The Modern Davincian

The Socialist Restaurant

2018-02-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a restaurant owner who had an interesting idea.
"You know what's really effective," he thought, "economies of scale!"
"If I can provide everyone with the same meal that dish could be produced in bulk and like wise made faster and less expensive.
His eyes lit up as he declared, "That's it!! I'm going to run my restaurant as a socialist democracy."

The night came to try the new concept. It was well advertised and a large diverse crowd gathering to try this new concept.
The plan was simple. Everyone would vote for the one dish the chef would prepare for the whole group.
The owner showed all the amazing selections and everyone oohed and awed at the deluxe options anxiously waiting to see what dish would be chosen.
Just before it was time to vote someone in the crowd raised their hand and when called on declared, "Um, I have a peanut allergy. Could we take that into account?"
"It's OK, we will take peanuts off the menu," agreed the owner.
"I'm lactose intolerant," shouted another, "and that means I can't have anything with cheese."
Everyone moaned.
"No, no, that's alright," said the owner, "we need to be considerate. We'll take cheese off the menu."
"I'm a muslim. It is forbidden for me to eat pork," came another voice followed by someone else shouting, "What?! This is America!! Here we eat pork!"
Which then spiraled everyone into a heated debate about immigration, Islam, religious rights and who's ancestors did what to ruin the world throughout history.
"Well I'm vegan and an animal rights activist and we shouldn't be eating meat anyway."
Which then led to even more heated debate. Things almost got violent as some argued even the suggestion of certain foods should be deemed hate speech and certain groups should be physically removed from the restaurant.
Many started leaving anyway. Only a fraction of the crowd was left when the owner locked the doors to keep everyone else from leaving. The only items left to vote on were bread, white rice or a bowl of lettuce. The bowl of lettuce won by getting 34% of the vote and actually no one really wanted to eat a bowl of lettuce.
When the lettuce came some suggested to the owner that he bring out some salad dressing to put on the lettuce.
"That's a great idea," shouted the owner, "now let's vote on which salad dressing."

Does this story remind you of other things we do? What are your thoughts? Please comment below, share and subscribe. One point if you do one of the three. Three points if you do two of them and six points if you do all three.
If you liked this post try the following

You Don't Have to Do Your Homework

The Stupidity Paradox

Relationships are negotiations
https://themoderndavincian.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-dont-have-to-do-your-homework.html Try this book to better your life

Planting Seeds Literaly and Figurativaly

2012-04-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Just recently I felt motivated to try growing my own food so I bought some seeds from a convenience store. Since I had not grown anything in many years I felt uncertain. It seemed like a nice idea to have these plants growing good fruits and vegetables without any preservatives or insecticides, but would it actually work. At first it felt like I was just pouring water on dirt. I had to be faithful and keep watering them everyday even though I wasn't seeing any results.

At one point when I was feeling down and didn't feel like life was very purposeful and meaningful I went to water the plants and noticed the Tomato seed had now sprouted above the surface. The strawberry plant was coming up a little bit as well. I thought, "Wow, this actually does work." Then I thought, "If it paid off to keep pouring water on the dirt faithfully, what other things in life feel like I'm just pouring water on dirt, but I have to stay faithful in order to see the seeds grow."

Some of the greatest things in life start off with someone feeling like they're pouring water on dirt. The greatest novels ever written started off as just someone idea that they were trying to get down on paper. They couldn't be sure it was going to become a classic. When you're trying to get a job you have to send out resumes and hope that they land you an interview. But even with a job it's immediate gratification compared to things people do to earn residual income. If things get really bad people will be out searching for a job for several months, but often the great projects that gave people a life time of residual income took years of development before they saw results. A study found that a group of wealthy business owners attempted to start 18 different businesses on average before finding the one that finally worked.

It's often the faithfulness and patience that sets the very successful people apart from everyone else. Perhaps it's their stubbornness (their unwillingness to give up) that gives them such success. So I remind myself to always act with faithfulness and purpose even when I feel I'm just pouring water on dirt.

The Storyteller's Guidebooks

2012-04-03T06:14:00.003-07:00

I'm working on a series of nonfiction books about story arts. The first book will just be an introduction to story arts called, "The Storyteller's Guidebook". To push myself to keep up on it, I've posting the chapters on the internet as I write them and using a chapter a week with my current drama class.

The idea behind the series is to show how a story project goes from conception to finished product. Story projects include such things as films, plays, computer games and theme park rides. The idea is that those medias are not completely different. Though there are differences, many things you learn about theatre craft also applies to film making and vice versa. And what you learn about both of those can apply to role playing, murder mystery parties, computer games, and such. Story arts is the discipline of learning to work with stories. The books will typically follow a standard path from conception to production. They'll start by teaching about creative thinking. From their we'll go into story elements such as character design, settings and story structure. Once the reader has learned about how to create a great story, the next chapters tell how to give life to the story through concept art and performance skills such as acting, dance and music. The last chapters will talk about how to add the final details to the story project through more technical things like lighting, set design and costuming.

The first book will be a general introduction to story arts. The idea is for later books to have a more specific theme. Some ideas being considered are;

The Storyteller's Guidebook to Horror
The Storyteller's Guidebook to Fairytales
The storyteller's Guidebook to Science Fiction
The storyteller's Guidebook to Steampunk
The storyteller's Guidebook to Mythology

and then maybe some more specific ideas

The Storyteller's Guidebook to The Iliad
The Storyteller's Guidebook to The Ramayana
The Storyteller's Guidebook to Middle Earth

The idea is that each book would go into more detail related to the given topic and also the other chapters would be themed to the topic. So for example in "The Storyteller's Guidebook to the Ramayana," when you get to the chapter about dance it would teach about an ancient Indian style of dance while the dance chapter in "The Storyteller's Guidebook to Gothic Horror," would teach about waltz.
So here's what we have so far;

Intro to The Storyteller's Guidebook

2012-01-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the Introduction to the "Storyteller's Guidebook". A book about story arts and how to create a story project.

Through these pages you enter a quest for knowledge. A journey to understand a very important role that goes back probably before recorded history. Before recorded time there were some that kept memories alive and even dreamed of a better, fantastic future. These were the storytellers. For thousands of years the Storytellers have sewn the threads that hold culture together. The oldest story known today comes from a place called Mesopotamia about five thousands years ago. The first stories where spoken to people, but when writing was started in Mesopotamia, stories could be read by people who never knew the storyteller. People who lived far away or where born long after their death. In Greece people started to sing and act out stories. This became what we call Theatre today. Since then many types of Theatre developed. In ballets people would tell stories through dance and in Operas people would tell stories by singing. In China they started using shadows and puppets to tell stories.

