elegation's posterous - Filed under 'book'

June 15, 2009

In Pursuit of Elegance [book]

I read In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing by Matthew E. May last week while on Vacation.

It started slow, but the ideas captured my attention, and the theme came together nicely by the final chapter. I continue to see the concepts throughout my daily life, including symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability.

Intelligent Traffic Design

Filed under // book design elegance fractals matthew may simplicity traffic

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April 12, 2009

Guns Germs and Steel Author on the Evolution of Religions

His best selling book sounded interesting, and sat on my bookshelf for 3 years before I donated it to a local library.

For some reason I could not breakthrough and read it. Perhaps a lecture by Jared Diamond is more interesting?

Here he is talking about the Evolution of Religions

Filed under // author book evolution lecture religion

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March 1, 2009

How To Wow

Book I'm currently reading:

How To Wow by Frances Cole Jones

So far, its not bad. I have a few presentations coming up for work I need to prepare for, and unprepared public speaking is my greatest fear.

Filed under // book frances cole jones how to wow marketing recommended

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February 15, 2009

Dalai lama bedside reading.

I have been reading a few pages of this book each night prior to bed. Best passage this far: "feeling the impact of interrelatedness"

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // book Dalai Lama

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August 30, 2008

Metaphors We Live By

I have been a big fan of Lakoff since undergrad. I found him by chance in the local bookstore near Champaign. The ideas he and Johnson bring forth in Philosophy in the Flesh (actual text available in this link via googlebooks).
have altered my thought process, and I feel there is potential to study and apply these theories to enhance our lives in many areas. Lakoff himself has been carrying the water on applying metaphorical thinking to the progressive movement. It is obvious Obama has been using narratives and metaphors quite well in his campaign, as described in an earlier post. I believe these theories can be applied to medicine, human behavior, and human communication.

Recent posts I found on blogs around the world about Metaphors We Live By

1. I found this post on the blog "Labour and Capital"

"Surprising isn't it that we use loads of different expressions based around one metaphor? That leads on to one of the fundamental arguments in the book - that metaphors are not merely linguistic devices, they are conceptual. We don't just use the 'theories are buildings' metaphor to get across our message, we actually think and act in those terms too."

2. Getting things done: applied metaphors - Productive Flourishing Blog
"But the more fundamental point about metaphors is that they have a powerful effect on our behavior. Since our behavior is partly determined by how we think about things, changing metaphors can have a powerful effect of changing behavior. Another important fact to remember is that metaphors do their work below the cognitive level - we don't think about the associations, yet we act on those associations."

3. Dan Ward's mind is blown - blog post
"I liken it to watching The Matrix (or, more precisely, actually being in the movie The Matrix and discovering that reality isn't what I thought it was)."

He goes on to ponder what changing a common metaphor, "more is up" to "more is heavy" would do to our thinking:

"I wonder if our society would be less consumeristic if we used the MORE IS HEAVY metaphor instead of MORE IS UP. Certainly, many spiritual traditions (Christianity & Buddhism in particular) talk about wealth and possessions in a MORE IS HEAVY metaphor, in which we are burdened down by an excessive accumulation of stuff."

A longer list of metaphors is available here. Religious figures use metaphors to help get their point across, see parables.

Clear applications in the medical setting would include:

Altering Metaphors, relaying new or activating helpful metaphors in depression to bring the patient out of depression.
Using a metaphor to relay difficult medical language to everyday language (ie. the hearts "plumbing vs electrical" problem to explain CAD vs arrythmia)
Applying "Life is a journey" to end of life discussions.
Creating the complex metaphor: "Your hospital stay is a journey" to help patients, staff, students, computer programmers for medical software, hospital administration to be "on the same page" and facilitate good, safe, and cost effective care.

I will flesh out #4 and create a separate post, and perhaps a clearer mindset to share with you all (hopefully) soon.

Filed under // book George Lakoff Lakoff Mark Johnson metaphor philosophy

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July 30, 2008

Steven pinker

Book I saw in the store I was considering to buy. I loved his book "how the mind works"

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // book iphone photo steven pinker

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July 30, 2008

What are you putting off out of fear?

From the book 4 hour workweek, on idea has been resonating in my head the last few days. I scanned the previous 100 pages looking for the quote: page46

"what are you putting off out of fear? Usually, what we fear most is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action may be -- it is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. "

He goes on to a solution and challenge --

"define the worst case, accept it, and do it. What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing everyday that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous business people for advice."

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // 4 hr workweek book gtd inspiration

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July 22, 2008

My new pocket handbook -concise cardiology

Sent from my iPhone

Filed under // book cardiology iphone photo Medicine recommended

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