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Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang is a pretty cool concept. It comes from Taoist metaphysics.

The Tao is made up of yin and yang elements. Tao kind of means “the way.” But, the first line of the tao te ching is “the tao that can be named is not the eternal tao.” So yeah. It’s kind of like quantum physics. If you think you understand it, you don’t understand it.

Positive and negative forces balance each other. If you look at the symbol, you’ll see little dots of white in the black and little dots of black in the white. There can be no light without dark. In fact, for light to exist, it needs darkness. It is only by defining dark can you explain light, and vice versa. Not only that, but there exists in everything that is dark, a little bit of the light. You need light in order to see the darkness.

yin yang symbol

This holds true with every binary concept like up and down, male and female (a banana is actually the ovary of the banana tree), left and right, and of course good and evil.

This means there is no such thing as pure evil. Evil literally needs good to define it, and within every bad guy, there is always a spark of good. And, or course, vice versa.

The Tao and the concept of yin and yang has permeated Chinese culture in a similar way that Christianity has permeated Western culture. Even those who don’t go to temple, still have a culture of Taoism. Much like an American might say “patience is a virtue” and not know it’s biblical origin, a Chinese person might say 三人行必有我师 (Sān rénxíng bì yǒu wǒ shī) to similar effect and not know that it comes from the writings of Confucius. The phrase literally means “(where) three people walk, (there) must be my teacher (among them)” and means you should be patient and willing to learn from anybody.

Video games

I am almost 50 and I still love playing video games. I am currently using Stadia as my main game playing platform. They are not a huge part of my life, however one of my current side gigs is tutoring a student to help him build his own video game.

Some of my favorite games that I have played and have been addicted to over the years.

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Sprezzatura

Sprezzatura is studied carelessness in your art or the way you dress. It’s a word from the 1500s that means “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.” It’s what a lot of artists strive for when making art or thier fashion.

I struggle with how much I should show process and how much I should conceal. I’m the kind of person who really enjoys trying to take things apart and see how things work. I can sometimes enjoy looking into the process of an artist more than I enjoy the looking at the final finished project.

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Religion vs philosophy

The battle between philosophy and religion – many philosophers throughout the ages have been hung up on this issue. Some doubt that this conflict even exists.

Thales of Miletus is the father of philosophy. He thought the gods were in everything and so everything was in a sense alive, and thus filled with the spirit of (the) god(s). He thought that by understanding the fundamental properties of nature, you would get closer to god(s).

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Quantum physics in everyday life

Quantum physics is really hard to comprehend. They say if you think you understand it, then you don’t. Something about how light is both a particle and a wave? Schrodinger’s cat is both alive and dead? Crazy stuff. I think I understand, but I guess that means I don’t, so I’m not going to even try for this article. But without scientists understanding it, a whole bunch of stuff that you use on a daily basis would not exist.

Toasters

Let’s start with toasters. You know that little wire that heats up red? Everything, no matter what it’s made of – if it doesn’t blow up or disintegrate when heating – will go through the same colors as it heats up. That was the thing that started it all. Scientist were like “WTF? Why is it always the same temperature for the same color no matter what it’s made of?” Max Planck solved this problem and so invented quantum theory.

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Lessons from 2048

I am addicted to the game 2048. I played it when it first came out, and somehow it lodged itself in my head and won’t get unstuck. I’ll play it during meetings, watching TV, or anything that doesn’t require my full attention but requires me to sit still. It’s my digital fidget spinner.

2048 is a simple game. It’s a sliding tile puzzle game where you slide numbered tiles and they double as they combine. The goal is to get the 2048 tile. You can also keep playing after you won and get bigger and bigger numbers.

2048 high score
The highest tile I ever reached is 65,656 and it only took me a little 9 hours 15 minutes, 22 seconds.

It was written in 2014 by Gabriele Cirulli1 in JavaScript and CSS. It’s open-source and it went viral as people started creating their own versions of the game. I wrote one called “50” as a tongue-and-cheek reference to 50 Shades of Gray. I thought it would be funny to make it to go though shades of gray instead of going from grey through red to yellow. Also, instead of doubling and going to 2048, it adds 5 every time and you win at 50.

screenshot of the game 50
I created the game 50 as a 2048 knock off. Aren’t I hilarious?

So what have I learned from obsessively playing the same game for over 8 years? Glad you asked! I thought about it much deeper than one really ought to and came up with these life lessons:

  • The smaller numbers are the most important.
  • Think multiple steps ahead.
  • Consider all the outcomes of your next action.
  • You have to deal with random chance the best you can.
  • It’s just a game. You don’t have to play it.
  • You need different strategies depending on how much you have.
  • If you win and keep going, eventually you lose.
  • Don’t give up until the last minute, because sometimes you can pull a miracle.
  • Doubling quickly gets out of hand.
  • Try to stack as many things as possible to save space.
  • When waiting for a better opportunity, sometimes it never comes.
  • It is possible to play two sides at once, but it weakens both positions.

Hacker

The term came from miniature railroad enthusiasts at MIT. The Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC), formed in 1946, is still going at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the late 50s early 60s, “hacker culture” meant do-it-yourselfers who had a penchant for playing with technology. Today, a lot of people see it as a synonym for cyber-criminal. We have “white hat” hackers or security experts, “black hat” hackers, more akin to cyber-criminals, and “grey hat” hackers who sit somewhere in the middle.

Black Spy and White Spy from Spy vs Spy
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Education

I have done a lot of disparate things over the years, but the main way I have made my money is through teaching. I like to say that I am a teacher because it feeds my addiction to learning. It’s a cliché for a reason, but I find the best way to learn is to teach.

What follows are some lessons I’ve learned about teaching.

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cognitive Dissonance as a self-help tool

Let’s start with a definition:

Cognitive Dissonance: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

Oxford English Dictionary

Cognitive Dissonance is a very uncomfortable feeling. It hurts. It can cause a mental breakdown. It can shorten your life because of the stress it causes. But it can also be a force for good.

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China

I lived in China for a little over 2 years until February 2019. I left when my job was put on hold because of the “Wuhan Virus.” I decided to take a trip to Africa to see how many countries I could see until the whole thing blew over. It turns out that you can see 3 countries and then you go into lock down for half a year, it never blows over, and the virus becomes a pandemic. But that’s another story; maybe I’ll blog it as S for South Africa I posted a little about it here.

China is a big country, just 2% shy of the size of the United States (where I’m from), but with almost 11/2 billion people living in it compared to the the 1/3 billion1 population of my country. And there is some disagreement about what “China” actually is. Without getting too political, The People’s Republic of China as it is currently known, has some disagreement with the rest of the world as to what is and isn’t part of it. The word China itself is a word given to it by the West. Some say it’s not a country, it’s a people.

All this is to say that any generalization about China will be wrong. But I am going to do it anyway. What follows is my very opinionated view of China.

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