It’s never been one of my strengths. I always liked math and physics because they didn’t require much memorization — I could just rederive formulas on the fly. One of the reasons that I never seriously considered being a doctor was the amount of memorization required. And I think that for that profession in particular, memory is important, and apparently more so than intelligence or processing capability, because I’ve met doctors who I didn’t think were all that smart, and I don’t intrinsically respect them just because they’re doctors. At least not as much as they and society thinks I’m supposed to.
Category Archives: Science And Society
The Climate Alarmists
Who funds them?
A Weighty Matter
Some philosophical thoughts on the variability of the kilogram.
Who Is More Anti-Science?
Republicans, or Democrats?
My biggest problem with Democrats is that they’re anti-economics, with devastating results over the past decades.
[Update a few minutes later]
[Update a while later]
Speaking of Republicans being anti-science, I don’t agree with Herman Cain that being gay is “a choice.” Being straight was never a “choice” for me.
Give Until Someone Hurts
An interesting article on pathological altruism.
It’s particularly dangerous when people like this go into politics.
Innovation Starvation
Some interesting thoughts from Neil Stephenson. I think he’s a little to sanguine about the prospects for using ETs, though.
The Smart
…and the dumb:
The president’s reaction? “He turned to me and said, ‘Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.’” Mr. Hamm holds his head in his hands and says, “Even if you believed that, why would you want to stop oil and gas development? It was pretty disappointing.”
I guess I’d be disappointed, if I had had any expectations of brilliance on his part. But I never had any reason to, other than the bien pensant telling me I should.
I Have No Trouble Believing This
Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. I think that there are some interesting ideological implications here.
What Do Organisms Mean?
An interesting essay on the limits of reductionism, over at The New Atlantis.
An Irreproducible Result
I’m not sure that the conclusion follows from this paper.
I haven’t checked all the math, though.
[Update a while later]
Isn’t it funny how a common word can start to look really weird, even foreign and meaningless, when you see it enough times?