Hi all,
As promised, here are the most valuable insights from Tom Brady's TB12 Method.
Strength workouts must follow function.
As a long-distance runner, this means workouts that carry my body weight. Workout sets should have high repetitions and an extended range of motion (for example, do lunges at ninety degrees, then at forty-five degrees, then with one leg up, and so on) to simulate the variety of a long distance run.
Squat tip: squeeze the glutes on the way up.
I never knew this, but this tip improved my control through the upward movement in my full squat.
Younger athletes don’t understand pliability because they naturally have it.
Great point. For the young, moving naturally has no consequences. Have you ever seen a baby sit down? You'd think hip bones came in at puberty.
The difference in maximal and optimal strength training is why athletes get stiffer as they age.
Young athletes max out on weight resistance because they are weak - the key is to transition over to pliability training as the natural loss of flexibility becomes more relevant than building strength. Most athletes are late to this transition.
Pliabilty trains muscles to lengthen, soften, and disperse trauma.
Think about how judo trains athletes to roll forward upon impact - the greater surface area of the body making contact disperses impact. The muscles absorb forces in a similar way.
Change a nutrition regimen one thing at a time and stick with anything that increases your overall energy level.
This is an easy rule of thumb - one thing at a time!
Most people are chronically dehydrated but never realize it given that it’s their regular condition. Dehydration takes two weeks to fully reverse. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water and increase intake if you have caffeine, alcohol, or exercise.
Another easy one, though lately I've cut back because I think I drank too much. The guideline of 'half your weight in ounces' is a major improvement on ‘drink if you pee orange’ or ‘drink when you feel thirsty’ since these describe symptoms of dehydration, not tactics for remaining hydrated.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
reading review - the tb12 method
The TB12 Method by Tom Brady (August 2019)
The TB12 Method is a valuable book that I imagine many TOA readers will find to be too much effort. It's dense with information yet slowed by marketing, almost like how pop-up videos interrupt websites (supplement this workout with TB12 Electrolytes!). A lot of the insights should be familiar to anyone who has (or had) a mother (drink water, eat fruits and vegetables, etc). The book felt like it weighed twenty pounds. Overall, it's a strange book, yet I think it explained enough to me in plain language that I ended up taking away more from this book than I did from almost any other in 2019.
The core idea is pliability, achieved when workouts prioritize increasing elasticity and flexibility in muscle ahead of adding raw strength. This prepares people to absorb stressors from strain, impact, or extended activity without resulting in damage common to joints, tendons, or muscles stiff with bulk. The book explains this in great depth and includes specific workouts to help readers emphasize range of motion ahead of weight resistance. It also describes massage techniques that combine applied pressure with muscle contraction to simulate the way stressors attack active muscle. Overall, The TB12 Method provides a unique framework to help readers build functional strength and long-term resilience against routine muscle stressors and damage.
There are endless details in this book but the ones that stood out to me often came from simple explanations. For example, Brady repeatedly stresses the importance of ensuring strength workouts follow the function of the eventual activity. Simple, but I remember my college's long distance runners bench pressing. Brady also suggests that rest after an overwork injury is only beneficial because you feel better. If you want to become better, you must rebuild the body’s responses that caused the injury in the first place. Again, simple stuff, but then why do some many return from injury to do the exact same thing that caused their initial damage?
The challenge of this book is that its quest for thoroughness forces knowledgeable readers to struggle through parts that they already understand. In some cases, I felt my understanding exceeded that of the book. For me, I thought about 80% of this book I didn't need to read; a further 10% I ignored because I'm not a professional athlete. Most of these thoughts are collected here in my notes.
The remaining 10% made me smarter. I'll post a shortlist of these insights later this week.
The TB12 Method is a valuable book that I imagine many TOA readers will find to be too much effort. It's dense with information yet slowed by marketing, almost like how pop-up videos interrupt websites (supplement this workout with TB12 Electrolytes!). A lot of the insights should be familiar to anyone who has (or had) a mother (drink water, eat fruits and vegetables, etc). The book felt like it weighed twenty pounds. Overall, it's a strange book, yet I think it explained enough to me in plain language that I ended up taking away more from this book than I did from almost any other in 2019.
The core idea is pliability, achieved when workouts prioritize increasing elasticity and flexibility in muscle ahead of adding raw strength. This prepares people to absorb stressors from strain, impact, or extended activity without resulting in damage common to joints, tendons, or muscles stiff with bulk. The book explains this in great depth and includes specific workouts to help readers emphasize range of motion ahead of weight resistance. It also describes massage techniques that combine applied pressure with muscle contraction to simulate the way stressors attack active muscle. Overall, The TB12 Method provides a unique framework to help readers build functional strength and long-term resilience against routine muscle stressors and damage.
There are endless details in this book but the ones that stood out to me often came from simple explanations. For example, Brady repeatedly stresses the importance of ensuring strength workouts follow the function of the eventual activity. Simple, but I remember my college's long distance runners bench pressing. Brady also suggests that rest after an overwork injury is only beneficial because you feel better. If you want to become better, you must rebuild the body’s responses that caused the injury in the first place. Again, simple stuff, but then why do some many return from injury to do the exact same thing that caused their initial damage?
The challenge of this book is that its quest for thoroughness forces knowledgeable readers to struggle through parts that they already understand. In some cases, I felt my understanding exceeded that of the book. For me, I thought about 80% of this book I didn't need to read; a further 10% I ignored because I'm not a professional athlete. Most of these thoughts are collected here in my notes.
The remaining 10% made me smarter. I'll post a shortlist of these insights later this week.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
home and away
I recently ran into a friend at a local pizza shop. Or should I say, he ran into me, and finally got my attention after several failed attempts. We caught up quickly, updating each other on holidays and developments, before we parted ways. As I walked home with my pizza, I realized that the conversation moved in mostly one direction; he had asked a majority of the questions and I had given a majority of the answers. I wasn’t sure about what had just happened except for a vague understanding that I had felt a little uncomfortable in a setting where he had obviously felt at home.
This idea of being at home, one that applies mostly to social settings, has infiltrated the way fans think about sports. The idea of ‘home field advantage’ suggests that the host is more likely to win. There is no set explanation for why this is the case but it’s a commonly accepted phenomenon and one supported by outcomes; broadly speaking, teams play better at home than they do away. I think this happened during my recent pizza store conversation. There were multiple factors involved - I had just walked in out of the cold while my friend had been comfortably seated, it was just my third time in the place whereas my friend seemed to know everyone there, and so on. The fact that I was doing takeout while he was dining in perhaps says it all. He was comfortable enough to notice when I walked in while I remained unable to even comprehend the sound of my own name. In short, I was away, he was at home, and this determined the quality of our respective contributions to the conversation.
I'm sure the next time we'll have a better conversation. I’ve learned that experience in new environments or settings helps me navigate the home and away aspect. But perhaps we were just a couple more minutes away from reaching the same ideal. One interesting aspect I’ve noticed about ‘home and away’ in the sports context is how things tend to even out during the game. A home team often has the early edge but it’s less relevant later in the game. Again, in sports as in life: the start of some interactions feels like an insurmountable obstacle to a pleasant time. But once the ‘away’ party gets comfortable, everyone enjoys their time together. Is it a coincidence that hosts often tell their guests to ‘make themselves at home’?
It’s likely that ‘home and away’ has ramifications beyond your Saturday night dinner party. Job interviews seem to meet the basic criteria – a candidate shows up (away) to meet a team of interviewers (home). Obviously, the home team should help the candidate feel comfortable (most HR professionals will stress this point) but I think it's important to consider whether the open job is going to have an obvious ‘home’ or ‘away’ tendency. Most jobs are ‘home’ – same desk, same colleagues, same schedule – and these interviews work best with a comfortable candidate (1). But if the job is ‘away’ – perhaps a role with a variable work environment – then I think keeping the candidate uncomfortable might give a better indication of future performance. In other words, if you could recreate the situation I faced in the pizza shop, you could see how a candidate operated within a changing environment, and eliminate people like me from accidentally getting ‘away’ jobs.
This might explain why I struggled to find a new job. In hindsight, I see how a lot of interviews treat ‘home’ openings like ‘away’ jobs, a design decision that would have hurt my candidacy. I've collected examples from others that seem too silly to be true. I have a friend who once included ‘Chinese language’ on his resume. During his interview, a man suddenly interrupted the conversation and started asking questions in Chinese. My friend got the job but nothing like this ever happened during his tenure – if the job required a Chinese conversation, he had time to prepare, perhaps by enlisting a colleague’s assistance.
Helping a candidate feel ‘at home’ probably works a lot like it does in a social setting. The ‘home’ role comes naturally to most people – they ask simple questions or use easily repeated expressions that get ‘away’ parties talking. If the ‘away’ side doesn’t quite settle with small talk, the ‘home’ side could try some stalling tactics and buy time. Just as a host could offer to show you the new patio furniture or make introductions to the other guests, a hiring manager could suggest an office tour or take a few minutes to describe certain aspects of the organization.
The ‘away’ role of being a candidate is a little more challenging. The only effective tool I know of is experience so I suggest candidates take as many interviews as possible, even going so far as to apply for positions just for the purposes of having interviews. Over time, we accumulate successes and learn that we have the skills to meet any challenge - it works the same way in job interviews. A candidate with no interview experience is beyond nervous; even a seasoned professional must adapt to a new environment among unfamiliar people. I consider experience a subset of preparation so planning ahead is an appropriate substitute for those unable to attend 'practice' interviews (but telling candidates to prepare isn’t groundbreaking advice).
One idea I'm still working out is where being ‘away’ means giving the host enough time to come out of ‘home’ mode. I notice this whenever a guest arrives with a gift. The host has to do a whole slew of tasks related to the gift – accept, unwrap, store, and of course, “you shouldn’t have!”. This whole process buys time, perhaps enough of it to overcome that sense of ‘home and away’, and I think a candidate can use the same basic idea. Instead of answering those generic opening questions with the safest possible answer, throw a question or two in there – I did find the place OK, but is there always construction by that coffee shop? And is the coffee there any good? In a sense, playing ‘away’ means waiting long enough until the other party is done playing ‘home’ because one doesn’t happen without the other. As soon as the distinction is gone, everyone can relax and get to the real point of the conversation.
Footnotes / job interview tactics
1. By email, a day or two before the interview
One strategy I’m mulling over is revealing the first question or two to the candidate prior to the interview as a way of making someone more comfortable about meeting the team.
