communication. community. cognition.
Archive for August, 2008
Rhode Island Zombies
Aug 31st
Some undead guy in Rhode Island wants to kill me.
He just tried leaving the following comment on a previous post:
WHEN U R READING THIS DONT STOP ORSOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN! MY NAME ISSUMMER I AM 15 YEARS OLD i have BLONDEHAIR ,MANY SCARS no NOSE OR EARS.. IAM DEAD. IF U DONT COPY THIS JUST LIKEFROM THE RING, COPY N POST THIS ON 5MORE SITES.. OR.. I WILL APPEAR ONEDARK QUIET NIGHT WHEN UR NOT ExPECTINGIT BY YOUR BED WITH A KNIFE AND KILLU. THIS IS NO JOKE SOMETHING GOOD WILLHAPPEN TO U IF YOU POST THIS ON 5 MOREPAGES.
Doesn’t he realize I don’t do memes? Doesn’t he also realize I track visits?
This seems to be as good a time as any to discuss Pascal’s Wager: If God doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t matter whether you are saved. If God does exist, then the paltry time you spend in compliance and getting saved is more than worth it.
If I believe in Pascal’s Wager, then I have little to lose in posting the deadly threats of an undead teenage psychopath from Rhode Island. If I don’t believe in Pascal’s Wager, then I blow it off.
Now, Summer… do I have to manually post this elsewhere? Or do I get credit for republication due to blog scrapers that steal my content?
(to Jacob, Luke, Jason, and the rest of my Kung Fu family: Time to activate our Zombie Plan?)
Invisible Hands
Aug 30th
We’re lucky when the teaching moments come to us.
My wife was explaining how she got a discount on milk yesterday. Apparently, the local Walmart and Publix are in a price war over milk which has dropped the price per gallon more than 90 cents. My six-year-old daughter wanted to know why the Walmart checker dropped the price without even being prompted.
“Let’s say you and Ryan are selling cupcakes,” I said. “You are selling them for five dollars, and Ryan is selling them for three. Who makes more money?”
“I do,” she said.
“Okay, now say I have ten dollars (holding up 10 fingers). I can buy two of your cupcakes (spending the fingers), or I can buy three of his and still have a dollar left over (re-spending the fingers). NOW who makes more money?”
“Ryan does.”
“So what do you need to do?”
“Charge three dollars,” she said.
Why is it that Adam Smith’s invisible hand is so difficult to understand? Functional adults deny its existence because it clashes with their ideology, yet a six-year-old gets it in 30 seconds.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, economics, Adam Smith, Invisible Hand, education[/tags]
Parity Bit
Aug 27th
My daughter is gearing up for the fall soccer season in the girls Under-6 league. There were supposed to be six girls per team, and for the most part there were. One observation I had was the jersey numbers were reflective of the leagues. The jerseys in the U-6 league went up to 6. The jerseys in the U-8 league went up to the number 8.
It was the bottom side of the roster that was odd. Or rather even:
- 6
- 5
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 2
There were two 2′s on each team. Best I could figure is they didn’t want the pressure of being #1 to go to some poor child’s head.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, soccer, parity[/tags]
Fighting Words
Aug 25th
“Ideals are worth fighting for, ideas are not. And that’s one ‘L’ of a difference.”
The Dream Job
Aug 22nd
When I was interviewing for my current job, I was asked why I wanted it. True, everyone loves getting a paycheck (and some even love being employed.) But my answer came back to the intersection of things I enjoyed. I actually traced the following diagram on my desk for the interview committee:
These are three things I truly enjoy: helping people tell their story in times of stress and strain; geeky tech tools; and teaching others. The real actualization comes when those spheres start overlapping. My experience with using New Media tools to communicate during disasters comes in an intersection. Likewise my media training, and even the time I spend on Twitter and elsewhere helping others “get” Social Media.
I’m lucky to have a job that allows me to play in the mixed colors, and even work in that bright white zone in the middle.
Have you ever mapped out your motivations in this way? There might just be some fulfilling intersections that you’re missing because you haven’t tried overlapping…
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, motivation, Venn, career[/tags]
Cutting Loose
Aug 20th
My wife sent me the following in an email:
Superman’s cape has bit the dust! Ryan was spotted with a pair of scissors earlier today and when asked what he was doing replied, “Cutting off superman’s cape” When asked why he was doing this the small human responded, “Because I don’t want him to fly.”
It’s easy to gravitate to the cape as the source of flight, when really it was meant as an artistic convention to demonstrate movement in a two-dimensional, still-frame comic medium. But at some point, we cut the strings when we realize the cape isn’t necessary anymore. (Besides, Batman doesn’t fly and he has a cape…)
Which leads me back to a question posed the other day. 
When do we finally reach the point where we ditch the old technology? I know of two accomplished and very intelligent classmates of mine who graduated high school without being able to tell the time on an analog clock. (I can vouch that one has since learned, and probably the other…)
The fact remains that one could indeed be fully functional in 1986 without needing that particular skill, and moreso today. So when do we realize that the magic isn’t in the hands and the gears? When can we cut the ties?
I think there are several factors that play a role in allowing us to assign certain standards to the fate of the buggy whip. What I haven’t figured out is the relative importance and ranking of those factors:
- Percentage adoption
- Generational immersion of replacement
- Fear of translation
And for that matter – what besides the analog clock and the shoelace is destined for the dustbin of history? (Considering that for many us, the dustbin is history too.)
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, technology[/tags]
Tech in the Dustbin
Aug 19th
“With buckles and snaps and Velcro straps, do our children need to learn to tie their shoes anymore?”
