First Blog

It's that gifting time of the year. So, I thought to take a closer look at the gifts I have already. Not just the kids, car, house, and health, but the real gifts, as in those I was born with. They are many, so many it is troubling why I have them. Among them is the gift of problem-solving. Another is the gift of curiosity. This article  is about them all, with a closer look at faith.  December 20, 2022 Gifts to Humankind by G Donald Allen Upon us now is the season of giving. Just as important is to inventory those gifts we have been given. And they are many. At Thanksgiving, we count our blessings. Today we travel well beyond counting to those wondrous gifts given to us at birth. These gifts co-mingle, coalesce, contravene, and entangle to make us what we have become. Not material, nor theoretical, and without position or location, they are undeniable. They are within the domains of psychology, chemistry, and sociology, forming our very human foundations. Evolution or design

I have just put up a piece on wisdom, what it is and how to get it. Find it at the link below. https://www.linkedin.com/in/g-donald-allen-420b0315/detail/recent-activity/documents/

When I was young, all there was just plain old intelligence , then measured by the IQ test.   The test has survived, flawed as it is, and continues to affect lives.   Its very existence proved to be a challenge to the many other forms of intelligence. These days we have emotional intelligence, and lately, artificial intelligence.   All are significantly different. More forms have been identified including… Emotional (empathetic +) Naturalist (nature smart) Musical (sound smart) Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart) Existential (life smart) Interpersonal (people smart) Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart) Linguistic (word smart) Newer forms of intelligence include... Artifical (algorithmic and programming) Information (mining and correlating) Entertainment (artificial living smarts) Medical (diagnosis smart)   Older but still valid forms include... Teaching (showing how smart) Mechanical (engine smart) Hunting and tracking (outdoors smart) Pl

Let's honest about government and intelligence. 1. Why does the government want an intelligent population?  It doesn't. Too difficult to manage and govern. Therefore, it is acceptable to allow the schools to continue failing their mission.  It is fine for incompetent teachers to stay in place. A terrible curriculum is a strategic advantage. 2. Why does the government want an intelligent congress?  It doesn't. Too difficult to manage; to willing to compromise; to practical about human activities.  Too liable to do something of lasting value. 3. Why does the government want an ample and well trained military.  It doesn't.  This is too risky for its personal security.  The military lives mostly outside the walls of government and is clearly a threat.  The government fears it crossing the Rubicon. 4. Why does the government want efficient and fair federal agencies? It doesn't.   This increases the expectations of the population to fair and effective treat

Genius is one of those ephemeral items in the human inventory of gifts together with skills and talents, abilities and intelligence, proficiency and cleverness.  Hard to define, genius is both specific and contextual.  It is not generally abstract.  Genius can reveal itself everywhere, in science, business, politics, war, and literature though often along separate channels.   Some of our greatest philosophers were challenged by the concept and addressed it with notably interesting interpretations. Immanuel Kant in Part I of his Critique of Judgment tells us "Genius is a talent for producing something for which no determinate rule can be given, not a predisposition consisting of a skill for something that can be learned by following some rule or other." In his Twilight of the Idols , Nietzsche writes, "Great men, like great epochs, are explosive material in whom tremendous energy has been accumulated; their prerequisite has always been, historically and

Today... It is cold today and I love it.  It allows me to be cold. Morale I. Sometimes the lack of morale you see all around is a reflection of the lack of morale you have personally. II. Your sense of morale can be more infectious to your mind than any disease to your body.  Consider the maxim, "Healthy mind, healthy body." Fun...  We live in the fun environment.  Learning should be fun, educators tell us.  This is not often the case.  Learning is hard work. But when accompanied by a sense of achievement, understanding, and enhanced personal power, it is most satisfying. Reflections... I am always just 18, full of hope, full of what could be, and eager to pursue many things all at the same time.  I love to read biographies of great persons, with interest even now piqued, particularly when these heroes were young. I look to what they did do, and compare with what I’ve done.  I make a few notes. a.    Many developed a true mission in life, though not always from th

Morale I. Sometimes the lack of morale you see all around is a reflection of the lack of morale you have personally. II. Your sense of morale can be more infectious to your mind than any disease to your body.  Consider the maxim, "Healthy mind, healthy body." Fun...   We live in the fun environment.  Learning should be fun, educators tell us.  This is not often the case.  Learning is hard work. But when accompanied by a sense of achievement, understanding, and enhanced personal power, it is most satisfying. Reflections... I am always just 18, full of hope, full of what could be, and eager to pursue many things all at the same time.  I love to read biographies of great persons, with interest even now piqued, particularly when these heroes were young. I look to what they did do, and compare with what I’ve done.  I make a few notes. a.    Many developed a true mission in life, though not always from the beginning. b.    Many were raised in an environment of high expectations. c

Did you know that if you're a completely average person, in personality traits, memory, and intellegence, there are about 145,000 people just like you on planet earth, or about 13,000 here in the USA . Identical!! Like a twin, and even more. This sounds like a lot, but it is really quite a small proportion, about 36 in one million. Here we look at the numbers - some very tiny and some astronomically big. Preamble – Do you want to live forever?  You will, but perhaps not in the way you think – or want. In a previous report, The Immortality Paradox,  ( http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2012/06/immortality-paradox.html ) it was demonstrated from a human viewpoint, that immortality is rather problematic simply from mental capacities consideration.  But there is another way.  (Note, we leave of religious, deist, theist, considerations that identify an immortal soul, as they take us far afield of our point here.)     Have you ever said something like this. “You know that Karen is just li