This one will be a quick thought.  I think that most of us have a fascination with different people.  Primarily the interest would be in people who are a little bit different and who have fascinating life stories - the type that inspire.

One such person is Cliff Young (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_%28athlete%29).  There, you can read about him yourself if you want as well.  Cliff was a less-than-well-to-do Australian potato farmer.  He grew up on a giant sheep ranch.  Apparently, when a huge storm was coming in, they could see it from a long distance out there in the Outback and being less-than-well-to-do they didn't have four wheelers or stables with horses, so he would run across their expansive ranch and herd in the sheep on foot.  Apparently, he had done this for two or three days before without sleeping; this certainly isn't my idea of a good time.

So when the first 544 mile Sydney to Melbourne ultra-marathon was slated in 1983, Cliff showed up.  He had no sponsorship or professional running training.  He was also 61 years of age.  He showed up apparently wearing overalls and galoshes.  Some in the race didn't want to allow his entry.  They were afraid that the crazy toothless man from the boonies would hurt himself.  When it started they figured they were right.  He didn't run as fast as anyone else.  He did one major thing differently though.

All the running experts of the day knew that if a man was to continue a high distance foot race, he could only run for 18 hours.  He then had to rest six to save his body for a continued thrashing in the coming days.  However, Mr. Young was not privy to this.  So he didn't sleep.  He eventually caught up, and after over five days he won by a long margin.  He raced it again in future years, completing some, not finishing others, and never achieving another winning finish.  Future winners however followed Cliff's lead.  To win that race, you didn't sleep, not more than a nap here and there anyway.

Conventional wisdom is an interesting thing.  People give advice and expert opinions on a regular basis.  My livelihood is based largely on delivering professional opinions, so I am somewhat attached to them myself.  What "wisdom" do we have that is bogus?  Is it that you can't run 24 hours a day for multiple days.  Is it that you don't have enough education for a certain profession?  Are you not smart enough to do something?  Not strong enough?  Will people just not want to hear your point of view?

People give advice for good reasons.  Running coaches didn't want to see their athletes run out of gas two days into their race, or get sick, or who knows . . . die?  As a result of that however, apparently no one had tried it.  The native people near Mount Everest, Sherpas, are used by any wise mountaineer wanting to crest that mountain.  They hold all the time records for climbing the mountain, particularly the records for climbing it without oxygen assistance.  They are an incredibly strong and versatile people, but not a single one of them had climbed that mountain until white men came and wanted to climb it.  White men knew that they would have trouble with the feat, saw the fortitude of the Sherpa people, and recruited their assistance in the climbs.  The Sherpa were better climbers, but were not the first to crest the mountain.

Some beliefs guide and protect while others restrain.  What do you hold as a truth that may just be smoke in mirrors?  Something to think about.

Nanti, 

-C 

Numbers are an interesting thing.  People spend their whole life studying them.  In the film Pi as I recall the protagonist was accused of becoming a numerologist rather than a mathematician.  Grigory Perelman, regarded as one of the world's most accomplished mathematicians, proved the Poincare conjecture a few years back.  The Poincare conjecture was a mathematical conjecture that said something like (and I am certain that I am going to botch this - mathematicians will have a laugh), a three dimensional object shaped like a doughnut can really be drawn with a single line and all the points will connect.

Apparently many advanced mathematicians don't understand the conjecture, much less have the ability to prove it.  The conjecture had been around for over one hundred years and no one could prove or disprove it.  Perelman solved it in a proof reading well over one hundred pages.  He combined fields of mathematics that were viewed as being so disparate and unique in their own, that few mathematicians had a mastery in more than one of them.  It took a team of mathematicians the better part of a year to understand what he was doing and whether or not it was true.  In the end they determined that he had solved it.

Mathematicians stated that this was one of the greatest discoveries in all of mathematics, ever.  It would help to answer questions about the universe and geometry and do just about everything but boil an egg.  Perelman was awarded the Millenium prize.  That was a $1 million purse for his discovery.  He was also awarded a Field's Medal, which is arguably more prestigious than a Nobel Prize (sorry Mister President).  The thing is, he declined them both.  He didn't even show up to the ceremonies.  Apparently, he thinks the entire institutionalized world of mathematics is screwed up.  He had quit his job as a mathematics professor at a Russian University at about that time as well.

He has made comments that the field of mathematics is not ethical anymore, people take credit for things they didn't work on, the teaching of mathematics is poor, and that if he had accepted prizes he would have been made into a pet.  Apparently he looks at the field of mathematics now as being something painful and difficult to discuss.  As well as people know he lives with his mother and enjoys foraging for mushrooms in his free-time.

I'm reminded of a bible verse that has some application here, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" -Matthew 16:26

Now I'm not saying that Mr. Perelman has forfeited his soul.  I am positive that I would not be able to have a conversation with him about what he sees as the most elementary principles of mathematics.  Most upper level mathematicians couldn't.  If he hadn't solved the Poincare conjecture, their is no guarantee that anyone else would have solved it in the next hundred years or possibly ever.  On the other hand, I don't know that the proof has actually done anyone any good.  I don't know if it has planted crops or improved air pollution or reduced childhood obesity or anything of the sort.  All I know, is that from an outsiders perspective, Grigory doesn't appear to have a great life.  Grigory, if you are reading this; feel free to tell me otherwise and I'd love to go foraging with you sometime . . . or at least grab a beer.

