"Son, what did you learn in KI today?"
"I don't know, dad."
Friday, March 31, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
and larissa left the class too! :(
ahh well perhaps physics wasn't for you ppl.
I recalled that from sec 1 to sec 2 i didn't like physics nor math. The textbook simply made me sleep, and at that point I decided that I'd focus on bio and chem. Physics was totally out of the picture then, because the ideas were plain common sense, yet when I had to do a question it just didn't seem doable.
I suppose I'll have to thank Yuxian, for making physics fun for me. I recalled that he showed us various examples of how physics can help us solve problems that seem difficult, yet are simple to do, using very fundamental ideas like conservation of energy. The equations didn't make sense yet, but there was this thrill that surged through me as I thought more and more about how physics is able to make the things that didn't make sense just fit all nicely! Why do things work this way? Why is it that certain actions require more force, why you move certain way in the bus when certain things happen etc. Common sense was able to answer in what way you would move, but by how much? What can you do? Physics is able to predict many of the things that happen.
However, despite having those equations where you sub in variables that fit in nicely, those are still not enough to account for many of the things that occur, especially those where the dependent variable changes with the independent variable. Those problems required the solving of differential equations, which for a sec 3 student was pretty bomb. So i studied some math. Math was a tool for physics. I quote Mr. Wee, "Math gives physics the power, while physics give math the meaning." So its kinda like xiang1 fu3 xiang1 cheng2.
Later as I dwelt into the topic of religion, I had to go into the fundamentals of religion, and the fundamentals of science, which brought me to the idea that no! Physics theories do not predict things! The observed behaviour of thigns give rise to physics theories, which are then checked for consistency with the physical world! No wonder physics equations work!
Although that aspect makes physics seem less powerful than I thought it to be, by then I learnt more math (introductory calculus from Mrs Chan, solving differential equations by seperation of variables from Mr. Chandru) to make more out of Newton's second law (which, as you can read from "fundamentals of physics", can be used to derive many many things). Physics now seems pretty fun.
Some of the excitement comes from solving a real-world problem yourself, then verifying with the real world to see if it is right. Of course, my level is so low that someone else would probably have derived it, so why bother? Well... to me that is fun. You know that you may not be the best in the world in a certain game, but you do feel a sense of achievement when you manage to do something that seems difficult. Even though others can do it too, the fun doesn't come from the idea of your high score being high, or being better than others, but the kick from playing the game itself. Some computer games don't look fun (e.g. Utopia, Simcountry, Quest for Yap), but they can be fun once you get the hang of it, even if it doesn't serve any purpose. Perhaps, it would be fun after you get the hang of physics too!
I don't like bio as much, because while it has the same drawbacks as physics in that the theories must be verified against real life scenarios, it doesn't seem to have the same amount of power of predictability. There seems to be just too many variables to deal with to arrive at a quantitative answer.
To emphasize my point, that in a particular case the body acts such that more of chemical A is produced, yet at the same time something else happens such that less of chemical A is produced. So does the amount of chemical A in the body increase or decrease? Perhaps the answer is obtained empirically and qualitatively, such that you realise that perhaps the first event is a more important consideration, and the amount of chemical A produced increases. It is not a precise prediction that answers the question "by how much?".
Yet in physics, the opposing forces in a system can each be precisely determined, and the resulting force is simply a vector sum of the two opposing forces, such that you don't only know whether the object moves left or right, but also "by how much".
To be frank, my preference for physics is very much a personal thing. Perhaps people cannot comprehend why I like physics, just like I cannot comprehend why other people may like bio. I guess we are different after all.
On a brighter note, both shin jung and yunlin are in our KI class! Shin Jung seems quite outspoken. I look forward to hearing from her during class.
ahh well perhaps physics wasn't for you ppl.
I recalled that from sec 1 to sec 2 i didn't like physics nor math. The textbook simply made me sleep, and at that point I decided that I'd focus on bio and chem. Physics was totally out of the picture then, because the ideas were plain common sense, yet when I had to do a question it just didn't seem doable.
I suppose I'll have to thank Yuxian, for making physics fun for me. I recalled that he showed us various examples of how physics can help us solve problems that seem difficult, yet are simple to do, using very fundamental ideas like conservation of energy. The equations didn't make sense yet, but there was this thrill that surged through me as I thought more and more about how physics is able to make the things that didn't make sense just fit all nicely! Why do things work this way? Why is it that certain actions require more force, why you move certain way in the bus when certain things happen etc. Common sense was able to answer in what way you would move, but by how much? What can you do? Physics is able to predict many of the things that happen.