Another invention in china was printing. Printing allowed people to make many copies of stories and pictures without having to redraw and rewrite everything. Today stories can be told through movies, theme parks, video games, CDs and the list goes on. No one knows what the future will bring. Perhaps you will be a part of making it happen.

Great storytellers have always served a noble purpose beyond just entertaining. The storytellers considered deep questions of philosophy and morality and helped people imagine that there is a magical world of possibilities far beyond our own. I believe this is still the role of a storyteller today.

Most people know very little about the past or think what the future is going to be like. By thinking about these things we can think about our own world as if we were someone from a different time or place and we can see what’s wrong with it or simply how it could be better. This is the job of storytellers.

If a storyteller is to hold a profound influence on our culture then they must have a depth of understanding in many things. They must know what to tell stories about, and therefore must be familiar with history, geography, the earth, the cosmos, themselves and their society. They must draw from the past as they prepare for the future. Most of all they should know themselves and the values they want to bring into the world.

Today, storytelling no longer just means talking in front of people. The storyteller can be found in many places expressing their ideas in many ways. They can master puppetry, be a cartoonist, design theme park rides, program computer games or star in a motion picture. They can be anything from a dancer to a sculptor to a writer.

If you are helping to share stories in some way, either your own or others, then you are taking on the very special role of a storyteller. This book takes you on a journey to explore how a person's mind can develop stories, how stories are woven together and how they can be expressed through various talents and mediums. Perhaps these pages will spark in you a burning desire to express your own stories. Don’t be afraid. You can become a bringer of joy, a keeper of memories a creator of dreams, a voice of truth and righteousness; you can become a storyteller!

For more info about the author go to wadehawkins.info

The Toy Maker Adventures Chapter 3

2012-01-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

The great steampunk legend of magic and clock work wizardry continues.

CHAPTER 3 A STRANGE TOY

If you haven't read Chapter 1 click here

For Chapter 2 Click here

As Fritz woke up, he looked around the room afraid he would find the body of the librarian. What was he doing here in the middle of the night with a knife in his hand? When his eyes came back around to the bench he saw a strange thing looking back at him. It was a bizarre and grotesque creature: a wooden troll with squinting eyebrows and a long pointed nose: not the sort of thing that usually came from his imagination. In his hand, he felt the same soreness that he usually felt when he had been carving something for a long time and all around the troll he saw wood shreds. Fritz dropped the knife in terror. How could he carve something in his sleep and such a horrible thing as well?

Suddenly the thing’s eyes seemed to open and roll around in its sockets. Then the mouth started to open and shut. Fritz jumped back in terror and fell over his chair

"Greetings," came the hideous gravely voice.

Fritz, startled, gave out a huge yelp. He quickly looked all around the room and found himself still alone.

"Greetings," came the goblin voice again.

"Oh, um, um, greetings," he said, always wanting to be polite, but unsure how one acts polite to a toy troll.

"The hideous creature is not from your imagination! I am a part of you."

“How is this possible? This can’t be right,” said Fritz.

"Master give you dream and cause you to make me."

"King Imilias? Why would he do that?"

"No! Master is greater than king. Master lives in far off land. Master wants to see you. Master gives you dream so you can create me. Now I show you where master live. Your path filled with great dangers and trials. Much darkness you see before the end."

"But that can’t be possible. The world outside has been destroyed."

“Lies!”

“What. You can’t say something like that. The king is not a liar. He took care of us after our parents destroyed the world.”

“Lies!”

“No you, you’re lying. You’re a toy and I shouldn’t be having a conversation with a toy. This is a lie. My imagination is lying.”

“Lies! Lies! Lies!”

“Stop saying that you thing that should not exist!” yelled Fritz as he plugged his ears.

“Great journey lay ahead; a prison of time, a battle with air. The flute plays, a man falls. When mother moon lowers her watery gate they will pass through rock of fire. With a doll it begins when she's a doll it ends."

"What is all this. You're speaking nonsense."

"You will see. Remember this; Malivari and the child sanctuary number 214.66”

Fritz mumbled that number to himself and wrote it down.

“Who dares wake the librarian!”

“I’m so sorry I was just talking to the wooden troll.”

The old man looked at Fritz and chuckled. The wooden troll sat silently on the bench. “ah, getting in touch with your dark side. Well, he’s very interesting young man. Now you should get some ‘’sleep and stay out of trouble.”

“I must seem crazy. Actually, I probably am crazy. I would swear he was talking.”

“Oh, I’m sure. If you could just ask him to keep the volume down, I would be grateful. Goodnight.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Fritz, “goodnight.”

At that, Fritz went to bed trying to rid his mind of any wondering thoughts of strange people in far off lands. Granted Fritz Kindermocher did not sleep well that night. How he wanted to destroy the strange wooden troll, but that idea frightened him more than any. He couldn't remember ever having destroyed anything in his life and found the toy far too frightening to exterminate.

There he lay all night in bed unable to sleep. The hours continued to go by. He had never encountered so much night in all his life, but how could he sleep. He was afraid of what he might do in his sleep and he was just as afraid of what he might encounter while awake. And there stood the horrible toy on his dresser. All he could do was watch the toy and wonder what it might do as he heard the clock ticking away the hours. All he could look at in the room was the clock and the troll. One small candle lit the creature’s face. He could tell it was an especially big storm outside and this night everything in the room seemed to create strange shadows that danced across the ceiling like dark ancient phantoms waiting for him to fall asleep to come alive. The only sounds heard were the horrible and oppressive ticking of the clock and the rumble of the storm. As the hours past the clock seemed to get louder and louder and faster and faster.

He tried to sleep but,

The clock got louder.

The troll was silent but,

The clock got louder.

He tried to cover his ears, but it was no use,

The clock got louder and faster and louder

And faster and louder and faster.

Then SILENCE

The troll's eyes opened and a strange voice came out. It was a deep man's voice that sounded like the very voice of his own shadow, “Fritz Kindermocher, I have been waiting for you.”

The window burst open and Fritz woke up suddenly gasping.

* * *

That morning Fritz knew he would have to ask the librarian to see what, “Malivari and the child sanctuary 214.66” meant. He would also have to tell the king about this. He didn’t want to get in extra trouble for keeping this a secret from the king.

