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Mar 26

Book Review: Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life, Foolishness, Human Condition, Human History
Being intrigued by the title, I picked up this book to learn finally once and for all which side was right – Are humans a product of biology of genes or social environment? Spoiler Alert: Its both. As a society we have witnessed a longstanding feud between two camps – one set of people believes that genes and nature determines our destiny while their opponents insist that socialization and nurture is our sole determinant. Like the title suggests and as Ridley states almost immediately, it is both nature and nurture that affects human development. The two sides may have valid contributions to understanding human development, but neither side gets it completely right because of sectarian/institutional thinking. The problem is that we are all victim of a media that thrives on reporting the controversial and extremist positions of the Naturists and Nurturist camps. That debate has been an ivory tower battle that has spilled over into Pop-psychology books that teach parents how to parent, how to find a partner, etc. This book proves the level of inanity that academics can resort to. Ridley demonstrate how neither side got it right and how humans are both genes and social mores wrapped together […]

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Aug 23

Equating Fame with Talent is like Telling Time with a Thermostat

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 2 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Foolishness
I was at a concert where I and a friend watched Tinsley Ellis perform. Tinsley is a a great blues musician and while we both agreed that we got our entertainment dollar’s worth with his performance, we disagreed about the quality of the opening act. The band that opened was named Deano and the Funky Bunnies, a local band that made a spirited effort to bring their cover tunes alive. My friend said that he was not surprised that they were confined to obscurity since they were not as talented and famous as Tinsley. I challenged him to define what talent is. Is it the ability to play the same music as well as Tinsley? Is it the ability to write your own music? Is it something else like fame? His ill-defined notion of talent is just a sneaky way of pretending that one particular artist is better than another. If talent means playing a blues song as well as Tinsley, then I am convinced that most reasonably capable musicians would be able to play something just as well as him. It would take time, some more than others to learn the piece, but they would all be be able […]
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