2020 – New Years Goals

By | January 27, 2020

I don’t usually do New Years resolutions. I’ve dabbled with them in the past, but they’ve always been vague ideals that I didn’t write down, didn’t track, and had no help of understanding my progress towards, let alone achieving. This year, I’m going to try applying SMART criteria to the process. For the uninitiated, this… Read More »

On Group Discussion Formats

By | August 26, 2019

I’ve been thinking about group discussions, particular those where a group of four or more people are exploring and learning about a complex issue together. I’m doing this both because I want to reboot the Futures Salon I’ve been running with Arunabh and because I’m currently gearing up to run an unconference for the Seattle… Read More »

On Suicide (and shootings)

By | March 15, 2019

I was already in a grim frame of mind this evening when I heard about the shootings in Christchurch. I’m not ready to talk about them, but I wanted to write about the other thing. Someone I know committed suicide just recently. I didn’t know them particularly well, but they are the third person in… Read More »

Concepts of Class

By | December 15, 2017

What does class mean? In the last week I’ve encountered three conceptualizations – financial, cultural, and aspirational. Under the financial concept, class is determined by whether one’s assets and income are below or above some threshold. Here, class is external to the individual and might vary relatively easily as an individual gains more wealth. This… Read More »

Musings on creativity, passion, and conviction

By | June 18, 2017

I often wonder at people who are artistic, who have sudden bursts of creativity and desire to make something beautiful or whatever. I don’t have quite that same impulse – I don’t see something aesthetic and decide I want to make something similar; instead, I see something made and desire to have mastered the techniques… Read More »

Departures..

By | May 23, 2013

Tonight was my last meeting as an Executive Senator with GPSS.. I’ve got mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’ll be good to have my Wednesday nights back, but on the other, I always find it a little anticlimactic and sad to move on from any organization I’ve been a part of. In the case… Read More »

3D High Frame Rate film

By | January 9, 2013

Well, that was interesting. I just saw The Hobbit in 3D High Frame Rate. Ignoring the plot, design, acting and so on for a moment, I was struck by the 3D response I got. Normally, I have monoscopic vision due to my extremely far-sighted left eye, so seeing something recognizably 3D was really surprising. It… Read More »

Paralympics 2012

By | September 8, 2012

I’m far more inspired by these photos from the Paralympics than I was by anything I saw from the Olympics. There’s something much more moving about athletes overcoming physical adversity to even participate let alone win their events. Some highlights: high jump with only one leg table tennis with irregularly formed hands archery with feet… Read More »