To be continued To learn more about the author go to WadeHawkins.info

When Discouraged, Start Counting

2012-01-08T16:12:00.001-08:00

This article is a sequel to a previous article called, Don't be Sad be Mathematical. Click on the title if you'd live to read that first.
I'll start by pointing out the obvious and lead into the less obvious. The obvious thing is that failures are discouraging. When we get our hopes up about something that we want to do, but then discover we can't do it the first few times we try, it makes us want to give up. The thing to keep in mind is that many accomplishments take trial and error. Consider how much work it took Edison to invent the light bulb.
So here's how I handle situations in which I want to accomplish something that can get me discouraged. I call it the E/R ratio.
Effort/Results E stands for effort and R stands for results. It's basically the same idea as a batting average. I'll start counting all my efforts and see how many times I need to try at something to get a result. So let's say after sending out ten job applications I get two interviews.
Effort/Results
10 trys/2 interviews
10/2=5
When time comes around for me to apply again I'll figure it will probably take another five applications to get an interview. Of course it's not exact, but you get an average. The more attempts, the more reliable your ER will be.
You see effort that leads to a predictable outcome is more motivating than an effort toward an unpredictable outcome. If the average person needs money they'll look for a job rather than investing in stock. Both are ways to make money, but earning a salary through employment is more reliable. By keeping track of my ER I turn something unpredictable into something predictable.
Many goals involve success through several stages. For example finding a job involves sending out enough resumes to get an interview and getting enough interviews to get a job offer. The trick is to break your goals into the smallest stages you can and keep track of your ER for each stage. So you keep track of how many resumes you need to submit to get an interview and how many interviews lead to a job offer.
You can also find a combo ER. So for example imagine your ER for getting an interview is five and your ER for getting a job offer once you have an interview is four. You can multiply all the ERs to get your combo ER.

(First ER) X (Second ER) = Combo ER
(Resumes/Interview ) X (Interview/Job offer) = Resume/Job offer
4 X 5 = 20
So with this example you can figure it will take about 20 resumes to get a job. That's not so bad. You could use this same formula to figure out what it will take to find a life partner, become a movie star, earn a living online, run a successful business and so on.
I gave an example with two stages, but there could be a lot more stages to get through when reaching for your goals. Keep the stages as easy as possible and have as many as you need. It's better to break a really large goal into a large amount of easy stages than to break it down into only a few really difficult ones. If you're keeping a low enough ER than keep trying and stay the course. If your ER gets too high then consider taking time to learn ways of working at it more efficiently. If it's taking more than five resumes to get an interview, then consider whether you have to improve your resume. Of course it also depends on how ambitious a job you're going for is.
This also works well if you need to experiment with different potential methods for meeting the same goal. You can compare and see which one gives you a lower ER. Take dating as an example. Is it more efficient to meet people online or by going to events. Do you get to know better potentials faster by going to the bar or by working as a volunteer. You can easily figure this out by comparing the ERs.
For more about the author and the work he's doing go to wadehawkins.info

Relationships are Negotiations

2012-01-06T22:32:00.001-08:00

It's true. When you buy something it's a very short term, simple relationship. It involves both parties trading something they're willing to sacrifice in exchange for something they want. You sacrifice some money and they sacrifice the product you seek. Both of you end up with the thing you want more, so both people come out ahead. In "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," Steven Covey describes this as the win/win solution.
What if the price is too high relative to the quality of the product. Some people get really angry and accuse the merchant of trying to rip people off. I think such a reaction is rude and inappropriate. A price tag is simply an offer to trade. If you don't like the offer you can either give a counter offer or don't buy it and look for something else. I don't even care if someone is selling used bubble gum for $1,000. I'll just laugh and keep walking. Usually people get upset because it's something they really want, but at a price they're not willing to pay. I'm afraid my response to such situations is too bad. You can't expect someone to give you what you want without providing what they want. You can try to renegotiate, but if that's not enough then you have to decide if the price is worth it or not. It has to be a win/win solution or some one is loosing.
There are terms for people who seek something a "I win/you can lose" solution. Those who try to find such a solution by yelling, demanding or whining are called "spoiled.". If someone uses lies they're considered a crook or if someone uses threats and intimidation they're a bully. They might push someone into an unhappy agreement, but at the cost of they're reputation.
Friendships and even intimate relationships are similar to customer/merchant relationships, but just more complex. Now even though it's more complex, the basic factors still apply. You're still trading. You still make sacrifices in exchange for what you want and the goal is still a win/win solution.
We say it's not right to value friends for what they can do for you, but in reality on some level that is why we have a relationship with them. Why would you seek out a relationship with someone that doesn't add some value to your life. The problem comes when people are dishonest about their intentions in a relationship. Just as mentioned above, sometimes people enter in very intimate relationships and even marriages that aren't win/win. Sometimes people are close friends or even "romantically" involved as a product of threats, lies or manipulation. Often in romantic relationships people are convinced that because of gender roles that somehow it's not supposed to be a win/win relationship. Either they think their gender is supposed to get all the benefits without any responsibility or they're convinced that they have to sacrifice all of their needs for their duty to the other gender. I've known it to go both ways. I've known men who thought they had to meet all of her expectations without getting to expect anything in return and I've heard of the opposite as well. You often see one person who plays the noble martyr giving up all their claim to love and kindness. Why? I don't see why a man or woman should give up their right to pursue happiness just because of their gender. Everyone is entitled to find relationships that are a fair trade off of responsibility and benefits. No one is more deserving or less entitled just because of their gender or anything else that they're born as. I think, just like the analogy of the market place, don't expect to go into a relationship without contributing your share, but also insist on getting a fair deal in return. A good relationship is supposed to serve both parties. I good relationship should make you happier. That doesn't mean that the other person can magically make the world perfect, but they should be contributing something to your life and you to theirs. I wouldn't settle for anything less. Next time you feel things aren't fair in a relationship, try negotiating instead of yelling or fighting. In fact that relates to your relationship with the world as a whole. See my post You Don`t Have to do Your Homework
For more of the authors work go to wadehawkins.info

Toy Maker Adventures Chapter 2 ~ Creature beneath the Castle

2011-12-31T23:16:00.000-08:00

Click here for Chapter 1

The Creature beneath the Castle

He quickly went to find a lamp and went down the staircase. He had never gone down so many steps in his life. He could hear his heart pounding harder with each step. When he came to the bottom, it was hard to tell if he was in a cave or in another palace chamber. The ceiling was vaulted and decaying. When he looked closely at the walls, he could see pictures of people in strange clothes fighting odd creatures and machines. As he entered into another chamber, he saw walls covered in a rectangular pattern. As he looked closer, he realized it wasn’t a pattern. The walls were covered with shelves of books. The excitement was overwhelming. He could learn so much. Could these books actually tell him about the world before it was destroyed by his parents and the witches? They never learned anything about that time long ago in their classes and they never had a need for so many books. They usually just needed a language, math and science book and that was it. Fritz could hardly image what so many books were for.