This idea of being at home, one that applies mostly to social settings, has infiltrated the way fans think about sports. The idea of ‘home field advantage’ suggests that the host is more likely to win. There is no set explanation for why this is the case but it’s a commonly accepted phenomenon and one supported by outcomes; broadly speaking, teams play better at home than they do away. I think this happened during my recent pizza store conversation. There were multiple factors involved - I had just walked in out of the cold while my friend had been comfortably seated, it was just my third time in the place whereas my friend seemed to know everyone there, and so on. The fact that I was doing takeout while he was dining in perhaps says it all. He was comfortable enough to notice when I walked in while I remained unable to even comprehend the sound of my own name. In short, I was away, he was at home, and this determined the quality of our respective contributions to the conversation.
I'm sure the next time we'll have a better conversation. I’ve learned that experience in new environments or settings helps me navigate the home and away aspect. But perhaps we were just a couple more minutes away from reaching the same ideal. One interesting aspect I’ve noticed about ‘home and away’ in the sports context is how things tend to even out during the game. A home team often has the early edge but it’s less relevant later in the game. Again, in sports as in life: the start of some interactions feels like an insurmountable obstacle to a pleasant time. But once the ‘away’ party gets comfortable, everyone enjoys their time together. Is it a coincidence that hosts often tell their guests to ‘make themselves at home’?
It’s likely that ‘home and away’ has ramifications beyond your Saturday night dinner party. Job interviews seem to meet the basic criteria – a candidate shows up (away) to meet a team of interviewers (home). Obviously, the home team should help the candidate feel comfortable (most HR professionals will stress this point) but I think it's important to consider whether the open job is going to have an obvious ‘home’ or ‘away’ tendency. Most jobs are ‘home’ – same desk, same colleagues, same schedule – and these interviews work best with a comfortable candidate (1). But if the job is ‘away’ – perhaps a role with a variable work environment – then I think keeping the candidate uncomfortable might give a better indication of future performance. In other words, if you could recreate the situation I faced in the pizza shop, you could see how a candidate operated within a changing environment, and eliminate people like me from accidentally getting ‘away’ jobs.
This might explain why I struggled to find a new job. In hindsight, I see how a lot of interviews treat ‘home’ openings like ‘away’ jobs, a design decision that would have hurt my candidacy. I've collected examples from others that seem too silly to be true. I have a friend who once included ‘Chinese language’ on his resume. During his interview, a man suddenly interrupted the conversation and started asking questions in Chinese. My friend got the job but nothing like this ever happened during his tenure – if the job required a Chinese conversation, he had time to prepare, perhaps by enlisting a colleague’s assistance.
Helping a candidate feel ‘at home’ probably works a lot like it does in a social setting. The ‘home’ role comes naturally to most people – they ask simple questions or use easily repeated expressions that get ‘away’ parties talking. If the ‘away’ side doesn’t quite settle with small talk, the ‘home’ side could try some stalling tactics and buy time. Just as a host could offer to show you the new patio furniture or make introductions to the other guests, a hiring manager could suggest an office tour or take a few minutes to describe certain aspects of the organization.
The ‘away’ role of being a candidate is a little more challenging. The only effective tool I know of is experience so I suggest candidates take as many interviews as possible, even going so far as to apply for positions just for the purposes of having interviews. Over time, we accumulate successes and learn that we have the skills to meet any challenge - it works the same way in job interviews. A candidate with no interview experience is beyond nervous; even a seasoned professional must adapt to a new environment among unfamiliar people. I consider experience a subset of preparation so planning ahead is an appropriate substitute for those unable to attend 'practice' interviews (but telling candidates to prepare isn’t groundbreaking advice).
One idea I'm still working out is where being ‘away’ means giving the host enough time to come out of ‘home’ mode. I notice this whenever a guest arrives with a gift. The host has to do a whole slew of tasks related to the gift – accept, unwrap, store, and of course, “you shouldn’t have!”. This whole process buys time, perhaps enough of it to overcome that sense of ‘home and away’, and I think a candidate can use the same basic idea. Instead of answering those generic opening questions with the safest possible answer, throw a question or two in there – I did find the place OK, but is there always construction by that coffee shop? And is the coffee there any good? In a sense, playing ‘away’ means waiting long enough until the other party is done playing ‘home’ because one doesn’t happen without the other. As soon as the distinction is gone, everyone can relax and get to the real point of the conversation.
Footnotes / job interview tactics
1. By email, a day or two before the interview
One strategy I’m mulling over is revealing the first question or two to the candidate prior to the interview as a way of making someone more comfortable about meeting the team.
Saturday, January 25, 2020
proper admin - january 2020
Hi folks,
Welcome to proper admin, the monthly rubble bucket of everything I couldn’t form into its own post.
Leftovers – The TOA Awards
The original ’10 for 10’ concept was a list of places to eat a meal for less than $10. Rising prices hinted at the end; the day the House Ramen at Sapporo hit $10 was the final whistle.
My 2020 list was fun but I think it’s a one-time gimmick, partly because it took a long time but mostly because it won’t change much this year. I’ll probably do some kind of update in 2021 but nothing like ‘ten lists of ten’.
Blog notes
The reduced volume is easier to manage from an organizing perspective while proving a refreshing challenge during writing and proofreading. The early returns are strong, one revision culled 350 words from 1400 while another lopped 250 words from an initial 1000. I’m committed to keeping a ~300 word per day running average but I may use some creative accounting for the Sunday long post (perhaps counting every other word) just so certain pieces don’t force a two-week vacation.
I’m seriously mulling a return to the early days of reading reviews (one per month) – until I make a decision, expect a slower pace of reading reviews.
Book ratings
I came up with a new book rating method. It would describe a book in the context of an annual list – among how many in a year would this book be appropriate? A ‘1’ would mean I recommend the book to a person who reads only one book per year while a ‘100’ suggests I’ll be the only reader. I would expect an average score here to be around 15, with perhaps the best books scoring around a 5.
Watered down
I’m trying to drink less water in 2020. No big problems in 2019, but in general I’m trying to listen more to my body and this was what I heard. The TB12 Method recommends drinking (in ounces) half your body weight (in pounds) so I’m aiming for 85-90 ounces daily, increasing intake after exercise (16 ounces per lost pound), drinking alcohol (4 ounces per drink), or whenever I’m feeling thirsty (as needed).
Books down
I’m also trying to read less (perhaps a unique resolution). The issue is writing, I find that reading limits my writing because I do so much analysis of each book.
I’m off to a bad start – it’s January 19 and I’ve already finished four books this month (with several others half-finished).
Breaking news
Finally, I ditched many websites I check each weekend – goodbye to The Guardian, The Japan Times, The Irish Times, and All Sides. My remaining news sources are Al-Jazeera (on weekends), the Wikipedia current events page (daily), and a morning glance at Boston.com’s 'most read' list (daily).
Why change? Simple, I thought about what I learned from each source and I kept the ones I felt were most helpful. Wikipedia gives me the big picture, Boston.com gives me the local picture, and Al-Jazeera gives me a different perspective; friends, family, colleagues, and of course, my loyal readers fill in the rest.
Next month… on True On Average:
1. Please make yourself at home.
2. Routine changes.
3. Not so fast!
Welcome to proper admin, the monthly rubble bucket of everything I couldn’t form into its own post.
Leftovers – The TOA Awards
The original ’10 for 10’ concept was a list of places to eat a meal for less than $10. Rising prices hinted at the end; the day the House Ramen at Sapporo hit $10 was the final whistle.
My 2020 list was fun but I think it’s a one-time gimmick, partly because it took a long time but mostly because it won’t change much this year. I’ll probably do some kind of update in 2021 but nothing like ‘ten lists of ten’.
Blog notes
The reduced volume is easier to manage from an organizing perspective while proving a refreshing challenge during writing and proofreading. The early returns are strong, one revision culled 350 words from 1400 while another lopped 250 words from an initial 1000. I’m committed to keeping a ~300 word per day running average but I may use some creative accounting for the Sunday long post (perhaps counting every other word) just so certain pieces don’t force a two-week vacation.
I’m seriously mulling a return to the early days of reading reviews (one per month) – until I make a decision, expect a slower pace of reading reviews.
Book ratings
I came up with a new book rating method. It would describe a book in the context of an annual list – among how many in a year would this book be appropriate? A ‘1’ would mean I recommend the book to a person who reads only one book per year while a ‘100’ suggests I’ll be the only reader. I would expect an average score here to be around 15, with perhaps the best books scoring around a 5.
Watered down
I’m trying to drink less water in 2020. No big problems in 2019, but in general I’m trying to listen more to my body and this was what I heard. The TB12 Method recommends drinking (in ounces) half your body weight (in pounds) so I’m aiming for 85-90 ounces daily, increasing intake after exercise (16 ounces per lost pound), drinking alcohol (4 ounces per drink), or whenever I’m feeling thirsty (as needed).
Books down
I’m also trying to read less (perhaps a unique resolution). The issue is writing, I find that reading limits my writing because I do so much analysis of each book.
I’m off to a bad start – it’s January 19 and I’ve already finished four books this month (with several others half-finished).
Breaking news
Finally, I ditched many websites I check each weekend – goodbye to The Guardian, The Japan Times, The Irish Times, and All Sides. My remaining news sources are Al-Jazeera (on weekends), the Wikipedia current events page (daily), and a morning glance at Boston.com’s 'most read' list (daily).
Why change? Simple, I thought about what I learned from each source and I kept the ones I felt were most helpful. Wikipedia gives me the big picture, Boston.com gives me the local picture, and Al-Jazeera gives me a different perspective; friends, family, colleagues, and of course, my loyal readers fill in the rest.
Next month… on True On Average:
1. Please make yourself at home.
2. Routine changes.
3. Not so fast!
Thursday, January 23, 2020
hatred
I was sitting on a bench by the beach, reading a book, when someone walked by and mentioned that he hated the author. I won't say what book I had, but the author is famous. I’m always surprised when people tell me that they hate certain authors, these authors usually the well-known variety who have their newest releases stacked in bookstore windows. Haruki Murakami, Malcolm Gladwell, J.K. Rowling, a lot of people hate them. Back when Bill Simmons wrote regularly for ESPN and Grantland, I remember people saying the same thing about him – Bill Simmons, can’t read him, I hate that guy.
Hate is always confusing to me, and especially about writers. Something evil deserves our hate, but I don't know of many evil writers. So why do people hate, say, Malcolm Gladwell? I’ve read most of his work and I can’t recall much evil, so he flunks my test. You haters, get in touch and let me know.
I gazed out toward the sea and thought about my problem. Little kids can barely read and they seem to hate nothing, except maybe the very act of reading. Was it possible that my reading skills were not good enough to understand why I should hate these authors? There were two fat men waddling down by the water, metal detectors out. I could go ask them, but why interrupt their walk? Plus, I would need to go into the sand, and I'd much rather stay on the bench.
