Me or We?

What do humans and porcupines have in common? Well, that's a bit of a leading question, so I'll just tell you what I'm getting at. We may share many similarities with porcupines (I can't think of any off the top of my head), but at the most basic level we share a common instinct to survive. Yes, at the root of human nature resides the fundamental instinct to survive. We face an interesting dilemma: as living beings, our survival instinct drives us; yet as we interact with other human beings, we also see the need for cooperation. The issue is that survival and cooperation frequently conflict with each other. Furthermore, many moral and ethical practices demand that we not only cooperate, but that we give up selfish interests for the benefit of other human beings. Realizing this, I see why it's so difficult to "make the right choice" at times. It's not logical to do so. But, nonetheless, it is the right thing to do. We fight our natural instinct to be selfish in favor of a greater good. An interesting paradox, don't you think?

So You Want to Be a [B]illionaire?

Time is our most precious resource. Think about it: while some of us watch TV or take naps, Google is building a car that can drive itself. Humans have a tendency to overlook the opportunity costs of real-time decisions, evidenced by how much time we waste. What if I wrote a piece of music instead of watching movies this week? What if I invented a new way to efficiently encode data instead of posting funny pictures on Facebook? (Get the idea?) Each individual has a unique set of talents and abilities they can use to make the world a better place, and each decision we make concerning their use is an investment in some way or another. Why not invest in worthwhile ventures? Granted, there will always be a need for an outlet; we have to have some way to unwind or we break. Remember, however, that planning for these outlets is also an investment in our future productivity. Let's be more conscious of each decision we make, paying particular attention to the things we invest in and the opportunities we pass up.

Becoming Professional Amateurs

(4/4/2013) Note: Sorry the audio is so bad, I could hear it just fine when I had my headphones plugged in but without them I can't hear it at all. Here's a transcription:

"Growing up around social networking, I've noticed that people have a tendency to be too outspoken, and in many cases it's offensive. It's so easy to publish online material now that most people don't think much about what they're saying. Until the last decade or so, your journal was the only place you really put your unedited thoughts. Now everyone can read them. Granted there are lots of positive thoughts shared, but we need to be careful about what we say online! Let me read you a comment I found on FB today:

"'The gay agenda is all about destroying the family... they feel the need to justify their immorality by telling everyone else that we must accept it.'

"Look, there is no persuasive argument here. It's simply hating on someone else. Hating has existed since the beginning, but the ability to communicate it has not until now. What we say has a much stronger influence than it did in the past, and we need to use that power wisely. I believe in expressing personal beliefs, but let's do it with appropriate tact and respect for others."

Graduation: A Product of Henry Ford

Remember the Apollo 13 disaster? An old physics teacher once explained that NASA's engineers used an old part from another rocket to make the Apollo 13 rocket work. There was only one problem: the part didn't work. It failed because it wasn't designed for newer technology. Apply this idea to our educational system: we live in the information age operating under a school system designed for old industrialism, and the design doesn't fit our needs. Much like a factory assembly line, we separate information into fields and force students to segregate accordingly. We are assembled piece by piece, class by class; when we finish that process, the university stamps our forehead with the "educated" label. Then we go out into the real world, where most of what we learned in school no longer applies. Of course I believe in education and its importance, but our current system is no longer good enough. We don't have time to waste training students for nonexistent scenarios! Let's focus on real-world applications.

Videogameaholics Anonymous

My name is Matt, and I have been sober for 6 years. Yeah, actually I'm mostly serious about that. As a kid, I was obsessed with Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. game. I played it for thousands of hours with my sister, desperately trying to hone skills that are now useless to me. I know, I know, it's a bit embarrassing, but I'm happy to report that I have kicked the habit! I look back and laugh a bit at how ridiculous I was, but I'm not laughing so much about the adults who spend more time playing video games now than I did as a kid. I understand that everyone needs outlets for life's stresses, but spending 16 hours a day playing Halo does not qualify as an outlet. It's true that some games offer profitable compensation for high scores and remarkable skills, but even in those cases, isn't there a better way to make a living? Technology has countless applications and uses we can take advantage of that will benefit the human race. Let's play Halo for an hour (or less) today and then get back to work on something more worthwhile.

An Experiment on Collaboration

Open-source projects will replace all businesses in the future! Alright, that's probably not true, but some open-source projects enjoy immense success. We must be careful, however, not to accept something because the majority claims it is true. Wikipedia serves as an illustrative example. All of us Internet-savvy folks know that we can rely on it as a relatively reliable source of information for millions of topics. The selling-point of the website, namely that anyone can edit its information, brings up an interesting discovery: collaboration from multiple separated sources can increase accuracy of information. What happens, however, if said collaboration produces a result not consistent with reality? The accuracy of the result may no longer matter, because many of us have already established Wikipedia as a relatively reliable source. To an extent, we therefore rely on the experience and credentials of anyone who has edited the information. I believe that the majority of Wikipedia is indeed reliable, but even so, please do your own thinking before deciding to go with the crowd.

For Your Entertainment, We Present Today's News Coverage!

"Good" news bores me. When I visit CNN, I want to read about scandal, outrage, and ruin! Oh wait...if I want to be happy, why am I looking for negativity? I skip over the positive and happy in search of the discouraging and depressing? Yeah, that's a great way to motivate myself. The American media has clearly conditioned us to focus on negative information. The shooting incident surrounding the theatrical release of The Dark Knight Rises captured weeks of media attention, while American-built schools constructed for Iraqi children earned minutes. What if the media used their influence to encourage positive change? I'm convinced that thousands of good deeds and positive actions take place every day. Why not cover these events instead? We have the ability to broadcast live video coverage to the other side of the globe. It's about time we use our incredible technologies to propagate responsible and worthwhile messages!