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Archive for August, 2007

Gut reactions? Intuition?

Posted in life, personal growth, philosophy, science on August 31, 2007| 1 Comment »

A couple of posts yesterday got me thinking about this whole “gut feelings” or “intuition” thing. First off, on the Petri Project, “No guts, No glory”, discusses the work of Gerd Girenzer, who has just published “Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious”. Apparently, Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” was based on Girenzer’s ideas. He’s shown that the apparently “rational” approach of making big lists of pros and cons before making a decision can lead to worse decisions than following your gut instincts. I particularly liked this quote –

One should also not overlook that in science itself, you need intuitions. All successful research scientists function, to a degree, on gut instincts. They must make leaps, whether they have all the data or not. And at a certain moment, having the data doesn’t help them, but they still must know what to do. That’s when instinct comes in.

Then on Christopher Richard’s wonderful SlowDownNow site he’s written “Creativity, the slow way where he writes about Guy Claxton’s “Hare Brain Tortoise Mind”. Apparently, Guy Claxton has coined the term the “undermind” for that mental function of slow knowing, or intuition. Christopher is so right when he says –

I appreciate science. I don’t want to give the wrong impression. But the scientific way of thinking now dominates how we think about everything. We have become myopic. Mathematics and science are the most valued subjects, but the arts are now second-class.

There are many ways to know something. Rationalism is good and has its place but there’s a kind of approach to science these days that seems to say that all that matters is what can be measured. Well, love, passion, well-being, health, meaning, purpose, beauty, aesthetics…….I could go on…..are not quantifiable. Yet they matter to us. We make our choices using more than rational thinking (and, don’t make the mistake of saying the alternative is “irrational” thinking). Intuition, aesthetics, and emotions all come into play, along with logic, in trying to lead an examined, worthwhile life.

Science, however, shouldn’t be limited to what can be measured. I think Deleuze had it right – science is a way of thinking – a way of thinking about function. Science helps us to understand how things work. But we also need to think about concepts, percepts and affects. It’s not “anti-science” to be clear about the limits of science.

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To create is to be human

Posted in creativity, from the reading room, life, personal growth on August 31, 2007| 1 Comment »

Great post (in fact great series) across on successfromthenest on creativity. It was the title of the post which caught my attention “Saying you’re not creative is like saying you’re not human.” I couldn’t agree more.

I do find it helpful to understand people by considering how they adapt to (or cope with) changes and challenges, how they engage with the world and how they create – I agree with Tony Clark about this – a lot of people think they aren’t creative because they don’t draw or write but we are all creative every day. How you make decisions, how you problem solve and how you express yourself is all based on creativity.

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Here comes autumn – coming to fruition

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, photography on August 30, 2007| Leave a Comment »

blackberries, originally uploaded by bobsee.

This season, moving out of summer and into autumn, is a time of berries coming to fruition.
These ones look juicy and ripe. They are the advance guard. The first to come to this stage.
Ripe. Ready. Just waiting to be picked and enjoyed. I never buy berries like this but I do enjoy them as I walk to work only at this time of year. This is one of the tastes of autumn for me.
What tastes, colours, smells, do you associate with particular seasons of the year?

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Here comes autumn – endings or beginnings?

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, photography on August 30, 2007| Leave a Comment »

brown leaves falling, originally uploaded by bobsee.

Look at this! I took this photo this morning (August 30th) – look how many leaves have turned brown and fallen already!
So its the start of the season of autumn (or Fall as people in the US call it)
Is this the season of endings or beginnings?
It’s the end of summer (OK, in Scotland we’re thinking “what summer?”) but its traditionally been the time to start a new academic year. In the UK doctor training jobs all start for the first time after graduating at this time of year.
Of course some of you will be saying every ending is a beginning and I’m sure that’s true too – its all about what perspective you view it from isn’t it?
But what does it say to you? On balance, does this time of year give you turn over a new brown leaf feelings of starting anew? Or does it feel a time of endings and loss?

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Free won’t

Posted in from the reading room, life, neuroscience, psychology on August 30, 2007| 3 Comments »

Now here’s an interesting concept – “free won’t” – which, it is argued, is an essential part of free will!

Neuroscientists have shown that we use two different parts of our brain – one to develop an intention to do something; and a separate part to hold off doing it. If someone can’t hold off then they act impulsively. For example, children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who tend to have big problems with self-control. The researchers who did this work are calling the holding off ability “free won’t”.

This is such an interesting idea. Probably somebody has told you at some stage in your life “Count to ten!” – that’s free won’t. This skill is the skill of choosing, so that your experience of life isn’t driven by unprocessed and uncontrolled feelings and urges (a life that is driven this way often feels as if it is happening to the person rather than giving them the sense that they are the active creators of their own lives).

Here’s a great quote from the researchers –

“The capacity to withhold an action that we have prepared but reconsidered is an important distinction between intelligent and impulsive behavior,” says Brass, “and also between humans and other animals.”

On the other hand, I wonder, do procrastinators have an overdeveloped “free won’t”? Is this the part of the brain they use to keep all those intentions under control?!

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Tangled up in Bob

Posted in creativity, from the music room, from the reading room, from the viewing room, music, video, writing on August 29, 2007| 6 Comments »

OK, so this is how the web works. I sat down at my iMac and typed “Jack Kerouac writing tips”. Not sure why that came to me right at this moment but it did. I started clicking through some of the finds and came across a lovely blog called “myinneredge” where I read a post about Kerouac which mentioned Natalie Goldberg and I thought “it’s ages since I read Writing Down the Bones. I really enjoyed it” so I followed the link to her site and found she had just completed a film about Bob Dylan – “Tangled up in Bob” – what a great title! Not just because my name is Bob and I love the “tangled up” idea…….