I decided to blame my personality. I like to build on strengths and I'll work tirelessly to find potential. As a reader, this means I’ll endure five hundred pages of crap to find three good sentences. I don’t think I could do this if I felt hatred while reading. The treasure hunters were almost out of sight. I wondered – do those guys hate the sand? Of course not, they were looking for Captain Kidd’s booty, or maybe a couple of dimes.
This was the moment when I finally understood everything. See, I hate the sand, can’t stand the stuff. Dry sand is scratchy and uncomfortable, wet sand sticks to my toes and gets in my socks. God help me if sand gets in my food. It’s a big reason why I don’t often go to the beach. But if I told this to those guys, they wouldn’t understand me. The sand is what they deal with when treasure hunting; it’s just a fact of the environment. It's possible that they might love the sand, but my guess is that it never occurred to them to have an opinion about the sand.
When I talk to people about books, the roles are reversed. I read seventy-five books this year, my eyes scanning endless sentences and paragraphs for hints about the author’s buried gold. Do you know how hard it is to find seventy-five books worth reading a year? Most people don’t. The first thing I would teach them is that hating authors gets you nowhere. There are barely enough books to begin with that ruling out some of these based on the author is going to reduce the quality of your reading list. That’s all hatred is, the fastest way to reduce quality, and it applies to life just as it applies to my reading list.
Hate is always confusing to me, and especially about writers. Something evil deserves our hate, but I don't know of many evil writers. So why do people hate, say, Malcolm Gladwell? I’ve read most of his work and I can’t recall much evil, so he flunks my test. You haters, get in touch and let me know.
I gazed out toward the sea and thought about my problem. Little kids can barely read and they seem to hate nothing, except maybe the very act of reading. Was it possible that my reading skills were not good enough to understand why I should hate these authors? There were two fat men waddling down by the water, metal detectors out. I could go ask them, but why interrupt their walk? Plus, I would need to go into the sand, and I'd much rather stay on the bench.
I decided to blame my personality. I like to build on strengths and I'll work tirelessly to find potential. As a reader, this means I’ll endure five hundred pages of crap to find three good sentences. I don’t think I could do this if I felt hatred while reading. The treasure hunters were almost out of sight. I wondered – do those guys hate the sand? Of course not, they were looking for Captain Kidd’s booty, or maybe a couple of dimes.
This was the moment when I finally understood everything. See, I hate the sand, can’t stand the stuff. Dry sand is scratchy and uncomfortable, wet sand sticks to my toes and gets in my socks. God help me if sand gets in my food. It’s a big reason why I don’t often go to the beach. But if I told this to those guys, they wouldn’t understand me. The sand is what they deal with when treasure hunting; it’s just a fact of the environment. It's possible that they might love the sand, but my guess is that it never occurred to them to have an opinion about the sand.
When I talk to people about books, the roles are reversed. I read seventy-five books this year, my eyes scanning endless sentences and paragraphs for hints about the author’s buried gold. Do you know how hard it is to find seventy-five books worth reading a year? Most people don’t. The first thing I would teach them is that hating authors gets you nowhere. There are barely enough books to begin with that ruling out some of these based on the author is going to reduce the quality of your reading list. That’s all hatred is, the fastest way to reduce quality, and it applies to life just as it applies to my reading list.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
leftovers – replica krakatoa
This post had several different possibilities. It could have been rewritten as a list of events – the radiator broke, it became too hot, I couldn’t sleep properly. There was potential for some sleep science as well – most bodies require a slight drop in temperature in order to fall asleep, an impossible task in my kiln of a unit. A final approach would have been to explore the question of which temperature extreme is preferable – I always prefer cold because I can battle back with extra clothing and blankets whereas the heat always leaves me a sweaty, irritated, and sleepless mess.
I wrote about dreams for two reasons. First, the dreams I have during fitful nights of sleep are always far more interesting than those I have at the end of a sound snooze. I suppose it has something to do with being woken up many times during the night. I usually don't dream like I did unless I'm sick. The second reason is that I wrote a few weeks ago about dreaming, the post essentially complaining that I didn’t have any dreams. Odd thing, almost as soon as that post went up I started dreaming again and I've been paying close attention.
The radiator was eventually repaired after I hinted to my landlord that I would involve the city. This is not a bad strategy when the landlord is of the sluggish variety. The requirements are a minimum heating of 64 degrees at night and a maximum of 78 at any time and I simply stated those facts in my note. Still, it took over a week to repair the unit and I learned an important lesson in the process - can I trust the landlord with a real problem? The answer is no, and that's important. The rental market in Boston means decisions made in December don't define move out but I’m certain to take a long look at my options in a few months.
I wrote about dreams for two reasons. First, the dreams I have during fitful nights of sleep are always far more interesting than those I have at the end of a sound snooze. I suppose it has something to do with being woken up many times during the night. I usually don't dream like I did unless I'm sick. The second reason is that I wrote a few weeks ago about dreaming, the post essentially complaining that I didn’t have any dreams. Odd thing, almost as soon as that post went up I started dreaming again and I've been paying close attention.
The radiator was eventually repaired after I hinted to my landlord that I would involve the city. This is not a bad strategy when the landlord is of the sluggish variety. The requirements are a minimum heating of 64 degrees at night and a maximum of 78 at any time and I simply stated those facts in my note. Still, it took over a week to repair the unit and I learned an important lesson in the process - can I trust the landlord with a real problem? The answer is no, and that's important. The rental market in Boston means decisions made in December don't define move out but I’m certain to take a long look at my options in a few months.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
2019 toa awards - 10 for 10
Hi all,
The annual awards series is one of TOA’s finest traditions. Over the years, I’ve shared my favorites in music, books, podcasts, and whatever else I paid attention to in the prior twelve months. It’s always been good fun for me to work out these retrospectives and I hope to continue doing so for a long time.
However – in what I expect my (long suffering) readers will consider great news – I’ve decided to chop it down a little bit this time. Last year, there were more than a couple of moments when I admitted the lengthy breakdowns were starting to bore me. So, for this year and beyond, I will borrow a gimmick from ESPN’s longtime fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry and present my awards using his ‘ten lists of ten’ structure.
I’ll follow up as needed with any leftover thoughts and (without question) the book award will get a similar level of coverage as in the past. But for the rest of it, these lists are it – so enjoy, and thanks for reading.
Top ten favorite places I go to eat (local)
1. Sapporo Ramen (Porter Square)
2. Punjabi Dhaba (Inman Square)
3. El Oriental De Cuba (Jamaica Plain)
4. Lucy’s Ethiopian (Prudential)
5. Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe (Downtown Crossing)
6. CIAO! Pizza and Pasta (Chelsea)
7. My Thai Vegan Cafe (Chinatown)
8. Yamato II (Copley Square)
9. Brookline Lunch (Central Square)
10. Veggie Crust - Somerville (Union Square)
BONUS - my favorite dish of the year was the Coconut Chili Shrimp at Tiger Mama (Fenway).
Top ten favorite places I go to drink (local)
1. The Field (Central Square)
2. Somerville Brewing Company - Slumbrew (Union Square)
3. Sligo Pub (Davis Square)
4. Turtle Swamp Brewing (Jamaica Plain)
5. The Hill Tavern (Beacon Hill)
6. The Tam (Chinatown)
7. Ittoku (Porter Square)
8. Penguin Pizza (Mission Hill)
9. Biddy Early’s (Downtown / Financial District)
10. Phoenix Landing (Central Square)
BONUS - Slumbrew has a contender for my favorite drink – #ThanksObama, a sweet milk stout – and it also serves far superior food than The Field. The Field also has a long history of ridding itself of the other contenders for Favorite Drink - Sapporo and Old Chubb immediately come to mind. Alas, The Field remains #1, proving that nothing will ever beat The Field.
Note, I'm never in the Phoenix Landing after 3PM or so, and I recommend the same philosophy for you, reader - enjoy the soccer games, and go home for a nap!
Places to drink - honorable mentions
100. Phoenix Landing (after 3PM)
1,000. Tavern in the Square (any of them, but especially the big one in Brighton)
10,000. The Pourhouse (Boylston Street / Seventh Circle of Hell)
100,000. A puddle, pick any puddle...
1,000,000. The Lincoln (South Boston)
Top ten bands / artists
1. Muse
2. U2
3. Of Monsters and Men
4. Arctic Monkeys
5. Rubblebucket
6. Chvrches
7. Celtic Social Club
8. Lake Street Dive
9. Courtney Barnett
10. Slow Club
This list should be considered the equivalent to my past ‘Band of the Year’ posts. Please see the footnotes for a running tally of past winners (‘winners’) and some extended notes (1) (2).
Top ten podcasts
1. The Football Ramble (soccer, four idiots from the UK)
2. The GM Shuffle (helmet football)
3. More Or Less (statistics in the news)
4. The Bill Simmons Podcast (sports, occasionally pop culture)
5. Men In Blazers (soccer, two idiots from the UK)
Damn, rankings are tough! These last five I didn’t bother to put in any ranked order:
EconTalk (economics)
The Tim Ferris Show (business podcast?)
Book Fight! (books)
Middle Theory (politics)
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (history)
I'm giving up – the rest of these lists are not ‘top ten’ lists, just a list of ten for reach category.
Ten (not new) songs I (think I) started enjoying this year
'Beneath the Bed' - Of Monsters and Men
'New Born' - Muse
'Fluorescent Adolescent' - Arctic Monkeys
'Make It Right' - Celtic Social Club (OK, this one is new!)
'Surrender' - U2
'Elevator Operator' - Courtney Barnett
'Cigarettes and Alcohol' - Oasis
'She' - Norah Jones (Graham Parsons cover)
'Beacon Hill' - The Head and The Heart (Damian Jurado cover)
'Royals' - Bruce Springsteen (Lorde cover)
Ten books I liked from 2019 that just missed the TOA Book Award shortlist
The Art of Seeing by Aldous Huxley
Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Simone Weil: An Anthology by Simone Weil
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Working by Robert Caro
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Managing My Life by Alex Ferguson
Call Them By Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue
Ten ideas I've written down that I have no idea what to do with
What if heaven is full...?
Time travelers could rescue suicides!
Does asking for chopsticks to eat lasagna create inclusive dining?
Why doesn't minor league baseball have practice?
The whitest thing since sliced bread.
Wisdom means knowing when your experience is relevant.
Making comparisons means you are talking to yourself!
If you don't acknowledge reality then you can't change the future.
Style means overcoming lack of talent.
Unusual things happen everyday - it's your response that makes you unusual.
Ten personal reminders I anticipate being relevant in 2020
Do the next right thing
Lean forward, choppy strides
Need an hour, get an hour
No one cares - coach your team
Be who you needed when you were younger
Am I really trying my best?
