringe inwardly at this. In my college days I entertained the idea of being a Magic: the Gathering pro player. Good plan, except even if I was the best (which I wasn't), my country didn't have tournaments that supported pro players. These days I have the notion of buying chase cards, like the dual lands and fetchlands and shocklands - the prices being relatively stable and most likely to increase in value. History repeats itself doesn't it?

Horror Stories

I thought I was pretty tough and jaded. I'd dissected pretty much everything, short of human beings, in college and high school. I was familiar with anatomy. I have an interest in occultism, serial killers and crime in general. I am also fascinated with psychology. I'm familiar with martial arts and the damage people can do to others.

Then just recently I read this and this. It was like watching Malena - I had to pause every once in a while, take a breather. 

I guess that means I'm still human... with all the potential for visiting horrible things upon myself...

Re: In Defense of Adria Richards and Call-out Culture

Interesting article over at The Daily Dot. It's in reference to the donglegate incident and the fallout that followed. A lot of what's happened, I'm sure anyone would agree, was overblown. Then again that's par for the course I guess when one involves the public at large - you never know how they'll react.

I have to admit that I get where the author is coming from; you see, anything that can be construed as a social putdown by one party does result in negative emotions, in most cases anger. Anger has been shown to follow social rejection, and admonishing someone for their actions does qualify. We don't know where someone's from and how he is in daily life, and so caution is advisable when dealing with strangers.

But here's the thing: Adria Richards did not try to approach two grown men in a public place with a neutral manner to mention how she can overhear a conversation that could reflect badly on the latter. The two men were presumably well-educated, well-adjusted and hard-working individuals; they're not your typical alley rapists. Talking to them in a way that did not generate feelings of rejection or belittlement would not, I think, have caused any problems. Assuming as the author did that women who call out others will get raped and/or murdered is a gross oversimplification and doing so sabotages the friendly, civil interaction that we should expect of each other.

And this is a true thing; in the Social Psychology online course I'm taking the concepts of confirmation bias and self-fulfilling prophecies were discussed. Rory Miller also has a lot to say about the topic in his blog. You're holding this idea in your head about how these interactions are going to go, you're going to be looking for the things that confirm your thinking. And you're going to be acting without realizing it, in a manner that will guarantee that the idea in your head will prove true. 

Aside from the above, I'm going to follow Mr. Miller's lead and shut up; I wasn't there, and these events don't really impact me in any personal way. But here's something to think about: if we grant that women should be allowed the prerogative to upload pictures of men to shame them when they act in a sexist manner, where is the oversight? We have multiple layers of security and monitoring and accountability for almost everything in our lives, where are all those for this?

And how is uploading call-out shots different from uploading creepshots? The latter is about promoting lust, the former about promoting outrage. Aside from that, what's the difference?

Belly Fat

Belly fat serves as emergency fuel, a good way to store excess when times are good. It's shock protection for the gut area. It's also insulation.

Belly fat is there for a reason. Then again we, living in this age, find no use for it. We find it ugly. Funny how we equate beauty with whatever induces the most lust in others, then we complain when that attraction becomes brought to our attention. You can't control who gets attracted to you.

There is beauty in utility. Something simple and elegant is beautiful. And perhaps greatest of all, it is meaning that makes for the purest beauty. An old mother's wrinkled hands spent caring for her children and grandchildren will have gained something no manicurist could ever hope to match.

I'm taking the Social Psychology course in Coursera. Week 1 had readings from a study made by David L. Rosenhan, "On Being Sane in Insane Places." It touches on a lot of things I'd written about earlier, and seems especially relevant now that I've read this.

The Curious Relationship Between Truth and Madness

Lost in Our Own Worlds

Managed to overhear a conversation today. Two friends were gossiping about this rich, smart professional who had to separate from her husband. Friend A said that the divorcee had difficulties supporting her children in spite of the alimony when Friend B suddenly pipes up with "She should demand for her right, her husband should support her." This was just milliseconds after Friend A mentioned the alimony. 

I remembered another conversation, this time about a girl trashing someone who was not part of their group. Said someone had at some point for whatever reason held her hand by the wrist - at this point one of the listeners interjected with "Were you hurt? Are you okay?" I knew at this point a rumor was born about that poor soul.

