Review of Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations by Roger J. Davies

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes  

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Sociology, Mythology and Religion

Book Club Event = Book List (09/24/2022)

Intriguing Connections = 1) Why Do People Think Differently?, 

2) Get To Know The Peoples Of The World (Japan), 

3) What Defines A Culture? How To Belong To A Community?, 

4) What Is The Power Of Belief Systems?

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Excerpts

“Chinese influence was a persistent, increasing, and overwhelming factor of early Japanese life starting from the first century BC.” – Roger J. Davies, The Origins of the Japanese, Page 19

“The present is mirrored in the past, and the past exits in the present in the unconscious cultural heritage of a people, in the structure of their social and political institutions, and in the value systems they have created.” – Roger J. Davies, Approaches to Japanese Cultural History, Page 25-26

“Organizationally and ideologically, a number of religions have co-existed since ancient times, and they still remain separate and distinct systems.  On the other hand, when viewed from the participation of the individual, a merger or combination of religious beliefs seems to occur.” – Roger J. Davies, Approaches to Japanese Cultural History, Page 32

Review

Overview:

Japan’s geographical isolation inhibited development.  Although various ancient migrations made Japan a diverse place, claims would later describe them as a homogenous people.  Chinese influence propelled Japanese development.  Influence which was persistent, increasing, and overwhelming.  Japanese tribes began to forge a centralized state in response to military threats.  Power was concentrated within the military upper class. 

Various religions co-existed in Japanese history, although they remained separate and distinct systems.  In practice, individuals merged or combined the beliefs.  But even while holding multiple religious practices, they would not confuse their ideological associations.  Major cultural eras started with Shinto, then Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism, and finally Western ideas.  Japanese culture, as every culture, is influenced by the past.  A heritage that is reflected in the social and political institutions, and value systems.  Creating different manifestations of culture over time, with distinct behavioral patterns and sets of belief.  

The influence of history is complex, for what is written down might not be what actually happened.  History is set down from different perspectives, and with a variety of interpretations.  Japanese culture is unique, like all cultures are unique.  Each culture has similar features, but they are combined in unique ways.  

Japanese Origin:

Geographically isolated meant that Japan could not obtain alternative ways of development.  Japanese life was rudimentary compared to China which was a highly developed civilization.  Within a relatively short time after entering the Bronze Age, Chinese influence propelled Japan into the Iron Age.  China was a major influence on Japan starting from the 1st century B.C.E. 

Japanese people are a composition of various waves of ancient migrations.  Those coming to Japan were fleeing problems from mainland Asia such as hunger, and fear.  Others desired change.  Primary migrants are thought to be Mongol tribes, coming through Korea.  Earliest Japanese religion of Shinto, was heavily influenced by Mongol peoples.  The migrants displaced Japanese archipelago original inhabitants, the Ainu.  During the waves of migration, there was racial and ethnic blending and fusion.  After the 8th century B.C.E., there was no new blood.  Even though the Japanese came from diverse groups, they began to consider themselves as racially distinct and ‘pure’ group.  

Records of earliest Japanese life comes from Chinese Han Dynasty of the 3rd century B.C.E.  During that time, Japan had sharp class distinctions.  Primarily an agricultural and fishing economy.  Many tribal units.  During the 3rd century, the military upper class appears to have concentrated wealth and power, in response to Korean mounted invaders.  State formation in Japan began during the Kofun era, of 250-646 B.C.E.  

Shinto:

Shinto forms the undercurrent of the religious and philosophical belief systems in Japan.  Shinto means “The Way of the Gods”.  Shinto is less about leading a moral or ethical life, but practical concerns of such obtaining food, curing illness, and avoiding dangers.

Within Shinto, every object harbors a spirit, making the object in some way living.  Human and nature are not divided.  They are not distinct or apart.  

Purification rites were needed in daily life.  Purification for the physical and spiritual.  Ritual was meant to obtain a pure state of mind, to make contact with kami and accept kami’s blessing.  Purification was also meant to avoid taboos, such as sources of uncleanness.  