Underestimate affinity at your own risk
Be the better one
It fails because of you
Work regular hours
Ten fake band names I invented this year
Population: Carousel
Hunnnnus
Detoxic
The Adjective Noun
The So-Called Vosotros
Origami Bender
America the Titans
Zamboni Turnpike
Jenny Jenga and The Junior Johnnies
The Pending Americans
Footnotes / encore?
1. List of past ‘BOY’
1987 - 2006: Eminem (Nelly, Nirvana)
2007 - 2009: U2 (Counting Crows, Passion Pit)
2010: The Killers
2011: Muse (Arcade Fire)
2012: 'Podcasts' (sorry)... (Oasis, Foster The People)
2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (T.I., P!nk)
2014: The Head and The Heart (Sara Bareilles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2015: Lake Street Dive (Of Monsters and Men, U2)
2016: Slow Club (Courtney Barnett, Lake Street Dive)
2017: Rubblebucket (Celtic Social Club, U2)
2018: Chvrches (U2, Lake Street Dive)
2019: Muse (U2, Of Monsters and Men)
2. Music notes
Congratulations to Muse, they were driven forward by a concert I went to in April, some deep dives into their older work, and perhaps my discovering this video.
The biggest gap above is between #8 and #9 – Courtney Barnett is a lot of fun but just doesn't capture the same feeling as Lake Street Dive.
It’s possible that Celtic Social Club is two spots too high but a strong new album and the lingering memory of their concert a few years ago convinced me to bump them to #7.
2a. Honorable mention – new music
I don't listen to enough new music in a year to do a top ten but in hindsight I’m glad I listened to more of these three artists:
1. Middle Kids
2. Kurt Vile
3. Norah Jones
Middle Kids is a promising but young Australian group that will need to put out a few more good songs before I elevate them into my top ten list – I think they only have one album out. Kurt Vile and Norah Jones had similar stories for me in 2019, I did my best with each artist but I can see that they just haven’t put out enough songs I like for them to really settle in as permanent features in my music rotation. Norah Jones has a great feel for covers which makes it more likely for her to move up my list in the coming years.
The annual awards series is one of TOA’s finest traditions. Over the years, I’ve shared my favorites in music, books, podcasts, and whatever else I paid attention to in the prior twelve months. It’s always been good fun for me to work out these retrospectives and I hope to continue doing so for a long time.
However – in what I expect my (long suffering) readers will consider great news – I’ve decided to chop it down a little bit this time. Last year, there were more than a couple of moments when I admitted the lengthy breakdowns were starting to bore me. So, for this year and beyond, I will borrow a gimmick from ESPN’s longtime fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry and present my awards using his ‘ten lists of ten’ structure.
I’ll follow up as needed with any leftover thoughts and (without question) the book award will get a similar level of coverage as in the past. But for the rest of it, these lists are it – so enjoy, and thanks for reading.
Top ten favorite places I go to eat (local)
1. Sapporo Ramen (Porter Square)
2. Punjabi Dhaba (Inman Square)
3. El Oriental De Cuba (Jamaica Plain)
4. Lucy’s Ethiopian (Prudential)
5. Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe (Downtown Crossing)
6. CIAO! Pizza and Pasta (Chelsea)
7. My Thai Vegan Cafe (Chinatown)
8. Yamato II (Copley Square)
9. Brookline Lunch (Central Square)
10. Veggie Crust - Somerville (Union Square)
BONUS - my favorite dish of the year was the Coconut Chili Shrimp at Tiger Mama (Fenway).
Top ten favorite places I go to drink (local)
1. The Field (Central Square)
2. Somerville Brewing Company - Slumbrew (Union Square)
3. Sligo Pub (Davis Square)
4. Turtle Swamp Brewing (Jamaica Plain)
5. The Hill Tavern (Beacon Hill)
6. The Tam (Chinatown)
7. Ittoku (Porter Square)
8. Penguin Pizza (Mission Hill)
9. Biddy Early’s (Downtown / Financial District)
10. Phoenix Landing (Central Square)
BONUS - Slumbrew has a contender for my favorite drink – #ThanksObama, a sweet milk stout – and it also serves far superior food than The Field. The Field also has a long history of ridding itself of the other contenders for Favorite Drink - Sapporo and Old Chubb immediately come to mind. Alas, The Field remains #1, proving that nothing will ever beat The Field.
Note, I'm never in the Phoenix Landing after 3PM or so, and I recommend the same philosophy for you, reader - enjoy the soccer games, and go home for a nap!
Places to drink - honorable mentions
100. Phoenix Landing (after 3PM)
1,000. Tavern in the Square (any of them, but especially the big one in Brighton)
10,000. The Pourhouse (Boylston Street / Seventh Circle of Hell)
100,000. A puddle, pick any puddle...
1,000,000. The Lincoln (South Boston)
Top ten bands / artists
1. Muse
2. U2
3. Of Monsters and Men
4. Arctic Monkeys
5. Rubblebucket
6. Chvrches
7. Celtic Social Club
8. Lake Street Dive
9. Courtney Barnett
10. Slow Club
This list should be considered the equivalent to my past ‘Band of the Year’ posts. Please see the footnotes for a running tally of past winners (‘winners’) and some extended notes (1) (2).
Top ten podcasts
1. The Football Ramble (soccer, four idiots from the UK)
2. The GM Shuffle (helmet football)
3. More Or Less (statistics in the news)
4. The Bill Simmons Podcast (sports, occasionally pop culture)
5. Men In Blazers (soccer, two idiots from the UK)
Damn, rankings are tough! These last five I didn’t bother to put in any ranked order:
EconTalk (economics)
The Tim Ferris Show (business podcast?)
Book Fight! (books)
Middle Theory (politics)
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (history)
I'm giving up – the rest of these lists are not ‘top ten’ lists, just a list of ten for reach category.
Ten (not new) songs I (think I) started enjoying this year
'Beneath the Bed' - Of Monsters and Men
'New Born' - Muse
'Fluorescent Adolescent' - Arctic Monkeys
'Make It Right' - Celtic Social Club (OK, this one is new!)
'Surrender' - U2
'Elevator Operator' - Courtney Barnett
'Cigarettes and Alcohol' - Oasis
'She' - Norah Jones (Graham Parsons cover)
'Beacon Hill' - The Head and The Heart (Damian Jurado cover)
'Royals' - Bruce Springsteen (Lorde cover)
Ten books I liked from 2019 that just missed the TOA Book Award shortlist
The Art of Seeing by Aldous Huxley
Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Simone Weil: An Anthology by Simone Weil
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Working by Robert Caro
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Managing My Life by Alex Ferguson
Call Them By Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue
Ten ideas I've written down that I have no idea what to do with
What if heaven is full...?
Time travelers could rescue suicides!
Does asking for chopsticks to eat lasagna create inclusive dining?
Why doesn't minor league baseball have practice?
The whitest thing since sliced bread.
Wisdom means knowing when your experience is relevant.
Making comparisons means you are talking to yourself!
If you don't acknowledge reality then you can't change the future.
Style means overcoming lack of talent.
Unusual things happen everyday - it's your response that makes you unusual.
Do the next right thing
Lean forward, choppy strides
Need an hour, get an hour
No one cares - coach your team
Be who you needed when you were younger
Am I really trying my best?
Underestimate affinity at your own risk
Be the better one
It fails because of you
Work regular hours
Population: Carousel
Hunnnnus
Detoxic
The Adjective Noun
The So-Called Vosotros
Origami Bender
Visible the Sound
Albany in Arabic
Albany in Arabic
Six Card 21
The Fourth Favorite
The Fourth Favorite
OK, fine... ten more band names
Acute, Obtuse, and Righteous
Replica KrakatoaAmerica the Titans
Zamboni Turnpike
Jenny Jenga and The Junior Johnnies
My Ditto, Your Pikachu
Rooks Diagonal
The War Against EncoresThe Pending Americans
3D Musketeers
Footnotes / encore?
1. List of past ‘BOY’
1987 - 2006: Eminem (Nelly, Nirvana)
2007 - 2009: U2 (Counting Crows, Passion Pit)
2010: The Killers
2011: Muse (Arcade Fire)
2012: 'Podcasts' (sorry)... (Oasis, Foster The People)
2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (T.I., P!nk)
2014: The Head and The Heart (Sara Bareilles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2015: Lake Street Dive (Of Monsters and Men, U2)
2016: Slow Club (Courtney Barnett, Lake Street Dive)
2017: Rubblebucket (Celtic Social Club, U2)
2018: Chvrches (U2, Lake Street Dive)
2019: Muse (U2, Of Monsters and Men)
2. Music notes
Congratulations to Muse, they were driven forward by a concert I went to in April, some deep dives into their older work, and perhaps my discovering this video.
The biggest gap above is between #8 and #9 – Courtney Barnett is a lot of fun but just doesn't capture the same feeling as Lake Street Dive.
It’s possible that Celtic Social Club is two spots too high but a strong new album and the lingering memory of their concert a few years ago convinced me to bump them to #7.
2a. Honorable mention – new music
I don't listen to enough new music in a year to do a top ten but in hindsight I’m glad I listened to more of these three artists:
1. Middle Kids
2. Kurt Vile
3. Norah Jones
Middle Kids is a promising but young Australian group that will need to put out a few more good songs before I elevate them into my top ten list – I think they only have one album out. Kurt Vile and Norah Jones had similar stories for me in 2019, I did my best with each artist but I can see that they just haven’t put out enough songs I like for them to really settle in as permanent features in my music rotation. Norah Jones has a great feel for covers which makes it more likely for her to move up my list in the coming years.
Friday, January 17, 2020
happy friday
At some unidentified moment over the past few years, ‘Happy Holidays’ finally lost its long battle against ‘Merry Christmas’. The latter was put to the sword by the growing sentiment that if you don’t know exactly what others celebrate, the right thing to do is to acknowledge that they celebrate, or perhaps not. Now, for some reason this logic hasn’t been extended to New Year – I’ll ask my Chinese friends how they feel about it – but it's only a matter of time before 'Happy New Year' becomes the next fight in The War Against Breaking Habits.
Still, not all fields are impending battlegrounds. I’m still routinely wished ‘Happy Friday’ by my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed colleagues, just like my first week of work ten years ago. I never admitted that I don't celebrate this holiday. What backward, repressed faith demands its believers show up to do nothing at corporate headquarters to cap off every week? I admit that the sacred hour and a half Friday lunch does seems like fun but I guess I just don't understand it.
Being a nonbeliever has big advantages; I seem to get a lot more done on Fridays than most of my colleagues. Think about it, since they aren’t doing anything, they can’t come up with ways to interrupt me. Still, I do occasionally feel a little uncomfortable with all this ‘Happy Friday’ stuff; maybe today I’ll ask that they say ‘Happy Holidays’ instead to acknowledge my holy days, Saturday and Sunday, and create a more inclusive environment.
