Art / Creativity / Education

Parsons Class

The Parsons Class I'm co-teaching this semester has a blog.So far it just has a few pictures from the zoetropes a few students did. The results from that first assignment were incredible -- tremendous variety of solutions to the various challenges of physical animation devices and animations: materials, sizes, quality versus quick and dirty, colors, contrast, motion, repetition, etc.I can't wait to see the results of the later projects, which will be substantial efforts.Correction: There are already many images and animations, I was just blocking javascript. Enjoy the class site!

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February 7, 2011
Freedom

Freedom today

The freedom for consenting adults to do what they like is as fundamental a freedom as I can think of and the protecting of it one of my most important interests. About once a week I say something like "I'm a big fan of consenting adults doing what they please." I'm not a fan of people preventing consenting adults from doing what they like or a person involving someone who doesn't consent. I find its purest (or at least most influential and inspiring to me) statement in Henry Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, the re-reading of which on the occasional Martin Luther King's birthday is one of my favorite pastimes, along with the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution. I find centralizing power enables some of the…

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February 6, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Tips

Responsibility versus blame

The following statement has become a personal guideline since I first came up with it. It's served me well. Don't look for blame but take responsibility for making things better to the extent you can. You can always find someone to blame if you want. Blame is fundamentally about the past, which you can't change, and judgmental, which repels people. But the main issue is that when you blame someone else for your situation you reinforce a belief that their influence on your life is greater than yours, likely in a situation you consider important. We usually blame people for things that affect us significantly. The problem with blaming Blaming, therefore, disempowers us and and reinforces unrewarding feelings. Guilt is blame directed toward ourselves, usually…

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February 5, 2011
Blog / Freedom / Nature

Fracking — unhealthy for people who drink water or breathe air

(copying my post to another board where I learned about the movie, slightly out of context) I saw the movie Gasland about fracking last night at Cooper Union and heard Josh Fox, the guy who created it, speak. I don't recommend many movies, but I recommend this one. If you can talk to Josh Fox, all the better. I've since watched and read other web pages and videos. I don't claim to be an expert, but I believe I've learned enough to draw reasonable conclusions. I'm open to finding out I'm missing important points. Debates over Cheney's specific role or if showing the movie is the best way to influence policy are nearly negligible side issues to the issue that fracking is dangerous to huge…

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February 4, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Evolutionary Psychology / Freedom

How much do you understand?

Want a liberating concept?Our brains and senses are limited. Our ancestors didn't evolve minds to understand everything or senses to sense everything. They evolved them to navigate their environments enough to propagate their genes. That's it. The ones that could had children eventually resulting in us. The ones that couldn't didn't.Limited senses mean we have limited access to the universe. The observable universe stretches for tens of billions of light years in every direction, yet from my chair I can see a few yards, hear a bit farther ... a bit more from other senses. In my whole life I've observed not much more.Limited processing power -- that is, brain power -- means of whatever we observe we can remember and understand a fraction. To…

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February 3, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Freedom

Why are decisions hard?

When you think of deciding, do you think of going toward the choice you decide on? I tend to and I think most others do too.But if deciding is about going toward something we like, why can it be so hard?The -cide in decide is the same -cide as in pesticide, homicide, and suicide -- from Latin, meaning cut or kill. However much we think about deciding as going toward something we like, our language retains the hard part: cutting off or killing something we like almost as much.In choices with obvious differences in value -- like Steven Wright's joke: 'I'd rather be rich than stupid" -- you don't hesitate to cut off or kill the choice you don't like. When differences in values are…

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February 2, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Freedom / Tips

Do you want to win debates or enjoy life?

Do you or people you know get stuck "winning" arguments only to find they've annoyed or alienated people around them? It's hard to do anything about it because when people aren't arguing they tend to feel they don't do it -- that only others do. And when they are arguing they're often least open to exiting argument mode into self-reflection mode. A scene in The Big Lebowski that illustrates the effect perfectly. Here is a version in not such great quality: https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Walther-Glock-freaks-out-at-bowling-alley-Big-Lebowski.mp4 Here's a version with cool typography. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8mcAd9nlA It's overly dramatic to be funny and has a lot of cursing, but it covers most major points on the counterproductivity of "winning" arguments. People debate issues that can have multiple "right" answers depending on your…

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February 1, 2011

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