#getting a grip

[quietflorilegium]

"He was blind with panic. It was as if he had run away from himself and left the inside of his head empty. Mitt knew this would not do. It was no use thinking Ynen could manage by himself. He had to run after himself, inside his head, and bring himself back with one arm twisted up his back before he was able to pick up an armful of soaking sail and stagger with it to the hatch."

Diana Wynne Jones, "Drowned Ammet"

[aluwir]

A Star by Any Other Name, and a Galilean Interlude - A Catholic Citizen in America

Star names, maps and catalogs, telescopes and why astronomers identify stars with alphanumeric gibberish. Also Aristotle and the Galileo affair.

[aluwir]

Old St. Peter’s, Visigoths and a Henry - A Catholic Citizen in America

History, emperors and popes. Gauls, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Saxons and viewpoints. Architecture: vaults and squinches. The Donation of Pepin.

Excerpt:

“St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome isn’t nearly as old as it looks....

“...I'll be talking about St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Both of them. As well as people, politics and ideas in play during the most recent two millennia.

“Today I'll be taking a quick look at a famous Roman architect, Vitruvius, and then recap what happened during the half-dozen centuries after Emperor Constantine signed off on building the first St. Peter's basilica....”

[clarasjournal]

Wednesday 1/9

First day of Autumn. September. I better make sure to get all the last rays of sun that I can before the darkness flows over the country. I know exactly how affected I get from not being exposed to the sun and especially when the days are getting shorter and shorter. It was so extremely apparent during last year. The first day I woke up once the sun had yet to come up I was devastated. For a whole week I was grumpy and ill tempered. And then daylight savings or whatever it's called kicked in a week later and I woke the next Monday with the sun risen, and immediately felt a change in my temper. How strange. Sorry, this paragraph was completely uncalled for and definitely useless for any reader.

Moving on to internship related reflections. This morning I knew more about what I could expect from my internship and I realized that I thought it would be a great experience for me to work close to Tony and experience what he does on a day to day basis as a UX designer for access control solutions. I'd appreciate being on his meetings as much as I can, and discuss design solutions with multidisciplinary teams.

During lunch I talked to a friend of mine who shone an even greater light to the journey I had made in just two workdays. So, at first I got a task that I thought would be too similar to the one me and Christina had done over the summer - so I talked to Tony about this as soon as I could. After our conversation I understood it as instead of extending my summer job and kind of "making up" my own tasks, I would work closer to Tony in what he does and learn from this. Be able to discuss design ideas with each other and grab tasks from his desk that he feels that he won't have time for or tasks that we can share. The (small but valuable to me) insights I grabbed from this journey was that:

I did the right thing in reaching out as quick as possible to my supervisor when I felt like I wanted to challenge myself with other types of tasks.

For me to realize that I am an intern first hand, no longer an employee.

That I will learn a whole lot more from working close to Tony rather than taking on too much "own responsibility" (even though I will start doing this along the way as well).

So on Wednesday I kept on learning about access control solutions and Tony's current work. I realized when looking at his mock-ups that it is even more important to do scaled down wireframes when working for a big company like Axis where you don't want any inconsistency issues. It's better to name the components you want to place in a frame first rather than adding the components straight away.

Today Tony also had a walkthrough of the system with me for 2h which was super helpful for me to get a grip on what I'll be a part of. Afterwards I had a lot of thoughts on tasks I could make for myself in the coming week as well as getting to know the acs department further.

I also spend some time going through how I've reflected in the past and what the main take aways I have that can aid me in my present. As McNaulty said in "The Wire":

"If you don't look at the things you've done before, you're going to do the same shit all over again"

That may be the first and last clever thing that character has ever said in that show.

