Thinking about thinking

But first, just a short aside about the rain, which returned with a vengeance after more than two dry weeks. I was actually looking forward to a bit of a sprinkle since it had been so long, but this very wet system we've been experiencing is a bit over the top. We've had more than an inch in the last three days, and it's still raining. I'm ready for a change.

However, the wet weather kept me inside all day Sunday, and I've just finished a very interesting book I checked out from the library. Last month I got interested in some books by Steven Pinker on how the mind works, and I wrote a post about his book back in April, entitled, "How the mind works." I found Pinker's book to be a bit on the dense side, but I read it all the way through and gained quite a bit of insight. My sister Norma Jean got me started down that path, and then a couple of weeks ago I visited the Village Bookstore, one of my favorite places to spend time (and money). I saw that a guy named Jonah Lehrer had a book marked #1 on the bestseller list. And it had such an interesting title: "Imagine." I perused the book with interest, but when I saw the price I put it back on the shelf, not before noticing that the author looks like a teenager! His website is very interesting and provocative, which has all kinds of links. Check it out if you're interested in this guy, who was indeed born in 1981! He IS a kid, almost. But he's also been a Rhodes Scholar and writes his own blog fittingly entitled The Frontal Cortex for Wired Magazine.

Now to the one I just finished. Lehrer wrote another book in 2009 called "How We Decide," which I checked out of the library to tide me over until his new book comes out in paperback. Lehrer is no Pinker: it was hard for me to put down. It depicts scenarios that had me reading stuff out loud to Smart Guy, and I was able to peer into the decision-making processes he illustrates so very well. One that really got me is the story of Al Haynes, the pilot of the United flight in 1989 that lost all three hydraulic lines and basically gave him no control over the DC-10. He tells the harrowing story of how Haynes had to find a way to pilot the plane. He did so, coming up with ideas that had never before been conceived, and although he had no way to slow the plane down as it came in for a landing at the Sioux City airport, most of the passengers and crew survived. The training center commissioned numerous pilots to see if they could land a plane without any hydraulics. Here's an excerpt from p. 132:

The training center used a flight simulator that was programmed with the precise conditions faced by the United crew on that July day.... The pilots training to land the DC-10 in the simulator failed to make the runway on their first fifty-seven attempts.

And they were already familiar with the accident and what the pilot did! Just realizing how Haynes made his decisions not only fascinated me, but made me realize that we can do a whole lot with our minds that we never take advantage of. Suffice it to say, I'm glad I read the book and hope that some of you will read it, too. At the end of the book, Lehrer says (p. 250),

Of course, even the most attentive and self-aware minds will still make mistakes.... But the best decision-makers don't despair. Instead, they become students of error, determined to learn from what went wrong. They think about what they could have done differently so that the next time their neurons will know what to do.This is the most astonishing thing about the human brain: it can always improve itself. Tomorrow, we can make better decisions.

I find all that to be extremely uplifting. And I did find Lehrer's new book at Costco for half price, so I bought it. Onward and upward!
:-)

How the mind works

From KoboBooks

Oh, how very many ways I am anxious to tie in the title of this post. It turns out that exactly three years ago today, I wrote a post I called "Being in my right mind." (I had just finished reading an interesting book about a woman who had survived a stroke, Jill Bolte Taylor, called "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.") And now I'm reading that book over there on the right by Steven Pinker, called "How the Mind Works." Three years later and I'm still trying to find out the basics of why I do what I do, why I think what I think.

My sister Norma Jean is reading another book by Pinker, and we bounce off of each other, talking about we're reading, etc. I looked on line to see if I could find a copy at the library, but it's not available. Apparently Pinker has just written another book that is causing his earlier books to be in high demand. I looked for the new one, called "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." With a provocative title like that, I can see why it is being looked at. I even think I've seen a couple of articles based on this premise.

This Sunday, Easter, begins National Library Week for 2012. The way libraries are being used these days is in flux, since many of us are moving toward purchasing electronic copies, and my local library also has many of them available to be lent out. Norma Jean has also helped to change the way I am using libraries. She has been borrowing electronically from her local library for awhile now, and I was feeling quite out of the loop. In the process of signing myself up for electronic books, I was required to go in to ask for some help. I checked out a few books, and since my library uses the Dewey Decimal System, I had to reacquaint myself with it. Years ago I was prolific at using it, but like anything else you don't use, it now feels a bit cumbersome. I need to exercise those library muscles.

I read all three of "The Hunger Games" books online, having purchased the first one for $5 and received the second one from my niece for free. (Amazon allows you to "loan" a copy of some books to another person for two weeks, so that cost me nothing.) But then if I wanted to read the third book in the series, I had to buy it from Amazon for $8. I did enjoy the books and really wanted to find out what happened to Katniss, but I don't think I'll buy many more electronic novels. It's much more realistic to check it out from the library, either electronic or hard copy -- because I most likely won't be reading it again.

It was fairly easy to read the books on my iPad (using the Kindle for iPad app). I now have four different readers downloaded, since my local independent bookstore requires one, the library requires another, and iTunes yet another. I have found the Kindle app the most user-friendly, by far. My biggest problem with using my iPad for reading is the problem of growing sleepy: the iPad is much heavier than a book, and when I nodded off the other day, it banged my nose rather noticeably. Woke me right up.

