Andrew's Digital Domain

I've been going through some of my old notes and decided to pull a couple of them together for another post. Decision making is an interesting subject, something that applies to all spheres of our lives - from everyday decision making, to economics, politics, etc. In some cases it is desirable to delay making decisions as long as possible - " I've learned one thing in politics. You don't make a decision until you have to" ( Margaret Thatcher ); in some we need to make decisions quickly - the rapid-fire decisions that make up our daily lives. Sometimes we need to rely on intuition  and instinct, sometimes it is necessary to carefully consider and weigh a complex set of inputs and variables. But regardless of the circumstances we can benefit from getting rid of myths surrounding decision making and becoming more aware of the inner processes we use to make those decisions. For example, the following article from the  Harvard Magazine:  " The Marketplace of Perc

Not too long ago I published a post titled " Academic Inflation and New Education Paradigms ", it had a cool short video featuring  Ken Robinson  and also referenced his book -  "Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative" ( I am happy to report that I have finished reading it, but a more detailed coverage will be a subject of another post, stay tuned ). The basic premise of the video as well as the book - a major overhaul of our education system is urgently needed. It was designed at a different time, in a different world, and for a different purpose; thus, it can not meet the demands of today or the future. So, while Ken Robinson takes a poke or two at our current system's bias towards academicism and science at the expense of arts and creativity , there are others who feel we are not biased enough at the time when the rate of acceleration in the field of science and technology is arguably the highest in recorded history.  A few month ago I've read a ve

I recently started reading what promises to be a very interesting book - "The Time Paradox" by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd. It opens up quite unexpectedly with a story about Capuchin Crypt, a somewhat surreal place located under one of the churches in Rome. This is the kind of stuff one comes to expect from Dan Brown's novels (say, "The Da Vinci Code" or "Angels and Demons"), but much less so from the book, written by a psychology professor from Stanford and a research director for Yahoo!, that according to one review - "reveals how to better use your most irreplaceable resource [time], based on solid science and timeless wisdom". Wikipedia - "The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 4,000 bodies believed to be Capuchin friars buried by their o