History repeats itself

The recent Futility Closet story about Floyd Collins reminded me about Omayra Sanchez. So many well-meaning people, so many resources and more than enough time. And somehow both people die.

I wonder if some of them didn't try as hard because a bad ending would have made for a better story?

The Innocence Project: Eyewitness Identification - Getting it Right

I just want to say, we don't have this in my country. And we don't have reliable statistics on the wrongfully-convicted. Seeing as there is most likely a pretty substantial percentage who don't get to stay alive until they reach the court.

What you can do on your own

I guess everyone is fascinated with the question of how well they would do in the event when society's support systems fail. When the [insert qualifier here] Apocalypse comes, how long will you last?

I think it's easier to answer these questions if we look at a less extreme case, where someone voluntarily abandons a group/community and tries to make it on his own. How well does he do? How prepared was he?

Like the case of Philip Johnson. It's depressing how one can screw up his life despite having all the promise in the world, just because he couldn't follow the rules. This brings to mind Marc MacYoung's words on the subject:

Relationships are economies.   When I talk about economies, I'm referring to a back and forth of goods, services and emotional investments. Both parties are benefiting, both parties are active participants and -- most of all -- it's give and take. (For years I had a deal with the women I lived with. She cooks, I'll do the dishes. Together we got it done via this equal division of labor.)

We do more for those inside our family/clan/tribe than for those outside. While we may do random acts of kindness and charity to strangers, mostly, we reserve our good deeds, empathy and concern for 'our own.' It's a very inside kind of thing.

Outside, there are certain social standards that allow strangers to -- if not get along -- get through their day and take care of business. These are kind of broad, general standards that do have some specific application -- like you behave differently in a church than you do in a restaurant than you do walking down the street. People are generally expected to understand these unwritten rules in order to get through the day.The point is, these behaviors are kind of standard and really shouldn't have to be explained to adults. As an added benefit, extra courtesies are gifts (e.g., holding the door for someone, giving an elderly or infirm person your seat on public transportation.)

It's a sobering lesson. This is the threshold of adulthood: realizing you're not hot stuff, and that you need to observe the customs of where you are to fluorish. I see myself in that violin thief, and I affirm that he is not someone I want to continue to be.

Giving Your All isn't Always Enough

It kind of struck me hard, reading this news about Baby J. I've experienced being mediocre despite knowing I could do better. I've seen my friends move on to bigger and better things. I've choked on a career-changing moment before, even.

I'm lucky that my hiatuses have only been for three months at a time. But she's been plugging away for two years. 

The thing with her field is that it's so horribly competitive. The top won't budge, and every year more people are debuting at the bottom. Management has different priorities from advancing your personal career, and fans get tired of you - if they don't become rabid anti-fans first. People like her get edged out, then without a support system her skills degrade. It's hard to keep up the same performance level when you have to spend majority of your waking hours doing unrelated work to get the money for food or rent.

I write this to be reminded that effort and perseverance and everything else isn't always rewarded. You don't know what will happen. You just keep on going believing that you'll reach your dream.

Message of Optimism

I'm going to keep this research in mind going forward:

• Change by the Bundle: Study shows People are Capable of Multiple, Simultaneous Life Changes
• The Secret To Learning New Skills Twice As Fast

Samgyeopsal and the Martial Arts

I have this nice metaphor I've developed about the martial arts. See, if you go to multiple samgyeopsal places in South Korea you'll notice each one has a different interpretation of the food. Each place has its own set of side-dishes that accompany the meat; and they use different ingredients for a marinade, that is if they do use one.

There might be a recommended way to eat the meat after it's cooked...

The meat might be smoked first before being seared...

And the meat might be scored to increase the surface area and give a distinct texture.

Back in the day, practitioners were from every background you can imagine, and their experiences were just as varied. There were scholars, bandits, bodyguards, chefs, mercenaries, soldiers, opera actors, ordinary people, security guards, even gangsters. There were those who fought on the lei tai (maybe it wasn't called that, but the culture might have had something similar), others fought in the back-alleys or slums. Others didn't fight at all. All of them would have had different ideas on what was "sporting." Or they wouldn't have had any such term in their vocabulary.

My teacher told me this story. That his teacher's grand-teacher (four generations removed from me)  sold oranges on the sidewalk. And was still scarily good even in his old age. So you see, martial skill is grassroots; jealously guarded and lovingly honed over a person's life. It is an individualistic endeavor. Much like the mom-and-pop eateries of South Korea.

