What Does Simple Mean?

Passive Learning is unchallenging and boring.  Active Learning has style and each person's Active Learning Style is unique.


Competency is our ever present goal.  A commonly repeated guideline when things get tough and learning gets hard is, "Keep it simple".   The way to keep things simple, however, may not always be that simple to find.  What is simple for one person may not be simple for another.  What seems simple at a distance may not seem simple close up.  Or the first step may be simple but suddenly the path may not be so simple, once you get halfway down the road.


It is more natural for some people to work from complex to simple and for other people it is more natural to work from simple to complex.  In the world today there is a notion that all complexity can, in fact, be reduced to digital simplicity.  Can the universe itself be entirely represented digitally and digitally reproduced to the last bit? Or is there a complexity in the nature of certain relationships that is ever new and living and that can never be completely known, only learned?  Is there a simplicity that in the end is not found in reductionism but in creativity?

Why Do We Frame Things?

Why do we frame things?  Often because we want to remember them.  We frame special moments in our minds.  Often, we frame our thoughts.  We frame special moments in our experience. Sometimes we quickly take our camera and seek and frame a special moment, event or action in the viewfinder and snap a picture of it.  We also frame what we need to learn when we want to learn something.  

When we frame something we are beginning a process of focusing on something.  We are drawing a line, a frame, around what we will take into consideration, and we are framing out what we will not take into consideration.  This enables us to identify and clarify a subject.  If we want to focus narrowly on a subject we will frame the subject accordingly, framing in what we think is a meaningful background to the subject and framing out what we do not think will help us focus on the subject in the way that we want to.  If we want to focus on a wider subject we will frame our subject in a different way.  If we want to frame a bigger picture, we will frame in a whole field of view and will not focus in on something in a way that creates a sharp distinction between foreground and background.

If we frame what we need to learn for our own personal needs we might find that we are framing them widely but then when wanting to express what we have learned to others find that we are framing the same things narrowly.  On the other hand, we might have our thoughts about what we have learned framed very narrowly but find other people are wanting us to frame the same thoughts much more widely when we try to talk to them about them.  These are examples of how we are regularly involved in framing things.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

The idea that there is an emotional intelligence, one that can be measured, EI vs. IQ, is widely accepted today, even though there is not complete agreement about how to define it or how to measure it. Emotional intelligence is often spoken of in connection with or even identified with social intelligence.

Here is an open question about emotional intelligence:

How can we compare the emotional intelligence found in our open-hearted childhood with the emotional intelligence that comes with age?

I would like to know what you think about this.

If you feel like it, leave a comment.

Thanks for checking in.

Preparing The Heart To Learn

Interior of Rashi's Shul

Based on a Commentary From > Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum > Azamra Institute, Jerusalem
See my comments below each verse > MCK (Max Carl Kirk)
View on my Yahoo Pulse blog
Mellow Wolf Publishing

PROVERBS CHAPTER 16: 1-7


V 1: "The preparations of the heart are man's, but the answer of the tongue is from HaShem." When we arouse ourselves from below (HIS'ORERUS D'L'TATA) and strive to order and better ourselves, this evokes an arousal from Above (HISORERUS D'L'EIYLA).
MCK comment > By His design, God "responds" to the level of our preparation.  For example, He answers our prayers.  When our prayers are more advanced in understanding the answers can be more advanced without hindering our progress in learning and development.
V 2: "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but HaShem weighs the spirits." It is very hard for a person to acknowledge that his attitudes and behavior may be wrong. But God knows the truth as to who is good and who is not (Rashi), for He is INSIDE the spirit/soul of each person. The Hebrew word rendered as "weighs", TOKHEIN, is from the root TOKH, which means "within" (Metzudas David).
MCK comment > We may understand that God is the Parent and Teacher who through love and deep understanding is "inside" the mind of the child, the pupil.  If we understand the verse in this way we can get a glimpse of how it is that God is "inside" everything He made with the power of existence without violating its existence as a creation distinct from Himself.  Because He is "inside" the heart and mind through love, He knows where every heart and every mind stand in need of correction, even when we do not know ourselves.

