Iris Murdoch on Education, Freedom and Happiness

The movie Iris (2001) is a great movie. It chronicles author Iris Murdoch's fight with Alzheimer's.

IMDB link.

Early in the movie, she gives a short speech which is just awesome.

"Education doesn’t make you happy. And what is freedom? We don’t become happy just because we are free, if we are. Or because we have been educated, if we have. But because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy. It opens our eyes, our ears. Tells use where delights are lurking. Convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever: that of the mind. And give us the assurance, the confidence, to walk the path our mind, our educated mind, offers."

One line is particular striking: "Tells use where delights are lurking."

There are a lot of things in life to enjoy. Our culture provides the freedom to enjoy them. Education and Knowledge allows a deeper enjoyment.

A particular piece of music may be enjoyable. If one understand the chord progression, it can be appreciated more.

NPR's Top 100 Thriller Novels

My two favorite were The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton and The Day After Tomorrow by Allan Folsom. The former is 17 on the list and the latter did not make the top 100.

I listed the top ten below.

I voted for Christie's And Then There Were None.

• 1. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
• 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• 3. Kiss the Girls, by James Patterson
• 4. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
• 5. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
• 6. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
• 7. The Shining, by Stephen King
• 8. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
• 9. The Hunt tor Red October, by Tom Clancy
• 10. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

7 Lessons We Can Learn From Michael Jordan

7 Lessons We Can Learn From Michael Jordan

2. Do not fear failure.

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
--Michael Jordan

Most people are afraid of failing. They are so fearful of failure that it halts all their action but the funny thing in life is that if we do not take any action, we are doom for failure. Contradicting isn't it?

Failure is part of success. We can actually perceieve failure as a feedback adn the feedback works as a reminder to tell us something is wrong and we need to fix it. Failure doesn't condem us, it is just Nature's way of telling us to fix something that isn't right.

Vincent Tan

NPR story on the human brain

From Primitive Parts, A Highly Evolved Human Brain

from NPR's Morning Edition on 9 August

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=129027124

Link

Two great analogies by Dr. David Linden

"If there were a giant with her head in Baltimore and her toe off the coast of South Africa, and she was bit by a great white shark on the toe on Monday, she wouldn't feel it until Wednesday, and she wouldn't jerk her toe until Saturday."


"[Brain evolution]" is like adding scoops to an ice cream cone. So, if you imagine the lizard brain as a single-scoop ice cream cone, the way you make a mouse brain out of a lizard brain isn't to throw the cone and the first scoop away and start over and make a banana split; rather, it's to put a second scoop on top of the first scoop."

Great Interview: Roy Spence"What You Stand For"

NPR/Motley Fool Money Interview

Roy Spence, author of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For: Why Every Extraordinary Business is Driven by Purpose.
http://fool.libsyn.com/motley_fool_money_7_16_2010

Roy Spence pulls from several corporate examples to show that if a business has a clear purpose in serving the customer, they will success, survive, and make more money.

I was impressed by the approach of focus on your core mission and everything else will fall into place.

One example was Southwest Airlines. Their focus is Affordable and Democratic Air Travel. This drives their decision to keep baggage free, unlike other airlines.

Quite often in the day to day scramble of a business, it is hard to stay focus on the basic goal.


Amazon Link
http://www.amazon.com/Its-What-Sell-Stand-Extraordinary/dp/B002ACPM5Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281305974&sr=8-1

My First Blog Post

I have been using Twitter for work. It is great, but limited by 140 characters.

I have a wide range of interests and like sharing knowledge. Hopefully, a blog will be a good place to do that.