“You shall not eat my books! Be gone!” came the loud gravely voice suddenly.

Fritz was sure it was the monster, come to devour him.

“Um, I don’t eat books,” responded Fritz in desperation.

“Oh, good then,” said the voice becoming gentler.

Then a figure walked into the light. It was a strange old man. He was hunched over and looked at Fritz with one eye, while the other eye wandered around.

The stranger continued to speak, “well young man, please forgive me for scaring you, but I thought you were a giant cockroach. I have not seen any humans down here in a long time.”

“No, I’m a boy, not a cockroach. I’m sorry to admit sir, that I thought you were a monster.”

“Oh, I am a monster. I’m a human being, and that makes me one of the worst monsters of all.”

“Well, monster sir . . .”

“Call me the librarian. I am the defender of the books. I am he who fights off those nasty cockroaches and protects the knowledge at your service.”

“Wow, Mr. Librarian, do you live alone down here?”

“Yes, Long ago I had my fill of the court life above and discovered these caves. It’s better to be down here with these books then up there with them.”

“Do these books tell about the times before the earth was destroyed?”

“Oh, so they’ve destroyed the earth have they,” said the old man, “I knew they would do it someday. Well, these books are very old, some of them. How far back do you want to go?”

“Before I was born would be great.”

“Before you were born,” said the man, dismayed by Fritz’s response. He continued, ”Boy you look like you were born two days ago and these books go back to the beginnings of human memory. Let me tell you something, young man. Back around the dawn of time, two creatures lived in a comfortable little world and were told not to eat a certain kind of food. You know what happened when they ate it?

“They died.”

“No! That is when the adventure began.”

“Adventure?”

“Yes boy! The adventure! Don’t they teach you literature in school?”

“What’s literature?”

“What’s literature! How about history? Do they teach you history?”

“What’s history? We learn about math, science and language. Is history like any of those?”

“I see you have a lot to learn young man.”

The librarian showed Fritz all kinds of books. Fritz would come back to this secret place whenever he had time to spare and read books. He learned about the places that existed outside the castle long ago, like a large clock tower where kids would dance every night, a secret band of rogues who met in the caves of Vrancia, and an amazing city of artists known as Idulio.”

He was fascinated when he read about zoos. The idea that people would put animals in cages to look at them seemed strange and he felt sorry for the animals. He read about how they would take a giraffe at a young age and train it to believe that it could not escape. When the giraffe grew up, all it had to do was walk away, but it grew up thinking that was impossible so it stayed a captive without ever trying to escape.” “You know,” said Fritz to the librarian, “if I were that giraffe, I’m sure I would just walk right out of that zoo. I would say, ‘goodbye zookeepers, I’m going out to see the world.’”

Fritz became especially excited when he read about old inventors from long ago. He became obsessed with mechanics and found a space near the library to make his inventions. He had ideas for 3 level chess games, furniture that could rearrange itself, walking tables and much more. In school, they often had him draw up plans for theoretical robotic cranes, giant tanks, mechanical insects and other such ideas. He liked those assignments even though he always got bad grades on them. One day he asked if he could keep the plans he created and that was a big mistake. He was denied supper and had to sit in the thinking room all of the next day.

The thinking room was a place where students were sent to reflect on their disobedience and bad attitude. It was mostly just an empty room with a stain glass window, a large fan on the ceiling, a bed and a chair. It all became so very familiar to Fritz who had to spend hours in there throughout his life. Many times he read the words in the stain glass window that said, “Obedience is Divine.” He was supposed to reflect on that whenever he was in there, but he often found himself distracted thinking about how the fan worked up above. He thought it was so amazing how a machine can move and create wind out of the stillness.

Also, students were never allowed to share what they wrote for their assignments with each other. They just turned them in and never heard about them again. This left Fritz assuming all the other students were getting good grades, but as all of the students stayed in school into adulthood he realized they were held back just like him. None of them ever seemed to be able to graduate. The teacher blamed it on their parents. “What can you expect from a child born of the witches?”

As adults, they were all given jobs to work on while they tried to get through school. Fritz was assigned to be a toy maker. He had to make toys for the kings grandchildren. Princess Albertina had married and had two kids of her own. No one had seen her husband before. He just appeared at court one day. Everyone was told that King Imilias made her a husband with his magic powers. Prince Ludvic wanted to marry the physician, Hilda. She was one of the witch orphans and so the King forbade it. Fritz was slightly afraid of Hilda and couldn’t image falling in love with such a cold and stern woman. Of course, he couldn’t image being anything like Prince Ludvic in any other way. Fritz also had to continue making toys for Prince Ludvic and King Imilias even though they were both adults. Fritz hated giving toys to Prince Ludvic because he would do unthinkable things with the toys and use them in strange torture rituals. Fritz dreaded giving out the other toys as well, because he was never able to make them happy. It was always the same.

“The only suitable job for you was making toys and you’re not even very good at that. Look at these kids. Do they look happy to you?“ the King would ask.

The king would have the kids look at him with their frowning faces.

“No,” replied Fritz, “but that’s because every year I am told to make her a simple doll and him a simple toy soldier, now I have ideas that could really . . .”

“Oh, so it’s my fault,” said the King with great offence.

“No sir, I mean ma’am, I mean sir, I mean your highness, but your highness, if I could just . . . you see I have some ideas . . .”

“Stop, I have heard enough! We have discussed this many times. You will make the toys as I have directed you to and you will not be trying your crazy ideas on my grandchildren.”

Fritz became used to this routine. He had to always hear those words, but he knew that if he followed the routine, he wouldn’t get in too much trouble. Of course, one night something very strange happened. Life in the castle would never be the same. Fritz had never been a sleepwalker, but one night he went to bed as he usually does. He shut his door and tucked in his covers.

