So all this talk about mastery didn’t necessarily start this year; I still remember stepping into Susan’s class sophomore year and her telling us that at least 10,000 hours are required to be a “master” at something. I did a bunch of different calculations just for mere curiosity (Intrinsic motivation at its best!). But, all this talk of “mastery” resurfaces in Pink’s book. He says “mastery” is a very tough thing to achieve with lots of hard work and dedication required for it to happen. What I want to do is to emphasize just how hard that road can sometimes be, with nothing else than examples from musicians (Oh yay! Otilio’s talking about guitars again). The first musician I wanted to mention was Tom Morello (a celebrated guitarist), who started practicing the guitar avidly when he was studying at Harvard. He practiced for 8 hours a day everyday (coincidentally, according to Susan’s 10,000 hour idea 8 hours a day means “mastery” in 3.5 years). Well Tom Morello graduated from Harvard with a bachelor in Political Science; however he soon became a male stripper shortly after moving to Los Angeles in order to support himself. Since then however he has done numerous thing including working with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, pursuing a solo career as the “Night watchman”, and his new band Street Sweeper Social Club (he was also included as a character in Guitar Hero 3).
The next person I’d like to mention worked with either Marilyn Manson or White Zombie, maybe even both (frankly I can’t remember). But I do remember the words he said, he spoke to Guitar World magazine about his experience as a struggling guitarist trying to “make it”. He spoke of his living conditions, he lived in a cramped small New York apartment filled with cock roaches and working dead end jobs on the side; he also said that anyone should expect to live like this for at least five years before the band they play in gets truly recognized. Anyways, the point is that “mastery” really is a tough thing to accomplish, and the road leading to it is definitely not something that should be taken lightly.
Showing posts with label Otilio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Otilio. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2011
Senior Project
So, I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time and I think that I might end up going in the same direction Nick Saenz did last year: Music. But I’ve been oscillating for quite some time now, and the reason is that I see a lot of draw backs and obstacles. However, I don’t want to step down before I ever take on the challenge. The obstacles and draw backs I’m referring to are that for one what would I record my music on? I have no studio, I don’t know anyone who does and even if I did I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to use any of the equipment. A second approach to this might be to record all the music on a computer program similar to Garage band, but the problem with that is that I need the proper equipment to record the instruments onto the computer, which I don’t have and I guess are probably expensive. A way around this would be to simply play the music live, which is always a possibility.
Another obstacle is that I want to write the music, which means guitar, bass, vocals, and I might be able to defer to Erick Martinez for the drum parts, but a decent knowledge of music theory is needed for this, and I lack that. So I might spend the majority of my senior project time trying to learn as much as I can about theory and practicing my instrument, and start the actual writing process towards the end of the project. I’m not quite sure however. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to voice it, it’s more than welcome.
Another obstacle is that I want to write the music, which means guitar, bass, vocals, and I might be able to defer to Erick Martinez for the drum parts, but a decent knowledge of music theory is needed for this, and I lack that. So I might spend the majority of my senior project time trying to learn as much as I can about theory and practicing my instrument, and start the actual writing process towards the end of the project. I’m not quite sure however. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to voice it, it’s more than welcome.
A Self Realization
When I was finally done reading Daniel H. Pink’s Drive I realized something about my past. Something that I had only vaguely given thought to before. For well about over a year I had no intrinsic motivation in my life, and it showed. I spent my days irritated, anxious, and exhausted. I didn’t even realize it at the time. I was just getting through the day; I had nothing to devote my time to, nothing to focus myself on, to devote myself or strive to. My grades fell to a level that was uncharacteristic for me, and all the while I thought that I had just been getting lazy. It never occurred to me that I (desperately) needed something else in my life, and it probably still wouldn’t have occurred to me had it not been for Pink’s book.