Buddhism:

Buddhism seeks a midway between hedonism and asceticism.  Buddhism is very adaptable to the cultural traditions that already exist in a region.  The arrival of Buddhism was not seen as an extension of Chinese power, but of Buddhism’s progress.  

Taoism:

Taoism, along with Confucianism, are the main religious and philosophical traditions of China.  Law of Tao is a regression to the starting point.  Extreme qualities become reversed into their opposite.  Continuous adjustment to the situation.  What matters is the interaction between the factors involved.  A focus on ultimate unity of humans and cosmos. 

Zen:

Zen is a synthesis of Taoism and Buddhism, called Ch’an in China.  Zen incorporates Japanese traditions into Ch’an Buddhism.  It means meditation.  Unlike Buddhism, guidance and instruction are important.  Zen has Masters which train others.  Training provides the student with focused practice.  Instruction from a Master awakens the Buddha-nature in everyone.  

A philosophy that disdains study, and metaphysics.  Flashes of intuition arise from meditation.  

Confucianism:

Confucianism focuses on human society.  Social order based on strict ethical rules.  The social responsibility of societies members.  Defining what appropriate relationships and behaviors were allowed in the society.  Governance of family and state to me done by educated people of superior wisdom.

Western Influences:

Japan purposely isolated itself from the world early 17th century.  For the next two centuries, Japan became culturally homogenous.  Developing a national identity.  During this Edo period, there were four strict classes of warriors, peasants, artisans, and merchants.  Samurai became literate, as did other classes.  Samurai changed their activity to writing with brush, and away from using the sword.  Isolation is usually associated with cultural stagnation, but the peace and economic stability brought with it a cultural explosion. 

Being forced to open, Japan modernized government based on the West.  To acquire technical and bureaucratic skills, Japan sent students to Western schools while hiring Western experts.

Caveats?

It takes more than an understanding of culture to understand a peoples.  Lack of history and politics limits an understanding of Japanese people.  The transitions between philosophies and religions appear not to be disrupting.  Some practices influenced by the culture are described, but not in their diverse applications.  What this book does is provide the undercurrent understanding of the Japanese, but more information will be needed to apply the concepts appropriately. 

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•How did China influence Japan?

•How did Japan’s geography influence development?

•What was Japan’s political circumstance?  How did Japanese state change and why?

•Who were the ancient migrants to Japan?

•What are Japanese religions and philosophies?

•How did the religions and philosophes interact with each other and how were they practiced?

•What is culture and what does culture influence?

•What is Shinto?

•What is Buddhism?

•What is Taoism?

•What is Zen?

•What is Confucianism?

•How did the West influence Japan?

Book Details

Publisher:         Tuttle Publishing [Periplus Editions]

Edition ISBN:  9784805311639

Pages to read:   148

Publication:     2016

1st Edition:      2016

Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          5

Overall           5

Review of America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy by Gar Alperovitz

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes  

Book can be found in: 
Genre = Economics

Intriguing Connections = 1) Capitalism, Socialism, their Alternatives and Critiques, 

2) The Impact of Inequality. 

3) Get To Know The Peoples Of The World (United States of America)

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Excerpts

“I mention these personal facts to underscore several critical aspects of the lessons of Youngtown – ad my reasons for writing a book that argues that it is not only necessary but possible to “change the system”” – Gar Alperovitz, Preface, Page vi

“We often ignore this truth, thinking that what counts is “the message” or “how issues are framed” for public consumption.  What ultimately counts is a coherent and powerful understanding of what makes sense, and why – and how what makes sense can be achieved in the real world.  By “coherent” I mean rigorous intellectually as well as politically” – Gar Alperovitz, Preface, Page ix

“The question is not the capacity of citizens to understand.  It is not even whether writers or thinkers take the time to explain themselves.  What opens people to making the effort is that they are forced to abandon the pose that politics doesn’t matter, and that ideas are irrelevant.” – Gar Alperovitz, Preface, Page xi

Review

Overview:

The capitalist system has produced many ailments such as increased inequality, and less freedom.  Changing the system is not only needed, but possible.  To change the system means accepting that politics and ideas are relevant factors.  Cannot avoid politics for during the 20th century, government has grown massively relative to the economy.  But national policy is no longer enough for large scale problems, while are too large for small problems.  Municipal, local governments are dominated by local business communities.  Decision makers in those communities have influence over policies, which makes it important who the shareholders are.  Many businesses have become employee-owned.  With direct ownership of outcomes, workers work much harder and with more enthusiasm.  

