wow, a new entry!
I haven't posted anything on this journal since last December! Here's some space music from JD Emmanuel, who has been making it since it was a new thing.
What are you reading? I just finished "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust." It's heavy enough, I'd rather not write about my impressions of it.
Before that, I read, "Finding the Quiet," about meditation techniques. I started meditating a couple of months ago, after I read that it helps you drive better. The author divides the techniques into Deep, Directed, and Aware. I've only done counting or mantra meditations, which are examples of the first two. Aware corresponds to Mindfulness, which I've read lots of good things about, but not done. Fortunately, towards the end of the book, after he's described all these other techniques, he says to stick with Deep for the first six months at least, to build up the ability to concentrate.
Before that, I read "The Mind of the Mathematician." I saw it on the remainder table, and thought of Charlie Eppes. The authors compare the lives of 20 famous mathematicians. The two generalizations that stick with me: that most of them were somewhere on the autism spectrum, and that the role of intuition is greatly underestimated in mathematical discovery. Ie, the mathematician has an intuitive breakthrough, and parsing the logic to back it up comes later. My favorite example was from the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan (purely coincidental that he shares the last name of Amita on Numb3rs). He said that the solutions to challenging equations were often told to him as he slept by the goddess Namagiri. He is quoted as having said, "An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God." Which makes me wonder, how could he tell whether an equation expressed a thought of God?
Click to viewWhat are you reading? I just finished "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust." It's heavy enough, I'd rather not write about my impressions of it.
Before that, I read, "Finding the Quiet," about meditation techniques. I started meditating a couple of months ago, after I read that it helps you drive better. The author divides the techniques into Deep, Directed, and Aware. I've only done counting or mantra meditations, which are examples of the first two. Aware corresponds to Mindfulness, which I've read lots of good things about, but not done. Fortunately, towards the end of the book, after he's described all these other techniques, he says to stick with Deep for the first six months at least, to build up the ability to concentrate.
Before that, I read "The Mind of the Mathematician." I saw it on the remainder table, and thought of Charlie Eppes. The authors compare the lives of 20 famous mathematicians. The two generalizations that stick with me: that most of them were somewhere on the autism spectrum, and that the role of intuition is greatly underestimated in mathematical discovery. Ie, the mathematician has an intuitive breakthrough, and parsing the logic to back it up comes later. My favorite example was from the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan (purely coincidental that he shares the last name of Amita on Numb3rs). He said that the solutions to challenging equations were often told to him as he slept by the goddess Namagiri. He is quoted as having said, "An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God." Which makes me wonder, how could he tell whether an equation expressed a thought of God?