Posts tagged as:

univesrity

Parkinson’s Law: Why extra study time is your worst enemy

June 2, 2009

parkinsonslawHello students.  I have a post today about something that really pushed me into productivity through the end of my undergraduate degree and graduate school.  Let me premise this post with a small case study.

Two people are given an assignment to complete.  The first is given 2 days to complete the assignment and the second is given 2 weeks.

Student 1 freaks out over only having two days to complete the assignment and starts researching immediately.  He gets the assignment in but literally with only a few hours to spare.  He spends the whole two days working on the assignment.

Student 2 doesn’t freak out as he has two weeks.  He thinks about doing some work on the project right away but puts it off until 3-4 days before the due date.  He then proceeds to hold off the assignment till the last minute and ends up spending less time working on the paper cumulatively than student 1.

What can we learn from this?

Very simply, ‘work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,’ the quality of an assignment doesn’t really differ if you have two days or two weeks to accomplish it.  This is the core premise of Parkinson’s Law.

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Utilitarianism: A beginner’s guide to Utopianism Pt 2

May 27, 2009
The Ultimate Utilitarian

The Ultimate Utilitarian

So last post I talked about the fundamental aspects of Utilitarianism, if you haven’t checked it out, I highly suggest you do.  Go check out my post 1 on Utilitarianism.  Today I’m going to talk about the pro’s and con’s of utilitarianism and my arguments as to why it is so clearly a great way to run your own personal moral compass.

Why Philosophy Snobs don’t like Utilitarianism

Many philosophy snobs see utilitarianism as an ethical dinosaur and lacking any clear ideology.  Deontological ethics which does not see the consequences of an action as its moral determinant; and virtue ethics which focuses on the character of individuals to guide actions rather then looking at each action individually, pretty much think utilitarianism is bullshit.  I have had heated discussions with many philosophers on the subject and here are the major critiques and my rebuttals.

The Qualitative Nature of Happiness

Utilitarianism sees people’s happiness as a single factor when in reality each person experiences pain and happiness individually and cannot therefore be aggregated into a single variable.  It is impossible to quantitatively compare one person’s pain to another person, therefore choosing action that creates pain or happiness based on more than a single persons happiness cannot be aggregated and therefore should not be taken action upon.

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Utilitarianism: A beginner’s guide to Utopianism Pt 1

May 26, 2009
The Ultimate Utilitarian

The Ultimate Utilitarian

Hello fellow students.  I’m going to talk about a subject that has been near and dear to my heart for years.  I’m talking today about the philosophical calculation of utilitarianism and how students (and anybody for that matter) can apply it to make the world a much better place. This is related to chapter two in the VTA Method so go check that out if you’re interested in a more general overview of philosophies of life.

What is Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is very simply an idea that the moral worth of any action is determined by the contribution to its overall utility.  Therefore, the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome, or as Spock would say “The ends justify the means”.  (I’m pretty sure other people said that too but when I think of a pure Utilitarian, I always think of Spock)… Yes I’m a dork.

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What it takes to be Talented: 10,000 hours and a little luck

May 15, 2009

Hello fellow students.  So after taking an incredibly long train ride I finally finished reading some Malcolm Gladwell and was particularly interested on what it takes to become talented.  So I thought I could share my insights with you.

Unfortunately for most of us, the news is a little depressing.

How to become Talented

Gladwell says there are in general two main components to becoming talented.  He states that to become a master at anything you must apply approximately 10,000 hours to it.  That means if you spent six hours a day on the violin each day every day, you’d become a master in a little under 5 years.  This is a depressing concept in itself but you didn’t even hear the worst part!

The Components of Talent

Becoming a master at something also requires a large amount of luck.  Having the right parents, being placed in the right school, reading the right books, hanging with the right crowd etc, all add to whether you will make that magical 10,000th hour and truly become a master at something.  A silver lining to all this is what makes masters different from regular people.  The making of a master is not necessarily natural talent but the ability to stay committed to a goal.

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