tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14233757678437303632024-03-19T19:50:38.110+02:00Retail sanity, wholesale madnessand the caravan keeps moving...Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12641521860385603878noreply@blogger.comBlogger471125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-68891289822603278402018-12-08T22:51:00.000+02:002018-12-08T22:51:01.799+02:00"A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It looks like the best and the brightest have
sown dragon's teeth – again. While the experts continue to cautiously debate
the effects of prolonged staring at various screens, Silicon Valley execs have
apparently seen the writing on the wall. If the NYT is to be believed, many are
in panic over the effects of the technology they have unleashed on <u>their own
children</u>. So they have taken to hiring nannies whose chief obligation is to
not use any digital device while on duty – and keep their charges similarly
unplugged. A time of reckoning, if there is one – pointing to a future when it
will take tons of money to give kids a shot at healthy physical and mental
growth. Why is so hard to not say, "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MentalPenguins" target="_blank">I told you so</a>"?</span><span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-28372140349280042792018-07-18T07:42:00.002+03:002019-04-25T07:04:45.649+03:00How did Jordan B. Peterson become radicalized?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Until
October 2016, Jordan B. Peterson was a little-known psychology professor. Then,
a few videos in which he championed “politically incorrect” ideas went viral –
and he shot up to unforeseen fame and fortune. The content of his doubt-proof pronouncements
on everything has subsequently attracted much attention. There may be, however,
a more revealing take on his transformation into a celebrity reactionary (for
the liberal intelligentsia) and motivation speaker (among angry, mostly white young
men). It’s an angle that places style on par with substance.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">Back
in the 1990s, </span><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">before he moved to the University of Toronto, </span>Prof. Peterson already had a cult following among Harvard
students. At that point, though,
he was a different person. He had unbounded intellectual ambition and felt a
degree of dissociation from the predominant ideological paradigm. At the same
time, he struggled with mood swings and spoke in a toned-down, unexcited manner.
For two decades, it was more of the same – until in July 2016 his daughter
convinced him to try a low-carb, “ketogenic” diet. She believed that regimen could
help him (the way it had helped her) overcome a host of health problems: an
unspecified autoimmune disease, insomnia, clinical depression, chronic fatigue,
GERD, obesity, and a few others.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
very low-card diet did more than that. Dr. Peterson’s health problems subsided
rapidly. He lost much weight and felt energized as never before. In parallel, his
mind seemed to clear, and he acquired his trademark qualities as a public
speaker – combative intensity, furious conviction in proffering simple
solutions to complex problems, and thinly veiled contempt for ideological
opponents (though, of course, he claims he is unfailingly self-critical). Within
a few months, he was ready to relaunch his life, and his career as an “educator.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Were
the resolution of Dr. Peterson’s health problems and the his
more extreme ideological persona only accidentally concurrent? Perhaps – but
there is another curious possibility. The ketogenic diet is known to boost
sensitivity to dopamine and to other excitatory chemicals in the brain (generally
decreased by modern feeding and lifestyle patterns). The usual effect is a
sense of euphoria and increased confidence and motivation – an overall chronic high of
sorts. In individuals with a more sensitive nervous system, this can literally turn
into mania – an enduringly altered state of consciousness, as described by
neuropsychiatrist Peter Whybrow (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Mania</i>) and psychologist Fred Previc (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Dopaminergic Mind in Human Evolution and History</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">So
here is an impish thought. Maybe in some contexts psychological stress and
sensory deprivation can help turn some prisoners (including young women) into
jihadists hankering for martyrdom. And in a different setting, similar
influences can help transform a frustrated academic into a righteous social
injustice warrior and virtual cult leader. Over the past couple of years, I
have written several papers exploring the link between neurophysiological
functioning and social thinking. Dr. Peterson’s personal transformation might
be a telling case study.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Come
to think of it, I should maybe try a similarly restricted diet (minus the meat)
– and observe any mental/emotional changes it fosters. I just hope I won’t
suffer some of the unfortunate side effects. And these could go beyond the potential radicalization. For example, Dr.
Peterson seems to have lost the capacity to really laugh - a deficit he shares with President Trump…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-77298067461450699332018-05-26T22:16:00.002+03:002019-02-12T12:29:10.273+02:00The gift of disinhibition<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="background: rgb(255 , 249 , 238); color: #222222; font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In her paean to Philip Roth in </span><i>The New Yorker</i>, Zadie Smith says
his “central gift and the quality he shared with America itself” is
unrestrained, “sheer energy.” In her Philp Roth Lecture two years ago, she said
something slightly different – that reading Roth, she “felt something
impossible loosen” inside. To her, it was an invaluable gift – “a gift of
freedom.” Good for Ms. Smith, who went on to become a superbly creative writer.
