First Blog

 Geniuses are Remarkable There is an aspect of these geniuses which is rarely discussed. It is certain they all have marvelous minds, capable of a depth of thought unknown to us all. They have remarkable memories and a profound intuition and knowledge of what they do. There is more, beyond knowing all the literature, all the techniques, and all the skills. It is  concentration . In fact, Isaac Newton said, "I keep the subject constantly before me and wait till the first drawstrings open slowly, little and little, into a full and clear light." What all these geniuses could do is exactly that. They could focus their brains upon a problem for weeks, months, even years until it was resolved. This requires phenomenal energy which few have. But this concentration takes the mind into unknown realms and depths, and it changes them forever. When they emerge, they are different. And it can take time to catch up with themselves. Some never do. Others, fewer in number, can plow t

  The most powerful ally of courage is anonymity. This is provided to rioters in the streets but also to voters casting ballots.

 Questions. What on earth is luck?  Win the lottery and you're lucky; catch a cold and your unlucky. Yes? No? We all want good luck and dread bad luck.  But what is it? Luck, it turns out, has many meanings, and you can tell what you think by how you answer these questions.  Is there an answer key? Nope. 1.      Can you be walking around lucky and not know it?* 2.      Is luck a state or an event? 3.      Do lucky charms wear out?   4.      Is luck an influence or a success? 5.      Is luck a phenomenon or a condition? 6.      Is luck random or circumstantial? 7.      Is luck a superstition or real? 8.      Can you be born lucky? Or unlucky? 9.      Is luck spiritual or supernatural? 10. Does luck really favor the prepared mind?** * Wonderful line from the movie, “Let It Ride” ** Thomas Edison and others. Se also. https://wordpress.com/posts/usedideas.wordpress.com

 Hi all, I have changed by blog address to  https://usedideas.wordpress.com/ Thanks, Don

Many are the abuses of statistics.  That one you see almost every day is about polling.  Sample size, polling, bias, conclusions are all in the mix. A. The natural desire to use correlation as causation. (Ubiquitous) B. Unwitting bias in sampling and survey structure. (Consider polls.) C. Applying multiple statistical tests until some significance is confirmed. D. Using statistical tests with sample sizes too small. (Chi-square test for example). E. Using factor analysis while not understanding what it does. (Looks good in a paper.) F. Doing the study first and then creating the null hypotheses*. (This is statistics backward. Is it ok if everybody does it?) G. Worst of all is taking statistical significance as a form of proof. (Remember that at the 0.05 level, 5% of all significance conclusions are wrong. Combine with the thousands of studies every year.) *Personally guilty.

Gender reveal* parties used to be just another excuse to drink, 'cept for the mom.  Now, they create forest fires.  Go California - always in the lead. * A party to announce the gender of the unborn baby.

Should researchers ethically responsible for the misinterpretation or misuse of their research by others? Absolutely not.   If you charge ethical responsibility for the misinterpretation or misuse of their research by others, then you face the possible regression backward in time of similar charges. For example, consider the computer chip.   It has been misused by Huawei for spying, by the military for ordnance guidance systems, for AI, and other nefarious purposes. This in turn forces charges against inventors of Internet type transmissions ( Vinton Cerf  and  Bob Kahn), the integrated circuit (Jack Kilby), the transistor (John Bardeen), the electron tube (John Ambrose Flemming), to the discovery of electrons (J.J. Thompson), and ultimately to the discoverer of electricity (Benjamin Franklin).   You could even go back to the notion of the atom (Democritus in 400 BC).   Where should we stop? Who should decide? The only possible case possible is research that may only be u

Did you ever consider the complexity or development of your mind correlates and corresponds with your dreams? The caveman who hunts by day and eats at the campfire has dreams little more than this and the world of his senses. The engineer, with immense training, living in a complex world, performing complex tasks by day, necessarily has more complex dreams intertwined with everyday events of friends and family.   While this seems natural and simple, a step more complex is involved. All those complex dreams of the engineer use the advanced workings and training of the mind and memory, testing, working, and variating those same mental features used by day.   In fact, during the dreams, the mind gets a “nighttime workout.” The result is a more pliable and active mind for the next day.   Although most of us enter adulthood with a mind mostly trained, we can simulate or actuate higher-order mental features by giving the conscious mind a boost before dreaming.   One way is reading befo