realistic models

«If the track is long and the hill is rough, thinking you can just
ain't enough.» -- Shel Silverstein, "Where the Sidewalk Ends", page
158

Cited in (OK, this is pretty nerdy) --

"Motivational Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Self-Regulated Learning"
by Frank Pajares, in "Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning: Theory,
Research, and Applications" by Dale H. Schunk and Barry J.
Zimmerman, eds. (Taylor and Francis Group, 2008).

Well, that's a mouthful, but let's not let it stand in the way
of the main point. Frank Pajares says at the outset of the
chapter:

«Psychologist Albert Bandura theorized that the beliefs
that people come to hold about their capabilities and about the
outcomes of their efforts powerfully influence not only the ways
in which they will behave but also the cognitive and affective
processes that accompany their functioning. For Bandura,
as for the poet Virgil, people who are 'able' are typically those
who *believe* they are able.»

To sum up further -- it's not just *thinking* you can
that's important, but *believing* you can. Make it
a "justified, true belief" and you'll *know* you can,
yeah?!

Now, what kind of maps or models are *realistic*
(i.e. "justified and true)? Pajares suggests
"coping models", which say that

«missteps are inevitable, they can be overcome,
and even authority figures make them»

as opposed to the so-called "mastery models"
held by

«those who have their authority and ego tied up
into their infallibility»

Building up to the idea that --

«Effective models convey not only the success
experience itself but also the information
required to succeed.»

Now that we know something about these
maps, we should take a good look at their
dynamic aspects. Parajes suggests that --

«Making students aware of the self-handicapping
strategies they regularly use to decrease anxiety
is a critical first step in teaching them how to
circumvent such strategies.»

A first step is not enough, but it's an interesting
(and sensible) beginning. (Question for reflection:
What are the next steps?)

objections to a philosopher

«In truth, only one kind of objection is worthwhile:
the objection which shows that the question raised by
a philosopher is not a good question, that it does
not force the nature of things enough, that it should
be raised in another way, that we should raise it in
a better way, or that we should raise a different
question.» --Deleuze, "Empiricism and Subjectivity", p. 107

concerning the direction of arrows

In the article

Nishida's Philosophy of `Place',
International Philosophical Quarterly,
28(4), 1988, pp. 355-371,

the author, Masao Abe, talks about the difference between

dog -is a-> mammal

and

mammal -particularizes to-> dog.

In the first way of thinking, we end up with

Ralph -is a-> dog -is a-> mammal -is a-> ... ->thing,

and Ralph is the "subject that cannot be a predicate".
("Are you a Ralph?" is so 'Pixar'...)

On the other hand, considering the chain

the universe -particularizes to-> ...-> dog -particularizes to-> Ralph,

we end up considering "a predicate that cannot be subject" -- what
Nishida and Abe choose to call ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS, since
they deem that phrase to be adequate to describe the 'something'
about which nothing sensible can ever really be said, i.e., the 'thing'
that is never a grammatical subject.  (Henceforth abbreviated to
"Mu".)

But, by Saint Sebastian! -- isn't that 'thing' the "Body without
Organs" from Deleuze et al.?

Or, shall we go back further, to

Empiricism and Subjectivity: An essay on Hume's theory of human nature
Gilles Deleuze, 1953
trans. Constantin V. Boundas, 1991, Columbia Univ. Press

wherein Deleuze remarks: "The mind and the given are not derived
from such-and-such an idea but rather from the smallest idea, whether
it is used to represent the grain of sand or a fraction of it.  This is
why, finally, the problem of the status of the mind is the same as
the problem of space.  On the one hand, we ask whether or not
extension is infinitely divisible.  On the other hand, the indivisible
ideas, to the extent that they are indivisible, constitute in a certain
way extension."

And just how does that work?  He quotes Hume: "Five notes play'd
on a flute give us the impression and idea of time; tho' time be not
a sixth impression, which presents itself to the hearing or any other
of the senses."

These indivisible things can be brought into all sorts of relations
with each other, but still, their indivisible nature brings them
quite close to "Mu".  Still, they're not "Mu" -- maybe they're
"U"! (from Joshu's "alternate answer" to 'does a dog have
Buddha nature?' -- "U" means /being/ or /having/).  The smallest
ideas are the most elementary grammatical subjects.

This this matter of the 'direction of the arrows' reminded
me of another thing: Bayesian networks, in which, e.g.
a->b is essentially the same as a<-b (given P(a) and P(b),
P(a|b) and P(b|a) are informationally equivalent).  This, in short,
means that the direction of arrows in Bayesian networks doesn't
actually represent "causality", just "relatedness".

But I don't want to give you the impression that the direction
of arrows is somehow a completely arbitrary choice.

Abe makes a convincing case that the -is a-> arrows put us
in the mindset of an 'objective observer'.  Essentially a third
party to the discourse -- but without a solid understanding of
our own constitution.  On the other hand the -particularizes to->
arrows lead us directly to consider an evolving space, and
directly causes us to confront ourselves and our real constitution
as a part of this space.

Further, I think Hume and Nishida can easily be related, e.g.
insofar as 'clarifying one real Dharma' ("U", the first subjects)
is the same as 'attaining emptiness' ("Mu", the predicate
that is never a subject).