The gift she cherishes so much, however, might have had a larger fallout –
related to the broader cultural trend Roth epitomized so powerfully. He
apparently rode the crest of the “culture of narcissism” (or of
“self-expression values,” if you the Zeitgeist calls for a less judgmental term). That tide has
allowed, among other things, some exceptional individuals to make and keep what
in the past would have been obscene amounts of money. This social group would
include financial speculators, captains of the “attention economy,” and other
“bad actors” (as Paul Krugman has dubbed them). They can now wallow in billions
without the slightest sense of shame or embarrassment, and be a target of
admiration rather than opprobrium.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<span style="background: rgb(255 , 249 , 238); color: #222222; font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: rgb(255 , 249 , 238); color: #222222; font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Beyond that narrow circle of the 0.1 percent,
the cultural trend Roth expressed so well has spurred the proverbial “revolt of
the elites” (another memorable Christopher Lasch coinage). That rebellion has
apparently produced a “new establishment” (the </span><i>Vanity Fair</i> category) or a “new global elite” (Chrystia Freeland’s
more serious term) buoyed by a serene sense of meritocratic entitlement. Its
members must treasure the new freedom they have been granted even more strongly
– undeterred by the resentment of the humiliated and insulted who have so tragically placed their hopes in Trump or Brexit. Six years ago, Kurt Andersen
lamented in <i>The New York Times</i> “the downside of liberty.” His sentiments, however, are
not widely shared among “the best and the brightest” – and the caravan only
picks up speed. It would be curious to stage a debate between Andersen and Zadie
Smith on the side effects of the cultural revolution that shook the world in
the 1960s – and has gathered pace ever since.<br />
<br />Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-60282316539847262702018-03-18T22:55:00.004+02:002018-03-18T22:55:28.064+02:00Too bad the Wehrmacht did not win on the Eastern front!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I clicked through a video the other day – “The Battle of the
Baltics” from “The Greatest Tank Battles” series. It is apparently produced for
the History and National Geographic channels – yet could very well have been
Nazi propaganda. It is all shot from a German perspective and features mostly
interviews with German tank crew. Much of the footage is animation of mighty
German panzer blowing up countless “Russian” T-34s. The culmination comes when
10 panzer valiantly open a corridor so 500,000 German soldiers can withdraw to
fight another day for the Endsieg. I hope there is a parallel universe in which
the authors of this video production can live under Nazi rule. If I were
religious, I would have also added – thank God for Prof. John Erickson!</div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-46268126717933140842017-08-15T07:50:00.001+03:002017-08-15T07:50:15.814+03:00"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?"<span style="font-family: "Candara",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">This
title looks very much like clickbait – but in fact it points to a long <i>Atlantic </i>article by Jean M. Twenge (of
"narcissism epidemic" fame). She is pitching her new book, which is bound
to be again "controversial" – <i>iGen:
Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant,
Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood – and What That Means for
the Rest of Us</i>. She says all sorts of troubling statistics reflecting the
mental lives of American teens took an abrupt upward turn about 5 years ago –
the year when smartphone ownership reached critical mass. For example, “boys’
depressive symptoms increased by 21 percent from 2012 to 2015, while girls’
increased by 50 percent." Also – and not completely unrelated, “three
times as many 12-to-14-year-old girls killed themselves in 2015 as in 2007,
compared with twice as many boys” (and “in 2011, for the first time in 24
years, the teen suicide rate was higher than the teen homicide rate”). (see full post at isardamov.com). </span>Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-22213261592367048942017-08-14T21:43:00.000+03:002017-08-14T21:43:40.068+03:00“When Silicon Valley Takes LSD”<span style="font-family: "Candara",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA;">This
is the title of a segment on CNN describing a curious phenomenon – the extent
to which IT developers and entrepreneurs have become dependent on LSD as a “creativity”
prop. One of them, Tim Ferriss, states flatly: “The billionaires I know, almost
without exception, use hallucinogens on a regular basis." Why should this
be the case? Perhaps they really, really need it. Even in neurotypicals,
engagement in a task that requires focused attention or analytical thinking
shuts down the default mode network – the seat of insight and intuition in the human
brain. The Silicon Valley types, no doubt, are much, much better at this. So
they would desperately need a substance allowing some key hubs of the DMN to
continue to hum, no matter what. (see full post at issardamov.com)</span>Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-86463278167161262052017-05-26T10:57:00.002+03:002017-05-26T10:57:59.559+03:00Who is most “academically adrift” – and why?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Seven years ago, sociologists-turned-education-experts
Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published a book (under the same name) in which
they made a startling argument. Unveiling a study involving 2,300 American students,
they claimed they had observed very “limited learning on college campuses.” A
majority of students were allegedly showing no or negligible improvement in
their thinking after 4 years of higher learning. Arum’s and Roksa’s methods and
conclusions attracted much flak from more optimistic experts and observers. There
was one curious assertion, however, which almost got lost in the whole debate. Arum
and Roksa had found that students majoring in business administration and
education were making the least progress of all. To the extent that their data
can be trusted, what could be a plausible explanation for this curious finding?
