Automatic Dogmatic

The New York Times Mag is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to kill time. One current article talks about Freeman Dyson, one of the great minds of modern times, and the notion of heresy. At the very least, it's a fascinating read about a really smart dude.

(An aside: Westy has posted about some commentary about how expertise develops. For those of you who are interested in hearing about some of the quirky habits of a genius, take a look at Richard Feynman's non-academic work, particularly Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!)

As I read through the article on Dyson, one major issue that hits me is the role of dogma. One of my favorite writers, Gregg Easterbrook of TMQ fame, has pointed out in the past that one of the dangers of environmentalism is that it is becoming a modern religion, complete with reliance on dogma, over evidence and facts, with a point of contention being global warming. Easterbrook has changed his stance on global warming, and now describes it as a legitimate concern. However, it's intersting that Dyson does no such thing. And he does so in a refreshing way.

In the past, some of you may have heard me comment on things like intelligent design as being faux-science. Dyson uses a similar argument against global warming. Where we differ is that his argument is much more eloquently and intelligently expressed, whereas I'm an idiot. Both of these cases have a common thread - the adherence to dogma, as a way to challenge dogma. Two wrongs don't make a right, but a room full of idiots can change textbooks in high schools. (See, Dyson would have never stooped so low, whereas I am an idiot).

If you read about the philosophy of scientific inquiry, you start to see some things emerge. Science is about falsifying hypotheses. Hypotheses are very specific statements. Theory building requires the stystematic and intelligent falsification of many, many hypotheses. Legitimate science has rather little room for dogma. Interestingly, I think that the best scientists are those who have strong preconcieved notions, but also have the humility to recognize when they may be wrong, and then continue to refine their beliefs.

In general, we are OK with condemning atrocities in the social/religious realm. It's easy to speak about human atrocities that stem from orthodoxy, such as the lack of rights for women in many societies, the prevalence of Islamic suicide bombers, the bombing of abortion clinics by Christian extremists, etc. However, we generally don't think about the broader issue of adherence to dogma, the nature of which stifles inquiry.

Oddly enough, I think that further understanding in both the scientific and religious realms would be facilitated by genuine inquiry, rather than reliance on dogma. I suppose that one thing that I'm dogmatic about is that adherence to dogma is harmful. But then again, who in the world is going to listen to some dogmatic principle pulled from the mouth of an idiot? Actually, don't answer that...

-Chairman

Project Self: Looking into the Fun House

I haven't done one of these Project Self posts in a while. Over 2 years, as a matter of fact. Which sort of begs the question of how the producers haven't canceled this blog by now. Amazingly, we've been at this for over 4 years on a more or less regular basis. Given the mortality rates of most blogs, the Board Room is a bit of an upset. But I think that a little introspection is worthwhile.

In any case, as soon as I realized that there was a chance that I was going to be working in New Orleans, I immediately thought of this old post following Katrina. A couple of excerpts:

Hurricane Katrina... makes me think about our Sugar Bowl experience down there a few years ago. And you know what? I think that New Orleans is a dirty little river town that's made it's fortune on the vices of man...

Is it okay to root against what you think is a rather dismal society that's sucked in the poor and uneducated?...

I mean, the loss of any life can be seen as tragic. But where do we draw the line between something that's truly tragic and something that's almost karma or cosmic justice?...

If there was ever a modern day Sodom and Gemorrah...

I suppose that karma/cosmic justice is me now doing research that intimately involves the poor and uneducated. And I suppose that this is the same force that will be taking me down to New Orleans for the next 2 years, and possibly a lot longer. At the very least, this further confirms that the God I believe in has a sense of humor that's somewhat aligned with my own.

I've always seen my existence as a process. And the process from the fall of 2005 until now has been interesting. I wonder if I have evolved from the sort of person who could quickly come to that sort of conclusion. Probably not. My wit and tongue are as quick and sharp as ever. However, I think that I have evolved from the sort of person who would openly embrace that stance, without any sort of follow-up.