Personally, I don't mind error-strewn greetings at the end of the year. I know less about others thanks to my ‘Happy Holidays’ bubble and I wonder if the PC blanket smothers one more opportunity to relate across differences. When it applies to everyone, it describes no one. I’d be delighted if folks wished me a Happy Hanukah – I would respond by wishing them a Merry Christmas, and resolve to remember the appropriate greeting for next time. Or maybe not, given what happens every Friday, but at least I would have learned something about the people in my life.
Still, not all fields are impending battlegrounds. I’m still routinely wished ‘Happy Friday’ by my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed colleagues, just like my first week of work ten years ago. I never admitted that I don't celebrate this holiday. What backward, repressed faith demands its believers show up to do nothing at corporate headquarters to cap off every week? I admit that the sacred hour and a half Friday lunch does seems like fun but I guess I just don't understand it.
Being a nonbeliever has big advantages; I seem to get a lot more done on Fridays than most of my colleagues. Think about it, since they aren’t doing anything, they can’t come up with ways to interrupt me. Still, I do occasionally feel a little uncomfortable with all this ‘Happy Friday’ stuff; maybe today I’ll ask that they say ‘Happy Holidays’ instead to acknowledge my holy days, Saturday and Sunday, and create a more inclusive environment.
Personally, I don't mind error-strewn greetings at the end of the year. I know less about others thanks to my ‘Happy Holidays’ bubble and I wonder if the PC blanket smothers one more opportunity to relate across differences. When it applies to everyone, it describes no one. I’d be delighted if folks wished me a Happy Hanukah – I would respond by wishing them a Merry Christmas, and resolve to remember the appropriate greeting for next time. Or maybe not, given what happens every Friday, but at least I would have learned something about the people in my life.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
beginners
I'm a sucker for poignant reflections. The examples I like best sound like origin myths, often bringing back to life a long-lost or little known moment that once threatened the journey before it had even found the road. I first recognized how much I like hearing such stories around fifteen years ago. I had just gotten my hands on U2 Go Home, a live concert DVD of their 2001 show at Slane Castle. As they start ‘Out Of Control’, Bono takes the crowd into his head and introduces the performance as if it were 1980 and nobody cared about their first single. Halfway through the song, The Edge starts playing the solo on a loop while Bono wanders through memory, speaking as if he’s in front of his father, asking for money, for one last chance to get the band off the ground – I still need a lend of five hundred pounds... waddaya say? It’s moving to think that the band who once needed so much unconditional support would go on to measure their success in so much more than just musical terms. I loved this clip the first time I heard it, back when I didn’t even know that the show was taped just days after Bono’s father had died.
These deeply personal reflections can define the best of the stories we tell each other. I’ve enjoyed hearing them in someone’s happiest moment and I’ve been privileged to share in them during someone’s darkest time. The aftermath of a great accomplishment seems to be a common catalyst for these reflections. I recently had the privilege of hearing a speech from Billy Star, inspired decades ago by the deaths of loved ones to start the Pan-Mass Challenge. Starr is a dynamic speaker, one who commands attention from every corner of the room, and he described how the PMC grew from humble beginnings into one of the largest fundraising events in the nation. I found myself locked into his words at a level I rarely reach from the audience. By the end of the speech, I was emotional thinking about how unimaginable the PMC's recent $63 million fundraising gift for Dana-Farber would have been for this young man, riding his bike toward Provincetown all those years ago, thinking about catching the last ferry and carrying the weight of his grief the entire way.
Starr reminded me of Jim Valvano and his famous speech at the 1993 ESPY awards. The origin aspect in particular was reminiscent of how Valvano shared that preparing a speech prompted him to think back to his first speech. There is something really special about his anecdote, a nervous rookie coach in the freshman locker taking his first steps toward his eventual moment on stage, a journey marked by the eventual highs and lows familiar to those who've learned about his career. Every time I watch that speech, I marvel at how a coach who once defined success as focusing on family, religion, and the Green Bay Packers, the one who knew he was going to become the greatest coach in the world, found the strength to lead us to the frontier of the Jimmy V Foundation, the $250 million dollars its raised to date for cancer research, and all the lives the foundation would forever change.
The unifying aspect of these origin stories is the way they thread the chaos of a lifetime to connect the otherwise scattered moments. They package all the conflicting moments and emotions, all the satisfaction, suffering, and purpose, and shape them into stories that help us better understand the ups and downs of life. These stories don’t just explain the past, they also give us the direction we need to keep going. They remind us that almost every moment can be a beginning, and help bolster us when our belief falters. We use these stories to remember how we’ve made journeys before, and we're reminded that most journeys started from origins unfamiliar to our eventual destination. We learn that everyone is a beginner. Often, all we needed to do on these journeys each day was to keep going, one step at a time, until we arrived.
I’m in a reflective mood today because this is the 1000th post on TOA. I’m not sure exactly what I expected on day one. I recall having a vague notion of wanting to write consistently and a growing realization that some things never start until you get started. I knew enough about myself that I was capable of maintaining a challenging daily rhythm if I put in the initial effort. I understood that I couldn’t have asked for better timing to get the ball rolling. I suppose I pulled all of this together and decided that it was the right idea to get busy writing. The one factor I didn’t properly consider turned out to be the most important one of all – readers. I had willing readers, and I still do. I asked – more than once – for a lend of 500 posts, and I'm grateful for each person who lent me an eye or two. Thank you for reading.
Most of life’s moments are opportunities for new beginnings. It seems, whether for better or for worse, that most of these opportunities pass us right by. I suppose when it comes to beginnings, we are all beginners. There are many reasons for this but I think the most significant is a lack of support. There isn’t enough money, there isn’t enough time, there isn’t enough reinforcement, and before you know it the book ends in the opening chapter. I can’t overstate the gift of supporting an idea at its most vulnerable moment, to hear life in the quietest heartbeat, and I consider myself among the privileged recipients of this priceless gift. So, reader, once again, thank you for reading.
I’ve enjoyed writing for you and I look forward to doing more in the future. I’m not sure what it will look like – let's hope for five hundred more posts, or possibly not. All I know is that I will ask for your support once more, as we all should, when we are ready to begin again.
These deeply personal reflections can define the best of the stories we tell each other. I’ve enjoyed hearing them in someone’s happiest moment and I’ve been privileged to share in them during someone’s darkest time. The aftermath of a great accomplishment seems to be a common catalyst for these reflections. I recently had the privilege of hearing a speech from Billy Star, inspired decades ago by the deaths of loved ones to start the Pan-Mass Challenge. Starr is a dynamic speaker, one who commands attention from every corner of the room, and he described how the PMC grew from humble beginnings into one of the largest fundraising events in the nation. I found myself locked into his words at a level I rarely reach from the audience. By the end of the speech, I was emotional thinking about how unimaginable the PMC's recent $63 million fundraising gift for Dana-Farber would have been for this young man, riding his bike toward Provincetown all those years ago, thinking about catching the last ferry and carrying the weight of his grief the entire way.
Starr reminded me of Jim Valvano and his famous speech at the 1993 ESPY awards. The origin aspect in particular was reminiscent of how Valvano shared that preparing a speech prompted him to think back to his first speech. There is something really special about his anecdote, a nervous rookie coach in the freshman locker taking his first steps toward his eventual moment on stage, a journey marked by the eventual highs and lows familiar to those who've learned about his career. Every time I watch that speech, I marvel at how a coach who once defined success as focusing on family, religion, and the Green Bay Packers, the one who knew he was going to become the greatest coach in the world, found the strength to lead us to the frontier of the Jimmy V Foundation, the $250 million dollars its raised to date for cancer research, and all the lives the foundation would forever change.
The unifying aspect of these origin stories is the way they thread the chaos of a lifetime to connect the otherwise scattered moments. They package all the conflicting moments and emotions, all the satisfaction, suffering, and purpose, and shape them into stories that help us better understand the ups and downs of life. These stories don’t just explain the past, they also give us the direction we need to keep going. They remind us that almost every moment can be a beginning, and help bolster us when our belief falters. We use these stories to remember how we’ve made journeys before, and we're reminded that most journeys started from origins unfamiliar to our eventual destination. We learn that everyone is a beginner. Often, all we needed to do on these journeys each day was to keep going, one step at a time, until we arrived.
I’m in a reflective mood today because this is the 1000th post on TOA. I’m not sure exactly what I expected on day one. I recall having a vague notion of wanting to write consistently and a growing realization that some things never start until you get started. I knew enough about myself that I was capable of maintaining a challenging daily rhythm if I put in the initial effort. I understood that I couldn’t have asked for better timing to get the ball rolling. I suppose I pulled all of this together and decided that it was the right idea to get busy writing. The one factor I didn’t properly consider turned out to be the most important one of all – readers. I had willing readers, and I still do. I asked – more than once – for a lend of 500 posts, and I'm grateful for each person who lent me an eye or two. Thank you for reading.
Most of life’s moments are opportunities for new beginnings. It seems, whether for better or for worse, that most of these opportunities pass us right by. I suppose when it comes to beginnings, we are all beginners. There are many reasons for this but I think the most significant is a lack of support. There isn’t enough money, there isn’t enough time, there isn’t enough reinforcement, and before you know it the book ends in the opening chapter. I can’t overstate the gift of supporting an idea at its most vulnerable moment, to hear life in the quietest heartbeat, and I consider myself among the privileged recipients of this priceless gift. So, reader, once again, thank you for reading.
I’ve enjoyed writing for you and I look forward to doing more in the future. I’m not sure what it will look like – let's hope for five hundred more posts, or possibly not. All I know is that I will ask for your support once more, as we all should, when we are ready to begin again.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
leftovers #2 – the shell game (the chain)
I mentioned in my reading review for The Shell Game that I initially came across this book due to my interest in reading ‘The Body’, a specific essay that was excerpted in the collection. I thought today I would expand on this example because the step of going from ‘The Body’ to The Shell Game – and beyond – demonstrates how I allow one thing to lead to another when it comes to finding my next book.
The prologue to this story starts with the podcast Book Fight!, a show where each week writers Mike Ingram and Tom McCallister discuss and analyze various works of literature. Their discussion of ‘The Body’ on this episode prompted me to search for a copy of the essay on the usually reliable Information Superhighway. Unfortunately, in this case I found myself unable to obtain a full copy of the essay. A series of additional searches led me to The Shell Game, the collection that explored various innovative forms and structures with work that would otherwise be presented in a standard essay format.
