Where do I go to feed my ignorance? The answers are limitless really and, simplistically, I go where life takes me. However, there are some sources that have proven to be of more interest than others to me and that is the point of this post. I have been lax in adding sources to this page – resurrecting it like this may help me be more pro-active.
Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty
I hadn’t come across this phrase until today, however it was coined (as I understand it) late last year when Facebook chose to ‘push’ their “Year in Review” feature to users by choosing a picture to illustrate the year and surrounding it with (generally) happy and joyous borders and the words “its been a great year”. Now – it doesn’t take much intelligence to realise that while – yes – most years are great in some respect – for some people the year will only hold bad memories whilst, for most, there will have been some low spots in an otherwise good year.
The Art of Communication
The more ‘knowledgeable’ I get the more I seemingly abandon the idea of certainty. Is there anything that is 100% certain? It would be possible to ask the opposite question (0% certain) but that gets into a different rabbit hole about how we can ‘identify’ what we don’t know. My early blogging, before I started this site, was focussed mainly on systems thinking as applied to my area of work – this is a bit of a return to that type of topic.
A New Music Memory
I have written before (in Music Memories) about the different ways in which various pieces of music trigger very specific recall about some past event. Just the other day I had an experience which both reinforced my previous ideas and caused me to think about a new aspect of this.
The Reality Of The Past
There are a number of “recurring themes” within my writing in this blog – no surprise there as my thoughts on particular topics are developed – and one of them is the subject of memories – an interesting topic in and of itself, but my particular area of thought is with regard to how real our memories are – both in terms of what (we think) we remember and also what we have banished or simply forgotten.
So What Really IS Important?
We are only a few days into the new year and already items in the news have shocked me – have inspired me – have worried me – have surprised me – have saddened me – have ….. What we find out about the happenings around the globe has the capacity to affect us in a huge number of ways. What about – and this is entirely in keeping with the blog theme – the things we don’t know about?
Out With The Old!!
Having just checked back I discovered that since I started on this blog I have a woeful record when it comes to writing anything at the start of the year! Not a single post (until now) written in January of any year. I don’t think there is any particular reason for that – but it is time I broke the pattern. The other good reason for a post this month is that it completes 12 consecutive months with at least one post.
Discworld – The Next Chapter
Just yesterday I wrote about how I like to visit different “worlds” when I am reading. Last night I got to the end of the story of one of those worlds. Knowing that it was his last novel, getting to the end of Sir Terry Pratchett’s “The Shepherd’s Crown” was always going to be tinged with disappointment – not in the story itself, but because we will never know what happens next to the many characters that we have met through the Discworld series.
Just – WHY?
As we progress through life there is – at least for me – an increasing realisation that there are things that we do – that we enjoy doing – that are seemingly unproductive, unnecessary or just a “waste of time”. Yet we persist in doing them. For some people these can be harmful – to themselves or others – for others they are entirely benign – and yet the question remains – WHY?
A Matter Of Taste
A recurrent theme on the blog is the matter of “taste” in regard to the arts – especially in regard to music. It is well understood that “what you like” is determined by all sorts of factors and quite naturally varies from person to person – that song that “brings tears to your eyes” may well “bring tears” to someone else’s eyes for very different reasons!