1. 13:11 29th May 2012

    Tags: IF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)THEN (Flow=Necessary)

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    Beveridge on “Laboratory Neurosis”.  Which is probably applicable to most kinds of independent work.

    Beveridge on “Laboratory Neurosis”. 
    Which is probably applicable to most kinds of independent work.

     

  2. 10:52 24th Feb 2012

    Tags: satisfaction anxietyIF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)THEN (Flow=Necessary)What you gonna do with your life?

    There are many highly respected motives which may lead men to prosecute research, but three of which are much more important than the rest. The first (without which the rest must come to nothing) is intellectual curiosity, desire to know the truth. Then, professional pride, anxiety to be satisfied with one’s performance, the shame that overcomes any self-respecting craftsman when his work is unworthy of his talent. Finally, ambition, desire for reputation, and the position, even the power or the money, which it brings. It may be fine to feel, when you have done your work, that you have added to the happiness or alleviated the sufferings of others, but that will not be why you did it. So if a mathematician, or a chemist, or even a physiologist, were to tell me that the driving force in his work had been the desired to benefit humanity, then I should not believe him (nor should I think the better of him if I did). His dominant motives have been those which I have stated, and in which, surely, there is nothing of which any decent man need be ashamed.
    — 

    From “A Mathematician’s Apology”.

    I think I am close to a conclusion on the philosophical churn of the last weeks.

     
    In my house we call him Juanito Cash.

     

  3. 13:41 29th Dec 2011

    Notes: 3

    Tags: SPS:WILWILTS (MEaaSL)wikipediaIF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)

    “Okay, if Pizza Hut is not actually referring to a Hat of Pizza, then why is their logo a hat?” (This was followed by about a minute of weasely prevarication as I tried to simultaneously explain the possibility that it was just a coincidence and reaffirm to myself that it was just a coincidence.) Here is how we got there: DEU: *Holds up badge holder* What is this called?ME: A lanyard.  Or as you would call it in Deutsch…*type-type-click* der lanyard.DEU: *looking over shoulder at german wikipedia page* ah!  No, that is not the word.  Ah, Bändel.ME: What’s that word? *clicks on Fangschnur”. scans German page.  Sees the word “Cowboyhut”, next to a picture of a tiny sombrero.  Clicks on “Cowboyhut”.  Realizes “hut” is the additional Germanic syllable indicating “hat”.  Sudden tremors at core.* Important things looked up afterward: In German, his name is Jabba der Hutte

    “Okay, if Pizza Hut is not actually referring to a Hat of Pizza, then why is their logo a hat?”

    (This was followed by about a minute of weasely prevarication as I tried to simultaneously explain the possibility that it was just a coincidence and reaffirm to myself that it was just a coincidence.)

    Here is how we got there:

    DEU: *Holds up badge holder* What is this called?
    ME: A lanyard.  Or as you would call it in Deutsch…*type-type-click* der lanyard.
    DEU: *looking over shoulder at german wikipedia page* ah!  No, that is not the word.  Ah, Bändel.
    ME: What’s that word? *clicks on Fangschnur”. scans German page.  Sees the word “Cowboyhut”, next to a picture of a tiny sombrero.  Clicks on “Cowboyhut”.  Realizes “hut” is the additional Germanic syllable indicating “hat”.  Sudden tremors at core.*

    Important things looked up afterward:

    In German, his name is Jabba der Hutte

     

  4. 13:44 25th Aug 2011

    Tags: IF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)PlausiblyDeniablework playlist

    Rumours, Track 1: Second Hand News (OR, I don’t want to know, on cassette)

    It’s probably not true.  It’s likely an old professors’ tale.  Or maybe a young professors’ tale.  But the contemporary mythology goes something like: the stack of professorship application packets at a certain department at a certain institution is piled on a tall cabinet, knocked over, and the 6 that are first picked up are invited to give interview talks.  That’s where you get the chance to prove yourself.  The quote that is bandied about?

    “We like our professors to be lucky.”

    The proposition is ridiculous. But knowing that it’s maybe not true maybe won’t stop me from thinking about how heavy this pdf would be when printed out.

    Rumours, Track 10:
    Oh Daddy    .

     

  5. 11:18 17th Aug 2011

    Tags: SweetPastGigsdigital memoryexcelsior!letters as lab notebooksIF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)

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    Sweet Past Gigs Auxilliary:  “Space Science Terms” Because I have lived 40 lives, it is possible that you may not have known that, for some time last decade, I was paid by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  I was too short to be an astronaut, so that kind of end was never in the cards let alone in the prospective jobs list.  It’s not your fault you didn’t know; I overshare selectively so it SEEMS that I’m all open and what not, but I play certain aspects of my life very close to the vest.  There’s probably a coarse line between “reasonably compartmentalized” and “maybe a sociopath”.  Reader has an overwhelming sensation of constipation.  Also: I like rooftops and robots, but not so much heights, with the vertigo and the nausea and the stress and so on. Anyhow, the phrase “balls* out” came up recently and I remembered I still had the memo (originally from 1968) that my boss had reproduced for us before our first conference call.  Glorious.  *“Please be circumspect in the use of this term as it can be misinterpreted by the uninitiated.”   I love this sentence so much that I feel a little sick.  I think it’s the word “circumspect”.  Also: balls.