Neil Gaiman observed this phenomenon before. He said something to the effect that it was a trademark of his, portraying characters in the act of conversation who weren't really paying attention to what each other was saying. You get two or more people, talking at cross-purposes. Lost in their own worlds, going off on a tangent touched off by something they heard. Failing to listen at the most inopportune times.

I think it's an offshoot of us thinking we're so special. That we could figure out someone like Sherlock Holmes does, failing to see how utterly contrived some of the situations were and how the real world isn't as neatly understandable. That we're so good and nice and exempt from the law and our actions have no consequences. Or maybe, that we shit and fart roses.

Monkey talk. Monkey talk, all of it. 

I thought about it, and I've had Magic: the Gathering in my mind for more than seventeen years now. For ten of those years I've been trying to craft this RG Madness deck (for those interested, the final form of the deck is here). It took that long because the sets the constituent cards belonged to were a long time apart. I did not find the cards that were being used by other players to my liking, so I decided to hold out until I could come across the cards that I felt did deserve to make it in. 

I wanted a deck that fully abused the madness mechanic, yet had a complementary strategy in case the key cards enabling the mechanic were dealt with during a game; I also wanted that complementary strategy to stand pretty well on its own. 

I tried out a lot of cards, playtesting and goldfishing and then analyzing in my head. I read up on current strategy and trends on what cards to use. I posted on forums, even emailed the professionals to ask how to improve my deck.

Through most of it I knew that the cards I was using were subpar - I knew that if I really wanted to win games I should be playing the best cards that other people were playing. It was hubris to think that I'd be on to something the pro players weren't.

I went for it anyway. It was an obsession.

I learned recently about Walt Whitman, and about how he worked on Leaves of Grass up until two months before his death. All those years spent revising, adding to, reformatting, all to create the definitive opus. And all those years he must have held two things in his head - the confidence to keep going, even when often he had to self-finance his project. And self-awareness, that what he was doing just may amount to nothing more than grass - a publisher's term at the time for works of minor value.

He did live and write about some of the most historic moments in American history. I think him sending out editions of his book turned out for the better; the work benefited from the critique and it also made the work at the very least noteworthy for having provoked reactions from the era's literary luminaries. Maybe the taboo surrounding some of the topics helped out.

I don't care about that really. I am awed rather by the dedication he had. He acted as if the end was self-evident, when the future is clearly anything but. Obviously, obsessions aren't equal. I clearly won't be winning any games with the deck I thought up - I'm not part of that scene anymore. But I still do have other hobbies I'm working on. They bring me joy but I can't see myself going all the way, in the manner of Walt Whitman. 

Writing in this blog does help me express myself and it has made easier writing the occasional paper or presentation. I'm doing quite well in my martial arts training, I'm up to an hour of zhan zhuang. I plan to study programming some more, Go, and Japanese. I also take the occasional online course. I'm not sure what all this amounts to, or what they will amount to. Really, I get the feeling of being lost at sea sometimes. 

It took me a decade to focus my deck to what it is now; I don't think I have the leisure to do the same for my life. It's not so much the comforts - I want to feel the forward movement, the sensation that things are changing as per my intention.

The fifth day of the eighth month of the thirteenth year of the twenty-first century - today - is a Fibonacci day. I didn't even notice.

The discussion says that this will be the last Fibonacci day, unless in the future our calendars go over twelve months.

Glorious.

One

I cringe thinking about myself years ago. It was all about one more point in the test, one more point to get the bare minimum to pass. Oh no, I failed, got to do better on the one test coming up next.

If I could just get one more card, my deck would be killer. One more book. One more hour staying up late, searching the Internet for the one thing that would make me badass.

My love didn't work out. Nevermind, the next one will be sure to be mine. The one right now is just a whore.

One more read-through, even though I fell asleep reading the course text last time.

These days I recognize that the me one second from now is someone who is not to be trusted.

Now when I train, it's always one more - one more minute, hold on. Stand for one more hour.

You only get one lifetime. Be an adult and swallow your pride. Don't give in to the monkey.

One more day until the weekend; one day closer to all those cool stuff that will be released that you absolutely have to read/play/experience. One more payday. One more thing to add to the budget.

One more wonder to discover. One more thing to learn. One less thing to worry about. One more thing that's not as important as it was before.

Playing to Your Strengths

I like writing. I've been writing since forever. I loved it when we were made to do essays in grade school. The words came easy; even today I don't really do much proofreading for the posts I make here.

