Thursday, November 15, 2012
The nature of time
Time, to me, is simply the rate of change of one thing or system of things relative to the rate of change of a reference set of things, that is it nothing else, it is not another 'dimension'. As individuals we slide through time, having no power whatsoever over time past or time future and constantly live through a fine plane of time present, but time present for us is not necessarily time present for the rest of the universe, now we get complicated so I will stop! [thank god! you may say!]
Friday, September 7, 2012
How to get through exams
Step one: Never take an exam for the benefit or esteem of any one except yourself. You should be taking exams so that you can progress in your metier or to make some money to be independent. Either way you do not have to please anyone except you. Never take exams to impress anyone except yourself.
Step two: Work hard to do as well as you are capable in a sensible and straightforward way. Ask your teachers if you do not understand something, if you do not understand their answers ask someone else, badger people so you understand the salient points and terminology of what you are studying. sometimes it is just a matter of learning the meanings of the terms and words used.
Step three: Try and understand the point of view and thoughts of the setters of the exams and the markers, what is in their minds, look at old exam papers, see if you can solve them, get into their mind sets and fashions.
Step four: Know your stuff! If you neither know it nor understand it then you deserve to fail! No worry! That's how it should be, it is no good getting promoted beyond your ability.
Step five: If you find it difficult to learn something one way try another. Brains vary as to how they understand things and remember them, some people remember best in an auditory way, others in a visual way and others in a practical way etc. The last group have to actually do things and experience them in order to learn. Some people find it easy to learn things by rote others find this impossible [Charles Darwin was one of these!]
Step six: Never blame yourself!!!!!! Blame your teachers, your parents, your grandparents, your fellow trouble making students leading you astray, the circumstances of your life making it difficult to study, the lack of praise you have received from whoever but never ever yourself. Blame the examiner, if appropriate, for setting the wrong paper or failing to see what an excellent candidate you really are [or were!], it is his job to discover you not to find fault. That is not a joke, I mean it. Blaming yourself just leads to a negative and pointless spiral of helplessness, no purpose is being served by being there.
Step two: Work hard to do as well as you are capable in a sensible and straightforward way. Ask your teachers if you do not understand something, if you do not understand their answers ask someone else, badger people so you understand the salient points and terminology of what you are studying. sometimes it is just a matter of learning the meanings of the terms and words used.
Step three: Try and understand the point of view and thoughts of the setters of the exams and the markers, what is in their minds, look at old exam papers, see if you can solve them, get into their mind sets and fashions.
Step four: Know your stuff! If you neither know it nor understand it then you deserve to fail! No worry! That's how it should be, it is no good getting promoted beyond your ability.
Step five: If you find it difficult to learn something one way try another. Brains vary as to how they understand things and remember them, some people remember best in an auditory way, others in a visual way and others in a practical way etc. The last group have to actually do things and experience them in order to learn. Some people find it easy to learn things by rote others find this impossible [Charles Darwin was one of these!]
Step six: Never blame yourself!!!!!! Blame your teachers, your parents, your grandparents, your fellow trouble making students leading you astray, the circumstances of your life making it difficult to study, the lack of praise you have received from whoever but never ever yourself. Blame the examiner, if appropriate, for setting the wrong paper or failing to see what an excellent candidate you really are [or were!], it is his job to discover you not to find fault. That is not a joke, I mean it. Blaming yourself just leads to a negative and pointless spiral of helplessness, no purpose is being served by being there.
Monday, June 25, 2012
SAMPLES OF ONE
'Experience is a very good school but the fees are too high'
Statisticians constantly remind us that samples of one are, for the purposes of evidence, valueless. Everyone knows that a single person tortured in some foul cellar is an abomination and a mark of guilt which should be felt by all humanity which means that cruelty may exist as statistical facts but also has an existence within the soul of God.
In spite of this everyone needs to show respect to the facts of statistics and to avoid giving their personal experiences a value that they do not possess. Human success frequently comes from ignoring personal experiences, accepting that they were 'one off' events and basing their activities and lives on longer term values from the wisdom of others. Books, [including novels] and learning from the experiences from others together with the broad fields of science, arts and philosophy will provide a better basis for a healthy life than introspectin gained from personal experiences.