[crownofcompassion]

New Post has been published on Crown of Compassion

New Post has been published on https://www.crownofcompassion.org/2021/08/18/getting-a-grip-walk-the-line/

Getting a grip - walk the line

“But for all of us, [faith assignments involve] getting a grip on the daily practice of moving across the line from one mountain to the next and strengthening our faith.  This is what it means to daily make a decision to walk with God.” – Nicki Koziarz

“Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”- Exodus 3:5 (ESV)

Nicki Koziarz concludes Chapter 3 of Flooded as she explores the origin of the term walk the line.  One can trace the term back all the way to the 1700s.  At that time inmates were forced to walk around a thick-lined circle during their ‘rec time.’  Officials punished a prisoner for walking off the line.

Today, Nicki contends, our culture’s not clear about what it means to walk with God.  Thus, a thin line exists between the ways of the world and the ways of our God.  However, if we cross the line in our walk with God, unlike the prisoners, there’s always a way back.  And Noah teaches us to decide to walk with God.  Above all, Nicki exhorts, there’s one way to get closer to God.  Walk barefoot.

Perhaps, Nicki believes, we experience unbelief in our lives because we fail to take a posture of humility.  Yet, in Exodus God instructed Moses to take off his shoes because he stood on holy ground.  Thus, it’s good to stand barefoot before the Lord.

As a result, we need to ‘take off our shoes’ to humbly clear the way for whatever stands between us and the holiness of our God.  And yes, it’s going to feel uncomfortable.  As this point you must decide if you’ll keep walking with God.

Finally, Faith Dickey practices a much more difficult version of slacklining called high-lining.  It involves walking on a flat, braided line across an extreme height, like the Alps.  Even in extremely cold temperatures, Faith walks in her bare feet.  Because bare feet provide the greatest grip on the line.

Today’s question: What Scriptures help you in getting a grip as you walk the line with God?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Listening to something – the house you live in”

[mythixsolar]

Oh to be in the world of mental stability...

[gettingagriponthings]

Getting A Grip On: Artificial Intelligence

I’m going to be taking on a lot in 2020. I plan on working on my health and fitness, reading more books than ever before, taking on some big personal goals and challenges, attaining new professional achievements, and doing work to orient myself for long term career success. And with all of these things going on, I still want to pursue learning in a meaningful way. 

This year I want to make a serious go of getting a grip on Artificial Intelligence. 

“Getting a Grip” on Artificial Intelligence is such a large and ill defined objective that it is essentially laughable. (You’re excused if you’ve already guffawed. I’m chuckling right along with you). 

Artificial Intelligence is already a part of so many things we use and do every day. Recommendation features on the most popular social networks in the world are using AI to learn user preferences and show you relevant content. Digital assistants like Siri and Alexa help millions of people schedule appointments, buy household consumer products, or check the weather. Financial institutions use AI to help protect you from fraudulent transactions with real-time monitoring and mobile alerts. 

Even more robust everyday Artificial Intelligence is right around the corner. It will be found in the computer vision that powers autonomous vehicles, in empathetic virtual assistants that will help care for the growing elderly population, and in the more pervasive usage of biometrics and facial recognition tech that will help keep our data secure. 

On the latest episode of the a16z podcast (Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future), venture capitalist (and all-around-super-smart-guy-when-it-comes-to-future-things) Marc Andreessen said this about how his firm is thinking about AI: 

“We are more believers [...] that AI is a platform and is an architecture. In the same sense that the mainframe was an architecture, the mini computer was an architecture. The PC, the internet, the cloud...have been architectures. We think there’s very good odds that AI is the next one of those. And if that’s the case, then it means that basically - when there’s an architecture shift in our business it means basically that everything above the architecture gets rebuilt from scratch. Because the fundamental assumptions about what you’re building change. So you’re no longer building a website, you’re no longer building a mobile app, you’re no longer building any of those things. You’re building instead an AI engine that’s just like, in the ideal case, is just giving you the answer to whatever the question is.”

Along with the increased usage and capability of Artificial Intelligence will come more and more complicated questions regarding how we want to regulate the technology and what lines we need to draw to protect ourselves. Questions like:

Do we want to continue the automation of decision making in complex areas like criminal justice and  health care? 