V 3: "Commit your works to God" – pray to Him about everything you need, and this will give a sound basis to all your thoughts, ideas and plans (Rashi).
MCK comment > Begin all thought with God.  Know that God will guide you.  However you need to orient yourself to learn and to think, with a narrow focus on the facts, or from a vantage point that overviews the whole picture and puts everything into context, know that your Creator desires to accompany you in your effort, to help to give you a clear mind.  Stay with God.  When you reach your conclusion or finish your project, entrust the outcome to Him.  He will lead you forward.

V 4: God made everything to reveal His might and glory – even the evil day that befalls the villain reflects glory on God.
MCK comment > On the day of the last evening we will come individually before our Maker and we will also stand all together as one Humanity before our Maker, and we will learn what we finally need to learn in our correction in the knowledge of good and evil.  Then we will know the extreme joy of that correction, and in all our knowledge we will worship our Creator.

V 7: "When God is pleased with a man's ways, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" – including his own wife! (Bereishis Rabbah 54). If a person wants domestic harmony, the key is for him to serve God.
MCK comment > When the man and the woman rebelled against their Creator the first enemies they made were one another.  As soon as they began to repent toward God they began to be reconciled with one another. Had they not repented toward God at all, where would have their children been?  As their children, we ought always to learn from the consequences of the their wrong choice and follow their example in repenting.  If we all have a life of repenting toward our Creator for the wrong that we do in common, we will live in peace with one another and learn from one another.

via springpadit.com

ThinkingDialogue is a mental attitude that can be generated through the human conscience. It can be most easily generated through an attitude of returning to communion with our Maker.

What Is Privacy, Anyway?

The Private Room by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

Is the meaning or definition of privacy really changing today?  Here is today's Open Question:

What does privacy mean to you?

If you are interested in spending a few minutes with this subject, you might want to check the post called, To Be or Not To Be Private, on this site, or click the post title.

Please comment on the question if you would like.

Thanks for checking in.

To Be or Not to Be Private

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

We, the people, seem to be shooting by the whole issue of privacy on a bullet train.  I know, some people are out there labouring in the fields of the issue of privacy on behalf of us all. But then again, privacy is not just a legal issue or a software issue.  Let's slow down the train for a few minutes.  Here is an excellent reflection on the issue of privacy today that all of us can benefit from taking the time to read.  It was written for those within the Orthodox Jewish community but it is applicable to anyone who has a mind to learn something about this question from our common heritage of ethics.  This brief pdf article has the potential to empower us to start thinking about this in an effective way.  This is certainly a safe site from which to download a pdf file.  Here it is > Do We Need To Know Everything?

If you are interested in this subject, you might want to check out the latest Open Question post about this on this site - or click here > Thinking Dialogue. 

Do Computers Have Mind Styles?

The title for this post is a closed question.  It can have a yes or no answer.  In fact, this particular closed question was not really meant to be answered.  Below you will find an open question.  Open questions are invitations to say much more than just yes or no.

Periodically you will find new open questions posted on this site.  You are invited to respond to these open questions in the Comments section.

Introduction to today's open question:   

Mind styles are about mental operating styles.  There has always been an issue about the way that computers, their operating systems and their other software, engage different kinds of human mental operating styles.  After more than 25 years of efforts to make computers user friendly the issue is still with us.

Here is today's Open Question:
>

What is one or more thing that would make computers, even today, more friendly for you as a user?

What do you think?  Why not share what you think about this in a comment?

If you are interested in this subject and have something to say, we'd love to hear it.  You might also like to have a look at this post on this subject:  TotalFinder +   If you want to go deeper with this subject, have a look here: Computer/Human Dialogue.

Thanks for checking in!