Caveats?

Some explanations are assumed rather than explained why they matter.  A lot of statistics are provided, but not their impact on social organization.  Claims sometimes lack complexity and political understanding, with the simplifications making the favored claims appear much better without negative consequences.  The simplifications are sometimes also given a moral argument, which makes anyone who opposes the claims or considers complexity appear amoral.  

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•Why is there a need change the capitalist system?

•What are the alternatives to the capitalist system?

•How the capitalist system be changed?

•Why cannot politics be avoided?

•What is the impact of government?

•How can democracy be improved?

•What happens when the employees own the business?

Book Details

Publisher:         John Wiley & Sons

Edition ISBN:  9780471790020

Pages to read:   251

Publication:     2005

1st Edition:      2005

Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    3

Content          3

Overall           2

Review of Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J. Dubner

This review was written by Eugene Kernes  

Book can be found in:
Genre = Philosophy, Epistemology

Book Club Event = Book List (09/03/2022)

Intriguing Connections = 1) Why Do People Think Differently?, 2) How to Teach? How to Learn?, 

3) Ways To Help Oneself and Life Lessons, 

4) Why Is Behavior of Individuals Different When They Are in A Group?, 

5) How To Have A Conversation?

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“The fact is that solving problems is hard.  If a given problem still exists, you can bet that a lot of people have already come along and failed to solve it.  Easy problems evaporate; it is the hard ones that linger.  Furthermore, it takes a lot of time to track down, organize, and analyze the data to answer even one small question well.” – Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J. Dubner, Chapter 1: What Does It Mean to Think Like a Freak?, Page 11 

“But a lot of obvious ideas are only obvious after the fact – after someone has taken the time and effort to investigate them, to prove them right (or wrong).  The impulse to investigate can only be set free if you stop pretending to know answers that you don’t.  Because the incentives to pretend are so strong, this may require some bravery on your part.” – Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J. Dubner, Chapter 2: The Three Hardest Words in the English Language, Page 42

“An opponent who feels his argument is ignored isn’t likely to engage with you at all.  He may shout at you and you may shout back at him, but it is hard to persuade someone with whom you can’t even hold a conversation.” – Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J. Dubner, Chapter 8: How to Persuade People Who Don’t Want to Be Persuaded, Page 128

Review

Overview:

While easy problems are evanescent, complex problems have evasive complex solutions.  Resolving even small problems well requires a lot of time and effort.  Rather than delegate thinking to the authors, to others, this book is a guide on how to approach problems.  Rather than make a case for any particular way to resolve problems, the object is to think differently.  There are many cultural inhibitors to challenging prior ideas, and acknowledging a lack of knowledge.  But learning anything requires admitting to what is not yet known.  There is a lot of uncertainty and lack of knowledge about the causes of complex problems that have multidimensional cause-and-effects with distant outcomes.  With such complexity, money tends to be spent on the symptoms rather than the root cause.  With such complexity, many claim that they know more about resolutions to complex problems than they actually know.  Need to experiment and approach the problems differently, to get feedback on potential alternative.  Facts are not enough for socially complex problem, as judgement is needed to consider the meaning of the facts, and what to do.

The book stems from an economic understanding.  The economic approach applies to many of life’s challenges and facilitates concern for resource allocation.  The approach incorporates incentives, finding what to measure and how to measure it appropriately, questioning accepted ideas, and that correlation is not causality.  When private and socially responsible benefits are in conflict, people tend to follow their incentives and choose private benefits over the socially responsible benefits.  To make effect policy changes, policy makes need to align private benefits with social benefits.  Incentives can backfire as there will be those who scheme against any incentive plan.  People are different, and will respond differently to the same incentives.  Financial incentives are not enough to motivate people.  Although difficult, need to understand how people will respond to given incentive changes.  

