51 Flavors of Boskone, part one

[lisefrac]

Comments

[sovay]

All in all, I think sovay should have been there

I'd love to have been. I haven't been invited to Boskone since 2008. The reasons appear to be incredibly stupid and no longer germane to me in any way, shape, or form, but I've had friends requesting me on programming for years now without result. If it changes any time soon, I'll see you next year at Boskone!

[lisefrac]

I'm sorry to hear that :( Boskone seems a little... fossilized. If I go again next year, I'll be sure to request you on programming, if my voice will do any good.

[sprrwhwk]

I'm glad you had a good time! I really wish I could have been there, but man did I need the weekend.

What is activity inhibition? This is the best I can find quickly, and it's interesting but not, ah, pithy.

[lisefrac]

Well, I got a very brief explanation of it as "the ability to channel our motivations into our activities," and I asked after the discussion how it was measured. It turns out it's measured by having folks look at photographs and write stories about them. The AI is then calculated based on the number of "not" or "n't" (don't, won't) responses. Kelner described this as kind of "goofy," but said that the intent was to tell how good people were at understanding conflicting motivations and finding a through-path. I seem to recall he said normal AIs of effective people are in the 1-point-something range; the writers he surveyed had average scores around 18.

I expect when I receive the book, I'll have a better response! Either way, seems like you can't really measure your own AI; it's the kind of measure that only works if you don't know how it's being measured.

[sprrwhwk]

Fascinating! That does sound... yeah, "goofy" is about right.

I'll be very curious to hear what you think of the book.