As noted previously, ‘The Body’ was not among my favorite pieces in The Shell Game. However, I enjoyed a number of its ‘essays’ and found myself taking down quite a few notes on the various topics these authors explored. One note caught my eye while I was preparing the initial reading review – a written warning has no value where people don’t read. This prompted me to think about a moving chapter from a book I read earlier this year. As I recalled, it described the immense regret of a dying wanderer as he lay in the shade of a tree. Among his final recollections was a lament that although he never learned to read, he was still forced to obey the command of written law.
I was certain that this came from The Prophet, Khalil Gibran’s 1923 masterpiece. Given that I was writing about The Prophet for my TOA Book Award at that time, I decided to make sure I included a reference to this section in my post. This plan hit a snag when I reviewed my notes and saw no mention of this excerpt. I thought it was odd but plowed ahead anyway and finished my post.
A few days later, I decided that I should check again just to ensure I wasn’t falsely attributing something to The Prophet. One advantage of an old classic is that (unlike certain NEW books) there is a high likelihood of it being online. I pulled open a digital copy of The Prophet and did some basic searches. I found nothing. My quick glances through the PDF convinced me that I should probably reread it again – the only question was whether to do so right away or wait for my traditional December rereading month. I decided to review my reading list first just in case something else seemed like a possibility.
The only other book that I remembered having any writing similar to The Prophet was Isabella Eberhardt’s Oblivion Seekers. I pulled open my notes and found the reference right away. Since the book obviously had stuck in my mind, I also added The Oblivion Seekers to my rereading list for December.
The question about my original note being settled (‘a written warning has no value where people don’t read’) I returned to the task of completing the reading review. As I thought deeply about the ‘essays’ that I liked most, I decided it would be a decent idea to check for other work from the authors. The essay I liked most, ‘We Regret…’ was written by Brenda Miller. A little additional investigation into her writing brought me around on two books I thought would be interesting, Season of the Body and Tell It Slant. I’m about halfway through the former and my initial reaction is that I should forget about two books, I should just go ahead and read all of her work.
This is a good place to stop and come up with the official tally of how much future reading I can attribute to that initial Book Fight! episode:
The Shell Game
The Prophet
The Oblivion Seekers
Season of the Body
Tell It Slant
I’ve never reviewing my process in this detail before but I suspect there are quite a few such groups of four and five littered throughout my reading list. In a world where I allow one thing to lead so easily to another, I wonder which book I can credit for leading me to the most total books. This not a project I intend to take on, rest assured, but from time to time I might come back and detail a ‘reading tree’, particularly if I think one incident can be credited with an unusually high number of subsequent books.
The prologue to this story starts with the podcast Book Fight!, a show where each week writers Mike Ingram and Tom McCallister discuss and analyze various works of literature. Their discussion of ‘The Body’ on this episode prompted me to search for a copy of the essay on the usually reliable Information Superhighway. Unfortunately, in this case I found myself unable to obtain a full copy of the essay. A series of additional searches led me to The Shell Game, the collection that explored various innovative forms and structures with work that would otherwise be presented in a standard essay format.
As noted previously, ‘The Body’ was not among my favorite pieces in The Shell Game. However, I enjoyed a number of its ‘essays’ and found myself taking down quite a few notes on the various topics these authors explored. One note caught my eye while I was preparing the initial reading review – a written warning has no value where people don’t read. This prompted me to think about a moving chapter from a book I read earlier this year. As I recalled, it described the immense regret of a dying wanderer as he lay in the shade of a tree. Among his final recollections was a lament that although he never learned to read, he was still forced to obey the command of written law.
I was certain that this came from The Prophet, Khalil Gibran’s 1923 masterpiece. Given that I was writing about The Prophet for my TOA Book Award at that time, I decided to make sure I included a reference to this section in my post. This plan hit a snag when I reviewed my notes and saw no mention of this excerpt. I thought it was odd but plowed ahead anyway and finished my post.
A few days later, I decided that I should check again just to ensure I wasn’t falsely attributing something to The Prophet. One advantage of an old classic is that (unlike certain NEW books) there is a high likelihood of it being online. I pulled open a digital copy of The Prophet and did some basic searches. I found nothing. My quick glances through the PDF convinced me that I should probably reread it again – the only question was whether to do so right away or wait for my traditional December rereading month. I decided to review my reading list first just in case something else seemed like a possibility.
The only other book that I remembered having any writing similar to The Prophet was Isabella Eberhardt’s Oblivion Seekers. I pulled open my notes and found the reference right away. Since the book obviously had stuck in my mind, I also added The Oblivion Seekers to my rereading list for December.
The question about my original note being settled (‘a written warning has no value where people don’t read’) I returned to the task of completing the reading review. As I thought deeply about the ‘essays’ that I liked most, I decided it would be a decent idea to check for other work from the authors. The essay I liked most, ‘We Regret…’ was written by Brenda Miller. A little additional investigation into her writing brought me around on two books I thought would be interesting, Season of the Body and Tell It Slant. I’m about halfway through the former and my initial reaction is that I should forget about two books, I should just go ahead and read all of her work.
This is a good place to stop and come up with the official tally of how much future reading I can attribute to that initial Book Fight! episode:
The Shell Game
The Prophet
The Oblivion Seekers
Season of the Body
Tell It Slant
I’ve never reviewing my process in this detail before but I suspect there are quite a few such groups of four and five littered throughout my reading list. In a world where I allow one thing to lead so easily to another, I wonder which book I can credit for leading me to the most total books. This not a project I intend to take on, rest assured, but from time to time I might come back and detail a ‘reading tree’, particularly if I think one incident can be credited with an unusually high number of subsequent books.
Friday, January 10, 2020
mission impossible
A recent food highlight was the Impossible Whopper at Burger King. This is made from something I don’t actually understand, a ‘plant-based meat’, whatever that is, anyway, I’ve had this a couple of times before in other burger forms so I kind of knew what to expect. The quality of the Whopper sandwich surprised me, it was tasty, but I’m not ready to make any Major Declarations yet given that I’ve yet to try a regular Whopper. Good studies have control groups, right? Maybe it was the sauce or the lettuce that did the trick.
Jokes aside, my gut tells me (!) that by virtue of similar taste plant-based ‘meat’ will become a perfect substitute for meat. (Don’t ask me when, and let’s assume the CDC doesn’t declare it a carcinogen in two decades.) This would represent a massive development, possibly one of the few great Massive Developments that will happen in my lifetime, because it might usher in the end of meat consumption. With a good alternative available, it’s not hard to imagine a time a few decades in the future when people who still eat meat are regarded as that era’s racists. I'm looking forward to finding out at the nursing home - meat me at bingo, and let's discuss.
Overall, this technology is especially significant for those who see meat consumption as a major factor in climate change. We could just eat differently, of course, but let’s just be honest, most of us prefer to blame governments or corporations or rich people rather than make even the smallest lifestyle change. As it happens with almost all things related to new technology, the masses will slowly come around as early adopters extol the virtues of the new while the capitalists scurry in the background with their efficiencies and layoffs and demand curves to bring the price down, cent by cent, until it makes cents for everyone. Our kids will probably respond to the expression ‘cooking in its own fat’ with the same disgust I reserve for Manchester United highlights.
One last note here that is merely tangential to the main point. The catalyst for going to Burger King was, believe it or not, a commercial. I saw the advert during a helmet football game and very nearly went out for the sandwich at halftime. Alas, I fought off the initial urge and went a few weeks later, but it remains the only recent example I can think of where an advertisement directly led me to a purchase. Kudos to the marketing team at BK!
Jokes aside, my gut tells me (!) that by virtue of similar taste plant-based ‘meat’ will become a perfect substitute for meat. (Don’t ask me when, and let’s assume the CDC doesn’t declare it a carcinogen in two decades.) This would represent a massive development, possibly one of the few great Massive Developments that will happen in my lifetime, because it might usher in the end of meat consumption. With a good alternative available, it’s not hard to imagine a time a few decades in the future when people who still eat meat are regarded as that era’s racists. I'm looking forward to finding out at the nursing home - meat me at bingo, and let's discuss.
Overall, this technology is especially significant for those who see meat consumption as a major factor in climate change. We could just eat differently, of course, but let’s just be honest, most of us prefer to blame governments or corporations or rich people rather than make even the smallest lifestyle change. As it happens with almost all things related to new technology, the masses will slowly come around as early adopters extol the virtues of the new while the capitalists scurry in the background with their efficiencies and layoffs and demand curves to bring the price down, cent by cent, until it makes cents for everyone. Our kids will probably respond to the expression ‘cooking in its own fat’ with the same disgust I reserve for Manchester United highlights.
One last note here that is merely tangential to the main point. The catalyst for going to Burger King was, believe it or not, a commercial. I saw the advert during a helmet football game and very nearly went out for the sandwich at halftime. Alas, I fought off the initial urge and went a few weeks later, but it remains the only recent example I can think of where an advertisement directly led me to a purchase. Kudos to the marketing team at BK!
Thursday, January 9, 2020
leftovers - albany in arabic
The first time I ever thought about test formats causing minor grade inflation was in a college economics class. I remember speaking to the professor about how guesswork within a multiple-choice exam likely produced higher scores. A student, I recall saying, would likely score much lower if the questions were presented in an open response format.
Looking back, I see that I was wasting my professor’s time (as most of my comments did). He had a well-earned reputation for being a tough grader that I see in hindsight was mostly because all of his tests were open response. It was very common to get an exam back from him with quarter-point deductions scattered across an essay like sprinkles on a doughnut. A response that likely would have been ‘correct’ in a multiple-choice format usually got 85 to 90% of full marks in the essay format.
My guess is I thought of this angle because I was simultaneously studying statistics. One day, I was probably sitting around thinking about probabilities when I realized that the math suggested multiple-choice exams inflated grades. Interestingly enough, I remember most of my statistics exams being multiple-choice. I suppose this explains why even though I was far better at economics than I was at statistics, my grades from those classes were generally the same.
Looking back, I see that I was wasting my professor’s time (as most of my comments did). He had a well-earned reputation for being a tough grader that I see in hindsight was mostly because all of his tests were open response. It was very common to get an exam back from him with quarter-point deductions scattered across an essay like sprinkles on a doughnut. A response that likely would have been ‘correct’ in a multiple-choice format usually got 85 to 90% of full marks in the essay format.
My guess is I thought of this angle because I was simultaneously studying statistics. One day, I was probably sitting around thinking about probabilities when I realized that the math suggested multiple-choice exams inflated grades. Interestingly enough, I remember most of my statistics exams being multiple-choice. I suppose this explains why even though I was far better at economics than I was at statistics, my grades from those classes were generally the same.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
reading review - coraline
Coraline by Neil Gaiman (October 2019)
I came across this reading list from The Guardian a couple of months ago that prompted me to start a new project where I work my way down from #100 and pick out a few recommendations along the way. I expect this project to produce between eight and twelve reading ideas over the next year, the first of these being this Neil Gaiman novel accessible for both adults and children.