I offer a counterintuitive explanation in my new book, <i>Mental Penguins: The Neverending Education Crisis and the False Promise
of the Information Age</i>. And in the full version of this post on another,
learning-focused blog I have started at <a href="http://isardamov.com/">isardamov.com</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-73537308898927317872017-04-14T07:28:00.001+03:002017-04-15T07:35:25.190+03:00President Trump’s beautiful flip-flops<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
the surprise of many, it took President Trump only 48 hours to suddenly change
his mind about a host of hefty issues. He decided China was not a “currency manipulator,”
after all; ordered a massive missile strike on a Syrian air field; cooled
toward Russia and its perceived strongman; acknowledged NATO was no longer
obsolete; and praised the U.S. Export-Import Bank – which he had pledged to
shut down. One of the explanations given for this torrent of policy U-turns is
that the country’s CEO is simply learning about all the issues involved – and finding
out these may be more complicated than Fox News had led him to believe. For
example, President Trump noted it had taken 10 minutes of conversation with the
Chinese president (more like 5 – if the translation is not counted) to make him
see China’s relation to North Korea in new light. Whatever the failing liberal
press was saying, he seemed to believe his new “flexibility” only showed he was pragmatic rather than bound to rigid ideological commandments. There may be, however, a less charitable
explanation for it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
Some
of the language President Trump used to describe his shifting views and actions
may be particularly revealing in this respect. He boasted he had informed the
Chinese president of the missile strike on Syria as they were ingesting “the
most beautiful piece of chocolate cake.” He did that because he did not want
President Xi (whom he later praised as a “terrific person”) to find out what
had transpired after he had left the banquet. When asked by journalist,
President trump then referred to dropping the mightiest non-nuclear American bomb
in Afghanistan as “another successful event.” The list could go on and on. Such
off-the-cuff remarks suggest that the free world now has a leader who may not adequately
grasp the larger significance of his own decisions – and of the complex issues
demanding his response.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">If
recent research in neuroscience is to be believed, the significance or meaning we
attribute to events and actions is determined largely by the visceral and
emotional responses these evoke. Some palpable deficits in this area could help
explain the ease with which President Trump has reversed himself on what appear
to be major issues – and the casual nature of his unscripted comments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">There
has been some debate among professionals as to whether President Trump suffers from
a recognized mental or personality disorder. Whether someone can identify and
count from a distance the symptoms that would merit one of the diagnoses
included in the American – or any other – psychiatric manual may be beside the
point. In any case, it seems there is something inadequate in the way President
Trump responds to the social world at a more basic level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Many
years ago, I wrote a paper arguing that to rise politically, one needs a very
thick emotional skin. This, however, is a personal characteristic which can later
impedes apt decision making – since this requires adequate visceral and
emotional input. This paradox may be even more pronounced in the United States
with its grueling primaries and peculiar electoral college rules; and in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century with its truly numbing levels of social and sensory stimulation (and
related chronic arousal). In any case, we United States now has a president in
possession of a “social brain” that functions in a most extraordinary manner –
generating a mental “matrix” that breaks all the formal and informal rules of
engagement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-35790983332131549082017-04-13T17:14:00.002+03:002017-04-13T17:15:18.969+03:00Our startups, ourselves<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
the NYT, John Herrman recalls an astute observation made by computer scientist
John Dougman in the now distant 1990 (“New Technology Is Built on a ‘Stack.’ Is
That the Best Way to Understand Everything Else, Too?” “Invariably,” Dougman
wrote, “the explanatory metaphors of a given era incorporate the devices and
the spectacles of the day.” The ancient Greeks and Romans, for example,
deployed hydraulic and pneumatic metaphors reflecting the technology they used
to pump water. During the Enlightenment, the human organism was conceived as a
sophisticated machine, not unlike the newly ubiquitous mechanical clocks, watches,
and related mechanisms. With the spread of IT, terms borrowed from computer
science – like programmed, bandwidth, or hack – become the new master metaphors.