Finally, in light of the Hume-Nishida understanding of 'space',
I think I understand William S. Burroughs's famous statement
"I write for the space age" in a new light. His books are like
huge evolving networks, minds (i.e., spaces, places, or maps),
created not /in silica/, but (the translation itself is interesting) --
/in charta/.

pomodorian gray

This just made me laugh: it's fantastic.

The basic unit of work in the Pomodoro Technique™
can be split in five simple steps:

1. Choose a task to be accomplished.
2. Set the Pomodoro (timer) to 25 minutes.
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings,
then put a check on your record of work next
to the task you were working on.
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK).
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break.

-- http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Hey, with all the time you save, you can be a
veritable Pomo Dorian Gray. Hey, and
the book describing this all is free.

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/resources/cirillo/ThePomodoroTechnique_v1-3.pdf

«Souviens-toi que le Temps est un joueur avide
Qui gagne sans tricher, à tout coup!» --http://fleursdumal.org/poem/218

[...] "he decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience" [...]

the autopoiesis of autopeotomy: weirdest dictionary story ever

Me: http://www.smh.com.au/world/autopeotomy-theres-madness-in-its-meaning-20090611-c4m5.html

My sis: Yucky! How did you even come upon this?

Me: I was doing some research on the origins of 'crowdsourcing'.

In 1879, James Murray said:

"I would like to invite readers to contribute to the development of
the Dictionary by adding to our record of English throughout the
world. Everyone can play a part in recording the history of the
language and helping to enhance the Oxford English Dictionary."

And this other guy, Doctor W., got really interested,
and ended up contributing a whole lot of info to the
original OED.  (This is all documented in a book
called "The madman and the professor", which came
out maybe a decade ago, now.)

Anyway, OK, the story itself is rather disgusting, but
it's also an interesting bizarre case of /autopoiesis/ --
(self-creation), as the Dictionary seems to practically call
out across the ages for the creation of this new word
/autopeotomy/.

Then, there's an interesting Freudian question as to
whether the creation of a Big Dic (like teh OED)
doesn't somehow '(self-)castrate' the creators
automatically.  Like, by creating a text that contains
all the answers -- the entire history of the language --
the creators render themselves unable to speak.

Obviously these topics are of concern to me when
thinking about Hyperreal Dictionaries.

eroticism of books

I'm starting an episodic story about my personal private
library of books here: http://metameso.org/~joe/books.html

scam control

Deleted 2 spam postings from my blogger blog, changed my
Google acc't password, changed my Email Posting address...

hoping that's all there is to it.

fatigued genes

I'm burning holes in my chromosomes with excessive
vitamin C, and sleep deprivation. My office mate said
to me that it looked like I hadn't slept for 3 days. No,
I said, I slept -- it just doesn't work anymore.

Was up until 2AM trying to sort the things I 'talk
about' in my prospectus into 'action items', then
sort these action items into the timeslots defined
by the next 12 quarters. Getting there.

Same officemate remarked that my "Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats"
assessment of PlanetMath.org

(http://metameso.org/~joe/docs/pm-swot.pdf)

looked good, and asked if I was planning to
submit it to a conference somewhere. I told
him, I'd be happier with it if it had happier things
to report.

Finally, just this evening I've begun to populate
the 'new' Etherpad issue tracker with some
community-sourced issues

(http://github.com/ether/pad/issues)

but too tired to continue just now. Hoping tomorrow
to have a 'complete' draft of this prospectus done.

Books in via interlibrary loan: "Psychoanalysis and
Discourse", "Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling",
and "Raising the tone of Philosophy".

<Zapped>

zizek's toilet zen

Brilliant Zen conclusion: "As soon as you flush the toilet,
you're right in the middle of ideology".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTJXHNP0bg
-- sent to me by Tim.

One can't help but think of Zizek in the toilet anyway.

architecture of apocalypse

"In moving from one language to another - from the apocalyptic
language of the verses to the love lyrics in the chorus - Waits' vocal
performance could be interpreted as a way of drawing attention to his
own delivery, and to the tension between the meaning of words when
spoken/written and their meaning when delivered musically." -- Angela
Jones, "Musical Apocalypse: Tom Waits' Bone Machine"
http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/archive/05/ajones.php

"This book implicitly urges architects to base their work on the
experiences it will engender rather than on abstract rationales that
may or may not affect viewers and users of architecture. It is about
the architecture of the imagination."
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poetics_of_Space

tired and
every kindness is gone
there really is no point to carry on
Götzendammerung

Truth itself is the destination,
and that truth unveils itself as the advent of the end
the seals of all the demon kings

"I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient
culture... and kill them...." -Private Joker, "Full Metal Jacket"

rolling up another cigarette
drawing attention to the points at which ostensibly clear-cut
boundaries and distinctions merge and intersect,

Nobody
a bridge too far
an unstable structure constantly in the process of being built up and
stripped away.
no puedo
The tone's pitch is tied to tension; it has a bond to the bond, to the
bond's more or less tight tension

"In listening to the lyrics of pop songs we actually hear three things
at once: words, which appear to give songs an independent source of
semantic meaning; rhetoric, words being used in a special, musical
way, a way which draws attention to features and problems of speech;
and voices, words being spoken or sung in human tones which are
themselves "meaningful," signs of persons and personality" -- Frith,
S. Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1996.

viens
a site where language stops, both for reasons of internal logic and of
social prohibition

* is the site of an intersection, an in-between space, but it is an
unstable site which defies an absolute location or definition.

A complex link