I think that my prevailing orientation toward the world still revolves around justice, rather than, say, compassion. So in that sense, I'm still for seeing evil-doers punished. In the past, that was the end of it. It was a very black and white sort of thing. However over the years, my orientation has evolved a bit. I've talked before about the importance of having a goal AND appreciating the journey. Part of my evolution has been recognizing that everyone in in the midst of some sort of journey. Building off of that, my view of the world has changed to include the notion of redemption, particularly after one has been punished. This idea that things can, and should, be redeemed is a somewhat new thought for me.

That isn't to say that I buy into granting the perfect grace - the sort that evangelical Christians view. And nor should it. I don't believe that I'm selfless enough to ever have the psyche to allow that, even if I could physically grant it. I think that my notion of redemption is more like that Catholic version of penance or the Old Testament view of sacrifice, where there's some grace granted by those who have been sinned against, and there's some effort on the part of the sinner to be worthy of that grace. Sort of meeting halfway.

As for myself, I think that I'm being offered a chance at redemption. This karma/cosmic justice has given me a chance to return to the scene of the crime, if you will. I suppose that in order to hold up my end of the bargain, I'll have to meet them halfway... though I'm quickly realizing that if you're the sinner, then the evangelical idea of grace is a little easier... which hardly seems just.

-Chairman

Signed, Sealed, Soon to be Delivered

Book it. New Orleans for at least the next 2 years. I'll be heading down there in August, probably around the 10th or so. What's funny is that all throughout the fall, I had no job prospects, other than one campus visit to Waco. I didn't get that job offer, and went into winter break with a lot of uncertainty hanging over me. I got a little interest about possible visiting positions. And then a little trickle of interest on the secondary market (what we call the job market the spring before the next school year). But nothing really tangible. And then, I got some interest from the folks in New Orleans, as well as some folks in Houston, and then from some folks in Vegas.

I ended up taking visits to New Orleans and Vegas. The folks in New Orleans loved me, as did the folks in Vegas. I got the offer from New Orleans, and was pretty sure that Vegas was going to give me an offer, but they had another candidate to bring in. But I was about 85% sure that I had the offer if I wanted it (and in fact, they just called me to see if I had officially signed my letter of acceptance, so I guess that means that I had the offer if I wanted it). In my mind, there was an interesting trade-off. In New Orleans, I could have a chance to do great research, though there was no guarantee of getting a tenure-track position, much less tenure. But if I did get the tenure-track position, I'd make more, and teach less (3 classes per year), plus I'd have essentially bought myself 2 years on the tenure clock. On the flip side, in Vegas, I could do solid research, and getting tenure would probably be a formality, and I'd have 6 years to just cruise in. I'd teach more (4 classes per year), make a little less, but would have a lot of free time available. I think that both Vegas and New Orleans will be fun places, with good food, warm weather, and lots of things to do.

I've told myself that the money didn't really matter. I could have fun in either place. Teaching 3 classes vs. 4 classes wasn't a huge deal. The difference is that really comes into play is the chance to do research at different levels. New Orleans has a lot of opportunities, and the entire school's mentality is aligned with what I'm trying to do. Plus, the expectation at that school is to do top tier work. Essentially, the things that I'm doing now are appreciated and respected, but in the sense that it's the first steps of a research program. On the other hand, I think that I could do good research in Vegas, but the school's ambition is more modest. The stuff that I'm currently doing would be considered excellent work, and worthy of a promotion. At this point, I'm taking a shot at doing great things, at doing research that gets into top journals and also directly influences the community around me. Maybe in 2 years I get it out of my system, and go look for that 2nd tier school. More likely is that I find that I love the research and love the community, and want that tenure-track position. In any case, New Orleans, here I come.

Sadly, I'll be leaving Champaign behind. Who knows. Maybe Illinois will call me home, after I get tenure somewhere, years down the road. But in all likelihood, I'll never call Champaign home again. And I'm strangely comfortable with it.