One of the trendiest among these seems to be the “stack” – a combination of
elements arranged (as if) on top of each other, well integrated and assuring
the smooth functioning of a company (or a human being).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">Herrman
wonders if the “stack” is the best metaphor for understanding the
non-technological – and non-virtual – world. I am wondering, though, about
something else. Could the “causal” arrow be running in the opposite direction?
We develop – as a result of our immersion in the larger physical and social
world – some mental tendencies. Which lead us to develop corresponding technologies.
Which, in their turn, provide the images and clichés we use to rationalize our potentially
bewildering experiences – and reinforce our mental proclivities. If this were
the case, perhaps the IT revolution reflects an algorithmic, mechanical style
of thinking – rather than merely provide a set of evocative terms and
metaphors. This form of thinking, in its turn, is mightily reinforced by the
spread of computers and screens – but also by social and sensory
overstimulation, and by rigorous cognitive training and work.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Algorithmic
thinking comes more easily to “weird” cultures and to individuals with an
engineering bent. In the social sciences, this form of mechanical reasoning has
become the mainstream in almost all areas. It is habitually deployed to
understand social and mental trends and phenomena – and the resulting
reductionist abstractions are taken as “reality.” Two years ago I published an
overly long article critiquing this trend (“Out of Touch: The Analytic
Misconstrual of Social Knowledge”) – but, of course, the caravan never misses a
beat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-11286825130617447562017-03-20T08:41:00.001+02:002017-03-20T12:06:06.676+02:00Sincere blue eyes – wink, wink…<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
do Donald Trump, Kelyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, Paul Ryan, and Mitch
McConnell have in common? Blue eyes. Blue eyes are, of course, very common
among people of German and Irish descent. But the extent to which steely eyes
have always been overrepresented in the upper echelon of American politics is
quite striking. Thirty-one out of 44 presidents (including the 5 squeezed
between Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama) have had blue eyes. And the second most
common color has been gray, with 6 distinguished representatives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">How
can this be? According to some psychological studies, blue-eyed people tolerate
pain and distress better. They are less prone to trauma, anxiety, and
depression. They are also more competitive and calculating, and less “agreeable”
– a quality associated with empathy, friendliness, generosity, compassion… All
this is probably related to weaker emotional and visceral reactivity (a.k.a. “gut
feelings”).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
first person with blue eyes was apparently born in Eastern Europe 8-10,000 years
ago. And then the mutation spread – mostly to Northeastern Europe and the
British Isles, as it must have helped carriers survived under bleaker skies. Beyond
some point, however, dampened emotional/visceral reactivity may lead to some
forms of dissociation </span><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee", serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">– </span><span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee", serif; font-size: 11pt;">where the line between truth and fantasy becomes blurred.
