Psychology
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On talking to students about school, particularly high schoolers.
Oscar Fernandez (find him @EverydayCalc) recently wrote a charming little article about how to talk to your high-school-aged kids about math. Well worth the quick read, if you’re a parent, or might someday be a parent, or happen to interact with other people’s kids. He has some great tips, and provides a lucid description of why it’s…
coaching, cross country, hating school, high school, How to Talk to Your Kids About Math, math, math with babies, math with toddlers, mathematics, Oscar Fernandez, Out-of-breath conversations about mathematics, parenting, running, school, sullen teenagers, track, volunteering, What was your best class today -
On the potential psychological ramifications of certain insular societies, or: that fraternity video in the news.
After N woke up from her nap, I strapped her into the jogging stroller and took her to the local playground. Holding my hands, she stomped around while I dripped on her: a sudden blast of warm air from the south brought summer-like weather to our town today. Then, after about twenty minutes of stomping,…
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On value claims and the popular press.
Normally I try to make these essays positive. I read a lot of books — because I’m writing, knowing things is part of my job, which means I have to read a lot of nonfiction, and appreciating beautiful language is part of my job, so I have to read a lot of fiction — but…
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On parenting and belated “thank you”s.
After we finished eating dinner, K and I were talking about our parenting strategy. Specifically, that she feels pleased with the way we’re doing it. Personally, I expressed no such pride: one negative consequence of thinking about stuff all the time is that I fail to notice my surroundings. Unless, of course, my surroundings are…
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On perspective, and whether you, Dear Reader, are a chameleon.
One major difficulty for me, in writing my book, was trying to inhabit perspectives that, due to an unfortunate spate of research reading, I don’t really sympathize with. But I had to learn to do it — and do it with the understanding that almost everyone, within the context of their view of the world, is trying to…
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On memory (part 1).
Memory plays an important role in my book. Because, yeah, it’s fascinating, but also, you guessed it, because it’s important in the Ramayana. One way to tell the story of the Ramayana would be to say that it’s about the gods’ effort to stop Ravana: dude practiced mighty austerities and so the gods were forced…
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On free will.
I like thinking about free will. Talking about it. Writing about it. Even though it’s a waste of time. And really kills parties. Try it sometime, if you don’t believe me… wait until you’re hanging out with some people, having a great time, talking, laughing, and then try to mire everybody in a pedantic discussion…
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On Ross Gay’s “The Burden” and forcing mice to swim.
Let’s say you were trying to develop a new antidepressant. Then you’d need a screen to know if your compound or cocktail of compounds was working. Eventually, you’d be doing that screen in humans – give some depressed people your medicine, see if they feel better, see if they feel better than they would’ve felt…
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On free will, a bit, but mostly on graduate school and Rob Peace.
I’m supposed to be writing a post about free will. And I did start writing it. Began something like this: Given that my motivation for writing these posts is that K told me I needed to, to explain some of the research I’m going for my project, it might be fair to wonder why I…
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