Everyone has biases, moral or otherwise.  The ask of the book is not to remove the moral righteousness, but to understand that they influence judgement.  Even people of intelligence normally seek confirming evidence, rather than evidence that challenges their claims.  This is problematic because responding to the challenges makes claims more robust.  Many views are accepted because the individual resonates with them, rather than look for other problems that might be important, or small.  Those who are heavily invested in their ideas, will not want to change their mind.  To argue with someone, acknowledge their strengths.  Recognizing the oppositions strengths can be used to learn how to improve ideas, and makes the opponent feel heard. 

Even experts claims and predictions about complex problems are only about half right, as the other half is proved false.  Massive overconfidence in the answers causes a lot of the problems with the claims, especially after disproving evidence of the answers.  Having lots of knowledge in a single area, does not make the knowledge useful in other areas.  Faking ability and not recognizing knowledge limitations can lead to disaster.  Within certain contexts, such as school, faking and pretending knowledge does not have much of a cost.  But policies have a lot of social costs, in which faking and pretending cause.

Pretending knowledge has damaging consequences, but is done for various reasons.  One reason is that there are higher costs on the individual to claim a lack of knowledge, than the cost of being wrong.  There are many social pressures and demands on people to know more than they actually do within complex fields.  The people who made the wrong claims, tend to leave before their errors are found.  In many cases, bad predictions go unpunished.  Unpunished bad predication incentivizes more bad predications.  

Complex problems make it difficult to obtain appropriate feedback.  Learning needs feedback.  With feedback, more information about the problems and potential resolutions can be found.  Information that can be used to adjust forthcoming behavior.  A way to get more information through feedback is by applying known facts to experiments.  There are many reasons why experimentation is inhibited such as sticking to tradition, or lack of expertise to run an experiment.  A large reason for a lack of experimentation, is that experimentation requires someone to admit that they do not know and ask for that information.  

Experimentation leads to more information, but experiments are not created equal.  Experiments that take place in controlled environments, do not reflect well the complexity of the actual situations.  Natural experiments are uncommon because it is difficult to even consider making randomized large scale social policy changes.  But when natural experiments do happen, even without purposeful direction, the feedback provides quality information.   

Certain questions have often been asked, and their answers are normalized but do not satisfy as solutions to problems.  Responses change depending on how a question is asked.  Asking a question differently cause people to look for answers in different places, and seek different information.  Redefining the problem leads to discovery of alternative solutions.  Good practice to get as many possible ideas for resolution, but not all ideas are good in practice.  Many ideas appear great in the moment, but have many unconsidered flaws.  Pausing and thinking before implementation of the ideas, can filter the ideas. 

Solutions to symptoms are easier to understand and undertake, which causes a lot of money to be spent on the symptoms.  The problem is that the symptoms will reoccur if the root of the problem is not resolved.  But the root of the problem can be hard to find, especially with complex problems.  Better to favor small problems because they are more manageable, can be resolved, and have appropriate feedback.  As small problems are rarely investigated, there is lots of to learn.  

Caveats?

As the book asks to think differently about assumptions, the basic economic assumptions within this book also need to be rethought.  As there are many social sanctions against thinking differently, and against experimentations, some practical guidance to encourage those practices would have been valuable.  The stated reasons for the inhibitions do create an understanding on what the problem is, which might inspire thoughts about their resolutions.  

The focus is on thinking differently as that is assumed to improve situations.  The problem is that there can be various advantageous reasons for normal behaviors, traditions, and cultural aspects.  Useful unstated reasons for having certain assumptions and behaviors.

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•Why think differently? 

•What is complicated about complex problems?

•What is difficult about claiming a lack of knowledge?

•How do people learn?

•How to get appropriate feedback?

•What prevents experimentation?

•What are incentives? 

•Why consider smaller problems rather than large problems?

•How to convince someone?

•What makes someone biased?

•What happens to unpunished bad predictions?

•What questions should be asked about questions?