Or to a constellation of “psychopathic” traits (quite common among American presidents) that coalesce into a (sub)clinical
syndrome – or trigger a more or less successful quest for power, spirals of ruthless scheming and manipulation, etc. Such tendencies (if a friend’s recollections are to be trusted) were highlighted
by the classic Swedish miniseries “Sincere Blue Eyes” which first aired 40
years ago.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
the other hand, it could all just be a historical accident – a weaker version
of those hapless monkeys hitting random keys, and eventually producing <i>War and Peace</i>.</span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-81047058401648303362017-03-09T21:06:00.000+02:002017-03-09T21:06:13.311+02:00Narcissism works – really!<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee", serif; font-size: 11pt;">I posted this on Christmas Eve, 2014. I am still amazed how well
life continues to imitates art, kind of</span>:<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11pt;">"So the DJIA has pushed beyond 18,000. It may not quite get to 30,000 soon, but still </span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 15px;">– what </span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11pt;">a momentous achievement! Which reminds me of a remarkable #Colbert interview from March 2009. The guest was #EmilyYoffe who had just published an article on Narcissistic Personality Disorder in </span><i style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11pt;">Slate</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11pt;">. The previous week the Dow Jones had hit rock bottom at 6,547, and Ms. Yoffe explained somewhat sternly that the whole financial meltdown had resulted from Americans “binging on ‘I deserve it.’” After asking a few probing questions, the Colbert character retorted: “But the economy and the market is really all based on confidence. Why don’t we just recapture that narcissism that we had a year ago and pretend that everything is just OK, and won’t the market come right back? Won’t we just rebuild the bubble?” At the time this was meant as a joke, but now the joke is on the non-believers, or should I say – the non-narcissists?"</span>Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-49284248535885344492017-01-30T18:11:00.003+02:002017-01-30T18:11:56.735+02:00Machiavelli saw it all coming?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Society
cannot exist without inequality of fortunes and inequality of fortunes cannot
exist without religion. When a man is dying of hunger alongside another who
stuffs himself, it is impossible to make him accede to the difference unless
there is an authority which says to him God wished it thus; there must be some
poor and some rich in the world but hereafter and for all eternity the division
will be made differently.”</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11pt;">“A
prince … must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of
keeping his subjects united and faithful; for, with a very few examples, he
will be more merciful than those who, from excess of tenderness, allow
disorders to arise, from whence spring bloodshed and rapine; for these as a rule
injure the whole community, while the executions carried out by the prince injure
only individuals.”</span>Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-45813735906015059542016-10-17T11:29:00.002+03:002016-10-17T11:29:33.770+03:00Could some stereotypes exist for a reason?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-71969147980908005182016-07-31T15:40:00.001+03:002016-07-31T15:40:28.235+03:00“Hilary Clinton Makes History”<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
was the title of the NYT editorial celebrating Hilary Clinton’s official
nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. According to it, “Mrs.
Clinton’s nomination brings women a big step closer to the pinnacle of American
politics.” Perhaps. What it does immediately is bring a real outlier closer to
the presidency of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The broader effects are yet to be
seen – and become a topic of ideological strife. I am still wondering if a
human being with “normal” emotional/visceral reactivity can survive the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> presidential
campaign. Perhaps President Obama is, indeed, the closest we’ll ever get.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-91364678191964342452016-07-30T10:32:00.003+03:002016-07-30T10:32:34.630+03:00“Will Sanders Supporters Come Around?”<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/will-sanders-supporters-come-around.html" target="_blank">piece</a> on the NYT web site, psychologists Yarrow Dunham and David
Rand predict a positive outcome. They point to multiple psychological
experiments (some with kids) indicating a common “human tendency to forge
alliances as the context demands.” In other words, team spirit wins over
contingent (and even some deep) divides. Except when it doesn’t – as the mutiny
in the French football/soccer team at the 2010 world cup suggests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-32993634869614902562016-07-21T09:51:00.001+03:002016-07-31T15:41:00.975+03:00"There is no difference between computer art and human art"<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
is the title of an Aeon piece by Oliver Roeder, a senior writer for ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight
site. His basic argument is that since algorithms are created by humans, the
art they generate is human art, too. This could well be a joke, but perhaps isn’t
– which would be symptomatic in itself. My first reaction was to say there is a
fundamental difference between real art and that produced by an algorithm (no
matter how much “creativity” has gone into it). One requires, and evokes, a
powerful emotional response; the other doesn’t. On second thought, artists,
writers, composers, and others started to work on erasing this difference over
a century ago. The cultured elite was initially abhorred, but quickly lost
taste in representational art, rhymed
poetry, traditional narrative, tonal music, and the like – and embraced most
forms of aesthetically neutral (or worse) art, poetry/writing, music,
architecture, etc. This trend has recently been reinforced by the entry of tech
billionaites into the prestigious art market. So perhaps we have reached the
point where there is no meaningful difference between human and algorithmic artistic
output.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-7311451425234684062016-07-19T16:37:00.001+03:002016-07-21T12:40:47.845+03:00Martha Nussbaum’ lessons for a life well lived – and conceptualized<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
New Yorker carries a really chilling profile of the esteemed philosopher (“The
Philosopher of Feelings”). It makes you think, “is this what it takes to
achieve unrivaled success as a thinker and academic?” Also, much recent
research has highlighted how much social judgment depends on proper emotional