Statisticians constantly remind us that samples of one are, for the purposes of evidence, valueless. Everyone knows that a single person tortured in some foul cellar is an abomination and a mark of guilt which should be felt by all humanity which means that cruelty may exist as statistical facts but also has an existence within the soul of God.
In spite of this everyone needs to show respect to the facts of statistics and to avoid giving their personal experiences a value that they do not possess. Human success frequently comes from ignoring personal experiences, accepting that they were 'one off' events and basing their activities and lives on longer term values from the wisdom of others. Books, [including novels] and learning from the experiences from others together with the broad fields of science, arts and philosophy will provide a better basis for a healthy life than introspectin gained from personal experiences.
MIZPI
This is a new word I have invented to represent the concept of the extent of things. The life and death of the universe,[and its rebirth], the extent of an individual's thoughts, beliefs or experiences of events, ideas, religions, philosophies; the extent of human suffering at the hands of other humans from the beginnings of time and so on. It is short for 'from minus infinity to zero to plus infinity'[and back again]
In the field of moral philosophy people, of all nations, have used the word 'God' [or synonyms in various languages] to represent infinite good. This word remains useful as representing infinite [and virtual as regards actual human behaviour] goodness with regard to such things as altruism, virtue, honesty, kindness, loyalty etc. There are those who, being made anxious by human venality seek to overcome this problem by exterminating all religion.It is a naive and pointless activity. It would be more useful to ask all people of goodwill, of all religions,atheistic beliefs or invented charismatic ideas to unite towards humility towards their own beliefs and acceptance of the right to exist of those of others, except those beliefs which denies to others the freedom of belief.
In the field of moral philosophy people, of all nations, have used the word 'God' [or synonyms in various languages] to represent infinite good. This word remains useful as representing infinite [and virtual as regards actual human behaviour] goodness with regard to such things as altruism, virtue, honesty, kindness, loyalty etc. There are those who, being made anxious by human venality seek to overcome this problem by exterminating all religion.It is a naive and pointless activity. It would be more useful to ask all people of goodwill, of all religions,atheistic beliefs or invented charismatic ideas to unite towards humility towards their own beliefs and acceptance of the right to exist of those of others, except those beliefs which denies to others the freedom of belief.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Advice on presenting speeches
Public speaking is an important skill, it can be learned, not to become a famous orator but just to get your point across to an audience. Make a decision: ‘ I will learn to be a competent public speaker even though I can never become a very good one, I will practice and do my best to be competent.’ A lot of it you can practice on your own but you do need to do some practice with an audience.
Basis is simple, accept fear, be brave, determination overcomes fear, stand up straight, very upright, back very straight, face the audience, do not bend forward, if you are reading from a paper hold it high so you are still facing everyone, look at individuals in the audience near the back and speak to one individual at a time; speak VERY slowly, in short phrases with pauses after every phrase, they do not need to be full sentences.
You need to know how big the room is you are working to and get some one to stand that distance away and see if they can hear you. Open your mouth well as if you are singing, try not to let your voice get too shrill, just your natural timbre. Treat it as an opportunity to increase your self confidence not as some sort of threat. Even if you are giving your speech from memory still have it on paper in front of you, single lines to each phrase, double spacing. it should be written out as your thought processes go not in sentences. Try and make your voice rise and fall to give meaning to the words, as if it was poetry.
Basis is simple, accept fear, be brave, determination overcomes fear, stand up straight, very upright, back very straight, face the audience, do not bend forward, if you are reading from a paper hold it high so you are still facing everyone, look at individuals in the audience near the back and speak to one individual at a time; speak VERY slowly, in short phrases with pauses after every phrase, they do not need to be full sentences.