What to do in heaven

Unlearn to Escape

You must unlearn what you have learned
Refreshing / reloading of pages and delayed redirect using Meta tags in ASP.Net c#
How to design finger print/ scanner based project in C#

Cooking Philosophy

There's three recipes I want to do before I die. Actually there's a lot of dishes, but these are the main ones.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

True Magic

He was laboring under a burden we are only now starting to understand. It must have been excruciating to continue functioning, and yet for all that he found some measure of happiness. And he spent all of his money and so much time just so he can get a hit of that happiness again.

The psychics were only too happy to oblige him his fantasies. They gave him the feeling that he was doing things, that he was getting closer to his goal. That somehow things were finally going his way. That there was a point... Sadly that's how occultism generally goes -  a great big con job.

I've been there, same as him. But I never let it get to the point he's in now. I was lucky - if I had been born with an active gene for substance abuse or mental disability, I would probably be right up there. But who knows what the future holds? I might still get to experience things from his point of view.

Being Right isn't as Important

Be the big fish in the small pond.

I read about this feature, detailing what netizens in South Korea feel like about the college experience - basically, that it's better to be the dragon's tail, i.e. last among elites, than to be the head of a snake (first among inferiors).

I would say, basing from what I've read and from my own personal experience, that this is not so. Being last in an elite school means that after graduation the recruiters will just pick everyone else who ranked above you. You get to participate in a stressful rat race for position instead of getting the room to experiment and grow. 

And in the end all you would have achieved is a fancy piece of paper. Big deal, everyone has that piece of paper.

Being the head of a snake is fine, so long as you plan to turn into a dragon; but remaining a snake is fine too - because you'll end up happier in the long run.

Basically, think of college not as selection, but as training. I've been further informed about this with Robert Greene's "Mastery" book, it explains things a lot better.

Hacking Feature from Fusion

Nathan Matias: Developing Effective Citizen Responses to Discrimination and Harassment Online

I WANT TO BE A FECAL WIZARD

I never thought I'd ever say this.

An interesting thing happened on the way home from work.

The guy was walking near the parking lot outside the office. He was absorbed with his phone so he didn't see the car exiting the parking lot. Car's driver honked his horn and startled phone guy probably, because after the latter looked up and registered the car that almost hit him he proceeded to act all cocky by slowing down his walking pace. Driver got even more impatient and honked his horn, phone guy kept on taking his bloody time - blocking driver from getting off the parking lot.

Eventually there was enough room for the car to get out. Driver then pulled up to phone guy; driver kept the car going abreast of phone guy as he walked. I heard some words being exchanged, some manly staring. Then driver sped the car up and went on with his life.

Phone guy went back to his phone.

Tim Harford: How to See into the Future

Conformity

I read Tim Harford's article "The Truth About Our Norm Core" today. It had this interesting passage about Solomon Asch's obedience experiment:

...It is true that most experimental subjects were somewhat swayed by the group. Fewer than a quarter of experimental subjects resolutely chose the correct line every time. (In a control group, unaffected by social pressure, errors were rare.) However, the experiment found that total conformity was scarcer than total independence. Only six out of 123 subjects conformed on all 12 occasions. More than half of the experimental subjects defied the group and gave the correct answer at least nine times out of 12. A conformity effect certainly existed but it was partial.

...Conformity was already a well-established finding by 1951, and his experiments were designed to contrast with earlier research on social norms. This previous research showed that people conformed to social pressure in situations where there was no clear correct answer — for instance, when asked to identify which of two ungrammatical sentences was the most ungrammatical. But Asch wanted to know if peer pressure would also wield influence when the crowd was unambiguously wrong. His research provided an answer: social pressure is persuasive but, for most people, the facts are more persuasive still.

 So if total conformity is a rarity, then that means the Nazis and those who supported them can't use the "Everyone was doing it" excuse. When you are in an environment of corruption, joining in is ultimately your own choice; you chose to be the three out of 12 who were swayed by the group.

You got a lifetime. No more, no less.

The Internet of Garbage, by Sarah Jeong

I find stuff like this informative because the problems being discussed affect all of us. It's just that women are the biggest victim demographic right now; but any race or individual or age group or gender or whatever group rises in the future can be a target for harassment and worse.