Re: Out in the world

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

 > From: Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>
 > Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 02:29:50 -0700
 >
 >   Well, 
 > what I really mean is that I started on the paper pile triage.  A stack 
 > of tax documents, a stack of unpaid bills, and a big cardboard box for 
 > everything else.  I'm maybe halfway done with triage and then I can 
 > start on the actual work.

Although I already finished our taxes, I'm envious.  My plan was to start
filing away my paperwork, but never got around to it.  Glad the
shelter-in-place is going to last another 30 days.

 > Anyway, I liked to hang out in the machine room and follow the 
 > guy in charge and ask questions, and one day he called me into his 
 > office and said I was harassing him and if I didn't quit it he'd have to 
 > ban me from the facility.  He said it gently, not yelling, but he said 
 > it.  And I was of course devastated, because that hadn't been my intent 
 > at all, and my self-image was that I was reasonably likeable even if I 
 > didn't have a lot of friends.

This is interesting to me.  I always read about kids who enter science
fairs and they are always so driven and very, very assertive and push
themselves into situations that benefit their interests.  And I could
never imagine being that kid.  But, then, I never hear about the set backs
and ruffling feathers and the ones where their self-esteem is targeted.

 > he learned that the black kids felt they had to do 
 > everything themselves, whereas the Chinese kids studied in groups, and 
 > that's a big reason why the latter did better than the former. 

I was so, so lucky to go to Evergreen State where we were encouraged to
work on problems together.  I really loved group problem solving.  And,
during those rare cases I get to do it at work, I still love it.

 > But 
 > Treisman's faculty advisor was my old colleague Leon Henkin -- and what 
 > I learned from the book is that /Henkin's/ faculty advisor was Alonzo 
 > Church!

Wow, small world.