•How did King Solomon perform trials?

•How to filer people’s motivations?

Book Details

Publisher:         William Morrow [HarperCollins Publishers]

Edition ISBN:  9780062218360

Pages to read:   140

Publication:     2014

1st Edition:      2014

Format:            eBook

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          5

Overall           5

Review of How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine ... for Now by Stanislas Dehaene

This review was written by Eugene Kernes  

Book can be found in:
Genre = Psychology

Book Club Event = Book List (08/20/2022)

Intriguing Connections = 1) How to Teach? How to Learn?, 2) Why Do People Think Differently?, 

3) Ways To Help Oneself and Life Lessons, 4) War for Your Attention, 

5) How To Have A Conversation?, 6) Intelligence, Of The Artificial Kind?, 7) Is There Fee Will? How Much Control Do We Have?, 

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“While error feedback is essential, many children lose confidence and curiosity because their errors are punished rather than corrected.  In schools worldwide, error feedback is often synonymous with punishment and stigmatization.” – Stanislas Dehaene, Introduction, Page 23

“Learning allows our brains to grasp a fragment of reality that it had previously missed and to use it to build a new model of the world.” – Stanislas Dehaene, Chapter 1: Seven Definitions of Learning, Page 32

“Converging results from diverse fields suggest that a passive organism learns little or nothing.  Efficient learning means refusing passivity, engaging, exploring, and actively generating hypotheses and testing them on the outside world.” – Stanislas Dehaene, Chapter 8: Active Engagement, Page 191

Review

Overview:

From birth, the brain is equipped with a lot knowledge and the capacity to learn.  Nature, known as genetics, provides the infrastructure for the brain to learn, but the content of what is learned depends on nurture such as culture, and interactions with others.  Evolution is a slow process of adaptation, but evolution provided the capacity to learn.  Learning enables quick adaptation to unpredictable conditions.  Learning is how the external world becomes represented in an internal model.  Updating the model when needed.  New experiences change how the brain organizes itself.  Synapses constantly change, reflecting what is learned.  Learning can be accelerated or inhibited depending on the context.  Learners need focused attention, active engagement, error feedback, and cycles of consolidation.  Learning is a discovery and updating process which depends on how a culture treats curiosity and opportunities to learn. 

The Brain:

The brain is far more detailed than the blueprints to build it.  It would be impossible to code all information into the brain, so learning needs to supplement genes.  Even the most simple of life’s creatures that have a brain, learn by habituation and association.  Habituation learning is adaption to stimulus.  Association learning is predictions based on prior information discoveries.  

Even with limitations such as blindness or other brain impairments, individuals are capable of developing normal capacities, and using them with great dexterity.  Brain dynamic of recycling means to reorient functions without genetic modification.  Learning and education recycle functions.  The brain appears to need room for more complex thoughts.  Some functions become impaired.

As some environment information is the same throughout generations, evolution makes them predictably.  Alternately, evolution makes some parameters change rapidly to adjust to volatile environmental aspects.  

Babies are born with considerable knowledge inherited by evolutionary process.  Nature and nurture are not opposites.  Each rely on the other.  Learning takes place within innate constraints.  Learning does not start from nothing as learning uses many prior assumptions.  The a priori hypotheses are used in obtaining meaning, and seeing what works best given the environment.   Even from an early age, humans are capable of computing many abstract ideas and can access abstract institutions which enable higher learning.  

 

Memory is a reconstruction.  Memory is based on contact between two neurons.  The more the related neurons fire together, the more they are wired together.  Memory vanishes without retesting of knowledge.  Long-term memory is based on testing the material, rather than just studying it.

The brain needs more than just intellectual stimulation, it takes appropriate nutrition, oxygenation, and physical exercise.  Brain development requires exposing to various stimulus to make it flexible, otherwise the brain won’t develop the circuits.  During childhood, the brain is overhauling its organization quickly, by either creating or eliminating synapses.  This quick change also explains a large reason for childhood sensitivity periods.  

  

Learning:

What is seen are the projections that the brain has made meaningful from the flow of data.  Learning uses previously missed information to change the internal model.  Knowing what to learn to update the model. 