So that’s how the web works with hops, skips and jumps. And the thing is, there is NO endpoint. As I typed “tangled up” I heard a Genesis song in my head –

where to now…….?

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The geography of self

Posted in from the living room, life, photography on August 29, 2007| 3 Comments »

Thistle, originally uploaded by bobsee.

How do we get a sense of self?
I think “self” is created by the narratives we tell ourselves and others. We make our own sense of self from our experiences, mixing them constantly with our memories with our imaginations.
One of our key capabilities as humans is language and our ability to handle metaphors is at the root of this.
So, what I suggest you do is to see if you can become aware of the stories you tell yourself every day. The ones you create the sense of “Who am I?” from. There are many. Really many. But one that came to my mind was provoked by the sight of this thistle.
I took this photo of a thistle on my morning walk to work the other day. This is SUCH a powerful symbol for me. The thistle is Scotland. And I am Scottish. This place, this physical place, where I live, towered over by Stirling Castle high on its rock, surrounded by green fields stretching to the brown and grey and green hills, this is where I come from. This is where I belong. My family goes back in this town for a couple of centuries and more. I can feel my roots here. I feel sustained here. The energy, the colour, the smell of the air, the sunshine and the rain, the rocks, the trees and the plants, they all imbue me with a strong sense of who I am.
What’s your geography of self?
How does the place where you live, the physical environment in which you live, create your sense of who you are?

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The joys of non-conformity

Posted in from the reading room, life, personal growth on August 28, 2007| 3 Comments »

When I was a GP (a Family Doctor) I had a pony tail but once I became a grandfather I cut it off. One of my patients brought her daughter to see me where I work now (Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital) having been to consult me herself several years ago. She said her husband asked her where she was going today and she replied “To see Dr Leckridge at the Homeopathic Hospital”. He said, “Oh, that hippie doctor!” “What do you mean?” she asked. “The one with the pony tail,” he replied. “Oh, he doesn’t have a pony tail any more” she told him and he replied “Aye, but it’ll still be on the inside!!”

“I hope it is!” she said to me.

Conforming is a zombie way of life in my opinion. It’s good to know your uniqueness and to be yourself. There’s a great post on this across on lifehack today. It’s written by Adrian Savage who writes the great Slow Leadership blog. I love his conclusion –

Conformity has very little to recommend it. Trust yourself and trust others. Our world has so little trust even a little more is precious. If you can’t trust who you are—the naturally valuable, curious, interesting, and exciting person you were born to be—why should anyone else trust you?

Mediocrity and inner frustration are the true price of conforming. Only those with the courage openly to live their dreams can ever hope to find lasting satisfaction with their lives.

I also love the quote he’s chosen from Rollo May’s “Man’s Search for Himself”

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice…it is conformity.”

Go on, trust yourself, and be the hero of your own life story.

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The texture of life

Posted in from the dark room, photography on August 27, 2007| 5 Comments »

Weathered wall, originally uploaded by bobsee.

How aware are you of the textures of the world you live in? I notice colour a lot and when I have my camera with me (which is ALWAYS) it’s often the colour of something which attracts me.
However I am also VERY aware of textures. I realise my favourite clothes are probably ALL my favourites primarily because of their textures (much more than their design or their colour)
What catches your attention on an everyday basis?
Colour? Shape? Texture? Scent? Sound?

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Expanding your musical horizons

Posted in music on August 26, 2007| 6 Comments »

Here are some ways I’ve expanded my musical horizons over the years –

  1. The Music Club.
    When I was a teenager, my friends and I started a club. There were a dozen of us and we grouped together into three groups of four. Everyone put one pound into the kitty every week (that was 12 pounds a week). Each group took it in turn to buy albums with that week’s money and everyone in the purchase group got to keep each album for a week before passing it on to a friend. If you liked it you could tape it. If you didn’t you just passed it on quickly. Once an album had been all round the purchase group it was passed on to the next group. Once everyone had borrowed an album we auctioned it amongst ourselves with the money being added to the kitty. I discovered a lot of music that way.
  2. John Peel and Bob Harris on the radio
    I was a regular listener to John Peel on Radio 1 and when I was at school I wired up an audio lead to the speaker terminals in my dad’s radio to tape his show onto cassette. Sadly, John died in 2004. His taste and mine were not always the same but in his earlier years at least there was a lot of overlap. Bob Harris in recent years has broadcast a regular show at the weekend on Radio 2 and I’d routinely record it onto minidisc then listen to it on the train over the following week. I abandoned that practice when I moved from the minidisc to the ipod. I still listen to his show from time to time, either live on Radio 2, or on the net, using the BBC’s listen again service.
  3. MP3 blogs
    MP3 blogs are blogs about music. You have to hunt about for a bit to find one which matches your tastes. I especially like saidthegramaphone – its my favourite!  I’ve recently discovered elbo.ws which is an MP3 blog aggregator (that means it collects the posts from a range of other blogs)
  4. New net technologies
    I really enjoyed Pandora while it lasted! Sadly the copyright fanatics are busy killing it off in the UK but if you’re in the US you are still in luck. It uses a special algorithm to work out what kind of music you’ll like if you tell it some of your favourites.
    Most recently I’ve discovered Musicovery – it’s fabulous! The interface is THE most innovative music interface I’ve seen on the net. You have two axes – Energetic/calm and dark/positive and you just drag the cursor into the zone you want to discover. It then instantly creates an incredibly colourful music map with the central node being a song you might enjoy. You can move around the map sampling songs that are more or less like the one which is playing – oh dear! That’s not too clear is it? The best thing to do is go and see it for yourself! Musicovery

So, tell me, how to you find music you like?

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