Finished The Drunkard's Walk -- Finally!
Teach me to go reading over my head with math and statistics and such. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting book that taught me some new things, re-arranged a few of my prejudices and often made me laugh at the same time I was struggling with yet another baffling equation.
We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causuality by noting the correlation. That's why although there is sometimes little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not as successful, there is usually a big difference in how they are viewed. Before Moonlighting, if you were told by the young bartender Bruce Willis that he hoped to become a film star, you would not have thought, gee, I sure am lucky to have this chance to chat one-on-one with a charismatic future celebrity, but rather you would have thought something more along the lines of yeah, well, for now just make sure not to overdo it on the vermouth. The day after the show became a hit, however, everyone suddenly viewed Bruce Willis as a star, a guy who has that something special it takes to capture viewers' hearts and imagination.
. . .
[story about the death of the author's aunt in a forced labor camp during WWII] My mother worries that when she is gone, there will no longer be any trace that Sabina ever existed. To her this story shows that it is pointless to make plans. I do not agree. I believe it is important to plan, if we do so with our eyes open. But more important, my mother's experience has taught me that we ought to identify and appreciate the good luck that we have and recognize the random events that contribute to our success. It has taught me, too, to accept the chance events that may cause us grief. Most of all it has taught me to appreciate the absence of bad luck, the absence of events that might have brought us down, and the absence of the disease, war, famine, and accident that have not -- or have not yet -- befallen us.
This has nothing to do with randomness, or maybe it does -- I'm still not entirely clear on it, but I've put aside Stephen Lawhead's Hood for now. It was interesting but I couldn't get enough into it to face all those pages. I'll go back to it when I'm in another Robin Hood phase.
I went to see The A-Team Sunday with Karen, Dave and Jason. I was very surprised by how much I liked it after the tanking reviews it got. It's not good, it's certainly not art, but it is entertaining, which is all it needs to be. I've always loved Liam Neeson and it was good to see him at work again, perfect in the role of Hannibal Smith. Neeson has just the right combination of fatherliness and over-grown boy to appeal to the target audience. But the big, if continuing, revelation was Shalto Copley as crazy pilot Murdock. It's so hard to believe he had no acting experience or training at all until District 9, some 2 years ago. The man is one of those people who define natural talent. By the way, if you do go to see it look for the character listed on the credits as German doctor #1 -- that's Dwight Shultz, the original Murdock.
We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causuality by noting the correlation. That's why although there is sometimes little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not as successful, there is usually a big difference in how they are viewed. Before Moonlighting, if you were told by the young bartender Bruce Willis that he hoped to become a film star, you would not have thought, gee, I sure am lucky to have this chance to chat one-on-one with a charismatic future celebrity, but rather you would have thought something more along the lines of yeah, well, for now just make sure not to overdo it on the vermouth. The day after the show became a hit, however, everyone suddenly viewed Bruce Willis as a star, a guy who has that something special it takes to capture viewers' hearts and imagination.
. . .
[story about the death of the author's aunt in a forced labor camp during WWII] My mother worries that when she is gone, there will no longer be any trace that Sabina ever existed. To her this story shows that it is pointless to make plans. I do not agree. I believe it is important to plan, if we do so with our eyes open. But more important, my mother's experience has taught me that we ought to identify and appreciate the good luck that we have and recognize the random events that contribute to our success. It has taught me, too, to accept the chance events that may cause us grief. Most of all it has taught me to appreciate the absence of bad luck, the absence of events that might have brought us down, and the absence of the disease, war, famine, and accident that have not -- or have not yet -- befallen us.
This has nothing to do with randomness, or maybe it does -- I'm still not entirely clear on it, but I've put aside Stephen Lawhead's Hood for now. It was interesting but I couldn't get enough into it to face all those pages. I'll go back to it when I'm in another Robin Hood phase.
I went to see The A-Team Sunday with Karen, Dave and Jason. I was very surprised by how much I liked it after the tanking reviews it got. It's not good, it's certainly not art, but it is entertaining, which is all it needs to be. I've always loved Liam Neeson and it was good to see him at work again, perfect in the role of Hannibal Smith. Neeson has just the right combination of fatherliness and over-grown boy to appeal to the target audience. But the big, if continuing, revelation was Shalto Copley as crazy pilot Murdock. It's so hard to believe he had no acting experience or training at all until District 9, some 2 years ago. The man is one of those people who define natural talent. By the way, if you do go to see it look for the character listed on the credits as German doctor #1 -- that's Dwight Shultz, the original Murdock.