-Chairman

Posters

You remember how a few weeks ago, I talked about how I sort of got dunked on? Yeah. Well. It sort of happened again earlier today. And by sort of, I mean that a 6'3" dude had a breakaway, came flying down the middle of the court, takes off from about 10' from the hoop, and winds up a huge one-armed tomahawk dunk over me. I mean, it wasn't my guy. But still. Dunked on. Hard. And it wasn't like last time, when I just got froze and had a guy blow by me. this time, I had him squared up, and tried to challenge.

To be honest, I didn't think that he was going to try to dunk on me until after he had taken off and I had tried to challenge. So at that point, I was in the air, only not nearly high enough. My options were to either throw a dirty foul, or just pull my arm back, get out of the way, and not get hurt. You don't take charges at the gym. In any case, I went with option B. I mean, we're up like 7-2, so I wasn't planning on just thugging the guy.

And he dunked it hard. And one again the whole gym stopped and oohed and aahed. I was just chuckling. Even in my heyday, I was still going to get dunked on. But we still won the ball game. I still pretty much controlled the paint on D (save for that one poster session. And I even had some really slick passes. But no one remembers all that.

But hey. At least I'm still running twice a week and playing pretty decent ball (relatively speaking).

-Chairman.

Being Mislead

Look at the title of this article: 20 Are Detained After Cricket Attack.

What's the first thought that entered my mind? Giant genetically modified crickets were unleashed on unsuspecting citizens, but the CIA acted on a tip and was able to round up the responsible parties. That would be an awesome story. I'd even consider buying a paper based on that story. Instead, what's the real story? Apparently, "cricket" is a sport. And some people in one country attacked the players of another country's team. Much less interesting.

Another thing that sort of annoyed me was the idea of a "flash mob." And if you think about it, it's a great idea. You get a mob of people. They all flash themselves, and then the start looting and destroying things. Seems ideal - you get sex AND violence in a social setting. Instead, you get this from Wikipedia:

A flash mob (or flashmob^[1]) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.

Lame.

I for one, think that we need more truth in advertising. But that's just me.

-Chairman

70 Years Later

I have a new favorite commercial.

I meant to write about this when it first came out back during the Super Bowl, but it sort of slipped my mind. But what do I like about this? It's hilarious, in a twisted sort of way. Think about it. Lots of angry Japanese and German people banging their fists and screaming. It's sort of like parts of this video (which appears to be a pretty slick school project - the beginning is sort of amusing, though the similarity that I'm talking about starts at 1:07 in).

I suppose that 70 years later, we start to forget about these things. But I have a suspicion that our South Korean friends are trying to remind the American public about who we're getting in bed with when we buy Toyota and BMW: angry dudes who yell a lot and may or may not try to take over the world. What's interesting is that, at least from what I understand about cross-cultural psychology (which is next to nothing), Koreans are notoriously xenophobic, and lament the bastardization of of their lineage by rural men who takes wives from poor Asian countries, and thus create all of these half-breed children. So it could also be that the folks at Hyundai are subconsciously conveying their admiration for the old-school German-style screaming.

Or more likely, I just enjoy propaganda, and thought that this commercial felt like old-school propaganda.

-Chairman

Free Agency

With the start of the free agency period in the NFL, we've seen some huge contracts being offered, even in this economic situation. Notably, Albert Haynesworth signed a $100 million contract, with a ridiculously huge $41 million guaranteed.

On a slightly smaller scale, there was a less-heralded offer made by representatives from New Orleans earlier this week to a 13-year veteran from Illinois. This was an 8-year deal, potentially worth $1.24 million, with two years, $0.25 million guaranteed. Salary cap implications were not revealed. However, this deal has the potential to change the competitive landscape in the UPL, since yours truly was the one getting the offer.

In any case, we're still considering this offer, and will be visiting with representatives from Vegas in the coming days. But this pretty much ensures that the Board Room's tenure in Illinois will be ending in the summer of 2009.

-Chairman