response, including gut feeling. So the article left me wondering about
something else – how could someone so hardened, rationalizing, and detached become
the preeminent philosophical authority on human emotion? Or perhaps this is a
symptom in itself? I would be really curious about Prof. Nussbaum’s reaction to
her profile, whatever that might be…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">P.S. I keep thinking about this </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">– an extreme, highly "weird" outlier, "monumentally confident" as she formulates universal principles valid for all of humanity? Or is this perhaps </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">–</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> refracted in a non-existing tear drop </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">–</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> the image of most Western social theorizing, despite the obligatory protestations of cultural sensitivity? I guess Prof. Nussbaum deserves all the sympathy she has tried to extend to the less fortunate </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">–</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> looking down from her elevated SES, fabulous apartment, plane windows, etc. In any case, it would be interesting to see some fMRI data for scholars who write about emotions – too bad I can't afford it myself...</span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-8799518932210498212016-07-18T12:54:00.001+03:002018-03-26T12:07:19.194+03:00Imagine … a digital afterlife!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
<i>The Atlantic</i> web site, neuroscientist
Michael Graziano imagines a bright future when individual minds will be
routinely uploaded on to some sort of IT hardware (“Why You Should Believe in
the Digital Afterlife”). The vision he projects is surprisingly poetic—though
not quite in the “machines of loving grace” tradition: “<span style="background: white;">Think about the quantum leap that might occur if
instead of preserving words and pictures, we could preserve people’s actual
minds for future generations. We could accumulate skill and wisdom like never
before.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Imagine a future in which
your biological life is more like a larval stage. You grow up, learn skills and
good judgment along the way, and then are inducted into an indefinite digital
existence where you contribute to stability and knowledge.” Of course, Prof.
Graziano’s utopia could be another clever hoax meant to provoke silly comments
from clever readers. In case it isn’t, it may need to be amended slightly: 1)
machine learning could at some point take care of the accumulation of skills
and knowledge commonly associated with humans—making the latter superfluous; and
2) the project could work only for individuals like Graziano himself, Ray Kurzweil
(whose foresight the neuroscientist praises), the early Dr. Sheldon Cooper, Richard
Hendricks, etc.—whose thought processes run along strictly logical/algorithmic lines.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-80495509283278967492016-07-12T07:21:00.004+03:002016-07-12T07:21:43.138+03:00The future is (almost) now?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ruth
Franklin has a great book review in the NYT (“Lionel Shriver Imagines Imminent
Economic Collapse, With Cabbage at $20 a Head”). In the novel, American
civilization has apparently collapsed under its own weight – ending la dolce
vita for the 1%. Here are the last 2 sentences from the review: “‘The line
between owners of swank <st1:state w:st="on">Washington</st1:state> townhouses
and denizens of his sister-in-law’s <st1:placetype w:st="on">Fort</st1:placetype>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Greene</st1:placename> shelter was perhaps thinner than
he’d previously appreciated,’ <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lowell</st1:place></st1:city>
realizes late in the novel. The line separating us from our dystopian future
may be equally thin. The curse of Cassandra, after all, was that she told the
truth.” The trouble is – I tend to trust people who can write so well…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-13798481414065077292016-06-04T17:45:00.002+03:002016-06-04T17:45:32.451+03:00We Have Become an Idiocracy<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Joel
Klein is the in-house satirist of <i>Time
Magazine</i>. But in <a href="http://time.com/4327424/idiocracy/" target="_blank">this piece</a> he is only half-joking...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-57997245223051782052016-05-27T07:48:00.001+03:002016-05-27T07:48:14.307+03:00Geoff Dyer’s Creative Boredom<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">According to a book review in <i>Time Magazine</i>, the writer has two great gifts – he is easily bored
in places everyone else finds exciting, and can cleverly convey his sense of
insufferable boredom. <st1:city w:st="on">Beijing</st1:city>’s <st1:place w:st="on">Forbidden City</st1:place>? “Jeez, it went on forever, and every bit
looked axactly the same as every other bit.” Time spent in a small Norwegian
town promising a unique view of the northern lights? “It was like a lifetime of
disappointment compressed into less than a week, which actually felt like it
had lasted the best – in the sense of worst – part of a lifetime.” <st1:place w:st="on">Polynesia</st1:place>? It “translates as ‘many islands,’ all of which
you wish you were on instead of the one you actually are on.” Apparently, this
goes on and on. So what would it take to get Mr. Dyer mildly excited? More
dopamine binding in his mesolimbic pathway, I guess – though this could get in
the way of his wry humor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-53023250521096289302016-05-26T08:32:00.000+03:002016-05-26T08:32:21.509+03:00Individualism’s Final Victory?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: 'Plantagenet Cherokee'; font-size: 11pt;">A story on the NYT web site hails “The End of the
Office Dress Code.” Its strapline clarifies the message: “I</span><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Plantagenet Cherokee'; font-size: 11pt;">n the sartorial battle between the individual and
the corporation, the individual is winning</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: 'Plantagenet Cherokee'; font-size: 11pt;">.” I searched for the
slightest whiff of irony in the text, but found none. So it must be true – for better
or worse. </span><span style="font-family: 'Plantagenet Cherokee'; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-90119094585654717692016-05-24T11:42:00.003+03:002019-02-12T12:21:34.026+02:00The Matrix in reverse?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A team of psychologists have <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160513084549.htm" target="_blank">identified a mathematical network in the brain</a> – distinct from the one recruited for language-mediated thinking.
