omenti

choking under pressure

There's this story of a student, having just given his thesis defense talk, freezes at the first question with his chalk describing an arc as he faints.  The same story with different details has been told and retold since the 50s.  But there is real pressure.  It's rare, but some students fail their dissertation defense.   Just last week a friend told me about a failure at the University of Michigan. 

 

Temporary choking is much more common.  I've seen it in at least a third of the defenses I've been to.  Usually it's minor and people recognize it happens.  Questions are rephrased or breaks take place and things come back to normal.  It's just part of a rite of passage for many.

 

Choking is more recognized in sport. People talk about choking and 'the yips' - I'll stick with choking here was it's more common and easier to deal with.¹ I've seen it in several events at the Olympic and National and World Championship levels when a lot is on the line. Recent work published in Neuron shines some light on a neurological basis.  The experimenters monitored the motor cortex in the frontal lobe and watched a simple task requiring manual dexterity when the stakes were low, medium and high.   What they found was a big drop in activity as the stakes went up - the subjects suffered a big performance hit.  The effect was non-linear..  subjects didn't perform well at low reward levels - there was a sweet spot.  It's part of becoming an elite athlete to learn how to deal with the pressure, but it still happens on a regular basis. 

 

I've been interested in what the dynamics are in a team sport - specifically the simplest example with only two  athletes on a team.  Beach volleyball is a textbook example as there isn't a lot of overlap in responsibilities and players need to trust each other.  Over time - say an Olympic run - the best teams tend to have stable partnerships. When one player begins to crumble, it's up to the other to shoulder the load somehow and communicate - often with a few words or a bit of body language like a glance. It's an impressive skill to pick up on this in a couple of seconds in the middle of a point and figure out how to deal with it.   Interestingly there's evidence of sexual dimorphism in both style and success dealing with choking.  Sarah summed it up: men fight to bond, women bond to fight.  On average women may be more effective team players.²  Casual observation tells me this applies outside of sport. 

__________

¹ Some use the terms interchangeable, but differ in severity and treatment. Choking often occurs when an athlete over focuses on mechanics under pressure and lose the fluidity, grace, ability to analyze etc, that  they've spent their career building. Their effective skill level falls dramatically.   The yips, on the other hand, take place when anxiety is so high that it becomes difficult to execute even simple actions.  It can be chronic requiring help from specialists.

² For this reason I tend to prefer women's team sports to men's.  Men's sports are more athletic, but the women often show superior team tactics and strategies. 

 

 

the passing of a star

I first ran into Dewayne at a wireless community conference in Taos in 1994.  We hit it off and became good friends, sometimes conspiring on odd projects.  His mother is 103, sharp as a tack,  and something of an icon.  One of the first African Americans to integrate a section of Detroit after WWII.  We all figured Dewayne had at least three more decades. Dewayne built on that.  I've never met anyone with a deeper understanding of radio - something he combined with a deep social commitment. 

 

About a month ago he called from a hospital room in Detroit.  Jaundice - the doctors were trying to figure it out.  The next day there was an emergency operation to deal with a blocked bile duct.  Then it was discovered he had stage 4 cancer.  He flew to California for better medical treatment and passed yesterday. The various communities he touched are in shock.  I won't list his remarkable accomplishments other than a Wired article from 2002 (he's done a lot since) and noting he had a large impact on the technical side of the FCC.  He was a great friend.  The last conversation I had was last Monday.  He ended it as he always did when he wanted to make a point - a quote from Battlestar Galactica:  So say we all!

The Wired piece

 

 

 

 

(way) beyond black swans

a mnipost

 

Fundamental change comes from discovery - something that science is wired to do.  The process of science is admittedly messy and a bit inefficient, but it works and has vastly expanded our understanding in so many areas. There's this myth about how it works -  the scientific method kids had to memorize in school is a not very accurate model of how things really operated - at least the areas I know. All of the pieces are there, but they're generally non-linear and can spread out over long periods of time.   What drives people are the rare magical moments.  For most of us they're rather small, but the pleasure in discovery is enormous.  It's very hard work as it's so easy to fool yourself.  Some of the most dramatic discoveries come when you're looking for something else - if you're careful enough to recognize them. 

 

One of my favorite examples is a 24 year old astronomy grad student who fundamentally put a dent in astronomy and physics.  Her discovery involved a huge amount of careful work.  Her advisor was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics while she got nothing -after all - she was a woman and a student in the 60s.  I've been lucky enough to have had dinner with her - she sees her lack of the Nobel underscoring how sexist science and the Nobel committee are.  

 

The interview is excellent and something to show to kids for inspiration as well as dealing with the imposter syndrome.  She's done so much for women in science.

