Jan 08

Talent, Engineering, Art, and Culture

by Chris Billows in Hobby Heedings, Mental Mischief, Playstates Theory 0 comments tags: Components of Human Nature, Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life
I’ve made a resolution to start learning how to code. I’m only a few hours into it and must say it is enjoyable. There is something magical about making things work on the screen based on your code. Learning how to code is definately a skill that will take time to develop. I’d never say that I have a natural talent to code though I find some of the concepts fascinating which creates enthusiasm and drive to learn more. This got me thinking about where talent is different from skill and where skill relates to art and engineering. With me being the kind of person who loves working with conceptual models, I’ve create a speculative Talent-to-Culture model to illustrate how skills, talent, art, and culture all are related:   Talent derives from natural ability or drive, and Talent may lead to skill, and Skill requires tool usage, and Tool usage comes from engineering, and Engineering comes from knowledge or science, and Knowledge comes from concepts, and Concepts comes from culture, and Culture comes from society   This model can be inverted, but because I’m focusing on skill development for myself, I started at the skill (top) end of the model. […]

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Jul 09

The Components of Talent

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Defining Life, Human Condition
I had a discussion with a friend about musical talent. We both love music and discussed why we never ended up playing it. We arrived at different conclusions about why this happened. For me, I remember making a conscious decision when I was about 17 years old to give up on playing music. I loved it but not enough to want to play it. Playing music did not resonate with me the way it would resonate with somebody who needed to play it. I can play music and believe I would have been a competent musician if I put in hours into it. Its just that I have other interests. My friend says that he desperately wanted to play music but just could not. He said that people would show him how to play the guitar but he could not get his fingers to move the right way. It is was such a struggle that he decided that if it is not going to come easy, then its simply was not meant to be. He said that this proves that we both lacked talent. I disagreed with him. Part of the reason for that disagreement is that we lacked a […]

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Nov 27

A Continuum of Human Nature

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life, Human Condition, Religion, Self Determination
I have been musing the importance about Jerry Pournelle’s political matrix and believe that his one index concerning the ability to improve on human nature is probably one of the most critical questions that divides people. Think about it. Everything we do or stand for is related to one’s understanding of what makes ourselves and others human. How we define what a human being is is how we define our morals, ethics, economics, and politics. I think there is a simple continuum that can be teased out from Pournelle’s political matrix. It would be: 1) Human Nature is corrupt. Everyone else is out to make a buck, is dishonest, etc. The person who believes this will also believe they need to act the same to keep up. Some religious and social conservatives would subscribe that there are lots of people who are corrupt and will never change. Scott Adams humors us with his view that all people are idiots in his Dilbert books. 2) Human Nature is corrupt but is improvable. Most religions would be based on this philosophy. It would be the view that we have Original Sin and need to find salvation to correct it. 3) Human Nature […]

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Sep 12

A Thousand Dollars for Getting the 2012 Prophecy Correct

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Defining Life, Foolishness, Human Condition
There are a bunch of books and videos talking about the impending end of the world in 2012 as predicted by the Mayans. The Mayans are a long dead culture who appeared to have died themselves. You would think that given their perceived aptitude to prophecy, they could have avoided their own fate. Anyways, supposedly we have only four pieces of what were thousands of ‘books’ that talk about the cosmological system. It is like guessing the end of a book with only the first few pages. How can we be sure? Well, I guess pretending to be sure that the world will end in 2012 helps to sell lots of books To demonstrate the absurdity about predicting the end of the world, I pledge to give $1,000 Canadian to the author/blogger who is closest to correctly predicting the end of the earth in 2012. After the world ends, and your date is the closest to the date the world ends, you can contact me and I will Paypal you the money. No gimmicks or trickery here. Not only will you have the money but the personal satisfaction in being right.
Jul 16

A List of Guidance from the Profound to the Prescriptive

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life, Human Condition
Through my collective experiences from learning about religious values to developing program guidelines, I see the existence of a continuum of guidance. It is as follows: Instinct – the basic guidance system that functions at our biological & survival levels. The rules of the jungle. Intuitive Guidance – how we interact with others through feelings. The rules of emotional and social intelligence. Ethical Guidelines – a critical analysis about how we treat others and what we value. Also known as a Statement of Values which is just a more refined and wordsmithed summary and is typically public shared. The rules of values. Morals & Social Mores – an established set of rules about moral conduct with a clearly defined set of consequences. Tends to be based around religious scripture. The rules of philosophy and religion. Common Law – an evolving set of laws that is enforced by judges who create precedent by their interpration of society’s values. Also known as Case Law. The rules of society. Legislative Law – political forces and individuals who consciously create and enforce law based on a combination of societal and political values. The rules of nation states. Regulatory Law – institutions that further enforce […]
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