Should I have pursued that instead? Maybe go into journalism or literature? I could have transferred out. I could have spent my college life learning about Hemingway and Bukowski and Kafka. I could have learned to write poems as evocative as C.P. Cavafy's or fiction as arresting as Edgar Allan Poe's. I might not have been good enough to win a Pulitzer, but learning to write better would have been a joy.

Instead of writing for computers maybe I could have instead chosen to write for people. To expose the darkness in the world, have adventures in far-off places. I could have befriended witch-doctors in Haiti or investigated hoodoo in Louisiana; I could have trained in Daqingshan or walked Akihabara. All to pursue a story, to submit a deadline.

I might have had the singular experience of contracting epic obscure tropical diseases. I could have died in a hail of gunfire, a martyr to the cause of free press.

Writing is easy for me. It still is. If I had chosen that path, how many days would it be until I realized I wasn't really that good after all? How many days until I figure out that I won't get to write what I really want? How well will I be able to handle deadlines?

Choosing mediocrity has its perks. One can hold on to his illusions and sigh, staring into the distance, thinking of what-ifs.

Ip Man The Final Fight

I really want to watch this; I heard Gillian Chung has a part in it. I'm not much of a follower of the Chinese scene, but I really like her. She had to take a hiatus but during that time she took classes and honed her craft, without even knowing if she would be coming back. That kind of thing demands respect. I'd drink a glass of Sir Walt's to her, if I could afford it. :P

Re: Sex Sells, Part Five

When I was doing Dan Ariely's Coursera course on Behavioral Economics, there were videos of guest lecturers every week. One of the speakers was Nina Mazar, and she spoke about a model called "sexual economics" - if memory serves, one of the things she touched upon (and please note that the talk was short and could not possibly cover all the nuances of her research on the topic) was how sex was used in a manner of a good/commodity. Like, how someone who beds women gets scorned because he's getting the commodity without "paying" - that is, taking care of the female in a caring, secure, loving relationship. I believe there was also a part describing where women who are in an area that has a dearth of viable mates tend to "advertise" their "availability," in some cases by wearing more revealing clothing; whereas those who were in a place where there were a lot of possible mates tended to not do so (by covering up).

Hopefully, I did not misrepresent the information too much. It's been some months and I'm sure I've forgotten a lot. The amount of negative response after that talk's video was posted was really huge. The logical discussion about the concepts presented was completely overshadowed by the emotional response of the majority. It was kind of sad for me because what was presented was a model. That it got mired in controversy effectively scuttled whatever benefit the research might have had on those taking the course.

You can still view the firestorm, by the way, the forum posts should still be up at Coursera; one need just sign up for the course to be able to view them. I have to admit that thinking about sex as a thing subject to economics kind of made sense to me. Survival of the fittest has wrought weirder things, like that of duck genitals. A male's attractiveness is also affected by how able he is to take care of his mate; and furthermore there are a lot of societies in the world who consider that women should be pure, unsullied by worldly things, and dependent. Some of these societies consider women to have some ambiguous connection to the honor of the family that they are attached to; and so perhaps in these ways meeting these societies' definition of womanhood can represent a taking up of value. 

Because the family's honor is paramount, women who do not bring shame to the family are valuable; they can be married off to other families and there is financial benefit in doing so. Perhaps they'll also use her to cement alliances. These women therefore should be taken care of - they are covered up, and no doubt about their pristine natures should crop up. This means they must be confined at home or if they need to leave the house they must be accompanied by a family member. The women's families can afford to be discerning with regard to her future husband, there's probably a little endowment effect in operation here.

When we quantify what would make a good spouse in this way and worse when so many people (male and female) buy into it, horrors are committed without regret. If the society is less conservative, perhaps it's the women themselves who are free to settle on the terms of the economic exchange.

Helpful Information

This stuff is good to remember, so I'm putting them up here. 

A Six Months Exercise Intervention Influences the Genome-wide DNA Methylation Pattern in Human Adipose Tissue - nice to know that the effect of genes can be changed to a certain extent. We should care because DNA methylation has links to cancer.

Here's something to remember while we're gallivanting; the Group Monkey Dance and how to short-circuit it.

Aspirin Helps Keep Stomach Cancer Away

Can You Pay Off Your Sleep Debt?

Why You Should Take Cold Showers

Fruit Can Help Prevent Diet-Induced Obesity

Love this. Your dads and moms and other people in your life, just what were they up to before you "knew" them?