Stephanie Booth's online ramblings
Stuff that doesn’t fit in any category, or leftover posts from the big category revolution of 2009.
Did I tell you about my Golder Rule #1 for putting on nail polish? I’m not sure anymore. It goes like this:
1. Don’t start putting nail polish on when you have just 20 minutes left before going out.
This morning, I have discovered Golden Rule #2:
2. Don’t put nail polish on in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat.
Now let me go and have my breakfast.
A very interesting article about Google bombing. Needless to say, I don’t encourage abuse of a (reasonably) good system.
On the other hand, were is the line between use and abuse? What is ethical, what is not? The gray zone is always the most interesting.
[link via Emmanuelle]
At many points in my procrastinator’s life, I’ve had an inkling this was the way to go.
All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. […] The procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
John Perry, Structured Procrastination.
Look at what I’m doing now: I have exams to prepare, laundry to do, piles of books to read, a website to update. And I’m writing for my weblog. Writing for my weblog is definitely not a high-priority task. But on the other hand, over the past year or so, I’ve started to gain a reputation for being an active weblogger, worth reading by some.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop fighting my procrastination. Actually, one of the reasons I’ve been “going the wrong way” lately (ie. refusing commitments) is very precisely because I’m trying to get to the root of my procrastination. I’m inching nearer each day, actually. But on the other hand, when I’m deep in it, I might as well do something useful, mightn’t I?
[link from Glenn, again!]
Abstract: People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.
Unskilled and Unaware of It [PDF]
The article is pretty long: read the beginning, hop over the study reports and go directly to the analysis at the end.
A very interesting article which studies the fact that unskilled individuals tend to overestimate their skills. There seems to be a correlation between lack of expertise and lack of metacognitive ability.
[via Glenn]
Nothing is new. Only your ignorance of what came before makes things seem original.
Peter Cooper (on MeFi)
May I suggest that if you haven’t already done it, you hop off to the eatonweb portal and add your weblog? Yeah, do it now. That’s good.
Now that we’re done with the bloggies, run off to the anti-bloggies and do your duty as a netizen. Vote early, vote often, and bribe the board!
Bagha has developed a new habit during these last few weeks. He’s discovered he has a tail. And he’s having a nice time chasing it.
For some strange reason, he seems to enjoy doing it in the bath-tub. I am thus greeted by dirty paw-marks on the white enamel and a fair amount of fur when I rise for my morning shower.
Now tell me – why did he have to wait until he was five to discover he had a tail? That’s something kittens usually do, don’t they?
En ce qui me concerne, un bon résumé de la situation par Jacques Poget (rédacteur en chef de 24 heures – dernier article de la page indiquée ci-dessus).
Le drame de l’après-11 septembre, c’est que la réaction reste superficielle. Confrontés à un assaut d’une cruauté uniquement imaginable dans les superproductions hollywoodiennes, l’Amérique et l’Occident peinent à s’attaquer aux racines du mal.
Now if this isn’t a ripoff of this…
See pirated-sites for more copycat fun.