Seth's Blog

A few days ago I quoted an editor who works for Rupert Murdoch as saying that journalists care too much about impressing their colleagues and winning prizes and not enough about helping readers. Here is Walter Pincus, a Washington Post reporter, saying the same thing:

Editors have paid more attention to what gains them prestige among their journalistic peers than on subjects more related to the everyday lives of readers. For example, education affects everyone, yet I cannot name an outstanding American journalist on this subject.

I quote this to support the Veblenian view I’ve expressed many times on this blog — that scientists would rather do what gains them prestige among their peers than what helps the rest of us, who support most science. I think it’s hard to understand the success of my self-experimentation (e.g., new ways of losing weight) until you understand this aspect of science. I was successful partly because my motivation was different.

I’ve spent seven months living in Beijing. Since that started (October 2008) I’ve wanted to learn Chinese. I’ve tried many things. Now, finally, I think I’ve found a method that works for part of it (written vocabulary).

There are four aspects:

Content. I’m learning the basic 800-odd words covered in Learning Chinese Characters by Alison and Laurence Mathews, which are those required by a certain standard Chinese Language test (HSK Level A). I use their make-a-story method for each character.

Study Method. I use Anki. It’s like flashcards, but with a near-optimal mix of old and new cards. Comparison of Anki with similar software. When I used actual flashcards, I didn’t do a good job of mixing old and new cards. I found a Anki deck already made for the Mathews book. The Mathews will be glad to know that the (free) Anki deck plus (free) Anki software make their book more valuable. I constantly consult it for help.

Catalyst. I walk on a treadmill to make studying pleasant.

Minimalism. When I told a Chinese friend I was just learning the meaning of each character, not the pronunciation, she frowned. After that I tried to learn the pronunciation, too. But now, trying to learn the pronunciation at the same time, the whole thing goes too slowly. The pronunciation is much harder than the meaning and less useful. Learning just the meaning is much faster and makes the whole thing seem more doable.

More The origin of Anki-like programs. An approach similar to the Mathews’s.

At Berkeley, one of my most unusual students was a psychology major named Sandy Tesch, who by then had risen through Red Cross volunteer ranks to be on their national youth council. A few years later she was head of the youth council. During college, she assumed that after she graduated, she would work for a non-profit. Now, however, she does fund-raising for the UC Berkeley library.

She won a post-graduate fellowship and during her fellowship year she met a woman who worked in fund-raising. She realized she liked it. Why? I asked. Because when you do fund-raising, you’re working with a lot of caring people, she said. They’re like the volunteers she worked with during her Red Cross years. Instead of giving time, they’re giving money.

Peter Hessler on Peace Corps volunteers.

During a 2009 FBI/NYPD raid of a house in Queens

A hazmat team in full protective gear was brought in to investigate a jar of kombucha tea fermenting in the basement.

The police seized a Mao Zedong refrigerator magnet, among other things.

The QuietComfort 15 headphones ($300) are Bose’s newest noise-cancelling headphones. I had two of an earlier model, the QC 2, because when they broke I couldn’t bear to be without one for two weeks. I used them while walking on my treadmill and riding the subway. BART is noisy.

The model numbers went 1, 2, 3, 15. And, yeah, the QC 15 is much better than the QC 2 and QC 3, which were about the same. The first time I wore them on BART, when I got out of the subway I noticed I didn’t feel exhausted, the way I usually did after a subway ride. I felt normal. The noise had been exhausting.