You need to know how big the room is you are working to and get some one to stand that distance away and see if they can hear you. Open your mouth well as if you are singing, try not to let your voice get too shrill, just your natural timbre. Treat it as an opportunity to increase your self confidence not as some sort of threat. Even if you are giving your speech from memory still have it on paper in front of you, single lines to each phrase, double spacing. it should be written out as your thought processes go not in sentences. Try and make your voice rise and fall to give meaning to the words, as if it was poetry.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Speech making, panic attacks and over breathing
Having to give any sort of performance to a group of people can be threatening. It is a very variable thing depending on such things as basic genetic personality factors, acquired factors, such as damaged external appearance, being, for one reason or another outside your peer group [vide Albert Camus 'The Outsider’ or ‘L’Etranger’], carrying a history which you are conscious of but unsure how much others know or believe,and so on.
There are huge differences, one from another, in terms of how these things play out in practice. There are those who welcome public performance and only feel they come to life in these circumstances, the challenge and the performance they find thrilling and pleasurable, unfortunately some can find ordinary life a boring thing. Here we are interested in those who find public performance to be threatening to the point of pain.
Panic attacks and the problem of nervous over breathing are often treated as synonymous, it is not so in truth, ‘panic attacks’ is a general term indicating incapacitating disability relating to particular life demands, over breathing is one symptom of panic attacks which is common and disabling so we will deal with that.
Over breathing is an extension of the common reflex reaction to difficult circumstances; ‘the sigh’. We all sigh at times, it is natural. Over breathing or ‘air hunger’, is a situation where the person feels very short of breath and cannot ‘get enough air’ even though they have no disorder of the cardiorespiratory system or have exercised enough to explain the problem. It is often linked to ‘adrenaline rush’ situations which,biologically prepare the body for ‘fight or flight’.
A commonly suggested remedy is to breathe in and out of a brown paper bag applied to the mouth and nose. The idea behind this is carbon dioxide loss which can cause muscular twitching and spasms [‘tetany’] which can be disabling, this is a result of the over breathing but soon becomes a cause of further panic because of the symptoms caused. When I practiced as a GP I advised people to throw away their paper bag because this management, in the long term augments rather than solves the problem. the first step is to explain to the patient the underlying causation and physiology of the problem including the effects of CO2 loss from the bloodstream via the lungs, and next to explain a rational way out of the difficulty such that the patient is in control of their own difficulties. I never needed to refer on to specialists with this system. It is necessary to teach the patient systems of muscular and mind relaxation which they can put into operation immediately, controlling their rate of breathing whilst realising that this was a stress reaction and not a physical illness.
Once over breathing as a problem is under control then one can turn to things that cause panic; there are two basic approaches, either can be valid depending on cicumstances. the first is to avoid the threatening situations, we all do this, often unconsciously,and there is nothing wrong with it if it does not disrupt normal life. If this is not practicable or unwanted then the next approach can be understood by the phrase ‘gradual familiarisation’, this can be done by oneself or with the aid of a psychologist or some other trained person. It entails doing the thing that is threatening in a very graduated manner with’ if necessary very tiny moves forward but for this to work it must be applied on a daily basis; give a speech on your own, give one to one trusted friend, two trusted friends etc etc until, like Winston Churchill you come down the steps of some important building in Washington after talks with president Truman just after the end of WWll and address the waiting world press with the following words: ‘I wonder if you could spare a few moments of your valuable time to hear about the results of the discussions between myself and President Truman?’ It turned out that ’Yes’, the pressmen could spare a few moments of their valuable time for that purpose. Speech making is to some extent a gift but the more one shows warmth and concern for others then the easier it is.
There are huge differences, one from another, in terms of how these things play out in practice. There are those who welcome public performance and only feel they come to life in these circumstances, the challenge and the performance they find thrilling and pleasurable, unfortunately some can find ordinary life a boring thing. Here we are interested in those who find public performance to be threatening to the point of pain.
Panic attacks and the problem of nervous over breathing are often treated as synonymous, it is not so in truth, ‘panic attacks’ is a general term indicating incapacitating disability relating to particular life demands, over breathing is one symptom of panic attacks which is common and disabling so we will deal with that.
Over breathing is an extension of the common reflex reaction to difficult circumstances; ‘the sigh’. We all sigh at times, it is natural. Over breathing or ‘air hunger’, is a situation where the person feels very short of breath and cannot ‘get enough air’ even though they have no disorder of the cardiorespiratory system or have exercised enough to explain the problem. It is often linked to ‘adrenaline rush’ situations which,biologically prepare the body for ‘fight or flight’.
