generally it's nice to think that the responsibility for making many things in life run smoothly is distributed on more than just my shoulders.
big drawback: if you've done your best you're in for a violent shock when someone else turns up to tell you they seriously screwed it up.
venerdì 3 settembre 2010
giovedì 26 agosto 2010
distorting reality
Nothing is as suitable to discover one's fears and insecurities than a person who does not show much response to the attempt of interacting with them. Somehow the mind will start to explain away the lacking information (the state of not knowing apparently seems to be unacceptable to the reasoning mechanism), thus producing a rather random image of reality.
It's comparable with a white wall - nothing is there to disturb whatever painting one will draw on it... nothing to give guidance for proportions, nor to put things into a realistic perspective. It's all done free-handedly, based on a potpourri of assumptions and impressions.
And then, compared with paint and brush, how much more powerful is a mind drawing it's conclusions and projecting them unto others in an attempt to explain what is happening? When drawing, painters usually have the reflex to step back and compare the painting with the model - which is not necessarily an instinct when dealing with thoughts?
I can't help wondering where to find the gap between realistic estimation and wild imagination. Any ideas?
It's comparable with a white wall - nothing is there to disturb whatever painting one will draw on it... nothing to give guidance for proportions, nor to put things into a realistic perspective. It's all done free-handedly, based on a potpourri of assumptions and impressions.
And then, compared with paint and brush, how much more powerful is a mind drawing it's conclusions and projecting them unto others in an attempt to explain what is happening? When drawing, painters usually have the reflex to step back and compare the painting with the model - which is not necessarily an instinct when dealing with thoughts?
I can't help wondering where to find the gap between realistic estimation and wild imagination. Any ideas?
lunedì 23 agosto 2010
domenica 22 agosto 2010
Introducing my work mates
since people keep asking me about them, I'm introducing my 'work mates' to you. They are currently the major source of my current joy or frustration, causing hope and despair,s and look like this:
This specimen is a msb430 sensor mote, aka Scatterweb mote. I'm programming fancy C on this little device (it's marginally smaller than on the pic, with a muuch longer antenna ;) which stars the unbelievable amount of 55KB flash memory and 5KB of RAM!
Their tinyness is misleading: these devices are not harmless at all (especially the pins can be really mean when assembling and disassembling the thing), and they are said to be especially tricky when they turn up in groups (which happened in my case...) and try to communicate with each other. They seem pretty human at that point - shouting over other mote's words, not understanding anymore because there are too many motes speaking at once, not listening, repeating what others said etc... and it's my job to teach them how to communicate in the right way.
Their tinyness is misleading: these devices are not harmless at all (especially the pins can be really mean when assembling and disassembling the thing), and they are said to be especially tricky when they turn up in groups (which happened in my case...) and try to communicate with each other. They seem pretty human at that point - shouting over other mote's words, not understanding anymore because there are too many motes speaking at once, not listening, repeating what others said etc... and it's my job to teach them how to communicate in the right way.
giovedì 19 agosto 2010
mercoledì 18 agosto 2010
Tribute to my office mates
domenica 15 agosto 2010
thoughts about truth and choices
There are some phrases I came across recently, which keep running through my mind:
"Truth is a daughter of time."
I found this one in an article about corruption in Austria, especially linked to the famous politician Jörg Haider, whom many used to venerate in a saint-like fashion. Now, years after his suicide, people slowly start to look at irregularities they used to brush over, and demystification and criticism slowly start to shape a more realistic image of what has happened. The quoted sentence stresses the fact that often, after the end of an aera, it takes a lot (maybe a generation even) of time for people to let go of sentimental and glorifying pictures, and to face reality.
Why do I think this phrase is remarkable? I find it fascinating, cause it brings a fact to the point about relationships on many levels (personal, couple, family, society): that it takes time, patience and courage, to find truth under the delusions one has build up about something or someone.
"Sometimes it is harder to be kind than clever."
This phrase is from a TED-Talk by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, given at a Princeton graduation ceremony. He uses it as basis to elaborate his statement that decisions in life matter more than the talents one has been given: Cleverness is something one has or not, it is given, so one cannot take credit for it. Kindness, on the other hand, is a decision put into practice, so it tells about the character of a person and shapes their personality.
The reason this statement keeps stunning me? It is the fact that often I am surrounded by very smart people, and could observe that some of them won't miss a chance to stress their superiority over others on the grounds of general cleverness. As far as I'm aware, they do so not neccessarily because they are arrogant snobs, but because they are so used to competing on that level (in the end, school teaches us so..) that they might not even notice how inappropriate this is on certain occasions (especially, if this superiority is already clearly established). I have the feeling that quite some marvellous, admirable, genius people could benefit a lot from accepting the challenge of practising kindness in their conduct.
