Stung Eye

Philosophy, Physics, and Teaching

The audio lectures I’ve been enjoying this month.

Physics and Philosophy: Arguments, Experiments and a Few Things in Between
University of Oxford

Exploring links between our scientific and philosophical understanding of the world. Six 10-25 minute discussions on “the nature of space and time, the unpredictable results of quantum mechanics and their surprising consequences and perhaps most fundamentally, the nature of the mind and how far science can go towards explaining and understanding it.”

Audio Files or iTunes

General Philosophy
University of Oxford

An eight-week chronological view of the history of western philosophy delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students. Thirty-three 10-20 minute lectures.

Audio files or iTunes

Teaching and Learning

• What I wish I had known about teaching when I started - Frédéric Mégret - McGill - iTunes (track 1)
• Teaching for Learning - Jennifer Summit - Stanford - iTunes (track 37)

Other audio lectures I have enjoyed:

• Reading and listening in 2012
• Reading and listening in 2011

Reading and Listening in 2012

I read eighteen books this year, two more than in 2011. This was a comfortable number of reads. For the most part I bought the books second hand or they were given to me. Two of the books were read on my Kobo, the rest were deadtree.

Books Read in 2012.

Shown in bold: where I bought the book, or who I got it from.

• Imperial Earth - Arthur C. Clarke [Value Village]
• Alligator - Lisa Moore [Dad]
• Solaris - Stanislaw Lem [Grace Hospital Sale]
• The Ruby in the Smoke - Philip Pullman [Grace Hospital Sale]
• Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut [Value Village]
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins [Mom]
  • The Hunger Games
  • Catching Fire
  • Mockingjay
• Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [Value Village]
• Freedom - Jonathan Franzen [Sister]
• A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
  • A Game of Thrones [Alan, coworker]
  • A Clash of Kings [kobo ebook]
  • A Storm of Swords [kobo ebook]
• The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov [Value Village]
• Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro [Value Village]
• Wake - Robert J. Sawyer [Grace Hospital Sale]
• Reality is Broken - Jane McGonigal [Library]
• The Skull Beneath the Skin - P.D. James [Value Village]

No duds again this year. I am especially thankful to Arthur C. Clarke for introducing me to Pentominos.

Currently reading:

• The Confusion - Neal Stephenson [Amazon]
• The Annotated Turing - Charles Petzold [Amazon]
• Eloquent Ruby - Russ Olsen (Re-Reading) [RRC Desk Copy]

Audio Lectures

In 2012 I listened to 23 hours of lectures across two courses. Most of these lectures were heard while running or walking with Acelyn in her stroller in various parks around Amsterdam.

• Justice with Michael Sandel
• Philosophy of Death with Shelly Kagan

I cannot recommend these enough, both for the content and the delivery by Sandel and Kagan. Both courses are available for free in audio or video format.

Happiness in a Broken Reality

I picked up Jane McGonigal’s Reality is Broken from the library last week. I’m about halfway through it. It’s a book about harnessing “the power of games to solve real-world problems and boost global happiness.” In 2010 when I watched Jane’s TED talk Gaming Can Make a Better World I was sceptical, but the arguments she makes in the book are compelling. I won’t get into those here. Instead, I want to highlight her thoughts on fuelling your own happiness:

“There are many ways to be happy, but we cannot find happiness. No object, no event, no outcome or life circumstance can deliver real happiness to us. We have to make our own happiness — by working hard at activities that provide their own reward. One of the chief reasons for the durability of self-made happiness is that unlike happiness derived from extrinsic sources, it is hard won. You devoted time and effort… You made it happen, and you have the ability to make it happen again. This sense of capability and responsibility is a powerful boost in and of itself. We must learn to rely less on short-lived external rewards and take control of our own happiness. In this way we become better able to protect and strengthen our quality of life. When the source of positive emotion is yourself, it can continue to yield pleasure. When the source of positive emotion is yourself, it is renewable.” — Jane McGonigal (Slightly paraphrased.)

She then goes on to explain what she believes are the keys to self-made happiness:

• Satisfying work, every single day. The definition of which is different for everyone, but it basically means being immersed in clearly defined, demanding activities that allow us to see the direct impact of our efforts.
• The experience, or at least the hope, of being successful. We want (need) to be optimistic about our own chances for success and feel like we are working towards that goal.
• Social connection. ‘nuff said.
• Meaning, or the chance to be a part of something larger than ourselves.

Be happy my friends.