In the middle of the night, he woke up to find himself sitting at his secret bench near the library and holding a knife in his hand.

Continue to Chapter 3

For more about the author WadeHawkins.info

The Stupidity Paradox

2011-12-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

Are you a smart person? If you are then you might have hesitated for a moment with that question. One thing foolish people are often foolish about is the fact that they are foolish. So you see smart people are more likely to question their own intelligence.
There are also so many different kinds of intelligence. A person may have advanced degrees or a very high IQ score and still lack a basic understanding of other areas. Also, the ways in which people measure intelligence can be subject to bias. We get the masters degree because we learn the things that our instructors considered important. Someone else may question the choices made by that instructor or even question the thinking of the whole institution. In the same way, an intelligence test could be written by people that don't really know what's best.
When you think about it, it becomes really hard for someone to rate their own intelligence. Maybe grouping people into smart and foolish is too simplistic. But even in specific areas of knowledge we become unaware of our own blind spots.
I don't think people need to go around wondering if they're foolish all the time. We all have to do the best we can with what we know and make the best decisions we can. I think the important thing to keep in mind is to stay humble. You'll find people are much more forgiving of a humble person that makes mistakes. It's the arrogant person making a mistake that people will tell stories about for years to come as they roll their eyes. Even if you're a school teacher working with small children, if you make a mistake, admit it and people will have more respect for you (even children). It's actually the best way to save face.
Also being humble involves being less critical and more open minded. Arrogance blinds people to the value and contributions of others. So often people think their job is the hardest and involves the most sacrifice while others are lucky and have it easy. The truth is we don't know how hard the other person works.
A lack of trying to understand other people is a really big concern when it comes to relations between men and women. I think it's such a shame when people don't appreciate the other gender. While men say "Don't try to argue with a women," meaning "women aren't rational" and women say, "Men are immature," I feel both cases involve generalizations and a lack of appreciation for what someone else has to contribute. I never hear good scientific evidence for either claim. Also what do people mean by rational or mature. Those are hard things to define and measure. You should also question the crowd you attract. If you're finding a lot of immature men or irrational women in your life, it might have something to do with where you find your relationships.
I remember years ago seeing a talk show in which the men and women started arguing with each other about who works harder, the housewives or the men at their jobs. Both sides were being very foolish. The men said the women just sit around watching dramas and the women said the men just had coffee brakes all the time. Both sides were throwing out assumptions rather then presenting facts. I think it's a stupid debate. How do you know how hard a person works without doing their job? That's actually why I think a good marriage should start off with both partners sharing all the jobs until they both appreciate what the other person is doing.
We can also learn from each others perspective. Just because I'm a man doesn't mean I have to limit the way I see things and I know it's the same for women. This also applies to dealing with other races. When we're not so quick to assume our way of thinking is right, then we free ourselves up to listen to other people. I've had a chance to live in a western and eastern culture (The U.S. and Korea) and I've found you can benefit from understanding both ways of thinking. Both cultural mindsets have their benefits and limitations. From my perspective, the smartest people seem to be the people with a multicultural perspective. Even if you don't travel, you can open yourself up by speaking with people from different backgrounds. Sometimes just talking to people about significant issues can make you less prone to bias and generalizations. Just ask people who don't think like you, why they hold the views they hold and you might gain some paradigm shifts in your thinking.
Thanks for reading. Please do comment. I love comments!

Want to Read some great books about living a quality life, try one of the following recommendations.

The Toy Maker Adventures continued

2011-12-20T05:04:00.000-08:00

This post was moved to the new Toy Maker Adventures website. Please check it out.

See wadehawkins.info for information on other projects by the author.

You Don't Have to do your Homework

2011-12-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

It's true. Nobody has to do any homework. If you have kids in school, you should call them over to read this blog with you (they'll love it)! You also don't have to clean your room or wash dishes or any of that stuff. Perhaps the truth is that there's nothing you actually have to do. I'm a teacher myself and sometimes my students will ask me if they have to do their homework. I don't think they like the answer I give them. My answer is always "no". I don't even get angry if they don't do their homework or if they don't show up to class. Why should I get angry? It's their choice. I teach college students now, but I'd give the same answer to kids as well. Perhaps you wonder why my students don't like that answer. You see they want a good grade from me and I let them know that neglecting their homework will hurt their grade. I'm sure you were looking for the "but" and there it is. You don't have to do your homework, but you might not get a good grade if you don't.
I think that's a harder concept to accept. Somehow people love making "have to" phrases. Not just children and young adults, but much older people as well. We say, "I have to go to work tomorrow," but what we should really say is, "I'm going to work tomorrow because my job is important to me." Whenever I hear a person use a "have to" phrase I can't resist asking questions and digging into the situation. I'll ask them, "What happens if you don't do that?" When I ask such questions I always find out their "have to" is really a "want to".
Maybe we don't like owning up to our decisions. We want to make other people responsible for the choices we make, but no matter how submissive a person tries to be, we cannot escape our freedom. That may sounds like a strange concept, but consider this; you can give someone the authority to make choices for you, but you still made that decision to give that person authority over you. Choosing to submit to another person or set of rules is a choice. If you submit to a bad leader, you still made a bad choice by choosing to follow them. When many of the Nazis were taken to trial after World War II they said they were just following orders. When a person kills innocent people because they're following orders, that person is still guilty of murder.
Now the average person is not following a maniacal leader and committing horrible murders. Usually our "have to" phrases do keep us focused on valuable goals. It usually is a good idea to finish your homework or show up to your job on time. I do however think we limit ourselves and don't recognize how many choices we really do have. I think it's a much more mature attitude to recognize that we do things because we want the rewards or we want to avoid consequences. When people recognize this, they become more content and more flexible at the same time. When we remember that we chose to take the job offer, we appreciate having our job and stop blaming our boss or our circumstances. Such thinking also gets us looking at the root cause of our choices. For example, maybe our reason for taking the job was to start earning income. If that's the case, then it's the income that's important and not the job. Therefore we can open our minds to consider other sources of income.
So here's an alternative; instead of looking at your life as full of duties and responsibilities, try seeing everything you do as a trade. Everything you do is the result of a choice and every time you make a choice you make a trade. When I say "trade" I mean it in it's very simple form that you learned in elementary school. Children know what it means to trade things. Maybe you traded toys or items from your lunch box. It may have been one of the most important learning experiences you had at school. That's what it's all about. If you wanted the other kids raisons and they wanted your milk, trading became a win/win solution. Steven R. Covey describes the win-win solution in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. That's why my students do their homework. They want to get good grades and I want to be a good teacher, so we make a trade. Their hard work helps my reputation and in turn I give them the grade they earned. In the same way, you can stop seeing your boss as someone that's in charge of you, but instead see them as someone who you're making a trade with. Instead of seeing yourself as working for people, see yourself as someone that is selling your services. That change of perspective may open your eyes to other choices you could make in life.