However, despite having those equations where you sub in variables that fit in nicely, those are still not enough to account for many of the things that occur, especially those where the dependent variable changes with the independent variable. Those problems required the solving of differential equations, which for a sec 3 student was pretty bomb. So i studied some math. Math was a tool for physics. I quote Mr. Wee, "Math gives physics the power, while physics give math the meaning." So its kinda like xiang1 fu3 xiang1 cheng2.
Later as I dwelt into the topic of religion, I had to go into the fundamentals of religion, and the fundamentals of science, which brought me to the idea that no! Physics theories do not predict things! The observed behaviour of thigns give rise to physics theories, which are then checked for consistency with the physical world! No wonder physics equations work!
Although that aspect makes physics seem less powerful than I thought it to be, by then I learnt more math (introductory calculus from Mrs Chan, solving differential equations by seperation of variables from Mr. Chandru) to make more out of Newton's second law (which, as you can read from "fundamentals of physics", can be used to derive many many things). Physics now seems pretty fun.
Some of the excitement comes from solving a real-world problem yourself, then verifying with the real world to see if it is right. Of course, my level is so low that someone else would probably have derived it, so why bother? Well... to me that is fun. You know that you may not be the best in the world in a certain game, but you do feel a sense of achievement when you manage to do something that seems difficult. Even though others can do it too, the fun doesn't come from the idea of your high score being high, or being better than others, but the kick from playing the game itself. Some computer games don't look fun (e.g. Utopia, Simcountry, Quest for Yap), but they can be fun once you get the hang of it, even if it doesn't serve any purpose. Perhaps, it would be fun after you get the hang of physics too!
I don't like bio as much, because while it has the same drawbacks as physics in that the theories must be verified against real life scenarios, it doesn't seem to have the same amount of power of predictability. There seems to be just too many variables to deal with to arrive at a quantitative answer.
To emphasize my point, that in a particular case the body acts such that more of chemical A is produced, yet at the same time something else happens such that less of chemical A is produced. So does the amount of chemical A in the body increase or decrease? Perhaps the answer is obtained empirically and qualitatively, such that you realise that perhaps the first event is a more important consideration, and the amount of chemical A produced increases. It is not a precise prediction that answers the question "by how much?".
Yet in physics, the opposing forces in a system can each be precisely determined, and the resulting force is simply a vector sum of the two opposing forces, such that you don't only know whether the object moves left or right, but also "by how much".
To be frank, my preference for physics is very much a personal thing. Perhaps people cannot comprehend why I like physics, just like I cannot comprehend why other people may like bio. I guess we are different after all.
On a brighter note, both shin jung and yunlin are in our KI class! Shin Jung seems quite outspoken. I look forward to hearing from her during class.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Random thoughts:
You've heard of those birds that pick on the scraps in crocodile's teeth? And you've heard that birds cannot control their bowels? Well...
"That's so not sarcastic lah!" - Yunlin.
Sigh... hybridisation theory and MO theory cannot account for bond angles, VSEPR theory cannot account for ionisation energies... I wonder if the physics of chemistry is unified.
Frankly speaking I don't really see the need for a complete and unified theory for physics if the equations end up being much more complicated and they don't predict anything new. But chemistry does need a complete and unified theory because currently the models I know of all have problems with experimental results.
On a side note I am currently building something big. And pretty. And expensive. But might not work.
Holidays are ending so soon.
You've heard of those birds that pick on the scraps in crocodile's teeth? And you've heard that birds cannot control their bowels? Well...
"That's so not sarcastic lah!" - Yunlin.
Sigh... hybridisation theory and MO theory cannot account for bond angles, VSEPR theory cannot account for ionisation energies... I wonder if the physics of chemistry is unified.
Frankly speaking I don't really see the need for a complete and unified theory for physics if the equations end up being much more complicated and they don't predict anything new. But chemistry does need a complete and unified theory because currently the models I know of all have problems with experimental results.
On a side note I am currently building something big. And pretty. And expensive. But might not work.
