Archives for category: Psychology

Azi dimineata am primit in mail un link.
Era povestea aia cu o grupa de studenti care accepta ca toti sa primeasca la examen aceiasi nota, calculata ca medie a notelor fiecaruia dintre ei. Pe scurt, toata lumea a cazut deoarece cei lenesi nu au invatat de loc bazandu-se ca cei harnici vor lua medii mari iar cei harnici nu au invatat pentru ca nu au vrut sa-i care in spate pe ceilalti.

 

http://mariuscruceru.ro/2010/07/24/lectia-de-socialism/

 

au inceput sa ma manance degetele si iata ce a iesit: 

 

“Practica ne-a invatat ca socialismul o da in bara in mod constant.
Poate ca ar fi bine sa intelegem si de ce.
Prezenta povestire da vina pe ‘egalitarism’. Daca ar fi asa atunci stramosii nostrii, cei care traiau in comunitati strinse (inainte de aparitia banului) si imparteau tot ce aveau n-ar fi supravietuit. S-ar fi batut intre ei pe mancare si ar fi murit pana la urma de foame.
In schimb au gasit o metoda sa inmulteasca putinele resursele pe care le aveau la dispozitie cu toate ca imparteau roadele muncii lor.
Usor, usor, au cladit orase, au invatat sa scrie, au descoperit tot felul de tehnologii SI au inventat BANII. Abia din momentul asta au inceput cu adevarat sa se bata intre ei. Tocmai pentru ca nu si-au dat seama ca banii sunt doar un intrument si au ajuns sa considere banul (POSESIA LUI) ca fiind telul suprem al vietii,
E adevarat ca si pe vremea aia erau oameni intelepti care au atras atentia ca ‘banul este ochiul dracului’ si ca trebuie folosit cu mare grija dar degeaba
Sa revenim la socialism.
Cel mai mare pacat din Biblie este aroganta. Credinta ca esti atotstiutor. De asta nu functioneaza socialismul. Pentru ca este promovat de gasti de indivizi care sustin ca stiu ei mai bine decit ceilalti oameni cum trebuie sa functioneze societatea, cum trebuie sa functioneze lucrurile.
Si nu doar ca au aceasta credinta de nestramutat. Pana la urma fiecare dintre noi avem, macar la un moment dat, impresia ca am descoperit ceva nemaipomenit, ceva inca necunoscut, si incercam sa-i convingem pe cei din jur cit de interesanta este descoperirea noastra.
Problema reala apare din faptul ca ‘socialistii’ au o ‘credinta’ atat de puternica incit nu se dau in laturi la nimic in drumul lor catre ‘societatea perfecta’: masluiesc alegeri, invrajbesc oamenii unii impotriva celorlalti (Securitatea e un bun exemplu) si pana la urma duc totul de rapa.
Si de fapt cam asa a procedat si profesorul din povestea asta. Stia de la bun inceput ce urmeaza sa se intample. Si cu toate astea a organizat ‘experimentul’: doar pentru a demonstra ca el are dreptate.
In felul asta a reusit sa strice vacanta unei intregi grupe.
Sau nu?!?
Eu unul nu cred ca TOTI aia erau atit de tampiti incit sa cada in plasa. Probabil ca erau niste lenesi care au gindit ‘lasa-i pe prosti sa invete si o sa trecem si noi pe langa ei’. La fel de probabil e ca au fost si unii care au gandit ca ‘da-i in masa, ce sa invat eu pentru ei, mai bine merg si eu in toamna decit sa treaca si niste lenesi pe linga mine’!
Totusi mie nu-mi vine sa cred ca n-au fost si unii care sa se gandeasca: mai bine invat eu cit de bine pot – de fapt de asta am venit aici, sa invat, NU? – iar la examen ma voi stradui cit pot mai bine ca sa nu trebuiasca sa mai vin o data si la toamna. Iar fraierii aia care nu invata si vor trece pe langa mine, treaba lor. Ei n-or sa aiba cunostintele dupa care, de fapt, au venit aici, la facultate!’ “

 

 

Image

 

 

I found this image here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=603581583007664&set=a.364218226944002.95415.356680184364473&type=1&theater

Eric Toole (https://www.facebook.com/eric.toole.5) commented: “Stan, here in the southeast, the conventional seeded fields are easy to see. They have weeds in them. It has been proven that 100 weeds per acre can lower yields as much as 10%. Not to mention the farm material (weed trash/seed) that is in the harvested crop. I am not a researcher, though I have 2 degrees from UF. I am a FARMER! I live in the real world, on the front lines & not as a “free thinker” that believes that a farmer can live on nothing. I am in the business to make money!”

And here is my comment:
“” I am a FARMER! …. I am in the business to make money!”
Pity me! Until now I was thinking that farmers were in the business of growing food…
OK, growing food efficiently! In the sense that prices should cover the costs and the farmer should reap a big enough profit  to make a decent living. 
The problem with ‘being in the business to make money’ is that very soon the main goal (decent food) gets sidetracked by ‘money’ and this is how (potentially harmful) GMOs came into existence.”

 

Pentru a beneficia in vre-un fel de resurse trebuie sa fii in stare sa le recunosti ca fiind resurse iar dupa aceea sa le structurezi intr-un fel sau altul.

