24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Von Neuman and Predicting the Weather
I remember a talk that Von Neumann gave at Princeton around 1950, describing the glorious future which he then saw for his computers. Most of the people that he hired for his computer project in the early days were meteorologists. Meteorology was the big thing on his horizon. He said, as soon as we have good computers, we shall be able to divide the phenomena of meteorology cleanly into two categories, the stable and the unstable. The unstable phenomena are those which are upset by small dist...Folksonomies: prediction chaos theory
Folksonomies: prediction chaos theory
1 
notes
notes21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Entertaining Work is a Moral Issue
I’m not the first person to notice that reality is broken compared with games,
especially when it comes to giving us good, hard work. In fact, the science
of happiness was first born thirty-five years ago, when an American psychologist
by the name of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi observed the very same
thing. In 1975, Csíkszentmihályi published a groundbreaking scientific study
called Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. The focus of the study was a specific kind
of happiness that Csíkszentmihályi ...Folksonomies: gamification
Folksonomies: gamification
1 notes
notesIsn't this also a matter of perspective? Don't we need to look at life like a game?
The problem is that real-life isn't like a game. A really tough programming problem doesn't match my skills, they can go far beyond them.
Education is ENGINEERED, so it can be like a game.
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Planning Fallacy
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, then closed it. The witch rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking thoughtful. "Mr. Potter... if I were to offer to listen to you for a while... is there anything you'd like to talk to me about?"
"About what?"
"About why you're convinced you must always be on your guard against terrible things happening to you."
Harry stared at her in puzzlement. That was a self-evident axiom. "Well..." Harry said slowly. He tried to organise his thoughts. How could he e...Folksonomies: cognitive bias fallacy
Folksonomies: cognitive bias fallacy
1 notes
notesWe underestimate how close we are to completing a task, the only solution is to consider how long it took us to complete the last time we did it.
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Rules of Magic Don't Make Any Sense
Some children would have waited until after their first trip to Diagon Alley.
"Bag of element 79," Harry said, and withdrew his hand, empty, from the mokeskin pouch.
Most children would have at least waited to get their wands first.
"Bag of okane," said Harry. The heavy bag of gold popped up into his hand.
Harry withdrew the bag, then plunged it again into the mokeskin pouch. He took out his hand, put it back in, and said, "Bag of tokens of economic exchange." That time his hand came ou... 1 notes
notesRational Potter experiments with a magical bag that will give him whatever he asks for and doesn't understand why it can understand some requests but not others.
