Jonah Lehrer on “the strategic allocation of attention:”

Too often, we assume that willpower is about having strong moral fiber. But that’s wrong — willpower is really about properly directing the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory.

As Robert Fripp put it: “our life is as rich as our attention is available.” His form of sitting, quite different from that of my zen training, was to intentionally direct your attention to different points. Volitional attention must be developed like a muscle.

His piece ends with an unfortunate reference to free will:

One final thought: In recent decades, psychology and neuroscience have severely eroded classical notions of free will. The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind. And yet, we can still control the spotlight of attention, focusing on those ideas that will help us succeed. In the end, this may be the only thing we can control.

It’s difficult to talk of free will without evoking the homonucleus: the “you” that’s controlling your mind, as if you’re different from your mind. I don’t see the conscious/unconscious distinction as being relevant either. As usual, the concept is too muddled to be meaningful.

“Our opponent is an alien ship packed with atomic bombs,” I said. “We have a protractor.”

OK, so it was two sentences.

And this is why I loved the mental ward, by the way. You learn so much about life from people who are unable to live it.

from http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/

Interesting exercise: list the top 10 books which have influenced your view of the world.. I’m not sure I have a view of the world, and it is difficult for me to think of individual books that have been that influential. In no particular order:

1. Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy.
2. Anthony Zee, Fearful Symmetry.
3. Tim Hartford, The Undercover Economist.
4. Allen Ginsburg, Collected Poems.
5. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States.
6. Richard Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype.
7. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. But An Empire Wilderness may be joining the list, as it affects how I think about the American landscape, and the organization of cities, in particular.

From An Empire Wilderness

…I saw how the acceleration of technology is driving the wedge deeper between military and civilian societies, and bringing about, for the first time, a professional caste-elite… Soldiers are becoming like doctors and lawyers… “war has become so technological that it takes too long to train people who will serve only for a year or two”

Kaplan also points out the level of scholarship among the military. I encounter this often. No where else do you find people with blue-collar backgrounds so schooled in history. The density of jargon certainly rivals that in Law and Medicine.

It matters less what you read than where you live and where you come from, because that determines how you interpret knowledge. (p 11)

A thumb, middle finger, and tooth removed from the corpse of Galileo Galilei, lost for a century, have been recovered. The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze are planning to put the relics on display next year.

I think the middle finger should be installed facing the Vatican.

Just experienced my first earthquake. All I can think was: you have to be shitting me. I don’t have earthquake insurance.

News from Cosmic Variance: John Archibald Wheeler passed away this morning.

To me, Wheeler was the greatest surviving name from the epic era of early 20th century physics.

There is no mention yet on any news site–including slashdot. Instead are headlines about the democratic candidates in a ‘Faith Forum.’ No time to note the passing of the father of the H-bomb, the author of a classic book on general relativity, the most profound and beautiful creation of mankind (seriously–quantum theories have greater practical impact, but nothing else achieves so much with such simple premises). No, we have to hear about our presidential candidate’s relationship with a magic man in the sky. Please kill me.

I hope this lack of attention is remedied tomorrow. As the post on Cosmic Variance was from a former student and personal relation, I’m guessing a formal public announcement hasn’t been made yet. He was a great scientist himself, but his legacy as a teacher is almost unparalleled. It would be impossible to measure the net influence his life had on the world, accounting for the knowledge and contagious passion instilled in this students. Alas, I was not one of them. Things would probably be very different…

wow, those were some bad picks in the east. Shows how much i pay attention to that conference. Tampa Bay? Carolina? TORONTO ? Ouch. I had Montreal missing the playoffs and they get the #1 seed. FAIL.

The west was better. I figured four northwest teams couldn’t possibly make it, especially with the division-heavy schedule, so I picked Calgary to miss (not being a Mike Keenan fan). Perhaps Vancouver was not the best pick for division winner, but with Luongo in net and the twins up front, I figure they were as good a pick as any. St. Louis was my dark-horse pick. They started strong, but it didn’t pan out. Still, things are looking better under the arch.

Let’s see if I can make up for that with a playoff pick’em:

Round1:
Habs-Bruins: Habs in 5
Pens-Sens: Pens in 7
Caps-Flyers: Caps in 6
Rangers-Devils: Rangers in 6

Wings-Preds: Wings in 4
Sharks-Flames: Sharks in 6
Wild-Avalanche: Sigh, Wild in 6. Different story w/Clark & Svatos.
Ducks-Stars: Ducks in 7

Round 2:
Habs-Rangers: what the hell: Rangers in 6. Jagr gets hot & Lunqvist does the rest
Pens-Caps: AO vs. The Kid. Malkin is the difference. Pens in 5.

I see I picked all top seeds in the west. How boring. That will NEVER happen. Avs or stars have a decent shot at upsets, but…

Wings-Ducks: Ducks in 6.
Sharks-Wild: Sharks in 5.

Round 3:
Pens-Rangers: Pens in 6
Your All-Cally Conference Finals, Ducks-Sharks: Sharks in 7

Final:
Pens-Sharks: Sharks in 7. Stickin’ to it.

It was exalting to search and find, or create, the right word, that is, commensurate, concise, and strong; to dredge up events from my memory and describe them with the greatest rigor and least clutter. -Primo Levi, The Periodic Table p. 153