    Sweet Past Gigs Auxilliary:  “Space Science Terms”

    Because I have lived 40 lives, it is possible that you may not have known that, for some time last decade, I was paid by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  I was too short to be an astronaut, so that kind of end was never in the cards let alone in the prospective jobs list.  It’s not your fault you didn’t know; I overshare selectively so it SEEMS that I’m all open and what not, but I play certain aspects of my life very close to the vest.  There’s probably a coarse line between “reasonably compartmentalized” and “maybe a sociopath”.  Reader has an overwhelming sensation of constipation.  Also: I like rooftops and robots, but not so much heights, with the vertigo and the nausea and the stress and so on.

    Anyhow, the phrase “balls* out” came up recently and I remembered I still had the memo (originally from 1968) that my boss had reproduced for us before our first conference call.  Glorious. 

    *“Please be circumspect in the use of this term as it can be misinterpreted by the uninitiated.”   I love this sentence so much that I feel a little sick.  I think it’s the word “circumspect”.  Also: balls.

     

  6. 13:32 31st Jul 2011

    Notes: 1

    Tags: an interesting psychological phenomenonanother daydigital memoryIF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)

    When worlds threaten to collide, I think about this scene and laugh-cry.

    My montage would probably involve less physical nudity but maybe more emotional nudity, which still would be a shocker to most.  And a cut to any instance of my explaining the shocker would probably be equally surprisingly distressing.  Crass!  I’m not exactly secretly anything, just selectively open about everything. 

    “She smokes?”

    Glorious.

     

  7. 12:12 6th Jul 2011

    Notes: 2

    Tags: pleasing numberssciencehuman subjectsfat brainAND (Arousal=Nausea)excelsior!

    So exciting that you might pee a little

    If your Bingo card of exciting keywords includes:

    • “HM Bark Salisbury”
    • “cure for scurvy”
    • “…horseradish in a lump the size of a nutmeg”
    • “substantially superior”*
    • “multi-armed-bandit”
    • “factorial” (!)

    …then this is an awesome dog of a wikipedia article.  B-I-N-G-O!
    (Seriously, it is top notch.)

    *Less a keyword so much as an indicator of pleasant turns of phrase.

     

  8. 19:57 9th May 2011

    Tags: A man can convince anyone he's somebody else, but never himself.scienceIF (Anxiety=Nausea)AND (Arousal=Nausea)THEN (Flow=Necessary)

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    Play it cool, kid.  No one will notice.  I’m giving this talk next week in Baltimore, and looking at the people in the invited morning session I’m in, here is an interesting piece of demographic data: Average year that everyone (the guys and me) finished their PhDs: 1985. Average age of the lady (ME) that year? ~ 4.58 Not that I’m panicking.  I mean, academically, I was a fairly precocious 4 year old.  And emotionally, I pretty much still am.  I feel like I could give a pretty stellar talk on psychological flow.  That’s only like a half-turn away from the stuff that I’m supposed to cover.  Not that I’m panicking.

    Play it cool, kid.  No one will notice. 

    I’m giving this talk next week in Baltimore, and looking at the people in the invited morning session I’m in, here is an interesting piece of demographic data:

    Average year that everyone (the guys and me) finished their PhDs: 1985.
    Average age of the lady (ME) that year? ~ 4.58

    Not that I’m panicking.  I mean, academically, I was a fairly precocious 4 year old.  And emotionally, I pretty much still am. 

    I feel like I could give a pretty stellar talk on psychological flow.  That’s only like a half-turn away from the stuff that I’m supposed to cover.  Not that I’m panicking.

     

  9. 14:38 25th Apr 2011

    Tags: AND (Arousal=Nausea)IF (Anxiety=Nausea)THEN (Flow=Necessary)essencesciencepeer review

    Guess who [1] published an awesome [2] article on flow [3]!   Now I’m like the guy on ‘Bones’ [4] merged with the guy on ‘Numb3rs’ [5].   I am like “Numbs 3 Boners” [6]. I’d link to it, but …selves colliding [7].  Plus the computational half [8] of the fluid dynamics stuff reads almost intentionally [9] oblique.

    (Yes, there were layers and layers of notes.  I have wordplay problems. Unabridged.) 

    “Necessary and sufficient” is sometimes tricky to anticipate accurately.

     

  10. 19:33 1st Apr 2011

    Notes: 5

    Tags: wikipediaAND (Arousal=Nausea)knowing is 50% of the battleQuickWitSlowTongueSyndromeThought capturedHIGHLY FUNCTIONAL/BROKEN.

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    “Crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays are generated in the same way.” It would be borderline inappropriate to explain how much I just enjoyed that sentence.  Even if I used a phrase like “linguistic tumescence”, which would only feed into itself due to lexical ambiguity. Someone’s gonna sleep like a baby tonight. (Likely suspects: babies.)

    “Crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays are generated in the same way.”

    It would be borderline inappropriate to explain how much I just enjoyed that sentence.  Even if I used a phrase like “linguistic tumescence”, which would only feed into itself due to lexical ambiguity.

    Someone’s gonna sleep like a baby tonight.

    (Likely suspects: babies.)