is crazy
A crazy person is someone who's concept of reality, of the world they live in, has no bearing on, well, reality.
Everyone notices different parts of the reality that is common to all of us. No two people will see the same scene and walk away with the exact same impression.
That's why it's so nice to talk to someone who agrees with you or who gets excited about the same thing as you. It means that either you're both crazy in exactly the same way (which is, of course, a possibility) or that you're both talking about the same thing that exists outside of both of you.
So the next time you're caught next to someone who's talking and talking and talking and talking and talking....don't hate, just tell them they're not crazy, it's all they want to hear.
Saturday, November 26
Tuesday, November 22
education
is a messy thing
At any rate, it should be. Richard Feynman made an observation about two different microscopes or partical accelerators (or some kind of physics toy). One school had a sleek, shiny one that was handled by technicians. Very impressive! An other school's was a mess of wires and tape, with students swarming all around. Well, probably not swarming, but you get the drift. At first, he was impressed by the first, shiny one. Then he realized that if the students wanted to try something (switch a magnet, tweak some component) those at the first school wouldn't have an easy time of it. They would have to plan it, tell the technicians how to do it, and so on. Not the sort of thing you would do if you just had a little idea. At the second school, however, the students would have no problem. It would take work on their part, but if it's your idea and you're exploring something interesting, what's one more late night? They had a mess on their hands, but learning was easy.
Schools should be messy, too. Teachers don't do much good if they're closeted far from the students. A library whose books are locked behind glass isn't much of a library. If talking to a professor requires you to think up some reason to book a meeting with him, it's not likely that you'll ever have a casual conversation with him. If reading a book requires you to know about it in advance, the chances are pretty slim that you'll pick up something just to flip through it.
In a messy school, ideas don't get tidied up. They're lying around, waiting for someone to pick them up and look them over. Ideas live in people: professors, technicians, students and librarians. Sometimes ideas are packed away in books, in journals, in so many other other things.
Please, please, please: don't lock up your ideas. Don't tidy them up. If you want people to learn--to expand their minds--then leave a mess of ideas, of people, of books. It's really the only way to give an education.
At any rate, it should be. Richard Feynman made an observation about two different microscopes or partical accelerators (or some kind of physics toy). One school had a sleek, shiny one that was handled by technicians. Very impressive! An other school's was a mess of wires and tape, with students swarming all around. Well, probably not swarming, but you get the drift. At first, he was impressed by the first, shiny one. Then he realized that if the students wanted to try something (switch a magnet, tweak some component) those at the first school wouldn't have an easy time of it. They would have to plan it, tell the technicians how to do it, and so on. Not the sort of thing you would do if you just had a little idea. At the second school, however, the students would have no problem. It would take work on their part, but if it's your idea and you're exploring something interesting, what's one more late night? They had a mess on their hands, but learning was easy.
Schools should be messy, too. Teachers don't do much good if they're closeted far from the students. A library whose books are locked behind glass isn't much of a library. If talking to a professor requires you to think up some reason to book a meeting with him, it's not likely that you'll ever have a casual conversation with him. If reading a book requires you to know about it in advance, the chances are pretty slim that you'll pick up something just to flip through it.
In a messy school, ideas don't get tidied up. They're lying around, waiting for someone to pick them up and look them over. Ideas live in people: professors, technicians, students and librarians. Sometimes ideas are packed away in books, in journals, in so many other other things.
Please, please, please: don't lock up your ideas. Don't tidy them up. If you want people to learn--to expand their minds--then leave a mess of ideas, of people, of books. It's really the only way to give an education.
Wednesday, November 2
when you start to fall
but your stomach doesn't go
Terrifying feeling, but it's usually ok, since you end up lying in bed.
What's terrifying is when a gaping hole opens up in real life and you say to yourself "I guess I'll be jumping into that before too long". And you've told yourself that it's a gaping hole and you know it's dangerous but then you catch yourself about to throw yourself into oblivion.
Without a rope. It's ok to throw yourself into oblivion if you know you've got a good rope. I guess I'll have to find one of those in the next year and a half.
Terrifying feeling, but it's usually ok, since you end up lying in bed.
What's terrifying is when a gaping hole opens up in real life and you say to yourself "I guess I'll be jumping into that before too long". And you've told yourself that it's a gaping hole and you know it's dangerous but then you catch yourself about to throw yourself into oblivion.
Without a rope. It's ok to throw yourself into oblivion if you know you've got a good rope. I guess I'll have to find one of those in the next year and a half.
Saturday, October 29
The Law
before the fall
The Bible is very clear in saying that you can't save yourself by following the Law--that's impossible for humans to do. However, if the law isn't any good for that, what's the point of having it at all?
There is a song with the line "There was a time when the truth didn't have to be spoken, But now everything's broken". It's easy to think that once upon a time, everyone knew what was good and did it without being reminded. But is it true? When did God start giving humans commands? Before the fall! Be fruitful & multiply, subdue the earth & don't eat from the tree. Even when humans enjoyed the perfect relationship with God, He was still giving them commands.
So let's remember that God did not start giving us commands after the entrance of sin. The Law is not some result of the fall that has no place in God's perfect world. When we finally have a perfect relationship with God in heaven, I suspect that He'll still tell us what to do!