I missed writing a new post yesterday, as my iMac decided to crash unexpectedly. Somehow it seems to have healed itself up, but I'm wary about it happening again. I will be going on another hike with the Trailblazers tomorrow, so this post will not be in the queue for long before being replaced by another. In previous years, I didn't mind writing a post a day, but it's sometimes difficult to find blog fodder than isn't getting stale. It seems that many of my readers would like something other than my old standby of hiking and exercise. The photo safaris have gotten me interested in taking pictures with a different focus. Stay tuned!
:-)

Heading to the chiropractor

DJan & Linny, 30 July 11

Right after this picture was taken last Saturday, we went up in the Caravan with four other friends and made a wonderful skydive together. It was getting late in the afternoon, and Linny had to leave no later than 3:00pm to head to work. No matter, we had made four jumps together and I was ready to pack up and head home myself, tired from a good day at the Drop Zone.

However, as I was packing my chute, I wrenched my lower back when I tried a new maneuver (shown to me by Smart Guy) that would help to keep the canopy together, making easier to fold up and get in the deployment bag. Ouch! I should have known better, because I've thrown my back out before making the same movement (bending over at the waist with arms stretched out in front of me, especially with any weight in my hands). I didn't think much of it, since I knew that eventually I would be all right again, so I finished the pack job, drove home and discussed the day's activities over a nice glass of wine.

But in the middle of the night, I realized that I couldn't turn over or get comfortable easily, as my sciatic nerve was still pinched and painful. Time for ibuprofen. I went back to sleep and since Sunday was a nice gentle day with no plans, I didn't worry much. Yesterday (Monday) I went to my usual aerobic class and only found difficulty with a few moves, but it didn't seem to be getting better. Certain movements are actually pretty excruciating, and it has continued into today's activities.

At my workout this morning, I plaintively asked the entire class if anybody knows of a good chiropractor, and one woman, Joy, told me she swears by hers. I did feel somewhat better after the class, but I am still unable to get up and down from a prone position without serious pain in the sciatic area. I called her chiropractor's office and will be heading over there in a couple of hours. Sitting here at my computer is not painful, but if I bend forward to tie my shoes and try to straighten up... ouch! It was obvious to everyone in my class that I was not my usual bouncy self.

The main thing I have noticed is how chronic and persistent pain can change my entire viewpoint, making the focus of my daily life change from joy and exuberance as I dash from one thing to another to one of simple endurance. What can I do that will make the pain less? I'll post a quick followup after I get back from the chiropractor's office to let you know if he was able to help. (I thought about taking my camera with me to make an adventure out of this, but I'm thinking better of it. Why tempt fate?)
:-(
(News flash: Russell is a good chiropractor, he pushed, he pulled, vibrated the area with heat, but he was really gentle and could not move the S/I joint to give me complete relief. However, I'm better, and he was truly empathetic. I was wrapped and basted and I THINK moved towards healing. We'll see in a day or two.)

Psychology of pricing

Heading home on the bus today, I was thinking about whether I would be more likely to buy something priced $9.99 over something priced $10.00. And even though I KNOW in my mind that this is a trick (that before I left the store I would be paying far more than $10.00 after tax), somehow the penny difference means I would be more likely to buy it. I even remember times when I was pleased with myself about buying something and telling Smart Guy that it was "just a little over $9," as if he would have cared. I was just kidding myself.

Once I got home I hit the Internet, looking for the reason behind this phenomenon, and it was of course easy to find. But I discovered some things I never knew before. First of all, I learned that there are established rules for pricing, one being that you never price something ending in 0 or 1. End your price with a 5, 7, 8 or 9. I also found this humorous picture of a "markdown" price by sylvar on Flickr. You know, if I wasn't paying strict attention, I might have fallen for this one myself!

I also learned about "decoy" marketing. On a website called "Neuromarketing: Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet," I discovered an interesting experiment using magazine subscription offers:

Two groups of subjects saw one or the other of these offers to subscribe to The Economist.

Offer A:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (68 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (32 chose)
Predicted Revenue – $8,012

Offer B:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (16 chose)
$125 – Print Only Subscription (0 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (84 chose)
Predicted Revenue – $11,444

Take a moment to look at this rather startling result. Both offers are the same, with the exception of including the “print only” subscription in Offer A. Despite the fact that not a single person chose that unattractive offer, its impact was dramatic – 62% more subjects chose the combined print and Internet offer, and predicted revenue jumped 43%. The print-only offer was the decoy, and served to make the combined offer look like a better value. While it’s true that Ariely’s test had the subjects make the choice without actually consummating the deal with a credit card, it’s clear that introducing the decoy made the combined offer look more attractive.

I don't know about you, but it irks me that I would have actually fallen for this ploy. Psychology is used to tempt us to buy things we really don't need or want all the time. I see it on TV and in print, and I am just as susceptible as the next person. This gives me even more incentive to be vigilant about only purchasing what I really need.

What does this mean for those of us who really hate to get pennies in change? For one thing, it means that the penny will be with us (here in the United States at least) for a long, long time. Now the trick is to find out what to do with all those extraneous pennies. Hmmm. Maybe I'll do something like this:

:-)