Si aici e problema. Softistii astia nu sunt sunt (cu tot respectul cuvenit) cusatorese. Una e sa pui de o hala in care 100 de cusatorese lucreaza in lohn si alta e sa faci o pravalie de IT. Cusatoresele erau invatate cu disciplina muncitoreasca de pe vremea lui Ceasca, IT-stii sunt mult mai rebeli/creativi de felul lor. Daca nu te porti ‘frumos’ cu ei pleaca. (Aia buni si tu ramai cu ‘cusatoresele’ – disciplinate dar nu indeajuns de talentate incit sa devina croitorese)

Pleaca in strainezia sau la firme straine care activeaza in Romania. Si asta pentru ca deocamdata prea multi dintre patronii romani sunt mai degraba tepari decit antreprenori.

 

http://www.zf.ro/business-hi-tech/luxoft-din-rusia-ecuatia-este-gresita-aveti-softisti-dar-nu-aveti-start-up-uri-11169414

Rahatul asta de comunism imi strica viata si la 24 ani de cind, teoretic, a fost ‘abolit’.
Astazi am vazut o inghetata “Polar” pe care scria ceva de genul ‘gustul copilariei’. N-am avut ce face si am cumparat una. 
Poate ca producatorii (Alpine din Sebes) or fi de buna credinta. Partea proasta e ca sunt mult mai tineri decit mine. Banuiesc ca ei au fost copii pe vremea cind ‘Ceasca’ stricase deja tot ce a fost vreodata bun.
Ramaneti cu amintirea.

“… sitting ducks for German fighters and antiaircraft gunners. Tens of thousands of men perished in the sky over Europe. The entire United States Marine Corp didn’t suffer as many casualties in the War against Japan as did the airmen who flew bombers over Germany.”

So people can do almost unimaginable things when they think their ‘collective identity’ (way of live, common values, etc.) is in danger. If you examine this in detail you cannot fail to notice that while the Marines fought on a more or less stable/natural environment (the sea shore, mostly) the Airmen first put themselves in a very dangerous and unnatural situation – high up in the sky – and ONLY THEN started to fight one another…

Am I wrong or the graph in this article proves that being a conservative or a liberal has more to do with the conditions in which you grew up and with your own political choices than directly with your religious confession?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/the-rise-of-the-christian-left-in-america/278086/

I always wonder why do we get updated every five minutes on the ‘Kim Kardashians’ of the world while it took at least 8 month for this information to percolate from the US to Romania.
And how many of you, citizens of the world, were aware of this development?

“Andraka wrote up an experimental protocol and e-mailed it to 200 researchers. Only Maitra responded. “It was a very unusual e-mail,” he remembers. “I often don’t get e-mails like this from postdoctoral fellows, let alone high-school freshmen.” He decided to invite Andraka to his lab. To oversee the project, he appointed a gentle postdoctoral chemist, who took the baby-sitting assignment in stride. They expected to see Andraka for perhaps a few weeks over the summer.
Instead, the young scientist worked for seven months, every day after school and often on Saturdays until after midnight, subsisting on hard-boiled eggs and Twix as his mother dozed in the car in a nearby parking garage. He labored through Thanksgiving and Christmas. He spent his 15th birthday in the lab.”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Jack-Andraka-the-Teen-Prodigy-of-Pancreatic-Cancer-179996151.html?c=y&page=3

I’m not talking self defense here. Cross that line and you’re in deep trouble.

No, this is about killing animals.

I enjoy a juicy steak and most of my shoes are made of leather. (My grand father was a shoemaker and I’m able to glue or stitch a mend-able boot.) 

I’m talking here about two very different situations.
It’s one thing to raise animals for food (our need for animal protein is real) and use their hides for clothing once we have already killed them but I find it really disgusting to hunt and/or slaughter animals just because we feel prettier clad/shod in their pelts. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxbrMk4-ZmA

 

 

You know the joke about the proverbial glass.
The optimist sees it as half full, the pessimist as half empty while the ‘realist’ grabs it and ‘enjoys’ whatever is in it.

Something of the same nature happens with the whole planet. Optimists are happily careless about what’s going on, the pessimists are terrified about the future and the ‘pragmatists’ are callously using resources as if there is no tomorrow.

To me this whole situation looks like a tree house. All three kinds of people live together in it and use as sustenance the sap of the tree limb where the house was build.
Only the branch is slowly withering away. The pessimists moan about this but don’t do anything really significant, the optimists don’t care while the pragmatists have already made plans for another house on a higher branch.

There is one small problem though. As time goes by the lower branches wither away. The tree, now old, is left with very few leaves so it can no longer grow new branches nor feed its inhabitants.
At last the hungry survivors decide to climb down and search for another tree. Yeah…but they are too high in the air to jump and the branches bellow … are no longer there!

No, I’m not desperate nor Malthusian. I’m convinced that human ingenuity can solve problems far more complicated than the ones we are facing today. Only we have to start facing them instead of turning our heads the other way.
And we’d better start solving the existing problems without adding new ones. (Iatrogenics, see Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile…http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/1400067820)

Can Neuromarketers Really Peer Into Your Subconscious? They Say They Can.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/does_neuromarketing_work_poor_data_secret_analysis_and_logical_errors.html

 

The problem is not whether they can or not. The problem is that they try.
Until not so long ago research was about how to get more money by making better products. Nowadays it’s mostly about how to squeeze most money out of as crappier products as possible