Holidays are ending so soon.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
On a random note this Sunday was the first time I ever heard anyone say the word "malign". It is often read when I watch some chinese drama, when they say "Bie2 yuan1 wang3 wo1 !" the subtitles would say "Stop maligning me!", so i sorta figured out what malign means. People write it down, people type it out, but I NEVER heard anyone say it before. And the first time I heard that word was spoken by libing. On bus 58.
Man if i have a biography the timeline would go like
"blah for the first time in 2001
blah for the first time in 2005
Heard the word 'malign' for the first time in his life, said by Tan Libing on bus 58, 12 March 2006."
Man if i have a biography the timeline would go like
"blah for the first time in 2001
blah for the first time in 2005
Heard the word 'malign' for the first time in his life, said by Tan Libing on bus 58, 12 March 2006."
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
I shall recount on the Sunday 6D Class Birthday Bash!
The first thing i noticed when i reached there was EH how come larissa suddenly grow so big today? took me quite a moment to realise that she wore high heels.
Actually the front part not very happening, cos the girls(yes just enough girls to put the letter 's' at the back) wanted to go shopping so much that they decided to abandon the guys. The initial plan was to go bowling, because both guys and girls are okay with it (girls are not really okay with LANning and guys are definitely not okay with shopping), but since the people who wouldn't lan have abandoned us, the rest of us except hongrui and andrew went to play CS.
My first time playing CS.
And yan an taught me how to play, while taking my virgin cs blood at the same time.
Being such a n00b the kills I got only came from dashing into the enemy with an uzi/ machine gun. At least I take down some people's lives sometimes.
Deric and jinwei are good. Yan An is really good.
After that it was about time for lunch. Nothing much happened there, except that we met sushma.
As we were walking we almost managed to persuade the girls into lanning with us, (libing looked quite on about lanning) but after seeing some more shops they abandoned us again to shop!!! But nvm the guys tried to lan again, but the lan shop was full, and we waited for a long time still couldn't play. So we went to find the girls and we went arcade. Much of the focus was on daytona, but I went to play this cool (but expensive) samurai game. Take this stick and swing around. Hongrui emphasized the idea behind it. Then i went to play the punching game, and got owned by Deric.
Then sometime on the way back people started trying to guess who larissa's eye candy is. The two clues are "from ri" and "shorter than larissa". People are still guessing.
Larissa had to leave us to stay with her family. That made 1 person sad, and 1 person very sad. So sad he couldn't keep up with the rest of us. But eventually he did catch up. About 1 hour later.
Went back to bishan to buy cake and drinks and party stuff, then went Libing's condo.
The functional room was nice and transparent and had a smoke detector so the security guard told us not to smoke. OOPS.
At first people play cards, then we went to explore the highly-acclaimed-by-libing playground. Really quite nice... lots of ropes for bondage.... nvm disregard that I mean its like an obstacle course and its nice and challenging and there was some flying fox thing, but it wasn't very well built so the thing could only go 3/4 of the way. But they had springs at the end would we could use to kick start the flying fox so that it does reach the end. More and more people tried it out. Eventually people went to push each rider so fast that the people crash into the pole supporting the flying fox rope and the net attached to one side. Everyone could hear the "OOMPH" as yan an crashed into the pole. And when daniel crashed really hard onto the net. It became kinda sadistic later on.
Highlight was when mich lim went to sit on the flying fox, and zeyan climbed up the netting and pulled the seating contraption all the way to fully compress the spring with one hand so that it has more starting speed. Someone commented that "Wah zeyan's muscles has finally come to good use."
Then we went back to dunno do what, but then pizza arrived and we ate. Some time around then michee and yunlin arrived wet. Someone commented that they look as though they went bathing together. I shall make no further comments.
Then play more cards time.
Then birthday cake came and we sang b'day song to 6D. And yuehao was playing with the paper plate like a fan so the candles went out before the last line, and amidst the confusion and jeering I tried to dunk him there and then into the pool out the window, just someone else suggested we relight and finish singing first. Aiyar. But nvm all the term one ppl got presents! Nice cute shiny stickers with our names on it. I am currently thinking of ways to put them to the best possible use. Then cut cake and eat cake time! The cake was kinda small for 20 ppl so all the slices were small. But the cake was nice.