 

airship quadball

a minipost

Every field has its special teachers - those who have figured out how to inspire and raise the level of the students. About five years ago I wrote about Woodie Flowers and his passion for teaching.  One of the most playful and play inspiring teachers I know about (the video on the page is a good intro).  

 

Woodie had a famous course for engineering undergrads.  I know of a few other similar, but different flavored, courses - mostly in mechanical engineering.  ME72 a Caltech is one of these focused play classes and the final exam is a competition.  The most recent exam was Airship Quadball.  Here's a description with a cute linked video.

Some schools set up cross departmental collaborations. One physics dept I know matches physics students with creative writing students and art majors to create science fiction graphic novels.  When it works you need students who have an interest in the other two areas.  The original spark was producing physics students who could communicate more clearly, but it turned out to be fun and educational for each group.

 

 

 

creativity in film and beyond

Unburdened by the plastic wrap so common to art books, it was sitting  in the bookstore and was reminded how much I wanted it.  A copy of The Art of WolfWalkers. Ten minutes of delight, but it was too spendy for this trip.  

 

 WolfWalkers is the third in a set devoted to Irish myth from Cartoon Salon - a tiny studio in Kilkenny, Ireland that has won respect from Pixar, Disney Animation and Studio Ghibli.  It's on Apple TV+ if you like amazing animation. 

 

Animation studios and art schools are amazing places.  Years ago they seemed like black boxes that took stories and turned them into animation.  More recently I've been involved with one and am wobbled by the amount of creativity and work play that goes into the most simple moments.  It's always a team effort spread among disciplines and years.  

 

After a few months I finally bought the book. Just wow!   Here's a video of a roundtable the before the film was released.  It was my introduction to the film (although not to the myth or its historical offshoot as Kilkenny is an ancestral home). 

 

It's worth writing about as (a) some of you may enjoy and even love it and, (b) creativity in the era of generative AI  is something I've been spending time on this past year an animation studio and two universities.  Signals have emerged. 

 

The New Yorker published a must-read piece on AI and Art by Ted Chiang.  Given my experience with animation studios, a music conservatory and physics and math, I'm in conditional agreement.  I do see a place as a tool, even in the creative arts, but more as a tool to relieve drudgery rather than become 'thought'.  I use it to organize references in papers as well as to create simple programs that involve freshman level programming for simple but time-consuming tasks.  I stay far away when precision and accuracy are needed and I don't see the creative spark. 

 

Film studios, musicians, and artists worry about wholesale theft of their work in the short term and the potential, if these tools improve, that we'll see more 'art' of lower caliber largely because human-created art is too expensive.  I think the later isn't possible with generative AI - at least not for quality work.  That doesn't mean real art won't be forced out by economic pressures. 

 

As for schools I worry teenagers may take the easy way out in pursuit of easy grades and free time. They'll be cheating themselves.   The world has no need for more high school essays, but that isn't why they're assigned. On the other hand student can learn about tasks these tools can help them with.  That's going to be more important in college.  I've been on two task forces and some schools are developing solid measures as well as the ability to change with time.  The guiding light is "are you teaching them how to think?"  

 

Clearly we're in a fascinating time.  I think we'll see some real carnage in the industry and use cases before signals we probably haven't thought about emerge.  But in the meantime we have beautiful art.   If you haven't seen WolfWalkers, you're in for a treat!

 

 

a legend

Adm Grace Hopper is of the heroes of early computing.  In addition to making fundamental contributions to software, she was one of the few who started to realize what technological change impacted people.  Recently some of the security folks - notably Bruce Schneier and Steve Bellovin - learned about a general talk she gave at the NSA in 1982.  They hounded the NSA to declassify and publish the talks and here they are!  They give a sense of what the world was like then and you can sense her brilliance.   This was a year before ARPANET cutover to TCP/IP, which many consider the real start of the Internet (although it goes back 13 years earlier in one form or another).  Perhaps there's something you can take away.  

Side story: About 12 years ago I found myself spitting into the wind trying to deal with climate deniers who lacked a technical background.  One of her papers gave a good description of what we now call sealioning. It was a good enough argument to convince me to move on and try other channels.  She also wrote about dealing with people like Trump who use bullshit asymmetry - what is known as Brandolini's law these days.  A very wise woman indeed!

 

 

 

playful active learning

A few months ago I had another in what has become a series of chats with a neurology professor.  Both of us are (well) over 60 and, given the two aging presidential candidates at the time,  the subject of preventing dementia came up.  He noted the standard things - exercise is a powerful tool, avoiding inflammation (you really don't want Covid), etc.  There's a genetic component, but that's more in dispute now as it breaks with twin studies - perhaps there's a bad habit component.  But actively learning is important.  