The basic premise of the story is that a girl named Coraline discovers a parallel world where she is tempted by certain material incentives to exchange the essence of her soul in order to fit someone else’s outside standards. It’s one of the classic story setups and Gaiman doesn't stray too far from the sequence of events a seasoned reader will expect from the premise. The delight in the story is in the writing, a fact that helped me understand a little better why Neil Gaiman’s fans always seem more committed to their favorite author than someone who likes, say, Stephen King. To put it another way, a Neil Gaiman fan leaves no doubt about his or her loyalties, and I think I understand that a little better after reading Coraline.
The note I liked best from Coraline said that names are very important for people with no sense of self or individuality. It reminded me of a book I hadn’t thought about in decades, a sports novel of the kind I read voraciously in myprime youth, where the protagonist pointed out that getting a nickname from the basketball coach (Zeke, I think) really helped him fit in when he moved into a new town. It’s actually something I’ve applied myself a couple of times over the years by giving out nicknames for people at work who seemed eager to fit in yet held back from jumping all the way in.
I didn’t take much else down in terms of notes from Coraline – just a few lines – but they are here if you need them.
I came across this reading list from The Guardian a couple of months ago that prompted me to start a new project where I work my way down from #100 and pick out a few recommendations along the way. I expect this project to produce between eight and twelve reading ideas over the next year, the first of these being this Neil Gaiman novel accessible for both adults and children.
The basic premise of the story is that a girl named Coraline discovers a parallel world where she is tempted by certain material incentives to exchange the essence of her soul in order to fit someone else’s outside standards. It’s one of the classic story setups and Gaiman doesn't stray too far from the sequence of events a seasoned reader will expect from the premise. The delight in the story is in the writing, a fact that helped me understand a little better why Neil Gaiman’s fans always seem more committed to their favorite author than someone who likes, say, Stephen King. To put it another way, a Neil Gaiman fan leaves no doubt about his or her loyalties, and I think I understand that a little better after reading Coraline.
The note I liked best from Coraline said that names are very important for people with no sense of self or individuality. It reminded me of a book I hadn’t thought about in decades, a sports novel of the kind I read voraciously in my
I didn’t take much else down in terms of notes from Coraline – just a few lines – but they are here if you need them.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
albany in arabic
I was thinking a little bit about what a test score confirms regarding a student’s knowledge. If I get a 90% on an exam, does that mean I know 90% of the material (1)? The answer seems obvious – NO – but it doesn’t really help us, either, if our main interest is to understand the student’s knowledge.
Let’s have a closer… examination… of this question by considering a really basic knowledge test – US state capitals. There are fifty capitals for fifty states so this test should have fifty questions to comprehensively cover the material. Now, if I get a 90% on the test, I could walk around boasting that I know nine-tenths of the nation’s capitals. But this doesn’t seem quite right, at least based on my experience taking tests. I’ve scored 90% when I’ve known far less than 90% (2).
What gives? As it does in so much of life, I think design matters. Design counts for optimizing test performance just as it does for your lawnmower, smartphone, or teakettle. The most common form of test design is the multiple-choice exam. A 90% on this format is very different from a 90% on a sheet of paper with fifty blank lines alongside each state (or even better, just a sheet of paper with fifty blank lines). If I write out 90% of the state capitals correctly, I probably know more than someone who circled the correct letter 90% of the time on the multiple-choice version (3).
This raises the question of how much the design boosts the grade. The way I thought about this was to reverse the problem – a 90% means I don’t know 10% of the answers. But is this true? Let’s suppose we have the simplest form of multiple-choice exam possible – the true or false test. In this format, the state is listed alongside a city and all you do is choose true or false. A 90% score means five incorrect guesses. However, I argue that the student must have also guessed correctly five additional times. This is based on an application of basic probability theory – given that one of two choices is correct, a random guess is right half the time. So, given five incorrect choices, the theory suggests, insists even, that there were also five correct choices. A 90% on a true or false exam is really an 80% knowledge score plus 10% design-driven grade inflation (4).
Another way to think about this is to consider what the minimum grade is for a student with no knowledge. Let’s say you take the state capital test in a language you’ve never used before in your life. If the exam format were true or false, you would get a 50% (on average) just by guessing. If the test had five choices per question, you would get a 20%. And if the test were a blank sheet of paper… well, let's hope 'Albany' in Arabic doesn't mean something offensive.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that all tests should opt for the open-ended format. I would certainly wonder whether it was worth the effort of redesigning exams in an educational setting for the sake of stripping away a small percentage point bias in the final score. But I think the broader lesson of thinking seriously about design is an important consideration for someone who is using a multiple-choice format in other contexts. A poorly designed study, for example, could trace its flaws back to the way subjects were asked certain questions. These results do have real-world consequences that just can’t be said regarding the day you forgot about Carson City.
One example I recently read about was in the endnotes of Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking To Strangers. He recounted how using a multiple-choice format led researchers to incorrectly conclude that people’s facial expressions show emotions in the same way regardless of culture. It’s one thing to ask ‘does this face look happy?’ - the answer is yes or no. It turns out that asking ‘what emotion does this face show?’ brings around an entirely different set of potential responses, stripping away the fake patterns and coincidences that sometimes emerge in guesswork.
Perhaps the only real lesson in all of this is one I’ve written about countless times on TOA – don’t make assumptions. A test format with options is essentially a subtle form of assumption. It might be OK to use this approach when the questions assess someone’s knowledge of cut and dry facts. The application of the same theory for inquiry or discovery, however, presents some serious problems in the way we imply the answer is known before we can actually confirm our knowledge.
Footnotes / endnotes
0. Is this a loophole in the new TOA setup?
I count the words in footnotes for the word count, don't you worry reader.
1. But what if the student’s grandmother just died?
There are some obvious reasons why this would not be the case. In the interest of simplifying the question let’s just say that (a) the test covers all the material, (b) the material is presented without bias, (c) the test is administered under perfect conditions, and (d) the student is in perfect condition to take the test.
Of course, some people will still insist on pointing out a host of other reasons why a test result never actually tells you how much the test-taker knows. I’m not sure why some people insist on shooting things down rather than trying to build on ideas. Fire at will, I say, just don't come complaining to me when people stop sharing their ideas with you.
2. But what if you knew more?
This isn’t really true since I usually knew at least 90% of the material. This isn’t a humble brag, it’s just a brag – I was wicked smaht, and sometimes still am.
3. This is really about footnote #1.
Like I noted above, this is the point where someone will cut me off and start pointing out inane hypothetical scenarios. What if someone who would have correctly guessed on a write-in test gets fooled because the four choices tempt a switch to a different city? The thing I never understand is why someone would apply a standard of perfection to reject changes regarding something no one ever insisted was perfect.
4. It’s about the formula, not the numbers.
The formula stays the same if you add more choices while the grade inflation number comes down. If a student selected a state capital from six choices per question, the 90% is really an 88% with a 2% design boost (because each question has a one in six chance of a correct guess).
Let’s have a closer… examination… of this question by considering a really basic knowledge test – US state capitals. There are fifty capitals for fifty states so this test should have fifty questions to comprehensively cover the material. Now, if I get a 90% on the test, I could walk around boasting that I know nine-tenths of the nation’s capitals. But this doesn’t seem quite right, at least based on my experience taking tests. I’ve scored 90% when I’ve known far less than 90% (2).
What gives? As it does in so much of life, I think design matters. Design counts for optimizing test performance just as it does for your lawnmower, smartphone, or teakettle. The most common form of test design is the multiple-choice exam. A 90% on this format is very different from a 90% on a sheet of paper with fifty blank lines alongside each state (or even better, just a sheet of paper with fifty blank lines). If I write out 90% of the state capitals correctly, I probably know more than someone who circled the correct letter 90% of the time on the multiple-choice version (3).
This raises the question of how much the design boosts the grade. The way I thought about this was to reverse the problem – a 90% means I don’t know 10% of the answers. But is this true? Let’s suppose we have the simplest form of multiple-choice exam possible – the true or false test. In this format, the state is listed alongside a city and all you do is choose true or false. A 90% score means five incorrect guesses. However, I argue that the student must have also guessed correctly five additional times. This is based on an application of basic probability theory – given that one of two choices is correct, a random guess is right half the time. So, given five incorrect choices, the theory suggests, insists even, that there were also five correct choices. A 90% on a true or false exam is really an 80% knowledge score plus 10% design-driven grade inflation (4).
Another way to think about this is to consider what the minimum grade is for a student with no knowledge. Let’s say you take the state capital test in a language you’ve never used before in your life. If the exam format were true or false, you would get a 50% (on average) just by guessing. If the test had five choices per question, you would get a 20%. And if the test were a blank sheet of paper… well, let's hope 'Albany' in Arabic doesn't mean something offensive.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that all tests should opt for the open-ended format. I would certainly wonder whether it was worth the effort of redesigning exams in an educational setting for the sake of stripping away a small percentage point bias in the final score. But I think the broader lesson of thinking seriously about design is an important consideration for someone who is using a multiple-choice format in other contexts. A poorly designed study, for example, could trace its flaws back to the way subjects were asked certain questions. These results do have real-world consequences that just can’t be said regarding the day you forgot about Carson City.
One example I recently read about was in the endnotes of Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking To Strangers. He recounted how using a multiple-choice format led researchers to incorrectly conclude that people’s facial expressions show emotions in the same way regardless of culture. It’s one thing to ask ‘does this face look happy?’ - the answer is yes or no. It turns out that asking ‘what emotion does this face show?’ brings around an entirely different set of potential responses, stripping away the fake patterns and coincidences that sometimes emerge in guesswork.
Perhaps the only real lesson in all of this is one I’ve written about countless times on TOA – don’t make assumptions. A test format with options is essentially a subtle form of assumption. It might be OK to use this approach when the questions assess someone’s knowledge of cut and dry facts. The application of the same theory for inquiry or discovery, however, presents some serious problems in the way we imply the answer is known before we can actually confirm our knowledge.
Footnotes / endnotes
0. Is this a loophole in the new TOA setup?
I count the words in footnotes for the word count, don't you worry reader.
1. But what if the student’s grandmother just died?
There are some obvious reasons why this would not be the case. In the interest of simplifying the question let’s just say that (a) the test covers all the material, (b) the material is presented without bias, (c) the test is administered under perfect conditions, and (d) the student is in perfect condition to take the test.
Of course, some people will still insist on pointing out a host of other reasons why a test result never actually tells you how much the test-taker knows. I’m not sure why some people insist on shooting things down rather than trying to build on ideas. Fire at will, I say, just don't come complaining to me when people stop sharing their ideas with you.