So all this being said something changed, I finally found that intrinsic motivation. What was it? It was the guitar. The guitar gave me something to focus on, to devote myself to, and to strive for, everything that I lacked then. My behavior improved which was followed by an increase in my grades, and it wasn’t that I was trying any harder it was just that I finally had something for myself. I found myself practicing with every spare moment I had, I would even show up late to class because I spend the minutes between class playing for a few minutes, and my roommates had definitely gotten annoyed by my constant “noise making” at night. It was Pink’s book that helped me to see the intrinsic motivation within myself, and because of this book I know realize that intrinsic motivation isn’t just a bunch of rhetoric because I’ve lived without it, and I can easily say that living without something to devote yourself to life is boring indeed.
So all this being said something changed, I finally found that intrinsic motivation. What was it? It was the guitar. The guitar gave me something to focus on, to devote myself to, and to strive for, everything that I lacked then. My behavior improved which was followed by an increase in my grades, and it wasn’t that I was trying any harder it was just that I finally had something for myself. I found myself practicing with every spare moment I had, I would even show up late to class because I spend the minutes between class playing for a few minutes, and my roommates had definitely gotten annoyed by my constant “noise making” at night. It was Pink’s book that helped me to see the intrinsic motivation within myself, and because of this book I know realize that intrinsic motivation isn’t just a bunch of rhetoric because I’ve lived without it, and I can easily say that living without something to devote yourself to life is boring indeed.
Monday, August 22, 2011
The fate of Neil Diamond
Diamond is guilty. It’s obvious; most of what he talks about in his book, the fall of the Native Americans, the stone tool usage of the Aborigines Australians, China’s decent into technological inferiority, Europe’s rise to technological superiority, etc. he credits to geography.
His reasons as to why the Native Americans were conquered by the Spanish were Guns, Germs, and Steel. He then later claims that the reason the Spanish had all these things and that the Native Americans didn’t was geography. Europe was on an East-West alignment with the Fertile Crescent, which is where crops and animals were domesticated. These animals lead to germs and the animal crop package lead to sedentary lifestyles which produced the guns and the steel. On the contrary the Americas were on a North-South alignment. They did not produce domesticated animals (other than the llama) nor did they domesticate many plants. The llama (because it is not a herd mammal) did not lead to germs and the crops, although they did lead to sedentary lifestyles, did not lead to guns or steel.
Australia, because it was so isolated from the rest of the world never developed past stone tools. China’s technology, because the country was so unified, never went through the autocatalytic process whereas European technology, because it was so divided, did.
He even states that “the continents differ in innumerable environmental features affecting the trajectories of human societies” (406) he then later goes on to explain the four geographical differences that lead to history as we know it, which include differences in plant and animal species on different continents, diffusion and migration within those continents (think East-West vs. North-South), followed by diffusion within continents, and lastly the area and total population size of a continent.
Everything he says throughout his book can somehow be traced back to geography, and for that reason he is a geographical determinist and should be sentenced as such.
His reasons as to why the Native Americans were conquered by the Spanish were Guns, Germs, and Steel. He then later claims that the reason the Spanish had all these things and that the Native Americans didn’t was geography. Europe was on an East-West alignment with the Fertile Crescent, which is where crops and animals were domesticated. These animals lead to germs and the animal crop package lead to sedentary lifestyles which produced the guns and the steel. On the contrary the Americas were on a North-South alignment. They did not produce domesticated animals (other than the llama) nor did they domesticate many plants. The llama (because it is not a herd mammal) did not lead to germs and the crops, although they did lead to sedentary lifestyles, did not lead to guns or steel.
Australia, because it was so isolated from the rest of the world never developed past stone tools. China’s technology, because the country was so unified, never went through the autocatalytic process whereas European technology, because it was so divided, did.
He even states that “the continents differ in innumerable environmental features affecting the trajectories of human societies” (406) he then later goes on to explain the four geographical differences that lead to history as we know it, which include differences in plant and animal species on different continents, diffusion and migration within those continents (think East-West vs. North-South), followed by diffusion within continents, and lastly the area and total population size of a continent.
Everything he says throughout his book can somehow be traced back to geography, and for that reason he is a geographical determinist and should be sentenced as such.