Then the time came when zeyan was to put on libing's NYGH blouse. It pity both zeyan and the blouse... it was really tight. It really seemed like if zeyan flexed the blouse would explode. Then zeyan was told to say his catchphrase of the day: "I am proud of my chest." Eventually we took it off, albeit with much difficulty too.
Then see light hear sound time. Was kinda disappointed myself. Not that much light and sound afterall.
Later we went to dunk zeyan. Somehow he was very willing, but thats because they had a not-very well hidden Plan B. The plan was to pretend to dunk zeyan, but switch target to libing when she comes close enough. But LIBING IS SMART. She held on to her handphone and stayed far far away. So there was some awkward moment of inaction between ppl suggesting to dunk zeyan and actually dunking zeyan cos we were waiting for libing to come closer. After we dunked zeyan we looked like we were ready to leave. Then Zeyan shouted "Hey what happened to Plan B?" It was becoming so blatant that libing tried to sneak away and sit on the chair nearby with her handphone. Then i went to ask for her handphone. More guys came and asked for it. And she refused to let go. But then... because we have 15+ guys at the party she was overwhelmed, and down she went! and she spun half a turn in midair and landed face flat in the pool. The other girls looked in horror.
Then zeyan was about to climb out and yan an pushed him in again. And again. For like 4 times, so zeyan got dunked like 5 times in total. the i helped zeyan exact revenge, and with 15+ guys how to escape? Down he went too. There was some strolling around and chatting and I chanced upon a Yan An walking along the pool edge! How could I resist? Down he went again.
And I was yang2 yang2 de2 yi4 backing into the crowd slowly, but i saw ppl pointing towards me, and I tried to siam, but 15+ guys in the party how to siam? then security guard came and cannot dunk anymore. Awwwwww. I so wanted to get dunked. what a waste. aiyar.... lucky libing zeyan yan an got dunked leh.
Then clear up time. =( But nvm later we went libing's house and saw her place and room. Was amazed that libing is so musical! Oh my oh my cannot small see libing already. I wanted to hear her play violin cannot cos it was too late at night. then while yan an and qinzheng were playing music i was watching libing chat with ppl on msn. Yes i read much of what she received. And zeyan if you are reading this yes i read that you enjoyed the party.
Her living room is so nice and comfy yan an and I (and needless to say qinzheng) wanted to sleep over at the living room. But cannot cos empress dowager summoned her maid to inform us to leave by 11.30. sigh. frankly speaking i kinda expected it, because libing IS a girl afterall. I just *hoped* that we could somehow stay. Don't really like the feeling of going home alone at 11.30 pm. besides i was sleepy and if i could just fall asleep there then next morning wake up and remember all the fun we had, that would be so. nice.
Oh well but we had to go home. Talked to qinzheng on the bus, then went home alone by MRT. The day was over.
The first thing i noticed when i reached there was EH how come larissa suddenly grow so big today? took me quite a moment to realise that she wore high heels.
Actually the front part not very happening, cos the girls(yes just enough girls to put the letter 's' at the back) wanted to go shopping so much that they decided to abandon the guys. The initial plan was to go bowling, because both guys and girls are okay with it (girls are not really okay with LANning and guys are definitely not okay with shopping), but since the people who wouldn't lan have abandoned us, the rest of us except hongrui and andrew went to play CS.
My first time playing CS.
And yan an taught me how to play, while taking my virgin cs blood at the same time.
Being such a n00b the kills I got only came from dashing into the enemy with an uzi/ machine gun. At least I take down some people's lives sometimes.
Deric and jinwei are good. Yan An is really good.
After that it was about time for lunch. Nothing much happened there, except that we met sushma.
As we were walking we almost managed to persuade the girls into lanning with us, (libing looked quite on about lanning) but after seeing some more shops they abandoned us again to shop!!! But nvm the guys tried to lan again, but the lan shop was full, and we waited for a long time still couldn't play. So we went to find the girls and we went arcade. Much of the focus was on daytona, but I went to play this cool (but expensive) samurai game. Take this stick and swing around. Hongrui emphasized the idea behind it. Then i went to play the punching game, and got owned by Deric.
Then sometime on the way back people started trying to guess who larissa's eye candy is. The two clues are "from ri" and "shorter than larissa". People are still guessing.
Larissa had to leave us to stay with her family. That made 1 person sad, and 1 person very sad. So sad he couldn't keep up with the rest of us. But eventually he did catch up. About 1 hour later.