New observations update thoughts in a probabilistic manner.  A gradual rejection of false hypotheses, and maintenance of more rigorous hypotheses.  Considers a myriad of ways to express the internal model, then utilizing that which incorporates the most data of the external world.  The best fit for the state of external world. 

Sometimes learning can get stuck.  No options to do better seem to exist.  Changes seem counterproductive, as they increase errors.  Although better outcomes are possible, they are too far to be understood.  

Convolutional neural networks learn faster and better because they generalize information.  What was learned can be applies elsewhere.

Humans learn from each other.  Even a single experience, a single trial, can bring about new understandings.  Trying to learn more and more abstract rules, so that as many observations fit into the rule.  While the brain creates a lot of meaning from very little data, machines need a lot of data to make some meaning.  For computers, learning is difficult because there are so much data and possibilities to explore.  Hard to select what to focus on.  Artificial systems have a hard time learning abstract concepts, are not data-efficient, lack social learning, and lack composition.

Pillars of Learning:

To extract as much information from the environment, evolution created functions that facilitated learning.  Stability requires all four functions.  The functions are attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation.

Attention amplifies focus.  Attention is how the brain selects information, amplifies it, channels it, and deepens its processing.  Decides when, what, and how to attend to information.  Paying attention, also means choosing what to ignore.  Directing attention means to choose, filter, and select.  Without attention, students cannot perceive the teachers lesson, therefor cannot learn.  Attention can be misdirected, which inhibits learning.  

Active engagement encourages curiosity and experimentation.  Active exploration of the world.  Passive organisms learn little or nothing.  To learn, the brain needs to form hypothetical ideas of the outside world, and then then test them.  Passive or distracted students do not benefit from lessons, because their brains are not updating their models of the world.  Only by actively following the course is information learned.  Teachers aid in pedagogical progression, to guide student learning.  Students do not learn much without guidance.  But do need a structured learning environment with strategies for active engagement.

Error feedback corrects predictions of the world.  Learning from mistakes is a popular form of learning.  Every error is an opportunity to learn.  Error reduction through feedback.  Feedback that explains how to improve.  Discovering errors enables correcting errors.  Quality and accuracy of feedback influence speed of learning.  Without a surprise, there is no learning.  Prediction error is needed to learn.  Error feedback is not punishment.  Many children are punished or stigmatized for errors, and learn not to be curious to reduce errors.  Errors should be corrected rather than punished. 

Consolidation makes learned behaviors automatic, and involves sleep.  Consolidation frees up mental energy for other purposes.  Automation reduces the mental strain of an activity, allowing the mental bandwidth to be used elsewhere.  Sleep is not inactivity, or just waste disposal.  Brain remains active during sleep.  Sleep goes over what was learned during the day, and gradually transfers it into an efficient compartment in memory.  Sleep quality and quantity depends on how much was learned, as the more learned means more sleep is needed.  During sleep, new information is not absorbed.  Sleep makes discoveries more abstract and general.  

 

Caveats?

Most of the information is about childhood learning, because childhood is a time of major brain development.  The focus on childhood learning leaves out implications for adult learning.  What does learning mean for adults?  Childhood learning implications might not relate well to adult learning.  

Error punishment during school is a major inhibitor of learning for children.  But even adults are punished for errors, and there can be a lot of social sanctions against learning.  Non-childhood learning inhibitors are missing, but that does incentivize considering how cultures can facilitate or inhibit learning.  

Artificial Intelligence or machine learning, is explained in the book, but as a contrast to human learning.  Highlighting how humans learn by expressing the limitations of machines.  Machine learning is a feature of the book, but is not prominent.  

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•What are some biological and evolutionary reasons for humans to learn?

•What are the limits of evolution?

•Why do we learn?

•Nature versus nurture?

•What is the brain’s infrastructure?  

•What happens during brain impairments?

•What can be learned from patients with brain impairments or disabilities?

•What is learning?

•What has changed in understanding the brain?

•What are some myths of learning? 

