Overemphasis on Numbers
I'm of the same age, followed a roughly similar path through school, and also thought that young adults in general were fully capable if given the chance. I've since graduated and moved to the SF Bay Area though; you'd be surprised just how many new college grads actually cannot think freely and critically. I'm sure you must have seen at least a few headlines pointing out some of the absurdity in Silicon Valley now. (Having lived here for 6 years now, I'd say the media actually understates how nonsensical some of the thinking around here is, but that's for another discussion.) That's not to say we should box people up even more when they're younger, just that I can see where some of the prejudice is coming from (yet it can be argued that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy from treating people like drones in the first place).
Speaking on just my own experience in the SF Bay Area though, my thoughts are not so much that the issue is a prejudice against age as much as the issue is an overemphasis on credentials, test scores, and numbers in general. The problems with education today are what I personally see more as part of an overall lack of critical and creative thinking in society - too much data driven. People just want to look at some threshold, do an if-greater-then condition, and be done. If you look at some of the most talented programmers, as an example, many actually do not have a formal degree in Computer Science or are self taught; recruiting based on numbers like we do now would never find them and actually weed them out. On the other side of things, I've met engineers from Ivy League schools who can barely code but get the job nonetheless from great marks in school; some cannot build a program from scratch at all unless you give them the skeleton to fill in the details on, which is arguably the bulk of the work. I've come across engineers from firms as prestigious as Google who would not even dare explore restaurants without some external confirmation of their decisions, justifying their decisions with "social validation" (their words, not mine); there's actual fear in their eyes at the thought of going somewhere that doesn't have enough Yelp reviews, fear of the uncertainty and making any decision not backed with numbers. Of course, this is flawed thinking, lots of appeal to majority, authority, and other fallacies, but the sad part is a lot of our peers who do this most likely are not even aware of what things like logical fallacies are (in a non-math context). If you've read books like "City and the Stars" or "Childhood's End", it is getting quite close to that at least in some pockets of the country.
I agree with...[More]
Reflections on San Francisco
Some of the posts I've found on Quora are pretty spot on with my own experiences, though mine are limited more to the San Francisco side of it.
SF vs Chicago
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Internet Community is Overly Saturated
The Internet is Opinion Saturated
I personally “grew up” on the internet back in the early 2000s (I was 12 then when I was part of various communities making games and other content together). It’s funny because I remember people (including myself) would constantly get warned or even banned (at worst) by moderators for things as simple as being rude or lacking manners. Now all of that pretty goes out the door when you connect online, which is very sad to see. It’s as if all the effort back then to preserve a bit of dignity online pretty much went to waste.
Sometimes I...[More]
Lack of Ambition in the Bay Area
I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I just don't belong on the west coast though, or at least in the bay area. I've been reading more about the east coast (and just other places in general); this article, for example, mentions how ambition is often shunned in the bay and that really hit home for me as that is the treatment I get from most my peers:
http://www.therejectionist.com/2011/09/all-things.html
Likewise the herd mentality to do what's cool or trendy rather than find something...[More]
Lack of Real Ambition
http://www.mercurynews.com/michelle-quinn/ci_24582668/quinn-startups-lack-ambition-but-may-save-world
The article nails what has been bugging me ever since I moved to the bay area. The hard part about describing this is that technically these projects are ambitious since they're already going outside the set career path and all, but it's like doing the bare minimal community service hours to claim you volunteer actively.
It's hard to tell if it's a Bay Area thing or something trending amongst society as a whole. My hope is that it's just a regional thing, or else my moving away to start over will be in vain. Yet where do you move to find people who actually want to take over the world (as opposed to just making some app to help you find a taxi -_-)?
Origins
Some Inspiration From the Past
Sometimes I forget my frustrations, but every once in a while something like this shows up and just really tests my patience with myself:
http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/10/crash-bandicoot-as-a-startup/
Besides the fact I use to play those games when I was younger, being able to form a team and produce something on that scale was something I've always dreamed of doing. It's tough finding finding people of equal or better calibur though and even tougher to find those who share similar ambitions and drive. Like the author, I also learned most of my programming myself (home-brewed), so it's really hard to relate to colleagues who otherwise...[More]
Perfect World
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An advanced society is led by one man (the leader) who seems to have invented a means for everything (free energy, robots, etc). He himself seems immortal and omnipotent now from his own inventions. His daughter - he turned into part machine so she does not grow old. His company headquarters is actually a giant parked spaceship in the city.
