Occasional Musings
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes series in Scientific American
A very nice series of blog entries are available from Scientific American blog pages. Its is based on one of my favorite literary character – Sherlock Holmes. Each entry in the series begins with “Lessons From Sherlock Holmes” as part of the title, which I think is most appropriate. Here is a sample entry blog..
“Lessons from sherlock holmes: perspective is everything, details alone are nothing
Details are important, often crucial. But focus exclusively on the details, without taking a step back, and you run the risk of getting lost in minutiae – and more likely than not, of missing any actual importance the details might contain. In other words, don’t forget the old proverb, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees.” It’s a cliché for a reason. Holmes reminds us repeatedly to avoid the rooky mistake, and even shows us how we might best be able to do so. In following his advice, we are likely to see a marked improvement in the quality of our own decisions and thought process.
“…
Previous titles from the series:
Don’t Just See, Observe: What Sherlock Holmes Can Teach Us About Mindful Decisions
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Paying Attention to What Isn’t There
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Cultivate What You Know to Optimize How You Decide
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Perspective Is Everything, Details Alone Are Nothing
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Imagination
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Confidence Is good; Overconfidence, Not So Much
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Situation Is in the Mindset of the Observer
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Power of Public Opinion
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don’t Tangle Two Lines of Thought
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Breadth of Knowledge Is Essential
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don’t Decide Before You Decide
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Trust in The Facts, Not Your Version of Them
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don’t Judge a Man by His Face
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Importance of Perspective-Taking
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: From Perspective-Taking to Empathy
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Why Most of Us Wouldn’t Be Able to Tell That Watson Fought in Afghanistan
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Preconceptions and the Blunting of Imagination
[TED] Is there is a mathematical law governing cities, corporations? by Geoffrey West
Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities — that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city’s population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 17:33.)
Also, check out the Q&A related to this here: [Q&A with G. West]
A while ago this topic was covered at more length at Edge.org. Check out their coverage here: [Coverage @edge.org]
Patent trolling: current state of patent system
An interesting piece of story from NPR about current state of affairs in the patent world – patent trolling. Something from the article that brings out the essence of the issue in the buzz created by various tech companies suing one another.
“…All the big tech companies have started amassing troves of software patents — not to build anything, but to defend themselves. If a company’s patent horde is big enough, it can essentially say to the world, “If you try to sue me with your patents, I’ll sue you with mine.”
It’s mutually assured destruction. But instead of arsenals of nuclear weapons, it’s arsenals of patents….”
More of the article here: [The Link]
Audio podcast from thisamericanlife.org: [Audio Podcast]
A Surveillant Society
With most people carrying some kind of camera that can capture video (mobile phones, compact cameras…etc) are we going towards a surveillant society? An interesting article from TechCrunch on this issue. When taken to its logical conclusion… the article summarizes as follows:
“It’s not an idea that’s easy to get used to, but neither was the idea of widespread instantaneous photography in the late 19th century. The fact is it’s happening, and to pretend otherwise only retards progress. In 10 years, the idea that you’re not being recorded at all times when outside your home (in any populated area, anyway) will be as quaint as the idea now that you can maintain any kind of meaningful anonymity while availing yourself of modern banking, social internet, and mobile phones. A world where fear of persecution, accident, and injustice are unfounded is a fine dream, but that’s not the world we live in, nor the world we’re approaching. Our society will be a surveillant society; it’s up to us to make that a virtue, and not just another fear.”
Hmm.. I am not sure I can warm up to such a scenario.
More of the article here: [The Link]
A photograph, is it true or false?
A very interesting essay by Errol Morris about the truth/false-hood of a photography. Very eloquently summarized by him…
——
The idea that photographs hand us an objective piece of reality, that they by themselves provide us with the truth, is an idea that has been with us since the beginnings of photography. But photographs are neither true nor false in and of themselves. They are only true or false with respect to statements that we make about them or the questions that we might ask of them.
The photograph doesn’t give me answers. A lot of additional investigation could provide those answers, but who has time for that?
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but there are two words that you can never apply to them: “true” and “false.”
———-
What is the above photograph? To find out hit the source link below.
More of this essay from here: [The Link]
Also, interesting is his upcoming book: [Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography]
Solitude and Leadership, by William Deresiewicz
An interesting lecture given by William Deresiewicz to graduating students..
here is a short excerpt from the beginning of the talk:
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What can solitude have to do with leadership? Solitude means being alone, and leadership necessitates the presence of others—the people you’re leading. When we think about leadership in American history we are likely to think of Washington, at the head of an army, or Lincoln, at the head of a nation, or King, at the head of a movement—people with multitudes behind them, looking to them for direction. And when we think of solitude, we are apt to think of Thoreau, a man alone in the woods, keeping a journal and communing with nature in silence.
Leadership is what you are here to learn—the qualities of character and mind that will make you fit to command a platoon, and beyond that, perhaps, a company, a battalion, or, if you leave the military, a corporation, a foundation, a department of government. Solitude is what you have the least of here, especially as plebes. You don’t even have privacy, the opportunity simply to be physically alone, never mind solitude, the ability to be alone with your thoughts. And yet I submit to you that solitude is one of the most important necessities of true leadership. This lecture will be an attempt to explain why.
—–
More of this here: [The Link]
More articles from authors webpage: [William Deresiewicz]
Hope, Change and Reality [from GQ mag]
An interesting article about situational forces influences a persons aspirations and ideals over a period of time. In this case it is about the attorney general..
Here is a small excerpt from the article:
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Holder seemed deflated and tired, and in an attempt at humor, I pointed to the painting of Bobby Kennedy and made a joke about the independence of the attorney general. Holder bristled. “Some people say Bobby was pretty independent,” he snapped.
I nodded, and he seemed to relax. “But yeah,” he said, pointing at another painting across the room. “By contrast, Elliot Richardson.”
As Nixon’s third attorney general, Richardson lasted only five months, resigning in protest when the president ordered him to fire the Watergate prosecutor. “He has just one year under his name,” Holder mused. “There’s no dash. There’s no hyphen. He lasted just a number of months, but he did the job. He did the absolute right thing. When asked to do something he felt was inconsistent with his oath as attorney general, he resigned.”
Holder paused.
“So,” he said quietly. “He’s a hero.”
——-
More of this here: [The Link]