[M]etabrain [E]ntry [L]og - Braindump of the Mel. Seek coherency and relevance at your own risk.

At Olin tonight. Ironically, Tesch, Andrew, and Chandra all chose to visit on the same day. We even had a MetaOlin meeting (of sorts). Being back like this is always odd, but fun. It’s like slipping on an old sweater that’s far too ragged to wear in public and has holes and scratchety places, but which somehow feels good anyhow. While I’m in Olin-mode, here’s more from Gardner - yes, the same book, Self-Renewal. (Seriously, Olin folks should read this one. These are all excerpts from my notes on the slim paperback.) This time he’s talking about the difference between “learning about” and “learning to be.”

All too often we give our young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. We are stuffing their heads with the products of earlier innovation rather than teaching them how to innovate. We think of the mind as a structure to be filled when we should be thinking of it as an instrument to be used.

(How do you “teach someone to innovate,” anyway? I’m getting sick of hearing the word “innovation.” It’s a buzzword that’s used so often and so thoughtlessly that it’s ceased to have much meaning. But Gardner wrote this years back before the word became so abused.)

He points out that being a generalist allows you to specialize in what is needed at that moment. In fact, you could say that being trained as a generalist allows you to move between different specialties. Renaissance engineering. Later, reading Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, I saw fields of study branching out and merging into each other in a slow, melting dance through time; professions tend to change drastically within the timespan of a person’s career. Think of the meteoric ascent of computer science, the fading of alchemy, the budding of systems engineering and design theory, the discussion on whether to offer 3 Olin degrees (MechE, ECE, and General Engr.) or just General Engineering (we currently do the former).

“All learning is specialization in the sense that it involves reinforcement of some responses rather than others,” says Gardner, so in order to be a generalist, students need to step out of their learning and abstract it on a higher meta-level so they can identify and zoom in on the parts that most interest them. This entire process is different for each student. In order to maximize the learning of as many students as possible, schools should set up a gentle tension by training their students to be generalists and making it clear to the youngsters that it’s their responsibility to create their own education that will turn them into the specialists they want to be… at that moment, at least.

Finally, my favorite.

The truly creative person is not an outlaw but a lawmaker.

You can be comfortable in chaos if you know you have the ability to create order from them in an instant if needed (like knowing you can swim strong strokes allows you to relax and float in the water). If you can create new structures - physical, mental, cultural, anything - at will, you’re not so tied to old ones. You know you can always make new ones again if things don’t work out. Part of why Olin’s culture is so amazing is that we are, in every sense of the word, a community of makers.

First, I would like to rant about not having a working scanner. RANT RANT RANT RANNNNNT. “Scanning” via carefully-held digital camera just isn’t the same.

Today was my splurge day - a most excellent $10 lunch consisting of an excellent raspberry seltzer, a cheddary, toothy, and gargantuan green onion scone, the best, moistest apple cake I’ve ever tried, and a cold mint-nutmeggy rootbeer with lovely citrus notes. In the course of our wanderings through Boston, Chris, Joe, David (an IMSA friend) and myself went from Fenway to the South End past the Commons to the North End and back (I copped out and caught the train from Government Center because I had a 6pm meeting). Along the way we met revolutionary war reenactors, scored some free basil seeds (+ dirt + time = PESTO!), drooled over gelato we did not purchase, and ogled a wine shop.

I’m starting to think of money as a convenience rather than a need. A luxury, at times - like today’s lunch - but usually just an occasionally handy thing to fall back on, like when Matt and I rode to Broadway Bicycle yesterday… three times in as many hours to fix two flats, then one flat, then a stuck chain (it was the day of the Bike Curse). Could we have found a way to fix the bikes without money? Maybe. Probably. Eventually. In that short a time? Probably not. And having tools and new parts on hand definitely added a little to the fun with their shininess.

Money, like chocolate, is best when used sparingly and well. Aside from food, my other expenditures in June were rent, a T pass, 2
used books for my research that cost at total of $4, and a few dollars
in bike parts to replace the blown tire. Having dinner at DJ & Kelcy’s, dining at Pika with Matt &
Ryan, and sipping tea at OLPC costs me no money at all - and in all cases, the food is even better because of the excellent company. And when people come visit us, we’ll cook them extra hamburgers or lend them a spare mattress. Sharing is fun. I almost enjoy being “poor*” because you get to share so much.

*ok, I have a computer, food to eat, and a home with running water; I’m filthy rich in the grand scheme of things.

At its core, cash is really just something to barter with. Time may be money, but I prefer to say that “money is time” and spend my money so that I can do what I want with my time. Usually, doing what I want requires no money at all.