Sunday readings individual reflection
From all the three readings, I could relate to the first the most. This is because it directly reflects the world we live in and it reminds us that people are inherently selfish. However, it also tells us that despite that, we can still hope and that we are in God’s favor should we avoid succumbing to their evil intentions. It shows us that the reason these people try to bring us down is because they cannot be as moral, and it is our fault if we succumb and stoop down to their level to entertain them.
Evaluating a Year of BM
BM class is fun, both because the matter we take up isn’t too heavy as well as the atmosphere in the classroom is relaxed and laid back. Our teacher helps with that because he makes the class light through jokes and the like.
It is not as though I did not learn anything from BM. In fact I did learn a lot and have gained an appreciation of the business world. I was able to easily grasp the concepts that were taught in class and the tools that are used for analyzing businesses even if I had some problems both in organizing my thoughts and writing my commentaries in a balanced way while remembering the terms used for those concepts, it helped me see how businesses worked and what made it turn. It showed me the impact these businesses have in our society and on us. Marketing was a particularly interesting topic worth mentioning. The class helped me appreciate some issues coming up like Facebook’s shift to becoming a public limited company, the impact on the tablet market and threat to apple of the release of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet will bring and the implications on the space industry that private companies are starting to carry some of NASA’s jobs and are the ones creating and owning their own space shuttles.
Idea Blunder
OCTOBER BLOG
IDEA 1 OCT 1-2
The start of this month was quite hectic for me. Since Xavier hosted the IDEA(International Debate Education Association) 1 competition, I had to help out in the organizing and running of it. The call time for us was supposedly 7 am, registration was originally gonna start by 7:30 or so but everything got delayed. When I arrived at 7 which was kind of late already, I found out that I’m the only one that was there. It was a blow to xavier’s reputation. As a form of damage control, I ran around, contacting people until I was able to get Ms. Santos down and start the registration. things started to go well until the tabs came. after the first round, it was my job to table the scores or tabs so it will be ready for match ups for the next. The reason for this was we wanted the competition to be fair, therefore we want the teams to go against those who matched them in skill.
To put it simply it was a fail. Our match-ups took long and there were inconstancies. Since there were two of us tabbing the scores, there were inconsistencies in the scores so we had to recheck and redo. it took long. the same thing happened for after the second round. IT was a good thing that a XDT veteran dropped by and gave us a hand by the third round which sped things up a lot. however, by the announcing of the overall breaks, we had one error in the order. A team that supposedly had 8 points ended up with 6, it was the fault of a typo because instead of inputting 3 points which equates to first place, a 1 was put. It did not affect the breaking teams though which was good.
Redemption came from the fact that we were able to finish the tabs with speaker scores early meaning that the Veteran, Weston and I stayed late in Starbucks finishing everything to be ready for release ASAP.
The Seven Sins, Unwound
Response to “Is Greed Ever Good? the Psychology of Selfishness”
-www.psychologytoday.com
Th article had the age old message that anything in excess is bad, yet it maintains that even the most frowned upon traits today are good in small amounts. No matter how unfamiliar this sounds to our ears, it makes perfect sense and this has been ingrained in society for ages. I agree with it completely. The article explains how instead of branding these “7 deadly sins” so negatively, we should instead practice them moderately which we are pretty much doing today. The only difference is that we don’t name it as such, I notice that we refuse to make the connection between our self-ish caring to being selfish even if they are the same in all but matters of degree. Perhaps this shows how we actually tend to not acknowledge the nature of the things we do if they are associated in a bad light. Added to this is how we also do this to uphold our cognitive biases on what is right and wrong and give us a clear black and white picture of things that suit our needs and wants. It shows how much we are susceptible we are to symbolic reduction fallacy in which we try to simplify things as much as possible such that we loose all the other shades in between.
Another issue I gleaned from this article is how we create “negative stereotypes” that are supposed to be our moral compass in what we shouldn’t do. Notice how being greedy, or lustful is bad and shouldn’t be exercised? Well truth be told, these are really spectrums of certain attitudes in which the difference between being selfish and self-ish or honor and hubris and humility lie in. In all actuality, these so called “7 deadly sins” encapsulate almost the whole range of emotions, values and virtues that we have, all that is different is the extent. Like my example earlier, humility, honor and hubris are all aspects of pride but humility is a lack or opposite and hubris is an excess.
Apple’s dictionary defines sloth as a “reluctance to work, or make an effort” seems like a pretty broad definition to me, yet we already think of it as bad. Then again, it is also a spectrum where rest or relaxing and laziness fit in. I mean we don’t really frown upon someone who rests but we do for someone who’s lazy. The difference between the two isn’t much since you can rest while being lazy but they can also be two different things. Context is what distinguishes both, if a person after a hard day’s work doesn’t do anything, lets say wash the dishes, he falls under the definition of “a reluctance to work”, but we leave him alone because he is tired, but compare this to a child who despite sleeping the whole day refuses to wash the dishes after dinner when his mother tells him to. This is considered as laziness because he was sleeping the whole day, there is nothing to justify his “reluctance to work”.
