For this person I know, the answer is The test results suggest strong psychopathic tendencies. This does not mean the person is a potential mass-murderer: socialised psychopaths are not mad, nor do they have to resort to violence. Even so, a close professional or emotional [...]]]> Hey, let’s try this little quiz: are you a psychopath?

For this person I know, the answer is

The test results suggest strong psychopathic tendencies.
This does not mean the person is a potential mass-murderer: socialised psychopaths are not mad, nor do they have to resort to violence. Even so, a close professional or emotional relationship with a socialised psychopath is likely to prove a damaging experience.
The test score was: 32

The most important research was Bob Hare’s contributions, among which is the PCL-R: a yardstick with which to examine specific populations in order to find the real psychopaths.

But that is not the problem. Quoting Dr. Elliot Barker,

I think it’s the other end of the spectrum of psychopathy — the partial psychopaths we ought to be really worried about: because there are so many more of them, because they “fit in” to so many parts of our sick society, and they create havoc directly and indirectly for so many, many, many people.

The issue here is to find the subclinical psycho, that charming, violent and soulless acquaintance, family member, coworker, friend even, that continuously uses and abuses.

Be aware.

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PTB points to the three degrees of thinking that William Golding discovered early in life. I love that ability to place your mind outside of the discourse, look at the background noise, and come with a reason why. But much more interesting is that question by Golding, “What is the truth?”, that meta-thinking that [...]]]>

PTB points to the three degrees of thinking that William Golding discovered early in life. I love that ability to place your mind outside of the discourse, look at the background noise, and come with a reason why.
But much more interesting is that question by Golding, “What is the truth?”, that meta-thinking that recognizes the inherent limitation of our thoughts, and dares to go further

There is still a higher grade of thought which says, “What is truth?” and sets out to find it.

But o curse, the very same act of finding fault with the world is, in itself, a form of blindness – a higher one, if you like: We find that there are other points of view, and we try to arrange the world in a logical manner – logical to us, comfortable to our biases and limits. We define the world by simply saying where our limits are.

More interesting, then, is to accept that, for all we know and devise, the world is still going to be ruled by instincts and primeval desires, and our logical fallacy is going to reveal itself in a sudden flurry of temptation, our beautiful rational logic srpinging fangs and claws with which to apprehend that reality.

Because, you see, we are the Thinker, and we are also the Venus, the leopard, the snake. And so is everybody else.

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So we have gobs of busy people that might not know a lot about computers and security clicking and surfing all over the [...]]]> You have a cognitive bias. Yes, dude, you are wrong all this time, and you don’t even know it!
Specially, now that I live in a test environment, these words become alive:

So we have gobs of busy people that might not know a lot about computers and security clicking and surfing all over the web (logged in as admin), but that think they know what they are doing. Sounds like a recipe for disaster or a great Monty Python episode involving loaded shotguns.
One disturbing finding of the report was that many users are not even looking at (and/or understanding) the indicators they have available in a browser that relate to their safety (SSL padlocks, location fields, status bars, etc). This is akin to getting off on the _wrong_ exit at 3am in an unfamiliar city holding a map. Not good.

Users are really good at what they do: they usually master complex interactions between their customers; they can find holes in the process and fix these; they develop an intricate support network to deal with daily occurrences, and they make their living processing uncounted transactions every day.
But they don’t know your tool, and they definitely do not abide by your rules.

Similarly, you are completely unaware of other people’s areas of expertise – even though you are competent at whatever is it that you do. Therefore, shut up, listen and learn.

BTW, this is why democratic, diverse and encouraging environments are always more successful that restrictive ones: the respect inherent in allowing someone else to dissent makes the system more resilient, stronger and adaptable.

And that is what you want in your app.

via rebecca blood and sentient development.

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For patients with brain injury, the revolution brings only good news, as Dr. Doidge describes in numerous examples. A woman with damage to the inner ear’s [...]]]> OK, so that is a bad word game, yet the plasticity of the brain appears to be nothing short of amazing, miraculous, and incomprehensible just yet; from the NYTimes:

For patients with brain injury, the revolution brings only good news, as Dr. Doidge describes in numerous examples. A woman with damage to the inner ear’s vestibular system, where the sense of balance resides, feels as if she is in constant free fall, tumbling through space like an ocean bather pulled under by the surf. Sitting in a neuroscience lab, she puts a set of electrodes on the surface of her tongue, a wired-up hard hat on her head, and the feel of falling stops. The apparatus connects to a computer to create an external vestibular system, replacing her damaged one by sending the proper signals to her brain via her tongue.

And I am getting the book.

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function get_smarter(): 1. Am I smart enough yet? (default answer: of course not!) 2. If yes, go make a grillion dollars, or go fishing, or something. (Note: this statement is unreachable). 3. Otherwise: 1. Do various important things, until I have some free time. 2. Pick a book from my book list and [...]]]> Program Yourself

function get_smarter():
1. Am I smart enough yet? (default answer: of course not!)
2. If yes, go make a grillion dollars, or go fishing, or something. (Note: this statement is unreachable).
3. Otherwise:
1. Do various important things, until I have some free time.
2. Pick a book from my book list and read it.
3. If I’ve read it already, check all the references at the end, and add the ones that look good to my book list.
4. get_smarter()

Now.

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Yet the research says that if we were willing to put in more hours, and to use those hours to practice the things that aren’t so fun, we could become good. Great. Potentially brilliant. We need, as Restak refers to [...]]]> Kathy Sierra’s post on How to be an expert simply reinforces the old advice: Practice!

Yet the research says that if we were willing to put in more hours, and to use those hours to practice the things that aren’t so fun, we could become good. Great. Potentially brilliant. We need, as Restak refers to it, “a rage to master.” That dedication to mastery drives the potential expert to focus on the most subtle aspects of performance, and to never be satisfied. There is always more to improve on, and they’re willing to work on the less fun stuff.

And in this day and age, we have become so utterly obsessed with doing everything that we are not experts anymore: we coast around trying to do things as best as we can.

And that is why only a few obsessive and determined individuals actually made it.

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