Went back to bishan to buy cake and drinks and party stuff, then went Libing's condo.
The functional room was nice and transparent and had a smoke detector so the security guard told us not to smoke. OOPS.
At first people play cards, then we went to explore the highly-acclaimed-by-libing playground. Really quite nice... lots of ropes for bondage.... nvm disregard that I mean its like an obstacle course and its nice and challenging and there was some flying fox thing, but it wasn't very well built so the thing could only go 3/4 of the way. But they had springs at the end would we could use to kick start the flying fox so that it does reach the end. More and more people tried it out. Eventually people went to push each rider so fast that the people crash into the pole supporting the flying fox rope and the net attached to one side. Everyone could hear the "OOMPH" as yan an crashed into the pole. And when daniel crashed really hard onto the net. It became kinda sadistic later on.
Highlight was when mich lim went to sit on the flying fox, and zeyan climbed up the netting and pulled the seating contraption all the way to fully compress the spring with one hand so that it has more starting speed. Someone commented that "Wah zeyan's muscles has finally come to good use."
Then we went back to dunno do what, but then pizza arrived and we ate. Some time around then michee and yunlin arrived wet. Someone commented that they look as though they went bathing together. I shall make no further comments.
Then play more cards time.
Then birthday cake came and we sang b'day song to 6D. And yuehao was playing with the paper plate like a fan so the candles went out before the last line, and amidst the confusion and jeering I tried to dunk him there and then into the pool out the window, just someone else suggested we relight and finish singing first. Aiyar. But nvm all the term one ppl got presents! Nice cute shiny stickers with our names on it. I am currently thinking of ways to put them to the best possible use. Then cut cake and eat cake time! The cake was kinda small for 20 ppl so all the slices were small. But the cake was nice.
Then the time came when zeyan was to put on libing's NYGH blouse. It pity both zeyan and the blouse... it was really tight. It really seemed like if zeyan flexed the blouse would explode. Then zeyan was told to say his catchphrase of the day: "I am proud of my chest." Eventually we took it off, albeit with much difficulty too.
Then see light hear sound time. Was kinda disappointed myself. Not that much light and sound afterall.
Later we went to dunk zeyan. Somehow he was very willing, but thats because they had a not-very well hidden Plan B. The plan was to pretend to dunk zeyan, but switch target to libing when she comes close enough. But LIBING IS SMART. She held on to her handphone and stayed far far away. So there was some awkward moment of inaction between ppl suggesting to dunk zeyan and actually dunking zeyan cos we were waiting for libing to come closer. After we dunked zeyan we looked like we were ready to leave. Then Zeyan shouted "Hey what happened to Plan B?" It was becoming so blatant that libing tried to sneak away and sit on the chair nearby with her handphone. Then i went to ask for her handphone. More guys came and asked for it. And she refused to let go. But then... because we have 15+ guys at the party she was overwhelmed, and down she went! and she spun half a turn in midair and landed face flat in the pool. The other girls looked in horror.
Then zeyan was about to climb out and yan an pushed him in again. And again. For like 4 times, so zeyan got dunked like 5 times in total. the i helped zeyan exact revenge, and with 15+ guys how to escape? Down he went too. There was some strolling around and chatting and I chanced upon a Yan An walking along the pool edge! How could I resist? Down he went again.
And I was yang2 yang2 de2 yi4 backing into the crowd slowly, but i saw ppl pointing towards me, and I tried to siam, but 15+ guys in the party how to siam? then security guard came and cannot dunk anymore. Awwwwww. I so wanted to get dunked. what a waste. aiyar.... lucky libing zeyan yan an got dunked leh.
Then clear up time. =( But nvm later we went libing's house and saw her place and room. Was amazed that libing is so musical! Oh my oh my cannot small see libing already. I wanted to hear her play violin cannot cos it was too late at night. then while yan an and qinzheng were playing music i was watching libing chat with ppl on msn. Yes i read much of what she received. And zeyan if you are reading this yes i read that you enjoyed the party.
Her living room is so nice and comfy yan an and I (and needless to say qinzheng) wanted to sleep over at the living room. But cannot cos empress dowager summoned her maid to inform us to leave by 11.30. sigh. frankly speaking i kinda expected it, because libing IS a girl afterall. I just *hoped* that we could somehow stay. Don't really like the feeling of going home alone at 11.30 pm. besides i was sleepy and if i could just fall asleep there then next morning wake up and remember all the fun we had, that would be so. nice.