 

It seems scans of mentally sharp people with the sort of neural damage you see in dementia are able to continue to do well as they've created a web of alternate pathways - it's like the original idea for the Internet - route around the damage. Even the elderly can do this.  The trick is working hard at  something that really forces you learn.  Doing puzzles or reading is fine, but doesn't do the neural expansion. Learning a new language, how to build things, how to do something that's very confusing and hard at first creates a novel wiring overlay.

 

I've been known to plunge into new things for the fun of it.  I'm generally untalented, but love the experience of seeing some progress in an area I knew nothing about. My neurologist friend does some of the same. He likes playing board games so he's trying to create one.  It's given him a lot of respect for those that do it.  It's helpful to try something that might be fun as play is a powerful motivator.  If you like music, learn how to write something.  Try writing poetry.  The hardest part may be finding the time - but if you watch tv, perhaps it's the easiest. Turn on the curiosity.  I'd love to hear the projects some of you have.  It may be worse than what ChatGPT can do, but ChatGPT isn't giving you richer neural pathways. And there may be gains in your current level of creativity. 

 

Just now he sent a video that inspired him..  It's Xyla Foxlin.  She graduated from CWRU about five years ago and makes her living taking on unusual projects - (the rocket powered Christmas Tree is a personal favorite) Here she builds a mobius strip violin.  She admits she's not an instrument maker and goes on to use real luthiers for helping her with the bridge and a few other issues. It's a fun video!  And cheers to her for mentioning Hillary Hahn!

 

first, third, second, fifth, fourth - a psychological tour

A minipost

There's a common signal that emerges when you talk to elite athletes about how they feel about their final position.  Universally they say bronze medals feel better than silvers and fourth place is the worst in single elimination play with quarter and semifinals.  

 

Sarah, in particular, has gone into detail. She notes the goal, given the depth in her sport, is a podium finish,  Just missing feels awful.  If you're eliminated before that, you tend to move on towards the next tournament.  Taking third means that you've redeemed an earlier loss by winning. Second means - "if only..."

 

While there's variation in measuring how athletes feel and well as variation among athletes, several studies confirm this ordering.   Explanations generally boil  down to counterfactual thinking.   In one type, known as ex post counterfactuals,  you think about alternate pasts.  "if I had only delayed my block by a quarter of a second, we could have won" or "if it wasn't for them serving into the net we could have lost."  The other type, known as ex ante counterfactuals,  is described by  dwelling on what was expected to be:  "everyone thought we'd take gold, but we failed or "no one thought we'd qualify and look how far we got."   

A silver medalist tends to focus on the negative ex post counterfactual.  It's even worse when there's a negative ex ante counterfactual - an expectation of taking gold.  Fourth place follows a similar pattern plus you don't even get to stand on the podium.  Athletes really hate fourths. 

 

Of course counterfactual thinking, positive and negative, exists in many other places.

 

 

 

"exercise may be the single most potent medical intervention ever known:

a minipost - an important podcast episode that could have a large impact on your health

 

Eric Topol does cardiology and genomics at Scripps.  He's also an excellent communicators and was one of a half dozen voices during the pandemic offering translations of the rapidly evolving results from research and practice into language the general public can understand   He has interests that go beyond those areas an recently hosted Euan Ashley of Stanford on his podcast.  The title is provocative:  Exercise may be the single most potent medical intervention known. (audio and transcripts with links)  highly recommended.  The amount of sexual dimorphism in response is remarkable - but it's all heathly.

A couple of nits - noting I'm far from being an expert, but have read a fair amount in this area.. Ashley mentions the one minute five minute rule.  My understanding nothing supports this as a quantitative statement, but the qualitative direction is probably right.  Also Ashley mentions a company he's involved in that tries to optimize exercise for professional and serious amateur athletes. At the professional level much of this work is noise at this point - particularly the "AI" approach (and and LLM is clearly not the path), at the serious amateur level it may well be useful as anything is useful even though it may not be optimal. Research from the study Ashley talks about could lead to big improvements in this area.

What the podcast highlights is the release of data and some results  from a large body of research.  The research solidly confirms earlier work that points to how important exercise is as a medicine.

Here's the link to the data release site.  It has additional information - some aimed at the general public.

 

 

 

tools for serious thinking

Om has mentioned several - often a fine pen, ink and paper.  My sister's creative artwork often starts with the right paper and pencils. 

One of the things you'll notice about top math and physics departments is the nearly exclusive use of high quality slate boards. There's something about the feeling of the motion of a good chalk against slate.    A few days ago I saw someone with a t-shirt that said:

HAGOROMO
羽衣ファインタッチ

A member of the faith!

"math or physics?"  "number theory", she replied.  The tool is deservedly legendary.  A mathematical introduced me to it in the early 90s and I've been a user ever since.  It's really quite amazing.    

I was a hoarder in the day. Thankfully the new chalk is just as good