Brain Modes Part 2

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

A few years back when I started researching the topic of brain modes I identified three main modes that I work with. I called them absorbing, storming and sorting.

When you want to work creatively the first thing you need to start with is inspiration and that's when you absorb ideas into your mind. Now there's different ways of absorbing ideas. Some ways are more passive for the recipient as in Dr. Lazonov's method of having the student relax while new information is presented to them using the best sensory stimuli for opening up the mind to receive. It's interesting to consider how cultural differences might make it difficult for Lazonov's teaching method (suggestopedia) to be embraced in the U.S. It's very teacher centered and a more student centered classroom is seen as much more hip and progressive in the U.S.

A less passive and also very effective way of absorbing knowledge is called Associating. Associating is described in Kevin Trudeau's book, Mega Memory. Kevin Trudeau got in trouble because he over hiped the method. Even though it's not as magical as he made it sound, it does help a lot. Associating involves learning a new idea by thinking of something familiar that you can connect it to. For example when I wanted to remember the numbers one and two in Japanese I imagined my fingers ready to scratch and then they go down to my knee because that's what itches. If you say, "itch, knee," you are saying "one, two" in Japanese.

As far as Associating versus Suggestopedia, I don't think it has to be either/or. Perhaps there's a way to mix all the best ideas. Lozanov's ideas were first developed when regular people didn't have access to computers. A lot can be done with computer programs. A person can be making active choices while in a very relaxed state. A wrote more on this idea in my previous post "Healthy Video Games".

Storming is just a short way of saying "Brainstorming". The goal in Storming is to get your ideas out. Storming and Soring are both part of the creative thinking process, but it's best to separate them. If you start evaluating your ideas while your generating them then you'll have a natural tendency to shoot things down to quickly. It's more productive to just get the ideas out and then later go back through and see what ideas are good and what aren't. The need to separate out the process is also important when working in a group. It helps to have everyone generating ideas and then later everyone evaluates the ideas. Otherwise what natural happens in a group is that people will take on roles. One person will keep suggesting ideas while another person keeps shooting the ideas down. Being the person that shoots the ideas down is a very easy way to sound smart and authoritative while actually not contributing much. By having a time during the meeting when everyone is supposed to only offer up ideas and no one is allowed to point out problems, you prevent people from taking roles and you avoid having that one person that plays the critic just to look smart. They can present those ideas when you start sorting.

The Toy Maker adventures

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

This post was moved to the new Toy Maker Adventures website. Please check it out.

See wadehawkins.info for information on other projects by the author.

Brain Modes

2011-12-16T00:00:00.008-08:00

You have probably found like me that when you are in the right state of mind for the particular task you are trying to accomplish, you become more productive. There's a different mental state you need to run a marathon versus playing a video game or writing an essay or walking on hot coals or listening to a lecture. Let's call these different states of mind, "Brain Modes". Now often we realize the need to switch gears intuitively, but could we be more effective if we had a clear understanding of these mental modes? What if we could identify them, explore which modes serve which purposes best and understand how best to switch between them.
This question was posed long before my time by a man I would rank as the world's greatest language teacher. Gregori Lazonov discovered the tremendous mental ability of yogis in India. These practitioners can greatly enhance their memory through yoga. Dr. Lazonov researched these findings. He studied yoga to learn what effect the practices had on the mind. He then took these ideas back to his home in Bulgaria and began implementing them for use in foreign language learning. What he found was that the mind absorbs information better when it's working in an alpha state. You see our brain has different frequencies. Beta is when we are very alert and aware of everything around us. This is a very fast frequency. Alpha is a slower frequency, but involves calm focus. If our mind is going too fast then our attention is too caught up in the moment and attention is spread to everything around us. Also, our subconscious mind is less receptive when it's running in beta mode. Beta is great for fighting dragons. I'm pretty sure they're all extinct, but if you should ever find yourself fighting a dragon, I highly recommend you get your brain going at a beta frequency. While it's great for fighting dragons, beta is not so good for learning new vocabulary words. In that case, the Alpha frequency is much better. If our mind is going too slow then we are starting to fall asleep. Theta waves are often associated with states of hypnosis. It would be interesting to see more research in the use of hypnosis for information absorption.
Dr. Lazonov started doing his English lessons by getting the students to participate in yoga exercise. he later found he could induce the alpha state in his students by using music. He sought out music that fit a number of factors for ideal mental learning state. One of the best factors he looked for was music that had a constant rhythm of about 50 to 70 beats per minute. He found most of his best music resources came from another genius, Mozart! Ever hear of the Mozart effect? That's what they're talking about. His findings took a long time to research people in North America because his work was done behind the iron curtain during the cold war. Bulgaria was part of the Soviet Union at the time.
Dr. Lozanov primarily studied the mental state that is best for absorbing information (let's name it absorption). I'm also very interested in the mental states that best serve creativity. There's a really good book that deals primarily with getting into the right state of mind for drawing. Ever hear of, “Drawing on the Right side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. It's a fairly famous book. It's well known among people in creative circles. It describes the state of mind that one must push themselves into in order to be in the right brain mode. In this case we mean the "right" brain mode in both uses of the word. The idea of brain modes becomes important when this book describes how being critical and analytical are harmful to the creative mode one must undertake when drawing. Critical and analytical thinking are useful abilities, but should be used in the correct way, when the task calls for such abilities. Using the wrong thinking strategy for the mode greatly takes away from the modes effectiveness. Being the creator and the critic at the same time is like trying to play chess against yourself. By trying to work in those two different modes at the same time you become less efficient.
I think it helps to identify these modes and then a person can learn how to think in the best way for the particular task. Labeling and categorizing ideas helps us to work better with those ideas, but we also must avoid the danger of permanently locking these labels and categories in place. Labels and categories can always be reviewed and reorganized. One must always be ready to decategorize and explore ideas in a new way.

