CT has a 30 Reflex AC*

This weekend’s snow storm.

*terminology bonus goes to Andy M.

I had a really interesting conversation with Tony E. regarding yesterday’s post Cake and the Collapse of Rationality. As it happens, Tony E. is researching a very similar concept at the moment, specifically how willpower failure/mental exhaustion influences investing choices.

I was curious how one can turn the tide on emotion, go all Vulcan on it, as JonAbad observed.
Tony reports the following:

There are two major research programs investigating this right now. The first one suggests that willpower is like a muscle, and that people are irrational because their muscle is tired out. You can either try to make the muscle stronger in the long term by doing things like meditating, or you can give it a shot in the arm (glucose).

Physiologically, people who have their self control exhausted have lower blood sugar levels and the effects go away if you give them a snack.

Ahhh, fascinating. This adds a twist to the whole “would you like some cake” ruse. In fact, the cake vs. fruit test may have been less ‘can your will power resist the urge for something emotionally desired’ and more like ‘can your will power resist the urge for something physiologically desired.’ My uneducated concern is that these two questions might be intrinsically different.

Let’s get back to Tony’s thoughts

Team 2 doesn’t really disagree with this approach but they add that your perspective also matters. To them, failing to be rational is usually a failure to look at “the big picture”

You can think of any situation in terms of its immediate or long term consequences. People often make bad choices because they focus too much on the immediate. You can make better choices if you force yourself to focus on the long term.

Sadly, if we’re lacking motivation then meditation and finding perspective would probably seem too hard.
Thus, I think it’s clear to say that the only solution is the easiest one: sugar.

Thanks for your help Tony E!

Sarah T sent me a really interesting radio lab piece that talks about the difficulty of holding onto will power when under mental stress. Follow the link below to listen:

“There’s constant competition between the rational brain and emotional brain, they’re always competing… to direct your behavior.”

I wish that more theory was presented on how to overcome the emotional battalion within us. It seems like the odds are stacked up against rationality. A few weeks back I learned about confirmation bias, the tendency to enter into a situation and be blinded to evidence which counters your original perception. And then there’s cognitive dissonance where we rationalize uncomfortable situations, sometimes unjustifiably so, in order to try and maintain mental stability.

And now this.

Now the rational brain can be defeated with nothing more complex than a phone number.

Though in this particular case, where fruit is presented opposite chocolate cake, perhaps we should take comfort* in the words of Renaissance writer Michel De Montaigne: “There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”

*cognitive dissonance anyone?

My recent trip to China has changed my impressions of intercontinental travel. My first journey to China a few years ago was a maddening battle with time. For those without the experience, 13-16 hours of plane travel is truly stifling. Trying to sleep in the confines of a coach seat is fruitless as you constantly adjust your blanket to compensate for the dramatic sinusoidal temperature shifts. During that first trip I checked my watch with neurotic frequency and watched with baited breath as the plane icon on the screen moved pixel by pixel across the virtual globe.

Jump ahead to my recent return flight, which despite being packed with every toddler in China*, really wasn’t so bad. I think much of the stresses associated with travel are related to tackling the unknown foreign soil. While customs, language barriers, and local transportation are intimidating, if you can set aside all your concerns with the unknown the travel gets a heck of a lot easier. In fact, I dare say it was enjoyable to have 13 hours to myself for reading and resting.

Ear plugs are a must though. An absolute must.

*How many toddlers are in china? How loud would it be if you could fit all of them on a plane?
Read more in today’s feature.

Dear readers of Mike D’s website:

I am working on a research study and am looking for volunteers - at the current time, I am in particular need of male participants. This study takes 10 minutes or so and involves articulating your general impressions of different social groups.

You can access the brief online survey here

All responses are confidential and anonymous. I’m looking for your honest impressions. This study has been approved by the Loyola University Maryland Institutional Review Board. If you have any questions about the study, please email me: tedidonato@loyola.edu

Thank you!

NOTE: I am supervising a few research projects this spring (one is specifically for people who own dogs and one is about jealousy). I will extend the opportunity to participate to all you! Stay tuned! Your help is much appreciated!