"Truth is a daughter of time."
I found this one in an article about corruption in Austria, especially linked to the famous politician Jörg Haider, whom many used to venerate in a saint-like fashion. Now, years after his suicide, people slowly start to look at irregularities they used to brush over, and demystification and criticism slowly start to shape a more realistic image of what has happened. The quoted sentence stresses the fact that often, after the end of an aera, it takes a lot (maybe a generation even) of time for people to let go of sentimental and glorifying pictures, and to face reality.
Why do I think this phrase is remarkable? I find it fascinating, cause it brings a fact to the point about relationships on many levels (personal, couple, family, society): that it takes time, patience and courage, to find truth under the delusions one has build up about something or someone.
"Sometimes it is harder to be kind than clever."
This phrase is from a TED-Talk by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, given at a Princeton graduation ceremony. He uses it as basis to elaborate his statement that decisions in life matter more than the talents one has been given: Cleverness is something one has or not, it is given, so one cannot take credit for it. Kindness, on the other hand, is a decision put into practice, so it tells about the character of a person and shapes their personality.
The reason this statement keeps stunning me? It is the fact that often I am surrounded by very smart people, and could observe that some of them won't miss a chance to stress their superiority over others on the grounds of general cleverness. As far as I'm aware, they do so not neccessarily because they are arrogant snobs, but because they are so used to competing on that level (in the end, school teaches us so..) that they might not even notice how inappropriate this is on certain occasions (especially, if this superiority is already clearly established). I have the feeling that quite some marvellous, admirable, genius people could benefit a lot from accepting the challenge of practising kindness in their conduct.
giovedì 12 agosto 2010
How to become Parisian in one hour
Because I'm such a nice person (ehehe), I'll share some of my newly acquired knowledge with you. Summarizing, the basic recipe for achieving parisien-ness seems to be: strip off all your carefully groomed good manners and let the world know it bothers you... I mean, it's just being honest!!
Turns out to be surprisingly hard, even for the supposedly oh-so-rude Germans among us ;) Maybe this sounds a bit simple (it might even be), but then, Parisian habits contrasted with famous American stereotypes, presented by a capable mime really gives an unbelievably funny cocktail, highly appreciated by a very international audience as well as the locals.
martedì 10 agosto 2010
self-torture made easy
New communication media provide an entirely new means to torture oneself. What - generations ago - was the daily wait for the postman (limited, cause he passed once a day, at a fixed hour), now is the frantic 30s click on either the mailclient's or social network's refresh button - with the advantage of them being available 24/7.
I'll attempt to summarize the problem as follows: we all like to share things that we consider interesting or important. If they are personal details about our own life, of course they are very relevant to us (and, we might conclude from our limited poit of view, also to aaaaall our 'friends' on whatever lists they might be). Of course, they are all just waiting to share their viewpoints on these matters!
Now the great delusion hits: the number of people interested in our little personal stories is inversely proportional to the number of details we share. In other terms: hardly ANYONE out there is going to be interested in ALL the things we want to share with them. And to make it worse: the few that are might not even be the people we WANT to be interested in our lives (like stalkers, ex-partners, secret admirors, employers, parents-in-law, etc).
Ensuring the desired dose of misery, one might end up being bothered by the good advices of people one finds annoying, and observing the people one cares for displaying a lot of interest in the lives of - OTHERS!
Have a nice evening!
Ps: Why did I write this? Is it not contradictory in itself? I don't think so, cause the reason is: Just for fun, and for the few who might actually enjoy reading it... if you are, I wrote it for entertaining YOU ;)
Pps: Thanks to the people who inspired me - there are only very very few, but they are real!
I'll attempt to summarize the problem as follows: we all like to share things that we consider interesting or important. If they are personal details about our own life, of course they are very relevant to us (and, we might conclude from our limited poit of view, also to aaaaall our 'friends' on whatever lists they might be). Of course, they are all just waiting to share their viewpoints on these matters!
Now the great delusion hits: the number of people interested in our little personal stories is inversely proportional to the number of details we share. In other terms: hardly ANYONE out there is going to be interested in ALL the things we want to share with them. And to make it worse: the few that are might not even be the people we WANT to be interested in our lives (like stalkers, ex-partners, secret admirors, employers, parents-in-law, etc).
Ensuring the desired dose of misery, one might end up being bothered by the good advices of people one finds annoying, and observing the people one cares for displaying a lot of interest in the lives of - OTHERS!
Have a nice evening!
Ps: Why did I write this? Is it not contradictory in itself? I don't think so, cause the reason is: Just for fun, and for the few who might actually enjoy reading it... if you are, I wrote it for entertaining YOU ;)
Pps: Thanks to the people who inspired me - there are only very very few, but they are real!
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