Oh well but we had to go home. Talked to qinzheng on the bus, then went home alone by MRT. The day was over.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Wahaha on thursday I did my alchemy presentation and the teacher-in-charge said it was not bad! yay i'm so proud of myself ^^. Although I screwed up the stuctural isomerism part, it wasn't too bad because I am aware that I am not good at impromptu presentations, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. *glares at KLeong* I did make preparations for hybridization though and it turned out fine. It was pretty comforting to find out that I can make a decent presentation if I am prepared.
I wonder if one should join alchemy in the first place if he/she doesn't know stuff like skeletal structure. I hope that alchemy doesn't turn into an extra chem tutorial.
Ahh and cheers to Chin Heng as well! He did a great job on stereochemistry, ppl were just not paying attention.
The alchemy presentation was supposed to be ~40 mins per group. Our group spent 2 hours. (But then Ali and Dr. Chan did speak quite a lot, so it would be roughly 1hr 20 mins in total for us)
Phrase of the day: we can suggest.
I wonder if one should join alchemy in the first place if he/she doesn't know stuff like skeletal structure. I hope that alchemy doesn't turn into an extra chem tutorial.
Ahh and cheers to Chin Heng as well! He did a great job on stereochemistry, ppl were just not paying attention.
The alchemy presentation was supposed to be ~40 mins per group. Our group spent 2 hours. (But then Ali and Dr. Chan did speak quite a lot, so it would be roughly 1hr 20 mins in total for us)
Phrase of the day: we can suggest.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
I attempted to use the premise-conclusion format to answer a chemical bonding question. But after about 40 mins of stating premises i still couldn't establish a link from the premises to the conclusion. The question i tried was "Why is the bond angle of OF2 smaller than the bond angle of H2O?"
I suspect the answer would take no less than two full pages using font 12.
I suspect the answer would take no less than two full pages using font 12.
Perhaps there isn't much point in deliberating over why certain things happen. After all, causal links are impossible to establish. What one can be sure of is that a certain event has followed another. Nothing else.
Gravity has always caused objects with mass to come together. They would still come together regardless of whether we know "why". Science never managed to answer "why". It only managed to model the environment. And this model is a powerful tool and helping us find out if certain things can be done, and what will happen if certain things are done. They can never answer why.
Gravity has always caused objects with mass to come together. They would still come together regardless of whether we know "why". Science never managed to answer "why". It only managed to model the environment. And this model is a powerful tool and helping us find out if certain things can be done, and what will happen if certain things are done. They can never answer why.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Respect for wrong arguments?
Shaosheng commented that we should embrace other people's ideas, and not shoot them down the moment they are expressed.
Out of respect, when we argue with someone, it is basic that we:
1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their argument to put their argument in the best possible form the author wishes to express.
After which, if the best possible way the argument can be put is still flawed, then the argument should be rejected. It works the same way for ideas,
1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their ideas to put their ideas in the best possible form the author wishes to express.
I suppose what shaosheng means by "embrace" is the first 3 parts. However, if after the first 3 steps are completed, and the best possible form an idea is still a comepletely unconstructive one, then it should be perfectly fine to tear it down. There seems no point in keeping or even respecting ideas that are plainly useless.
Then instead of tearing it down, why not help to make it better? In order to improve upon an idea, it is important for us to first see its flaws. If an idea is so bad that it can be torn down so easily and cannot be rebuilt, then perhaps that idea isn't really worth improving upon in the first place. If an idea has some good in it, after someone attempts to tear it down, you could come up with a new idea based on the former idea. The new idea would then be better than the original one, since it would have some defence against that argument. Others can now attempt to tear it down again, and after numerous improvements, the idea improves. Scrutinising every idea for flaws would defend us against false beliefs.
In my opinion, a bad idea is not worth improving upon, as it may take less effort to tear it down and make another one than to improve upon it. A pretty good idea may have flaws, but the flaws may be easily corrected. The best way to get a set of good ideas to is scrutinise every single idea, reject those that are plainly useless or wrong, improve upon only those that are already quite good, and come up with new ideas again if the old ones are still not good enough. The amount of good in bad ideas is not really worth the effort to recover.