There are several points that the article presents to us. The first of which is how humans tend to tune their moral compass in the terms of what not to do as compared to what to do. Perhaps because the negative connotations presents to us the exceptions of things and allow for a larger base for options. It is a lot nicer to hear someone saying, lets say from a base of 100 options, “you can do everything except this” instead of “you can do all these 99 things but you can’t do this one” the former gives us the notion that there are more that we can do as compared do the latter which restricts us to what we are allowed. This leads to our inherent symbolic reduction fallacy in which we tend to forget the important things and stick a general idea to one thing and forget everything else. In the case of pride, we just want one big label saying “THIS IS BAD” and forget everything else. We thus fall into a world of binaries and stereotypes, only black and white, no shades of the rainbow, a world I don’t think anyone of us would like to live in.
August- Hatid Kapatid
Last month, we were required to render five days of service by carrying our younger brothers’ bags in the morning from 6:45 to 7:20. Although I wanted to attend all the five days, I only did three because i couldn’t get myself to wake up that early even if I tried. After this activity, I realized how when I was young, I was just like the grade schoolers handing my bag to the older guys for them to carry it for me. I guess this is just another instance of what goes around comes around with us now carrying the bags. Anyway, I think that this activity would have motivated me more if it was later, perhaps I just have to change my habit of waking up really late.
A Joke
reaction to the article: http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
The first thing that entered my mind while reading this article is “isn’t dihydrogen monoxide the same as water?” Because dihydrogen = 2 hydrogen and monoxide = 1 oxygen and H2O is simply water. But the article paints it in such a way that in sounds toxic and that it is a thing that we should avoid at all costs. Quite contrary to their claim, water is actually the core of life here on Earth. Nothing can live without this compound.
I am amused on how the article was written, despite generally correct facts about the substance, they were still able to paint water in such a bad light that it looks like its synonymous with a radiation. Anyway, I believe that this article was a satire to emphasize the dangers of chemistry and just following what everybody says, because they have facts without thinking it through yourself. It teaches you to use common sense and do a bit of research to make sure what your reading is true and not just a bunch of serious sounding lies.
video reaction
In the three videos we watched, I was laughing in some parts of the first, felt awe in the second and was quite tensed in the third. The second clip, my eyes widened a bit when I saw the product of what he was working on. It was like an OMG moment. The third clip, Sophie’s choice made me quite tensed and gave me a sense of pity towards the child but it gave me a cathartic effect after.
Reason
Bryan Giger
3B
Knowledge claims:
1. System Analysis and Programming
-What does this process play in our lives?
-Among the sciences, programming/computer science seems closer to us in the sense it focuses and reflects on how we think act and reason in contrast to the others that look into the outside world. What does this say about being human?
-This process directly relates to how our mind works.In life, we get to see problems and come up with ingenious solutions but at times, there seems to be no way to translate it to reality. How does this reflect the relationship between our reason and reality?
2. Patent Watch
-How will this technology affect our relationship with our gadgets, and how will this in turn affect the way we act? Will it help us be more in touch with reality or separate us from society because we now have a more “real” gadget.
Why do people like to feel something as compared to feeling nothing? Why do we like our senses stimulated?
How will Haptic feedback influence the way we will value future gadgets? Will its sensitivity affect the mind of a customer the way the RAM of the computer affects us when we purchase a new one? What does this say about the way we value things?
3. New Glasses-Free 3-D Approach Could Work on Thin, Flexible Displays
-3-D again shows how we want to be in touch of reality in everything we do. Why are humans programmed to be like this?
-This article shows how we have understood how we perceive things, in the physical sense at least. Now we try to simulate the real thing with artificial things. Should we really use artificial products to give us reality? Will the day come that everything will be artificial and nothing left natural?
-Another thing show here is how we are able to manipulate the environment to suit are wants. Is this truly a result of sound reason? To use it to cater to our wants when we still have many needs not catered to?
Reason is the sole thing that separates us from just having an id way of thinking and paves the way for the ability to have ego and super-ego personalities. It gives me the chance to foresee the consequences of my actions and make sound judgement to improve the world I live in and make my life more comfortable. Reason also allows me to be the master of my faith at lets me know what can and will happen to me. It gives me a motivation to do my best and perhaps leave a mark in the world.
As Pascal said, “Man is only a reed, the weakest to be found in nature; but he is a thinking reed.” This is what makes all the difference, to be able to think, and this is what makes us the master of nature despite the fact that she can crush us at anytime and turn us into nothingness.
I struggle to rationalize many things, the reason I am here for one. Another is why do I live like this and am not some starving boy on the streets. Why do we act the way we do? Why are people so susceptible to vices and their personal self interest? It all boils down to why everything is where it is and why everything is the way it is.
Bryan 