The law is entirely useless at bringing us to salvation, incapable of making us good people. But once we are saved by the work of Jesus and sancified by the Holy Spirit, we will be able follow the law--the commands of God. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will obey His commands. Obeying His commands will not make us able to love Him, but once we love Him, obeying His commands is a normal part of our relationship.
I suspect that none of what I just wrote is news to theologians, and there are probably whole books devoted to the fact that the first laws were given before the fall. But I've never read any of them, so this is my two cents worth.
The Bible is very clear in saying that you can't save yourself by following the Law--that's impossible for humans to do. However, if the law isn't any good for that, what's the point of having it at all?
There is a song with the line "There was a time when the truth didn't have to be spoken, But now everything's broken". It's easy to think that once upon a time, everyone knew what was good and did it without being reminded. But is it true? When did God start giving humans commands? Before the fall! Be fruitful & multiply, subdue the earth & don't eat from the tree. Even when humans enjoyed the perfect relationship with God, He was still giving them commands.
So let's remember that God did not start giving us commands after the entrance of sin. The Law is not some result of the fall that has no place in God's perfect world. When we finally have a perfect relationship with God in heaven, I suspect that He'll still tell us what to do!
The law is entirely useless at bringing us to salvation, incapable of making us good people. But once we are saved by the work of Jesus and sancified by the Holy Spirit, we will be able follow the law--the commands of God. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will obey His commands. Obeying His commands will not make us able to love Him, but once we love Him, obeying His commands is a normal part of our relationship.
I suspect that none of what I just wrote is news to theologians, and there are probably whole books devoted to the fact that the first laws were given before the fall. But I've never read any of them, so this is my two cents worth.
Sunday, October 2
Setting Exams
is just like exposing photgraphs
Photographers know how important it is that pictures be properly exposed. If a picture is overexposed, much of the area will appear completely white. It is impossible, once the shutter has made the ever-so-cool sh-scht noise, to tell how bright the different parts of the picture are. All we know about the overexposed area is that they are all brighter than some value.
On the other hand, if the picture is underexposed, it becomes noisy. Instead of seeing varying shades of grey, splotches of colour will appear and there isn't a very good correlation between the actual colour and the colour on the photograph.
So how does this relate to exams? Exams are a method of determining how bright the students in a class are. An exam is--in theory, at any rate--a picture of how much the class has learned. In the same way that the quality of a picture can be compromised by over- or under-exposure, the quality of a set of examination results can be compromised by an exam that is took easy or too difficult.
If an exam is too easy, we can think of it as being overexposed. A large portion of the class will turn in a perfect paper and all we can tell about those students is that they knew enough to complete this exam perfectly. No further differentiation is possible without setting further exams.
This phenomenal is well understood by most university faculty. The generally accepted solution is simply to set an extrememly difficult exam. "You can always bell the marks up!". In photographic terms, they underexpose the exam. While this does prevent overexposure, it may lead to a noisy picture.
If an exam is extremely difficult, an element of randomness will be introduced into the resulting marks. Take three students, for instance, who are equally familiar with the course conent. Their marks may depend of which particular inane details they happened to have read while studying, or some other insignificant coincidence. If the average mark is 30%, it is very likely that some students who know more will receive lower marks than some of their less knowledgeable peers. Though the marks can be artificially "belled-up" to an average of 65%, the distribution will be very low quality.
This metaphor identifies two ways in which the quality of exam results can be compromised. The first, "overexposure", is well-known and understood. The second, "underexposure", seems to be have less of a presence in the general social consiousness. This is unfortunate, since the obvious solution to the first problem is likely to result in a manifestation of the second.
Photographers know how important it is that pictures be properly exposed. If a picture is overexposed, much of the area will appear completely white. It is impossible, once the shutter has made the ever-so-cool sh-scht noise, to tell how bright the different parts of the picture are. All we know about the overexposed area is that they are all brighter than some value.
On the other hand, if the picture is underexposed, it becomes noisy. Instead of seeing varying shades of grey, splotches of colour will appear and there isn't a very good correlation between the actual colour and the colour on the photograph.
So how does this relate to exams? Exams are a method of determining how bright the students in a class are. An exam is--in theory, at any rate--a picture of how much the class has learned. In the same way that the quality of a picture can be compromised by over- or under-exposure, the quality of a set of examination results can be compromised by an exam that is took easy or too difficult.
If an exam is too easy, we can think of it as being overexposed. A large portion of the class will turn in a perfect paper and all we can tell about those students is that they knew enough to complete this exam perfectly. No further differentiation is possible without setting further exams.
This phenomenal is well understood by most university faculty. The generally accepted solution is simply to set an extrememly difficult exam. "You can always bell the marks up!". In photographic terms, they underexpose the exam. While this does prevent overexposure, it may lead to a noisy picture.
If an exam is extremely difficult, an element of randomness will be introduced into the resulting marks. Take three students, for instance, who are equally familiar with the course conent. Their marks may depend of which particular inane details they happened to have read while studying, or some other insignificant coincidence. If the average mark is 30%, it is very likely that some students who know more will receive lower marks than some of their less knowledgeable peers. Though the marks can be artificially "belled-up" to an average of 65%, the distribution will be very low quality.
This metaphor identifies two ways in which the quality of exam results can be compromised. The first, "overexposure", is well-known and understood. The second, "underexposure", seems to be have less of a presence in the general social consiousness. This is unfortunate, since the obvious solution to the first problem is likely to result in a manifestation of the second.
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