•What prevents people from learning? 

•What facilitates learning?

•What is the brain capable of from birth? 

•How does the brain develop during childhood?

•How do machines learn? 

•How efficient are machines at learning? Efficient or inefficient relative to what?•What is memory?

•How to maintain a brain?

•How does the brain develop circuits?

•What is brain plasticity and what is the sensitive period for learning?

•What changes does complex thoughts have on the brain?

•How do people interact with the world?

•What happens with new observations?

•How can learning get stuck?

•What is convolution neural networks?

•What are limitations to machine learning?

•What are the four pillars of learning?

•Why is attention needed for learning?

•Why is active engagement needed for learning?

•Why is error feedback needed for learning?

•Why is consolidation needed for learning?

•Why do people sleep?

•What is adversarial learning? 

•How do adults learns? 

Book Details

Publisher:         Penguin Books [Penguin Random House]

Edition ISBN:  9780525559894

Pages to read:   263

Publication:     2021

1st Edition:      2018

Format:            eBook

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          5

Overall           5

Review of Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers by Carolyn See

This review was written by Eugene Kernes  

Book can be found in:
Genre = Writing

Intriguing Connections = 1) How Information and Books Survive the Test of Time, and How They Change, 2) How Products Shape and Change the World

Watch Review

Excerpts

“Sneak up on your material.  Don’t go crashing after it through the forest with a machete.  Sit down, be quiet, let the material catch up with you.” – Carolyn See, Chapter 2: What’s Your Material?, Page 19

“The implication was that there was a serious apprenticeship, even for reading, to say nothing of the one for writing, and that to pressure to write something down took an enormous leap of both faith and pride.” – Carolyn See, Chapter 6: Hang Out with People Who Support Your Work, Page 62

“When you have something in print, even if it’s a recipe for heirloom tomato aspic, you’ve bought a ticket in immortality’s lottery.  Part of you is floating in another universe, and until every last copy of whatever-it-is, is burned, smashed, and gone, you, are, because of that little scrap, not bound by the rules of time” – Carolyn See, Chapter 9: Getting Published, Part 1 Page 102

Review

Overview:

Writing is a major commitment.  Writing is a creative act, which tends to destabilize structure and norms.  Best to keep what is being written secret, at least until its ready for publication.  Otherwise, it might arouse suspicion or other unneeded feedback.  

Writing is about writing, and what it needs are words written down.  Its good practice to make it a habit to write close to everyday.  Not necessary write the whole day, but words need to go unto a page.  Writing needs the author to find the author’s own voice, and material.  Using mostly what is known, the experiences and people that are familiar, to shape the world within the book.  Knowing what ideas and thoughts to stay away from, is just as important.  After having written the book, to revise the book.  Seeing what is missing, and what can improve the flow of the writing.  

Even if the content is great, does not mean people will read it, or understand it.  Even after finishing the book, there is still more work to do to get people to read the book.  Before and after publishing, the author is required to market their own work.  Convincing people to read the book.  The people who the author can ask to read and review the book, is everyone.  Finding belonging with people who support the author’s writing is needed not just for morale, but also because those people would be more willing to read the book.  

Caveats?

The advice is mainly for fiction writing, which might not easily transfer to non-fiction writing.  Some of the advice that helped the author, may not help other authors.  Need to personalize the advice to make it useful.  Most of the advice is relevant no matter the era, but some of the advice is no longer relevant.

  

Language is explicit.  Which may provide humor, or can distract from the advice.  Another potential distraction are the personal references.  This book is filled with many personal references, mainly to make the case that the personal references are the sources that any author should use.  The references are sometimes useful to understanding the context, sometimes distracting.  

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•Why do people choose to write?

•Who should know about author’s writing?

•What writing practices should an author have?

•How does an author find the author’s voice?

•What use is revising in writing?

•Why do author’s need to market their own work?

•Who supports the author?

Book Details

Publisher:         Ballantine Books [Penguin Random House]

Edition ISBN:  0345440463

Pages to read:   264

Publication:     2002

1st Edition:      2002

Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    4

Content          3

Overall           3