-Theresa

If this morning’s trip from Changping into Beijing could be summed up by the plots of no more than three movies, those movies would be:

Death race 2000
Home Alone
and
Rambo IV

Actually, not really that last one. But the other two fit quite appropriately.

The drive itself was typical Chinese driving. The Chinese are to driving laws what names are to My Little Ponies, pretty much anything goes (example: Musical wish rainbow celebration tink-a-tink-a-too pony*). The most audacious moment might have been that time we barreled down the wrong direction of a divided road swerving maniacally around the oncoming traffic.

When we (miraculously) arrived in Beijing we zipped by the airport to drop off a few colleagues. Our drivers got confused and at one point forgot which car I was in. Having no idea what was going on at the time, I remained patiently quiet. So it’s no doubt I was surprised when our driver looked over at me with sudden shock and horror and declared “I forgot you were in this car!”

After navigating the labyrinth that is on and off ramps in Beijing, we finally got things settled and I arrived at my new hotel in downtown Beijing. At this point I gave Josh a call. Josh lives with Charlotte in Beijing and they are both totally awesome. Josh and I found each other in the busy city and Josh gave me a bit of a walking tour of some of the lesser Beijing spotlights. Including, but not limited to, our visit of the world’s largest screen which hovers above a walking street in Beijing shedding a powerful glow from its 6000 square meters of screen space. Josh took a picture, I’ll see if I can snag it to post.

After 4-5 hours of strolling we’d had enough and we stopped by one of Charlotte’s and Josh’s favorite Chinese food restaurants where we met up with Charlotte. It was great sharing a meal with these two and the food was much more tame and much much more delicious than some of the banquet food that I mention in previous posts.

Charlotte’s a TV personality here in Beijing who just scored a gig on an international education show and Josh just finished his role in a movie being put out in Taiwan. When both of these become available to the public, you can be certain that we’ll have links to it here.

Special thanks to Charlotte and Josh for the great day.

*I wasn’t kidding about Tink-a-tink-a-too.

1. Saying I’m in Beijing is a bit of a stretch. I’m actually in Changping which is a dramatically less populous area on the northern outskirts of the city. In fact, breakfast at my hotel reminds me a lot of those ending scenes of 2001 a space Odyssey. Breakfast is held in a huge room. It has tall ceilings, ornate decorations, plates of food, and pristine table cloths. Yet despite this glitz and glamor, there’s no one else to share it. I sit at a huge round dinner table with the buffet table spread out in front of me and there’s isn’t a soul in sight. It’d dead quiet except for the occasional moment when my fork scrapes against the plate.

2. China really has a unique spot on the global culinary scene. It’s got all-stars like dumplings and delicious rices, but I have a hard time diving in when there’s a duck head* on my plate staring back at me. In somewhat related news, I haven’t thrown up yet on this trip. Keep your fingers crossed that I’ll make it through Thursday without digestive upheaval.

*It tasted like awkward.

Firstly, here’s the fasting article that I mentioned a few days ago. ta-da!

And I must admit, so far so good. I definitely struggled a bit during my flight as I tried to set my body up for the new time zone, but when I laid down to fall asleep at the hotel I had no problem nodding off. More impressive was that I was able to sleep from 11pm until 7am only waking up once. Now, I’m still not convinced that the technique is flawless because last time I flew to China I think I arrived in the morning and had to tough it out through a full day. This time I arrived at night and all I had to do was make it to the hotel.

But if tonight’s sleep is as painless as last night’s and my return trip proceeds just as smoothly then I think it’s safe to say that fasting is going to become a standard part of my international travel routine.

I have arrived in Beijing!! The flight actually felt very reasonable. I was flying Air China and I must admit it didn’t have some of the amenities that one grows accustomed to on American flights. Namely, no air nozzels and very limited TV screens. That said, the service and food was wonderful and the airfair was very affordable. I had a window seat which let me finish Dune uninterrupted. I even got a little sleep.

For this trip, I experimented with a jet lag technique that I read about in some online article. Basically, the theory is that if you fast before your trip and then start eating on the new schedule your body will force itself to acclimate more quickly to help you find and hunt food. I stopped eating at 8pm on Thursday and didn’t start again until 5pm Friday. Now that I’m in Beijing, I will try and sleep and we’ll see if this theory works well. I really hope it does because this is a short trip and I don’t have tons of time to dominate jet lag before I have to fly home and screw everything up again.

