Archive for category Psychology
Why don’t people talk to me in ways that I hear?
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology, general on 9 September, 2010
Every now and then, I wish people would compensate for how I hear and think, instead of always expecting me to compensate for them. I end up being impossibly burdened by how people communicate. I’m used to it, of course; people have buried me in a torrent of words for my entire life. But… Every [...]
Interesting book: Driving Technical Change
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology on 7 April, 2010
The PragProg newsletter came out today, and the first entry was horribly interesting: Driving Technical Change: Why People On Your Team Don’t Act On Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should. I wrote an article for TheServerSide on this, with the rather unwieldy title of “Programming is Also Teaching Your Team” which is [...]
Self-censorship
Posted by dreamreal in Art, Psychology on 31 March, 2010
As an artist – an artiste, thank you – I get all worried about creating stuff that people might find offensive. When I was nine or ten, for example, I wanted to write a poem that used the word “damn.” So I asked my mom – and she said I shouldn’t, that I should use [...]
In search of the perfect expression
Posted by dreamreal in Art, Psychology on 24 March, 2010
One of my … flaws, I guess, is that I consider myself an artist, which causes conflict because I don’t think in ways that lend themselves to expression. I’ll never stop trying, though.
Learning new languages considered harmful? No.
Posted by dreamreal in Java, Programming, Psychology, Scala on 22 March, 2010
The Pragmatic Programmers suggest learning a new language every year. Some people disagree, saying that it’s impractical to do and maintain; however, I think that’s not fair. Here’s how I see it.
I wonder why I resist repairing myself.
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology, general on 23 February, 2010
I was reading an essay concerning left vs. right sources of authority and something stood out: the author referred to Dr. Charles Krauthammer’s opinion on stem cell research and factored in Dr. Krauthammer’s paralysis. I didn’t know any of this. The paragraph in question that caught my eye: Take, for example, Krauthammer’s position on embryonic [...]
Suspension of Disbelief well worth reading
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology, general on 23 February, 2010
Suspension of Disbelief is worth reading. It’s stuff like this that makes Slashdot worthwhile, even if it’s rare. I suspect the artificial extension of childhood grew out of the fact that because modern jobs are more complicated than they used to be, we need more years of schooling before we can go out and compete [...]
Mystery is a bad thing in communication.
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology, general on 20 February, 2010
I hate you people who use voicemail to say “call me.” I also hate you morons who say “hey, can you come by? I want to talk to you” in the office. All of you need to have a baseball bat applied to your grey matter. Both statements are really common, and they’re offensive. If [...]
Not giving is “wrong,” but that’s the wrong word
Posted by dreamreal in Psychology on 16 November, 2009
In “Is It Wrong Not to Help? Part I,” from Psychology Today, Professor Peter Singer has this interesting chain of logic: First premise: Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad. Second premise: If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as [...]