One day, however,...[More]
Who You Are on the Inside
Twenty years later, the doctor gets close to understanding the nature of the illness and finding a cure. Both are excited at the prospect, but as the cure is applied, the friend seems to gradually get weaker. The doctor scrambles to figure out what went wrong, but each day that passes, the friend seems to slowly lose grasp on the world. Eventually the friend becomes bedbound and the doctor caring daily for the friend.
Over time, the doctor notices that, although the friend is losing mental capacity, the friend seems physically fine. In fact, as the friend becomes healthier, the friend becomes less mentally stable, as if gradually fading away.
The doctor...[More]
Imperfect Genesis
Void
I can't help feeling similar to Jonathan Shields in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952). It has haunted me ever since I watched it two years ago for a film class. Of course, I will never betray anyone for any means, but like Shields, once a project or goal is finished, I don't feel satisfied at all. Instead, I feel anguish and longing - like I have just lost purpose and have suddenly been reduced to nothing. I can be anything and do anything, but once I stop, I sink away into the shadows.
It is not as if I pursue a goal or task because I enjoy it either. It...[More]
Passing of Dreams
The doctor is placed into a deep sleep next to the patient, his head in a device connected to the head of the patient's. The scene pans across the patient's brown eyes to the blue eyes of the doctor, the irises of which are blue. The doctor awakens in a bed that is not his own and quickly realizes he is in the mind of the patient....[More]
Immortality
You often see movies or books about people who can never die, but usually they also heal super fast from any wound or injury. Just a thought on my end, but what if you can never die, but you heal at a normal rate?
The scary part about this is that the normal person can relate since no fast healing is involved. The person in the character is essentially still conscious no matter what happens. What’s to say this doesn’t occur in real life? Obviously you can’t heal from everything or live forever, but what’s to say your consciousness doesn’t continue drift along out there?
It probably wouldn’t work that well as a film because you can’t show the inside of someone’s mind (supposing you take a first person perspective). From an outside observer though, that might work. Ideally, a book would work better so you can see the main character’s thoughts.
The story…[More]
Undo
Scroll through a series of scenes showing every day life. Closer shots show they are actually running backwards. Over time, we see that these are all mistakes that people make (spilling coffee, breaking tables, etc) that are fixed by going backwards in time.
Eventually we come to the scene of a car accident with a car pinning a helpless victim to a tree. The scene running backwards, however, does not solve the issue. The car pulls away and the victim slides to the ground. The car is intact - in fact, it's brand new - but the person is still dead.
Friend in the Shadows
The whole time he is alone until he one day notices someone standing in the shadows on the other side of the river. The person can't really be seen and is just a dark figure. The man calls and waves out. The person doesn't say anything, but the man assumes it's because they're too far apart to hear each other. However, the person seems to motion or signal back before fading back into the shadows.
The man doesn't see this person again until one day he injures himself along...[More]
Three Years Past
His friends tell him he's crazy. When the boy tries to use his ice cream as proof, they tell him he just got it from across the street. Defeated, the boy just accepts his situation for the time being.
His learning is accelerated and he quickly adapts to his new life. He seems to learn things instantaneously sometimes (such as math) even though he doesn't remember having been good at it before. One day his friends bug him about the ice cream again and the boy gets irritated. The boy suddenly shouts, "How could I have gotten the ice cream...[More]
Left Behind
-- Cut to door outside hallway. --
» Boy opens it and walks in with Friend1 and Friend2 (back to us).
-- Cut to front of group, angled to show only Boy's face. --
» Group walks toward camera down hallway, talking and laughing. Boy talking and laughing with them.
» Boy drops...[More]
Juggling Dreams
Sometimes you feel unstoppable, great, as if the world is only beginning, and you are at the center of it all. You get ideas, schemes that you never dared consider before, and now that you have, you feel obligated to pursue them, to drive them as far as you possibly can. At first you're not sure if you're up to the task; the first step looks hard and difficult. Then you toss in the first challenge, the first dream, and then the second, and then the third.
Pretty soon, you're not only tossing and catching all three, you are actually juggling. You can juggle two at a time, worry about the third later. Or you can juggle all three at once, perhaps without even breaking a sweat. Over time, you get better; you've gone far beyond anything you ever hoped to do, juggling three when at first you dared not even juggle one. You're ready for more; you want a challenge.
And so you throw in the…[More]
Why Not to Concentrate
Yet that moment sparked a curious interest in me. It made me realize that concentration, such as the concentration of all that pain in my toe, was not a good thing. When one is trapped in a cell, concentrated in a small space, he is not happy. When one is told how and what to think, to concentrate and narrow his mind, he is not happy. Even in politics, concentration is not a good thing; Americans don’t like concentration of power. Concentration means communism, dictatorship - all the things we fought to eliminate in past wars. Just...[More]