Don't be Sad, be Mathematical

2011-12-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

Whenever I'm feeling blue I tell myself, "Don't be sad, be mathematical." You see mathematics is a great way to treat your depression. Emotions can distort our perception. That's why math is great. You see numbers don't respond to our feelings, so they can give us an objective view of reality. No matter how huge or small you think you are, get out a measuring stick. Whatever you see on that ruler, that's what your real height is. It's not going to change because you feel big, or because you feel small.

Now, that doesn't mean we can't change our reality. We don't have to just except things. Did you know you can even get an operation to change your height? It's a pretty nasty operation that involves breaking and regrowing your bones. Is it worth it? I'm sure most of us would say no, but the point is that if you can even change your height (if you're willing to make the sacrifice) imagine what else you can change about yourself. The one case I heard of where someone got an operation to change their height was a girl who's life long dream was to be a flight attendant, but she wasn't tall enough. I don't blame her. It was her life long dream, but for most of us, a height operation would be way too extreme.

Some of our weaknesses don't matter that much. We can just shrug them off and except ourselves for who we are. I'm really bad at hitting a baseball with a bat. For me that's too much rapid decision making under pressure, but you know I don't really care, because I don't have big aspirations to be a great baseball player. I'm confident that I could become good at it if I spent hours and hours practicing, but the practice is not worth it to me. There's more important things for me to do with my time. You see hitting a baseball is not critical to my big dreams in life.

On the other hand, something I have been working on is my ability to communicate my ideas with other people and to get people interested in what I'm doing. That skill is critical for my big dreams in life and I do get depressed if I feel I'm falling short in that area.

Here's the thing, if you're like me, then the things that make you feel down are times when you feel inadequate; When you feel your not as good as everyone else; you don't measure up. Now sometimes we feel that way, because it's true. In other words, we have a weak area that we need to improve on. Now, I don't think feeling unhappy about yourself is wrong. You just need to deal with it in an appropriate and positive way. It draws our attention toward things we can improve on.

If people never felt dissatisfied, then human history would be completely different. We would have never evolved past the stone age, actually we would have never gotten to the stone age. In fact, I think we would be extinct by now. Dissatisfaction moves us forward. Think of negative feelings as being like hunger. Hunger is uncomfortable, but it drives us to find food. When we're hungry, we don't say, "No, no, just think of happy thoughts, ignore the hunger." On the contrary, we go in search of food. When you feel hunger, it becomes exciting when you think about the great food you're going to eat.

In the same way, our sense that something is missing in life, can call us on to a great adventure. The empty well can be the start of a journey that leads to the springs of passion. For physical hunger, the solution can be very simple; EAT! For emotional needs, the solution involves a bit more mathematics.
I've continue this idea in another blog were I go into more detail, If You Feel Discouraged Start Counting

Please do leave a comment. I love hearing from people. I'll be your best friend. Wait sorry that's a mathematical impossibilty if more than one person comments. Well, I can at least promise I'll be very grateful.

Want

My Delightful Schizophrenic Conversation

2011-12-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

FEELINGS

I don't feel good

LOGIC

Oh I see. Well we need to look into this. My job is to make you happy. When you feel bad it often means either that you have a misconception about something or there's a circumstance in our life that we can work on changing, but first you'll need to help me identify what exactly is bothering you.

FEELINGS

I'm just sad. I want happy thoughts, HAPPY THOUGHTS PLEASE!.

LOGIC

No, we have to understand your bad feelings. I know it hurts to think about it, but ignoring it can make things worse in the long run. It's better to treat bad feelings than to ignore them. Emotional pain is like physical pain. You don't cure a broken leg by eating chocolate. You find the cause of the pain and consider ways of dealing with it. There's something causing this. We can't just ignore it. We have to first identify it. I can't make bricks without clay. I need information. Is it because you saw that person achieving the same thing you want to achieve? You feel he was able to achieve it, but you have not and that bothers you?

FEELINGS

Yea, that's it.

So as you can see the logical mind serves the emotions by finding healthy and productive ways to please it. So the first bit of information that the logical mind must get from the emotions is, "What do I want?" or, "What's really bothering me?"

The next task for the logical mind is to asses whether the emotional feelings are based on reality or not.

LOGIC

Are we sure we've never achieved that? Let's search through our memories and see if there was a time when we did achieve something similar.

So if any examples are found, the logical mind will present them to the emotions. If it does become clear that the negative feelings are based on something solid and that there is an emotional need not being met, then the logical mind considers whether a change in behavior is needed in order to better meet that need.

LOGIC

And you feel that it's because they're blessed with the ability to make it happen in their life, but you don't think it can happen in your life? You feel like there's some kind of curse that will always keep you from succeeding in that area.

FEELINGS

Yes, I'm cursed! I'M CURSED! It will never happen for me!

LOGIC

Come on, curses are superstition. I'll admit that theoretically they could be real, but there's no point in thinking that way. That's just giving up and you know what the successful people always say. They almost always say it's not luck, it's because of the choices they've made. They also say that success requires perseverance.

FEELINGS

But I've TRIED over and over and over again! What does it take? It never works for me, but for him it works so easily.

LOGIC

Now you're making assumptions. You don't know what sacrifices he made to accomplish that task. And you think you've tried really hard, but is that true? Have you really? You are often bad at judging proportions and the more passionate you feel about things the more you tend to warp perspective. Let's gather some information. Now we know a good way to interact with the object of our envy.

FEELINGS

Yes, CRUSH AND DESTROY!

LOGIC

No, do not crush and destroy. That will make you lose friends and besides, it will go against our own code of ethics. You would be acting just like the kind of people that stir up feelings of hatred in you. You can't take on the same behaviors that you disapprove of in other people. Behaving that way will make it OK for people to treat you the same way.

FEELINGS

Right! NO DOUBLE STANDARDS! I hate it when people act vicious out of jealousy. It's so morally wrong! I will never act in such a horrible way. I'm not one of those horrible people.

LOGIC

Exactly! And here's a better solution. If you envy someone, then it means they could be a good mentor. Let's ask him how he achieved it.

Getting advice from a person that you envy serves several purposes. The obvious outcome is getting very good practical advice for your own goals. You envy them because they have what you want, so why not learn from them how to get what you want. The other thing is that it dispels the false belief that the person achieved their goal without hard work and sacrifice.

Next the logical mind considers whether new plans can be put in place in order to make the emotions happier.