The East-West determinent
I believe that the East-West alignment of Eurasia is what lead to the European conquest of the Americas. Sure it was the diseases that arose from animal domestication that thinned the ranks of the Native Americans, but had it not been for the East-West alignment of Eurasia the Spanish never would have received the animals or crops that they did from the Fertile Crescent. Had that been the case they never would have developed the diseases which aided in their campaign against the Native Americas.
If the Americas had an East-West alignment and Eurasia didn’t then history would be very different indeed. Of course the Americas wouldn’t be the spitting image of what was Europe at the time of the Spanish conquest, but it would be much more advanced. Let us consider what was present in the Americas when the Spanish arrived. In Mesoamerica they domesticated corn, invented a wheel, developed a writing system and an empire. In the Andes they domesticated the llama and had widespread metal tools (as well as an Empire) (362). These were only a number of things these two Empires managed to accomplish, and I’m not including the Indians of the Eastern U.S. either. But imagine what could have happened if these isolated ideas and objects had the chance to spread. Perhaps plants domesticated in one area could be widespread throughout the Americas. The llama could travel and even be used for plowing, increasing the efficiency of agriculture. This increase in agriculture could lead to more sedentary societies in turn leading to more specialists which meant better technology. Perhaps the wheel developed by the Aztecs could be put to use as more than just a mere child’s toy. The writing system would spread and possibly even, through blueprint borrowing and idea diffusion, give rise to new languages spoken by more than just temple scribes. The metal tools could have developed into metal weapons. The once isolated areas would soon become enemy states which would lead to competition, in technology, between them. As Diamond says “technology begets more technology” the technology that would now be spreading throughout the Americas would constantly be improved by the autocatalytic process.
Now what would Spain, and the rest of Eurasia, have looked like if it were on a North-South alignment. Yes perhaps there would have been plant domestication, animal domestication, and even writing systems but all of these things would be in isolation from each other. Plants and animals that could live in one latitude cannot live in another. Due to the inability of language to spread it would likely remain a language used only for the scribes. So Eurasia would look a bit like the Americas did different technologies arising here and there, but in isolation and with little chance of spreading which also means with little chance of growing.
If the Americas had an East-West alignment and Eurasia didn’t then history would be very different indeed. Of course the Americas wouldn’t be the spitting image of what was Europe at the time of the Spanish conquest, but it would be much more advanced. Let us consider what was present in the Americas when the Spanish arrived. In Mesoamerica they domesticated corn, invented a wheel, developed a writing system and an empire. In the Andes they domesticated the llama and had widespread metal tools (as well as an Empire) (362). These were only a number of things these two Empires managed to accomplish, and I’m not including the Indians of the Eastern U.S. either. But imagine what could have happened if these isolated ideas and objects had the chance to spread. Perhaps plants domesticated in one area could be widespread throughout the Americas. The llama could travel and even be used for plowing, increasing the efficiency of agriculture. This increase in agriculture could lead to more sedentary societies in turn leading to more specialists which meant better technology. Perhaps the wheel developed by the Aztecs could be put to use as more than just a mere child’s toy. The writing system would spread and possibly even, through blueprint borrowing and idea diffusion, give rise to new languages spoken by more than just temple scribes. The metal tools could have developed into metal weapons. The once isolated areas would soon become enemy states which would lead to competition, in technology, between them. As Diamond says “technology begets more technology” the technology that would now be spreading throughout the Americas would constantly be improved by the autocatalytic process.
Now what would Spain, and the rest of Eurasia, have looked like if it were on a North-South alignment. Yes perhaps there would have been plant domestication, animal domestication, and even writing systems but all of these things would be in isolation from each other. Plants and animals that could live in one latitude cannot live in another. Due to the inability of language to spread it would likely remain a language used only for the scribes. So Eurasia would look a bit like the Americas did different technologies arising here and there, but in isolation and with little chance of spreading which also means with little chance of growing.