Are some people advantaged over others by artificial intelligence? 

Is the emergence of superintelligent AI inevitable? 

If not, should we be rapidly pursuing it, or should we be looking to slow things down? 

If superintelligent AI is inevitable, how should we be preparing ourselves now?

These are giant questions and many more are arising every day. The world is going to need all types to people to have thought about these issues deeply if we’re going to have a chance at addressing them effectively. 

I won’t be an AI expert by the end of 2020, but I do think that twelve months will enable me to build a solid intellectual base from which I’ll be able to think critically and creatively about where things are going. 

I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated regularly with my progress as I muddle my way through! Contact me on Twitter (@Rashan) or send me an email ([email protected]) if you have thoughts about AI!

[gettingagriponthings]

Getting A Grip Through Reading: The Financial Crisis

Like many in my peer group, I’ve developed a particular fascination with the global financial crisis of 2008 and have been in a constant search for understanding of its causes, the warning signs, what happened “during” the crisis, the lasting effects, and what it means for the future. 

I entered college in the Fall of 2007, and one of my first classes was Economics 102, Macroeconomics, with Professor John Abell. One of the major focuses (that I remember) of our class that semester was on the developing danger of sub-prime mortgages. I remember being aware of the absurdly pricey real-estate market in Northern Virginia at the time and was excited to be learning why some things were the way they were. We talked a lot about Robert Shiller, his housing index, and how things had gotten seriously out of whack.

Jump forward four years to 2011. The financial crisis of 2008 reared its ugly head and wreaked havoc upon the world economy, leaving many families, homes, personal fortunes, and businesses in tatters, and sending many recent college graduates back to their parent’s homes to fruitlessly search for jobs in one of the worst labor markets ever (And yes, I really mean EVER). 

This amazing period of time from late 2007 through...now(?) is one that has been talked about and agonized over, and reframed and rehashed in innumerable books, movies, and television shows. Everyone knows the jargon; sub-prime mortgages, credit default swaps, moral hazard, too big too fail, etc, etc, but I think that most people still don’t have a really tight grip on just what happened. At least I know I’d certainly like to understand it all a bit better. 

Over the last few years, I’ve been steadily, and almost subconsciously, amassing a small collection of books that touch on the crisis directly (the who/what/where/when/why/how of ‘07 and 08′) and indirectly (past crises, future crises, etc) and haven’t been able to bring myself to dig into them, b/c I wanted to attack them in a properly structured way. Well...this is the time. 

I’m my personal unread stacks I have:

Too Big to Fail, by Andrew Ross Sorkin

This Time is Different, by Reinhart & Rogoff

The Great Crash of 1929, by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Alchemists, by Neil Irwin

On the Brink, by Henry M. Paulson

A Short History of Financial Euphoria, by John Kenneth Galbraith

On the Origin of Financial Crisis, by George Cooper

(I understand that this is not an exhaustive list. HERE is one of the best of those I’ve found. And I’m not committing myself to necessarily reading all of these, or limiting myself to only these titles)

The economic turmoil we’ve recently witnessed at the end of 2018 and the start of 2019 is possibly indicating that this long bull market may be coming to an end, and the pessimistic side of me is bracing for something catastrophic. I’m wise enough (though not very wise) to know that things will not go the way they did just over a decade ago. Things may not be nearly as bad, or things could be much worse. We (consumers, the government, financial institutions, homeowners, big businesses) have learned from our past mistakes, but are not insulated from making new ones. 

“The next time” will look and feel different than a decade ago. As Mark Twain is said to have said (he almost certainly did NOT say this:) “History doesn’t repeat itself - but it sure does rhyme.”

A 2016 quote from Hank Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury during some of the headiest days of The Crisis puts things into stark relief:

“I can't help but think what would have happened if a divisive character such as Trump were president during the 2008 financial crisis, at a time when leadership, compromise, and careful analysis were critical.”

- Hank Paulson