Shaosheng commented that we should embrace other people's ideas, and not shoot them down the moment they are expressed.
Out of respect, when we argue with someone, it is basic that we:
1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their argument to put their argument in the best possible form the author wishes to express.
After which, if the best possible way the argument can be put is still flawed, then the argument should be rejected. It works the same way for ideas,
1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their ideas to put their ideas in the best possible form the author wishes to express.
I suppose what shaosheng means by "embrace" is the first 3 parts. However, if after the first 3 steps are completed, and the best possible form an idea is still a comepletely unconstructive one, then it should be perfectly fine to tear it down. There seems no point in keeping or even respecting ideas that are plainly useless.
Then instead of tearing it down, why not help to make it better? In order to improve upon an idea, it is important for us to first see its flaws. If an idea is so bad that it can be torn down so easily and cannot be rebuilt, then perhaps that idea isn't really worth improving upon in the first place. If an idea has some good in it, after someone attempts to tear it down, you could come up with a new idea based on the former idea. The new idea would then be better than the original one, since it would have some defence against that argument. Others can now attempt to tear it down again, and after numerous improvements, the idea improves. Scrutinising every idea for flaws would defend us against false beliefs.
In my opinion, a bad idea is not worth improving upon, as it may take less effort to tear it down and make another one than to improve upon it. A pretty good idea may have flaws, but the flaws may be easily corrected. The best way to get a set of good ideas to is scrutinise every single idea, reject those that are plainly useless or wrong, improve upon only those that are already quite good, and come up with new ideas again if the old ones are still not good enough. The amount of good in bad ideas is not really worth the effort to recover.
Opportunity cost for reasoning time
Sometimes I wonder if it takes time to think, and you are deciding between two choices of a way to use your time, then do we have to take thinking time into account? When you use the time to think, you are sacrificing the time that can be used to do something else. Of course, one can calculate the amount of gain that one derives from thinking, but that itself also requires time. So, how much should we think? It seems that economics cannot really answer this question because they assume that humans are rational beings, which implies that anyone takes an infinitesimal amount of time to figure out what is good for him.
In real life that is obviously not the case. It takes some time to come up with any useful thought. A particularly interesting situation arrives where the more time you take to think, the more likely you are to make the correct choice. However, the later you respond, the lower the benefits of making the correct choice. If the function of thinking time to benefits of making the right choice is established, then it would be simple. However, the function differs from situation to situation, and the function itself is by no means easy to find. So, is there any way to figure out how long should we take to think?
Why do we even spend time thinking in the first place? Assuming the hedonistic view, we would be thinking for this amount of time because we find more joy in thinking than actually settling down on one particular uncertain choice. It could also be that the fear of uncertainty hinders us from making a choice as yet. When the time comes such that we are confident enough, i.e., the fear of taking too long to make a choice overcomes the fear of uncertainty, we settle down on a choice.
So ultimately the amount of time spent thinking is based on instinct. Even after thinking, our choice would still be based on confidence, not really reason.
Sometimes I wonder if it takes time to think, and you are deciding between two choices of a way to use your time, then do we have to take thinking time into account? When you use the time to think, you are sacrificing the time that can be used to do something else. Of course, one can calculate the amount of gain that one derives from thinking, but that itself also requires time. So, how much should we think? It seems that economics cannot really answer this question because they assume that humans are rational beings, which implies that anyone takes an infinitesimal amount of time to figure out what is good for him.
In real life that is obviously not the case. It takes some time to come up with any useful thought. A particularly interesting situation arrives where the more time you take to think, the more likely you are to make the correct choice. However, the later you respond, the lower the benefits of making the correct choice. If the function of thinking time to benefits of making the right choice is established, then it would be simple. However, the function differs from situation to situation, and the function itself is by no means easy to find. So, is there any way to figure out how long should we take to think?
Why do we even spend time thinking in the first place? Assuming the hedonistic view, we would be thinking for this amount of time because we find more joy in thinking than actually settling down on one particular uncertain choice. It could also be that the fear of uncertainty hinders us from making a choice as yet. When the time comes such that we are confident enough, i.e., the fear of taking too long to make a choice overcomes the fear of uncertainty, we settle down on a choice.
So ultimately the amount of time spent thinking is based on instinct. Even after thinking, our choice would still be based on confidence, not really reason.
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