The always engaging Nicholas Kristof writes about the importance of drive and motivation for success, and argues (with supporting evidence) that motivation may be far more important than simple intelligence.
I suddenly had the urge to write about education and abstraction today. I blame a friend who attends Knox who started a conversation along similar lines a few weeks ago. A thousand words later and no desire to edit or add more left, I present to you the following.
Though it is undeniably old-hat to say that information is one of the most important goods in today’s world, the more I learn about the world, socially and scientifically, the more I realize just how powerful information is. (Continued)
Unsurprisingly, I am again writing from my weekend hideout in Blue Monday, the local coffee-shop inhabited by college students and the few locals doughty (or ignorant) enough to brave the affected intelligentsia crowd telling stories from last night a little bit too loudly.
Unsurprisingly, I am not studying Green’s Theorem nor am I calculating optimal bundles for rational actors in a small market. Instead I’m reading and absorbing, like a sponge, the eclectic and arcane knowledge of the internet, a morsel of which I will share with you.
The other day, a friend of mine showed me a remarkably useful tool. I recommend not showing this to anyone in school. This encompassing web application can display airfoil vector fields in seconds, tell you how long you’ll have to wait in your current location until you can see Orion, present to you just how much sugar is in 2 apples and a banana and even compare stocks in a very scientific and readable fashion. I know you’re excited now, so I won’t make you wait any longer.
Let me introduce to you… WolframAlpha.
Enjoy.
To ward off boredom and ensure that this blog does not go unupdated, I will post a story, perhaps followed by other stories. Think of them as encapsulated dreams; they are abstract, dramatic, more than a little unreal and not exactly clear.
It begins on an airplane or a car, maybe on a train, as I travel to New York City with some clothes in a backpack and little else. I will arrive in the early morning to begin my quest; I’ve set out to find Duane Sorenson, founder and owner of Stumptown Coffee Roasters. No, the bus is actually taking me to a small coffee plantation in Panama, where a large family prepares to harvest a particularly large crop of berries. As I approach their house, illuminated by the sunrise and shimmering from the moisture in the air, a man I assume to be the father steps out of the house. He’s thin and wiry and wearing a faded blue t-shirt. I will spend the next six months there, helping with the harvest and learning Spanish, returning to the States to open a small roastery and coffee shop in one of the larger cities on the West coast.
I’ll be taking a brief break while working on midterms – wish me luck!