One Life

An Interim Report

Preface

As I reach both my 70th birthday and retirement, I followed pedagogical practice. But with a little difference. Since I was born before 24/7 television, I wanted to leave my wisdom by using quotes, both ancient and modern.

I have a huge number of quotes; here are the ones I chose for PhD students.

So I guess I've had a life so far; What have I learned?

Mark Twain and Humor

Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.

The most important thing is humor

But Serious Sometimes: Plato

The unexamined life is not worth living.

But you have to know yourself

I meditate every morning for as long as the dogs will let me.

Meditation is not a religious practice, it is self-examination.

Cynic, n. A [rogue] whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.(Devil's Dictionary)

Ambrose Bierce

We used to tell the truth, but now if you do you're a cynic

Einstein and Problem Solving

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

Getting the job done is only half the job. This is why I make you write reflections

H. L. Mencken and Problems

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.(cf. Wicked Problems)

Real problems are wicked problems

But Seriously Education

"Education is the transmission of civilization." Will Durant.

[People] are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russell.

Meditate on the first.

Remember the second.

Paul G. Hewitt on Disputations

Before you can be reasonably convinced you are right about an idea, you should be sure that you understand the objections of your most articulate antagonists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_G._Hewitt. Author etc of conceptual physics.

This is the art of science.

Understanding

If you want truly to understand something, try to change it. Kurt Lewin

That which you cannot explain, you do not understand. Albert Camus

http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/lewin.htm

Two anecdotes. Feynman and Quantum Mechanics Lecture. Einstein and the kids in Princeton.

Josh Billings and Knowledge

"The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."

Ties in with next slide on unlearning

James Seely Brown on Unlearning

Unlearning: Each of us has a `mental model' that we've used over the years to make sense of the world. But the new world ... behaves differently from the world in which we grew up

http://www.johnseelybrown.com/. PARC. Physics, comp sci.

Truth

Truth is eternal, knowledge is changeable. It is disaster to confuse them. L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle An Acceptable Time.

This is particularly true in STEM subjects.

Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon's Razor

Scott Adams

The Four Donkeys of the Apocalypse: Ignorance, Stupidity, Fear and Greed.

Gandi's Seven Deadly Sins

Wealth without work.Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Business without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle.

Buddha Got It Right:Everything is Connected

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