Floras impact in the Fertile Crescent
The three aspects that gave the Fertile Crescent such a large advantage over so many other areas in terms of plant domestication were its climate, its availability of domestic able plants, and the fact that the domestic able plants able to self-pollinate.
The climate of the Fertile Crescent is a Mediterranean zone, with wet winters and hot dry summers. The plants of the Fertile Crescent adapted to the weather and due to this adaptation they produce large edible seeds, rather than use energy trying to create fibrous or wood stems (136). The fact that the seeds remain dormant until the winter is also very important, because it encouraged people to start farming and cultivating these plants for their seeds, which eventually led to a sedentary lifestyle as opposed to the hunter gather lifestyle.
The second aspect is that the Fertile Crescent had such an abundance of domestic able plants compared to other areas. A possible reason as to the Fertile Crescents abundance in plants is the fact that it has the largest zone of Mediterranean climate in the world; this larger landmass also means a higher diversity of plants and animals available for domestication. (138) Not only was there an abundance of domestic able plants but these plants were very useful. They had a large return rate of energy for the amount of hours put into planting them; they also had large seeds unlike the seeds of North American plants such as Goosefoot, knotweed, little barely, and maygrass which had tiny seeds (151). Although those North American plants had a lot of nutritional value their small seeds made them undesirable to the North American people. Obviously such was not the case with the plants in the Fertile Crescent due to their large size.
Lastly the fact that Fertile Crescent contains a large percentage of hermaphrodic plants played a big role in the fertile crescents advantage over other Mediterranean climates. These plants were capable of pollinating themselves, however on occasion they could cross pollinate. The reason that this was so important was that once a favorable mutation in a plant was acquired it would not be lost due to cross pollination in the next generation; instead that mutant plant would reproduce itself leaving the mutation untouched. This meant that the favorable mutation could then be reproduced and a crop could be formed, with time.
Had these same aspects been present in Mesoamerica It is likely that agriculture would have risen there much earlier and it would have been much more productive. Agriculture would have spread throughout all of Mesoamerica. However, it would not have spread throughout the rest of the Americas due to the geographical barriers such as deserts, mountains, and tropical jungles.
The climate of the Fertile Crescent is a Mediterranean zone, with wet winters and hot dry summers. The plants of the Fertile Crescent adapted to the weather and due to this adaptation they produce large edible seeds, rather than use energy trying to create fibrous or wood stems (136). The fact that the seeds remain dormant until the winter is also very important, because it encouraged people to start farming and cultivating these plants for their seeds, which eventually led to a sedentary lifestyle as opposed to the hunter gather lifestyle.
The second aspect is that the Fertile Crescent had such an abundance of domestic able plants compared to other areas. A possible reason as to the Fertile Crescents abundance in plants is the fact that it has the largest zone of Mediterranean climate in the world; this larger landmass also means a higher diversity of plants and animals available for domestication. (138) Not only was there an abundance of domestic able plants but these plants were very useful. They had a large return rate of energy for the amount of hours put into planting them; they also had large seeds unlike the seeds of North American plants such as Goosefoot, knotweed, little barely, and maygrass which had tiny seeds (151). Although those North American plants had a lot of nutritional value their small seeds made them undesirable to the North American people. Obviously such was not the case with the plants in the Fertile Crescent due to their large size.
Lastly the fact that Fertile Crescent contains a large percentage of hermaphrodic plants played a big role in the fertile crescents advantage over other Mediterranean climates. These plants were capable of pollinating themselves, however on occasion they could cross pollinate. The reason that this was so important was that once a favorable mutation in a plant was acquired it would not be lost due to cross pollination in the next generation; instead that mutant plant would reproduce itself leaving the mutation untouched. This meant that the favorable mutation could then be reproduced and a crop could be formed, with time.
Had these same aspects been present in Mesoamerica It is likely that agriculture would have risen there much earlier and it would have been much more productive. Agriculture would have spread throughout all of Mesoamerica. However, it would not have spread throughout the rest of the Americas due to the geographical barriers such as deserts, mountains, and tropical jungles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