A commonly suggested remedy is to breathe in and out of a brown paper bag applied to the mouth and nose. The idea behind this is carbon dioxide loss which can cause muscular twitching and spasms [‘tetany’] which can be disabling, this is a result of the over breathing but soon becomes a cause of further panic because of the symptoms caused. When I practiced as a GP I advised people to throw away their paper bag because this management, in the long term augments rather than solves the problem. the first step is to explain to the patient the underlying causation and physiology of the problem including the effects of CO2 loss from the bloodstream via the lungs, and next to explain a rational way out of the difficulty such that the patient is in control of their own difficulties. I never needed to refer on to specialists with this system. It is necessary to teach the patient systems of muscular and mind relaxation which they can put into operation immediately, controlling their rate of breathing whilst realising that this was a stress reaction and not a physical illness.
Once over breathing as a problem is under control then one can turn to things that cause panic; there are two basic approaches, either can be valid depending on cicumstances. the first is to avoid the threatening situations, we all do this, often unconsciously,and there is nothing wrong with it if it does not disrupt normal life. If this is not practicable or unwanted then the next approach can be understood by the phrase ‘gradual familiarisation’, this can be done by oneself or with the aid of a psychologist or some other trained person. It entails doing the thing that is threatening in a very graduated manner with’ if necessary very tiny moves forward but for this to work it must be applied on a daily basis; give a speech on your own, give one to one trusted friend, two trusted friends etc etc until, like Winston Churchill you come down the steps of some important building in Washington after talks with president Truman just after the end of WWll and address the waiting world press with the following words: ‘I wonder if you could spare a few moments of your valuable time to hear about the results of the discussions between myself and President Truman?’ It turned out that ’Yes’, the pressmen could spare a few moments of their valuable time for that purpose. Speech making is to some extent a gift but the more one shows warmth and concern for others then the easier it is.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Music to work to
These are a few ideas for finding good music to work to from a personal point of view, the list will show my age and perhaps my personality.
The sort of work you are doing alters the best music that will suit as an accompaniment to life.
When I am reading in order to study or memorise I need a quiet, complex style, I find this actively helps me to concentrate and remember; to learn and understand it is essential to relax, giving a state of mindful alertness not troubled by extraneous, irrelevant thoughts. This state of being relaxed, untroubled but giving full concentration is necessary in a lot of sports and careers as well, it is not always easy to conjure up, particularly when motivation is either too high or too low or distractions too dominant. Music can tell you how to do it.
I like various musicians in all genres from pop, rock and roll to jazz and classical, but not all at the same time!
Considering quiet concentration then I find classical chamber music, solo pieces or quiet reflective jazz suits me best.
I will start with some jazz suggestions;
Just a list of names,[it all depends on what is available so I do not want to go into much detail about individual pieces or records, just try them and see]; Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Claude Hopkins, Buddy Tate, Joe Thomas[these last three on a wonderful old vinyl called ‘Let’s Jam’] Errol Garner, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Tubby Hayes.........; there are lots of contemporary jazz musicians to explore as well.
Coming to Classical music there is one, must have, record as a starter to a contemplative collection, this is J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites, all the top cellists get this on record so get yourself more than one, they are all a little different. To my mind Bach’s solo and chamber music often has the natural beauty of mathematics and the nature of the universe within its patterns of sound.
I particularly recommend solo piano music as brain food, in forms such as the sonata; Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin alone provide a wealth of study. Chopin called his solo pieces by various names, having meaning to experts, such as Etudes, Nocturnes etc, I have yet to discover any thing he composed which was not beautiful and lucid. I can still remember first listening to the late Beethoven string quartets and his late piano sonatas when I was studying medecine at he age of nineteen. There are very many string quartets, sometimes with inclusion of piano, clarinet etc as a quintet, lots of them feed the brain and set it moving in the right direction.
Another genre to try is church music, English composers such as; Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Henry Purcell and Vaughan Williams all have wonderful contemplative music to their names.
If something with a little more force is needed then try concertos,[piano, violin, clarinet et]c by all the great composers.
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