There should be plenty of updates this week as I have a computer in my room. As a start, here are a few pictures of my hotel room.

Note the nice tall ceilings and the split brick columns. The pathway in the back leads into a second room containing the bed.

There are a bunch of ceramic pots and camel and horse statues adorning the mirrored glass shelves. It’s a pretty nice room.

Tomorrow I’m going to try and get in touch with Mika’s sister. My colleagues don’t arrive here until tomorrow night so this would be a great opportunity to do something fun. Stay tuned!

Hello readers!

I’m off to Beijing. While it is a work trip, I should get some personal time on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be meeting my friend Mika’s sister and her husband in Beijing. They live there and speak the language well, so it’ll be nice to have an English speaking friend nearby. Mika also passed on some great ideas for things to do while I’m there.

Things will very likely be quiet around these parts for the next week as I traverse the far east. If I find myself having some spare time to put up some scheduled posts, I’ll do so - though my time is limited between now to tomorrow’s departure. OR, if I can find internet access while abroad, I will update the website with some degree of regularity.

For those with publishing abilities, feel free to log in and post on the site while I’m gone. Two hints:

1. change the tag. Quickthoughts appear on the right, Features on the left (not recommended). Everything else in the middle. The default is a Quickthought.
2. For non-quickthoughts, add in a short quip for the optional excerpt (it’s found in one of the expandable tabs below the text editor) otherwise the site will double post your work.

Good luck!

I’ve begun preparations for my fast approaching China trip. I’ll be taking a half day at work tomorrow to conclude my work priorities and then flying out of JFK on Friday.

My apologies for the lack of updates in the last day or so, my prep has taken a fair bit of time. Additionally, I’m trying to squeeze in as many extracurricular activities as I can, while I can.

Stay tuned!

On Saturday night my Kung Fu academy came together to celebrate the promotion of my instructor from Sihing to Sifu. This promotion is a huge achievement (think sous-chef to head chef.) To become a Sifu one must have a fourth degree black belt or higher and make notable contributions to our academy and our art. Above all this, you have to be specifically tapped by Master Tat Mau Wong as worthy of the title.

To celebrate his achievement, a banquet was held in my Sifu’s honor. A few days prior, an instructor approached asking for participants to aid in a kung fu demonstration. I get scared stiff when performing in front of people, but realizing it’d be great practice for my black belt pre-test, I agreed to participate.

When it came to my turn on Saturday, I stood in front of the 75 people or so in attendance and vigorously began the five animal form.

The five animal form is really fun. It progresses between crane, tiger, panther, dragon, and snake. The most challenging aspect of the form is that it has very distinct sections that all seem to start in a similar manner. As such, it’s easy to skip a section. During my practice before hand ,as my adrenaline rushed, I kept screwing up two moves after a sweep. I practiced what I could, but in no time at all I was called out to do my part.

Amazingly, I proceeded through my two most problematic locations without a hitch and as I swung around for the last section I applauded my memory… only to find that I had distracted myself enough to completely forget that last section. I froze for a moment and then made up my own ending of the form.

Those who weren’t black belts didn’t know that anything truly went awry. Those who were black belts sat puzzled. It was humbling, intimidating, and great practice for my test down the road. I’m pleased that I didn’t show the error, though disappointed that I caved under pressure.

The rest of the night went great. Our instructors gave speeches commending Sifu Ostrow. It was heartwarming to hear the devotion and pride in their words. Our oldest student, Bert, spoke especially well as he talked about his experience at a number of different academies. In Bert’s 40 years of training in various martial arts, Sifu Ostrow stood as the single most impressive teacher he had encountered. While I don’t have Bert’s experience, I know it’s true that Sifu Ostrow has unparalleled patience in the classroom, a “tough-empathy” outlook on training, and great appreciation and grasp of Choy Li Fut Kung Fu.

For those in Connecticut interested in pursuing a martial art, I strongly recommend the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy in Middletown. Sifu Ostrow and rest of the head instructors at the school are wonderful to train with and excellent at teaching.

Congratulations Sifu!