2. But what if you knew more?
This isn’t really true since I usually knew at least 90% of the material. This isn’t a humble brag, it’s just a brag – I was wicked smaht, and sometimes still am.
3. This is really about footnote #1.
Like I noted above, this is the point where someone will cut me off and start pointing out inane hypothetical scenarios. What if someone who would have correctly guessed on a write-in test gets fooled because the four choices tempt a switch to a different city? The thing I never understand is why someone would apply a standard of perfection to reject changes regarding something no one ever insisted was perfect.
4. It’s about the formula, not the numbers.
The formula stays the same if you add more choices while the grade inflation number comes down. If a student selected a state capital from six choices per question, the 90% is really an 88% with a 2% design boost (because each question has a one in six chance of a correct guess).
Saturday, January 4, 2020
reading review - wangaari mathai
Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prevot (June 2019)
This children’s book about the late Wangari Maathai traces her journey from a simple nature loving childhood to the work that would eventually earn her a Nobel Peace Prize. Though known primarily for her environmental work, her achievements as a social and political activist are equally notable. Her work proved a critical fulcrum for expanding access to basic rights and resources for Kenya’s underprivileged groups, particularly women, and her legacy lives on in anyone who sees the critical link between sustainability and social justice.
As the book notes, a tree is worth more than its wood. In addition to its basic physical features such as shade for poets or homes for little animals, a tree is a way to enhance and protect the space we borrow from the planet. Her work was a powerful symbol in the way it brought people together in pursuit of a shared ideal, the resulting togetherness strengthening tribes and factions that power hoarding leaders would prefer to have seen turn against each other. Simply put, countries function better when everyone works together. Planting a tree is hardly the dictionary definition of a political act but it must be acknowledged anytime someone unites what would otherwise remain divided.
This children’s book about the late Wangari Maathai traces her journey from a simple nature loving childhood to the work that would eventually earn her a Nobel Peace Prize. Though known primarily for her environmental work, her achievements as a social and political activist are equally notable. Her work proved a critical fulcrum for expanding access to basic rights and resources for Kenya’s underprivileged groups, particularly women, and her legacy lives on in anyone who sees the critical link between sustainability and social justice.
As the book notes, a tree is worth more than its wood. In addition to its basic physical features such as shade for poets or homes for little animals, a tree is a way to enhance and protect the space we borrow from the planet. Her work was a powerful symbol in the way it brought people together in pursuit of a shared ideal, the resulting togetherness strengthening tribes and factions that power hoarding leaders would prefer to have seen turn against each other. Simply put, countries function better when everyone works together. Planting a tree is hardly the dictionary definition of a political act but it must be acknowledged anytime someone unites what would otherwise remain divided.
Friday, January 3, 2020
toa quick hits - january 2020
Hi readers,
Let’s quickly acknowledge some books I’ve allowed to sit for too long on my ‘reading review to-do list’.
Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit (April 2019)
Solnit’s collection covers a wide range of themes that will be familiar to any of her longtime readers (or perhaps, to my readers, who have suffered through my reading reviews of her work). The basic idea with this book is the importance of naming things correctly as part of a larger process for resolving chronic or systemic issues.
I should also note that in a year where I wrote more about pronouns than anyone could have anticipated, this book’s title played a role in one of my underlying beliefs – rather than worry about pronouns, better to be pro-noun, and call things by their names.
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue (May 2019)
O’Donohue writes about thresholds as a way to think about passing from one stage of life to the next. It was one of my favorite books from one of my favorite writers. As always, he introduces painful topics to the reader with a superior sense of grace, empathy, and care. The last note I wrote from this book perhaps summarizes the main lesson – when a force within leaves us uneasy about the status quo, it is time for a change.
In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu (June 2019)
Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, takes a closer examination at his role in bringing down Confederate statues in this wonderful memoir. Symbols, he writes, are important because they demonstrate how we tell the truth about the past. If we all keep this lesson in mind, I think we can collectively respond better the next time someone challenges our assumptions about the way we acknowledge the past in our public spaces.
Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin (July 2019)
Salatin writes about his experiences running a small farm (as in, not a mega-factory farm). The main premise is hinted in the title – bureaucracy designed for oversight of massive operations does nothing for smaller operations except strangle their innovation and place endless pressure on their financial stability. This was a fascinating read, most likely due to my complete lack of experience or understanding about Salatin’s lifestyle and the way it influences his worldview.
Let’s quickly acknowledge some books I’ve allowed to sit for too long on my ‘reading review to-do list’.
Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit (April 2019)
Solnit’s collection covers a wide range of themes that will be familiar to any of her longtime readers (or perhaps, to my readers, who have suffered through my reading reviews of her work). The basic idea with this book is the importance of naming things correctly as part of a larger process for resolving chronic or systemic issues.
I should also note that in a year where I wrote more about pronouns than anyone could have anticipated, this book’s title played a role in one of my underlying beliefs – rather than worry about pronouns, better to be pro-noun, and call things by their names.
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue (May 2019)
O’Donohue writes about thresholds as a way to think about passing from one stage of life to the next. It was one of my favorite books from one of my favorite writers. As always, he introduces painful topics to the reader with a superior sense of grace, empathy, and care. The last note I wrote from this book perhaps summarizes the main lesson – when a force within leaves us uneasy about the status quo, it is time for a change.
In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu (June 2019)
Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, takes a closer examination at his role in bringing down Confederate statues in this wonderful memoir. Symbols, he writes, are important because they demonstrate how we tell the truth about the past. If we all keep this lesson in mind, I think we can collectively respond better the next time someone challenges our assumptions about the way we acknowledge the past in our public spaces.
Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin (July 2019)
Salatin writes about his experiences running a small farm (as in, not a mega-factory farm). The main premise is hinted in the title – bureaucracy designed for oversight of massive operations does nothing for smaller operations except strangle their innovation and place endless pressure on their financial stability. This was a fascinating read, most likely due to my complete lack of experience or understanding about Salatin’s lifestyle and the way it influences his worldview.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
the toa newsletter - january 2020
Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, etc, etc…
OK, let’s get to business.
I ran on a little bit yesterday about Vision 2020 and all that nonsense but I’m sure many of you were left wondering – what does this mean for my weekend? Well, in short, it means less. Let's get all the details out there in a bid to clarify that thought.
First, 2020 means the end of the daily schedule, effectively immediately - no post tomorrow. This is TOA, not TMZ. Daily was a nice thought a year ago and I am pleased to have accomplished this goal but it's like going to Foxwoods, I've done it once and now it’s out of my system. Trust me, no one's happier about this decision than me, but feel free to rejoice in public, tired reader, if your inboxes had felt the strain in 2019.
The posting schedule will retain a loose commitment to word count (I did this last year, I swear). In 2020, it’s going to involve some rules of thumb that I'm currently finalizing. My current idea is to have the average word count per day hit between 250 and 300 words which means a day off anytime I post 500 or more words. Readers interested in the specifics should just get in touch next month. I'm going to continue posting my longest work on Sundays (1000+ words). The newsletter will probably go up on the 1st of the month (unless it's a Sunday, then who knows, or cares). I'm not pulling the plug on 'Tales of Two Cities' but it probably won't be the last Wednesday of each or any month.
Those who might miss the daily posts should consider a look at the archives. There's a lot there, kids. I'll do my part and add some organization to the back catalog. For the past year or so, I’ve included tags on new posts and I’ll make some time to go back into the archives to tag some of the older posts. At some point soon I will also add a search feature to the main page that should really simplify the lookup process.
Those who read yesterday may be sneering - isn't this what and when? Yes, yes, very good. One aspect of how will involve continuing the recent pattern of reduced reading reviews being posted with links to my more extensive notes. This should fit the how and why of my reading a little better as I almost always read for strength yet my 'reading reviews' skew toward thorough. The new style of reading reviews is more focused on what the author or the book did well and I hope I can continue refining my delivery of those strengths for the sake of brevity, clarity, and sanity.
Before I wrap up today, I had one last comment on yesterday’s post. ‘Vision 2020’ isn’t my expression, I borrowed it from a friend, but I liked it because it implies that the wisdom glimpsed in hindsight is what makes me better at seeing things in the future. The more I see, the more I know, and with an emphasis on keeping my eyes open for learning opportunities I envision a great year on the horizon.
So, here's to Vision 2020, the next best year of my life, as every year should be.
OK, let’s get to business.
I ran on a little bit yesterday about Vision 2020 and all that nonsense but I’m sure many of you were left wondering – what does this mean for my weekend? Well, in short, it means less. Let's get all the details out there in a bid to clarify that thought.
First, 2020 means the end of the daily schedule, effectively immediately - no post tomorrow. This is TOA, not TMZ. Daily was a nice thought a year ago and I am pleased to have accomplished this goal but it's like going to Foxwoods, I've done it once and now it’s out of my system. Trust me, no one's happier about this decision than me, but feel free to rejoice in public, tired reader, if your inboxes had felt the strain in 2019.
The posting schedule will retain a loose commitment to word count (I did this last year, I swear). In 2020, it’s going to involve some rules of thumb that I'm currently finalizing. My current idea is to have the average word count per day hit between 250 and 300 words which means a day off anytime I post 500 or more words. Readers interested in the specifics should just get in touch next month. I'm going to continue posting my longest work on Sundays (1000+ words). The newsletter will probably go up on the 1st of the month (unless it's a Sunday, then who knows, or cares). I'm not pulling the plug on 'Tales of Two Cities' but it probably won't be the last Wednesday of each or any month.
Those who might miss the daily posts should consider a look at the archives. There's a lot there, kids. I'll do my part and add some organization to the back catalog. For the past year or so, I’ve included tags on new posts and I’ll make some time to go back into the archives to tag some of the older posts. At some point soon I will also add a search feature to the main page that should really simplify the lookup process.
Those who read yesterday may be sneering - isn't this what and when? Yes, yes, very good. One aspect of how will involve continuing the recent pattern of reduced reading reviews being posted with links to my more extensive notes. This should fit the how and why of my reading a little better as I almost always read for strength yet my 'reading reviews' skew toward thorough. The new style of reading reviews is more focused on what the author or the book did well and I hope I can continue refining my delivery of those strengths for the sake of brevity, clarity, and sanity.
Before I wrap up today, I had one last comment on yesterday’s post. ‘Vision 2020’ isn’t my expression, I borrowed it from a friend, but I liked it because it implies that the wisdom glimpsed in hindsight is what makes me better at seeing things in the future. The more I see, the more I know, and with an emphasis on keeping my eyes open for learning opportunities I envision a great year on the horizon.
So, here's to Vision 2020, the next best year of my life, as every year should be.
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