Models

Everything you see around you is based off of everything you have already seen and the things you already know (or think you know). The way information is perceived is different from person to person because everyone has a different model. Ideas come in, you process them, and then you reference them against your models. Take a page from Richard Maybury, writer of a series known as Uncle Eric books.

¨Models are how we think, they are how we understand how the world works. As we go through life we build these very complex pictures in our minds of how the world works, and we’re constantly referring back to them – matching incoming data against our models. That’s how we make sense of things.¨ – Richard Maybury

And this is true whether you believe it or not. The models you have in your head right now are referencing the idea of a model, trying to come up with any past information about what a model is. Chances are you have never heard of a model before, because it is not taught anywhere. Never have I come across a teacher who understands models, much less how to teach them. Not to put them entirely at fault; they were not taught either. No school has a curriculum that includes the explanation of models, and so very few people today have a proper understanding of what they are.

Another good point on models; they can be incorrect.

Say, for example, that you grew up your whole life thinking that an elephant was a hippo. In your head, your model of an elephant would be that of a hippo; you created an incorrect model. Now, even if you had never heard any different, even if you never wanted to believe any different, even if you were absolutely convinced to the center of your being that an elephant was a hippo, it doesn’t make your model correct. Your model would still be wrong, no matter how vehemently you insisted otherwise.

That is why, today, bad ideas persist for so long. Without an understanding of how models work, it is easy to mistake opinion for fact, if it sounds like fact. So, a tip; next time you hear something that doesn’t sound quite right, try consciously putting it up against what you already know or believe about it. Challenge your own models to see if they could be incorrect.

Thanks again, K

The Confederate Flag

This one’s going to be short and sweet. There’s not much to say. The Confederate Flag was not an issue ten years ago, and it should not be one now. What happened to make it such a problem? How did it jump from such an insignificant little blip on the radar to such a massively controversial topic, seemingly without prompt?

I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’m tired of hearing about it. People need to hike up their britches and go find something constructive to do that will occupy their time so they have none left to worry about things that do not effect them whatsoever. Nobody alive today took part in the Civil War. Nobody alive today is a direct victim of the brutalities of the Civil War. And, here is the one most people seem to have trouble processing, nobody alive today was a slave before or during the Civil War.

Nobody.

No one.

Not one person.

Let it go.

In short, the Confederate Flag affects nobody today except those who choose to make it an issue in their life, no matter their race. The only solution is to stop talking about it, because nobody is going to relent and admit that they are wrong. That’s not the way of the world anymore. Just let it go.

Thanks, K

Opening Point

So, as we all know, the world of posting everything online has become the world we all live in today. Status posts fly hither and thither, much like insomniac birds. Almost any thought or action, from the most mundane to the most outrageous, is on somebody’s Facebook wall somewhere. Crazy, right? Mhm. Indeed. Sadly, though, very few people are posting anything about anything outside daily life. Everybody knows that one guy that always seems to be talking about something some politician said, and even though he never gets any more than ten ¨likes¨, he keeps on posting. But why? Why does it matter? He can’t change the law, or the people who make them. So why bother?

And that, my friends, is the question that has walked so many great societies to their own grave. ¨Why bother?¨

If everybody just goes along with everything Big Brother says, complacently following any law shoved down their throats, what is to stop our great government from becoming a dictatorship? Communism prevails through the failure of free people to stand up to communism. It has happened before, it will happen again.

I may never accomplish anything by writing this, or any of the following posts. But I can try to my heart’s content, and so I will, to explain the realistic ideals that can keep men free. Our current system isn’t going to cut it anymore. Read on, if you like, keeping in mind that I make no pretense of being objective in anything that I write. My words are my own.

Thanks, K