So I guess the real moral of the story here is up to the reader.  My thoughts are more or less that time is very valuable.  This isn't to say that any of us given enough time can become award winning mathematicians; I'm not sure that that is true.  However, any of us can accomplish about any one thing or possibly a few that the world would see as impossible.  But we should be careful about what we invest ourselves in.  There are certain intellectual,  physical, spiritual, or emotional interests that may intrigue us and will take up more of our time, but let's not let those pursuits derail everything else we have going for us.  On the other hand, a Field's Medalist (whether he collected the thing or not) is likely much smarter than I and likely has great reasoning for living the life he does.  So, what fields are you going to find yourself sowing in?  What sort of harvest do you want to reap?  It would be cool to see some posts :-)

To the Night,

-C

Here is a thought that I got from a book.  It's actually a book on style by Men's Health, but I think the idea can transfer to many aspects of life.

Think about viewing a picture on your computer screen.  Pick whatever attractive individual you want. What you think you are seeing is a smooth complete image.  You think you are seeing a perfect person.  This is the illusion.  Now take out a magnifying glass and look at the screen.  If you don't have one handy just trust me on this one.  All you see is a bunch of tiny pixels stacked in rows and columns.

There is no completely perfect image or completely perfect person.  More important than this, we aren't as consistent as we'd like to be.  Maybe around some people you are really pleasant and friendly, while around others you are bitter and resentful.  Maybe some days you shower up and fix your hair just as you like, but on other days you don't worry about it.  Maybe you wear nice clean clothes and shoes everyday, but figure that that will cover up your old ratty socks.  Maybe you look at yourself and just don't think that you are who you want to be or that you aren't where you want to be in life.

As individuals, we are amalgams of pixels.  We have different interests, moods, personality traits, and identifying features.  Some of these pixels are just as we would like, while some are a little out of place.  The fact that we are made out of all these little pixels is a very fortunate thing however.  Think about trying to change the entire picture (who you are) all at once from your current you into your dream self.  You'd likely have to change your wardrobe, job, disposition, home . . . let's just say lots of things all at once.  That process of self advancement or development is far too daunting, and some of us have tried that.  We've tried to reinvent ourselves in a day or a weekend, or maybe even a month.  It probably hasn't worked.

We have time.  Breath in and take a really slow exhaled breath out and relish in this.  We don't need to be pressured to be perfect today.  We just need to work on some pixels.  At first, the image probably won't look any different, but if we keep on changing pixels (just like airbrushing) the big picture will start to change.

So today, try changing a pixel.  Don't worry about all of them, don't think to yourself, well if I change that pixel I really need to change a bunch of others.  Don't intimidate yourself.  Pick a pixel and change that.  Shine your shoes. Cook a meal instead of eating out.  Call a friend or family member who maybe you haven't talked to in a while, or who you maybe had a falling out with.  Workout.  Clean your bathroom.  Treat your boss, or your co-worker, or your employee a little bit better.  Sure, even an individual pixel can be a little challenging at times, but then again, it is just one pixel, you can handle it.  Tomorrow, work on another pixel.  Before you know it, you will be more like the person you want to be.  Taking this a step further, if we as people are pixels in bigger picture communities, think about the kinds of change we can make.


So what pixels are you working on?  If brave enough, leave a comment.  Me?  I'm writing a blog.  I'm liking this pixel more all the time.

Hasta Luego,

-C

So I've been thinking about doing this for some time now.  Thinking about what for a time?  Well, I'm glad that you asked.  I've thought about starting a blog, woo-hoo!  Okay, so everyone and their mom has a blog right?  Dang it, I guess you are right.  This is going to be less of a blog however and more of a resource.  The intent of this page (which may or may not stay here at http://www.more-good-less-bad.blogspot.com/) is to be a "Clean Well-Lighted Place" as one Hemingway short story was titled.

In college I worked on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology's HPV team.  Why not the AIDS team you may ask?  Isn't that a much more worrisome STD?  If you are going to work on curing an STD, why not pick the hard one?  Patience please kind reader.  HPV in this case does not refer to a disease that may manifest itself as cervical cancer in women, but instead refers to a "Human-Powered Vehicle".  Okay, it's just a bicycle, but giving it a fancy acronym that can be easily mistaken for something else is a great way of confusing people and in general alienating oneself from society.  Why would one wish to do this you may ask?  I'm not sure why, but it seems to be a pretty important goal for most engineers, engineering students, and others in technical fields.

Our team was required to come up with a mission statement.  One member on the team jokingly said, "Why not say, 'More Good, Less Bad'".  Everyone had a hearty laugh, but we liked it.  Our adviser, a sleepy man who had once been hit by a deer on his bicycle, would not accept this as our official mission statement.  Because of this we sat around, threw out ideas, argued, and spent a large amount of time developing a mission statement that sounded impressive, had a nice percussive feel to it, and was acceptable to members of the - I'm a Victim of a Deer Attack - society.  I am positive that none of us can remember that statement.

However, 'more good less bad' was quite memorable and became a mantra for our team.  When we considered a new design we would ask, "Is this more good?" or sometimes, "Is this less bad?"  It became a decision making criteria for our team.  Lately I have began to apply this to my life.  How do I fit more good things into my life, and take more bad things out of it?  I've found that this very simple decision making criteria is very beneficial.  That is what this site will explore.  Every post will be about something useful, practical, and maybe even pragmatic that can be used to improve life; or it may possibly be about how to remove some bad thereby still improving it.

I have a few ideas already, and am excited about doing this.  Alex Jones you are a genius.

Over and Out,

-C