It is activated when we juggle or simply see numbers. Needless to say, this
network must be more developed in mathematicians – or, more generally, in
individuals who are better with numbers rather than words. Needless to say, this
may be the network you need to have beefed up in your brain in order to be
taken seriously as a social scientists these days (and soon it may give you a
leg up in the humanities, too). So, unlike Cypher who says he sees people when
he looks at numbers, you will be able to see numbers and equations when you
think of people and social “interactions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-68130673767602476392016-03-16T22:04:00.001+02:002016-03-17T07:38:02.208+02:00A gender gap that is here to stay?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I sent the other
day an article from <i>The Chronicle of
Higher Education</i>, “The Subtle Ways Gender Gaps Persist in Science,” to a
friend. She pointed out that even in the “social sciences” the gender gap persists
in a very obvious way, and perhaps for a reason. She thinks most research there
has become so reductionist and quasi-autistic, that “extreme male brains” must
be naturally attracted to and likely to excel at such work. And, of course,
they also tend to hire and promote kindred souls (for lack of a better word),
despite occasional bitter rivalries. According to my friend, this self and
other-selection keeps even many men out – and only women who can at least
imitate the modus operandi of the male cognitive outliers can put a foot in the
door. Apparently, this problem is particularly acute in economics, where the
proportion of female tenure-track and tenured faculty is lower than in
computers and pure math.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">P.S. A <i>NYT</i> piece says blacks and Hispanics are "conspicuously absent" from tech jobs - just as women are. It seems males from a few racial/cultural groups are overrepresented in nerdy jobs across the board - and, of course, in the high-stakes gambling that is now called "investment." So "the best and the brightest" won't go away, no matter how many satirical jibes they need to suffer.</span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423375767843730363.post-61620192248262467932016-03-05T12:36:00.002+02:002016-03-05T12:36:27.821+02:00Amusing ourselves to death – or not?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Neuroskeptic recently posted a comment on a study
examining “joke addiction as a neurological symptom.” Apparently, some patients
with brain damage develop a compulsion to joke all the time, and seem most obsessed
with pun-based punch lines. Curiously, this usually happens to individuals who
have suffered some brain damage on the right side of the brain. Could “neurotypicals”
develop a similar tendency? In fact, this blog post reminded me of several
American friends and colleagues (who seem to suffer from a milder form of
compulsive wiseckracking), my favorite sitcoms, and much of British and
American humor (to say nothing of a few jokes in the comments section beneath
the Neuroskeptik’s text). </span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "plantagenet cherokee"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Come to think of it, Iain McGilchrist may have a
point when he claims (<i>The Master and His
Emissary</i>) that Western culture has become overly left-brained – despite the
habitual refutations from other neuroscientists. And this could, indeed, be a
key feature of the “weird” Western brain/mind whose tendencies have been
largely conflated with universal human inclinations (as pointed out by the now
famous Henrich/Heine/Norenzayan trio). On the opposite extreme of the humor
spectrum would probably be Persians. In Iranian movies, no one ever laughs – and
if there is a line resembling a joke, it’s usually dead serious and rarely
elicits a smile. I am wondering how this cultural contrast played out in
negotiations leading to the nuclear deal and lifting of sanctions. And how it
might affect interpretations of the other side’s intentions in the verification
phase.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ivelin Sardamovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13415664848361305162noreply@blogger.com