Anyway, there's lots to say on this topic, so I'm going to end it here and I'll continue some of these thoughts in a later blog. Check back and I'll show you how to use mathematics to address negative feelings.

LOGIC

And one last message to the reader. If you leave a little comment below, it brings so much happiness.

The Head Versus The Heart

2011-12-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

It's the old debate between the enlightenment thinkers and the Romantics. My short and simple response to that debate is that you can't live without either organ. They can stop working very briefly, but not for long. There's a more modern version of the debate, it's "Right Brain Versus Left". Now scientists have identified different functions for each side of the brain. I imagine our modern version of the Enlightenment guys relate more to the left hemisphere and the modern Romantics relate more to the right. The Myers Briggs splits people into two groups according to how you judge things. According to that system, there are those who mostly use thinking and those who use feeling. When I take the test I come out very border line between a thinker and a feeler.

The truth is, I think emotions and reason serve very different purposes and you need to learn how to work with both and to use them together to lead a really healthy life. Do I want to be a guy that uses emotions or a guy that uses logic? That's like saying do I want to use my hands or do I want to use my feet. If I decide to use my feet, does that mean I have to pick things up with my toes, or if I decide on my hands, do I need to be in a wheelchair, even though I have good working legs. Naturally we use legs to walk and hands to manipulate objects. We don't categorize ourselves as hand users and feet users. See how silly that is? It's just as silly to talk of reason versus emotions or feeling versus thinking. Without feelings we wouldn't find any purpose in anything. Even if we were the most rational person in the world, we'd have no reason to do anything. On the other hand if we don't think then we're just along for the ride in life reacting to things around us, but still, not taking any action.

When I was young I thought of myself as being very right brained; a passionate artist type. It would have hurt my feelings to be called a rational left brained type. I was always hanging out with the arts crowd and it was seen as hip to be right-brained and emotional. Now that I'm older I realize that a person can be emotional and creative and also be rational and logical at the same time. In fact, you can be a lot more effective with your creative ideas if you can also use logic. I've learned that it's fun to be emotional, but at times being logical can help you work through situations that your emotions can't. I encourage people to be passionate and emotional. What meaning does life have if we don't care about things, but without reason, you are not going to find the best solutions to your problems. I often see the best solutions as a sort of dialogue between feelings and logic. The logical mind listens to the emotions trying to find out what makes them happy and what makes them sad. The logical mind then works on making decisions based on what it learns from the emotions. Think of a ship voyage that's transporting the king. Logic is the captain. It knows how to best navigate the ship. The emotion is king. The King is the reason for the trip. The captain must please the king, but the captain must not let the king try to navigate. They are both important and they both have different roles to play.

Well, this is a big topic. I'll save more for later. Check back tomorrow to see an entertaining and hopefully enlightening conversation between feelings and logic.

What's a Modern Davincian?

2011-12-12T02:54:00.000-08:00

Why The Name?

Why the Name? Leonardo Da vinci was definitely someone I could relate to in many ways. He made tons of notes and illustrations continually putting his ideas down (most of which were never published). I can relate. I love grabbing napkins and the backs of paper place mats in restaurants to jot down whatever is on my mind (not saying it's good, just saying I like jotting it down). I usually leave the notes in the restaurant and don't take them with me. Leonardo was a generalist in a time when most people were expected to specialize. I can relate. I am definitely not a specialist. He was rich and famous. I can um, well, uh . . . um. I would like to be rich and famous:).

I don't want to maintain a blog that's just about one person, so it's not called the Leonardo Da vinci blog (which is probably taken anyway). Instead, it's called "Modern Davincian". Davincian was not his name, but rather it's a nice made up word (by me) that could suggest a kind of person who shares a bit of his creative spirit. I could have called it "Modern Renaissance Man" but that would alienate all those great Renaissance Ladies; or "Renaissance Person," which is gender neutral, but sounds really awkward. I think "Modern Davincian" sounds cool. Sounds like the type of people I want to hang out with and talk with.

So what kind of person is a Modern Davincian. Leonardo could see the connections between subjects and I like that idea. In our day and age, there are even more ways to be ecclectic. Modern Davincian's can see connections between old and new, history and the future as well as whole brain thinking encorporating science and art. Finding ways to unlock the human potential for genius.

I think Leonardo would have loved internet access. Instead of having so many of his ideas in unpublished notebooks, he could have had a blog. We may be in a kind of renaissance now. In Leonardo's time he benefited from great developments in information technology including the printing press and the pencil. The new availability of information created a surge in new ideas and creative thinking as well as people questioning authority and a major reorganization of society. Perhaps we are in a similar time. I'm not saying our world is full of roses. There's a lot of bad things going on, but there's also so much potential if people have imagination. So I will blog about the things in our modern world that are of interest to the Modern Davincian. Those people that have a wide appreciation of asthetics and ideas and can see connections all around them.

Healthy Video Games

2011-12-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

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For the last few decades people have seen video games as a time waster that losers get addicted to. With the creation of a video game you have limitless options for sound and visuals as well as responses to a users actions. With some imagination perhaps you can see the enourmous potential video games can have for learning and self improvement. They don't have to revolve around mindlessly shooting monsters. You can encorporate so many ideas and video games give the user immideate feedback (something that is very valuable in education).

Not only can you provide educational sounds and images along with immidate feedback on players responses, but you can present these things in a way the brain is most receptive to. We can make use of such things as the studies of Georgi Lozanov. He found that the mental state of the student makes a huge difference in their ability to retain information. He gets his students to relax through guided breathing directions and music in order to bring his students minds into an Alpha state. He found the alpha mental state worked best for absorbing information. He would also show slides and recite information to be learned in a rhythmic way.

We could create video games with the right images and music to switch the players mental state toward something that is most effective for the task at hand. Students can also respond to questions in the appropriate state and the game will adjust according to their responses.
I'm currently developing a website that will keep track of learners progress by awarding skills attained to their profile. If you pass tutorials, then your profile will show what skills you learned from those tutorials. Users will also be able to create their own tutorials that website guests can learn from and be awarded skills by independent tutorial designers. So basically the website will develop an understanding of what your strengths are and help you sharpen your weak areas. This can be combined with use of Lazanov's research and further research into mental states and the effects of audio/visual stimulus on learning.

Another idea I've come across that can help with education is the use of bio feedback in video games. This has enormous potential. I think I will need to write many blogs about this; ENORMOUS POTENTIAL. I could go on and on, but instead I'll save it for another blog.