Comments on: Physics Taught Me the Chinese Principle of Success

By: Paul Price

Paul Price — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:19:20 +0000

To any who have not read it
To any who have not read it yet can I recommend 'Thinking fast and slow' by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman, a brilliant and very readable book on problem solving and decision-making: why we are often so bad at these tasks and how we can be much smarter.

Much of behavioural economics, Gladwell, Freakonomics etc derive from Kahneman's work. Highly recommended and I'm only at Chapter Seven.

The point made by Dave E. that "the rice grower's labor resulted directly in it being meaningful work, having a clear relationship between effort and reward" is just one of many reasons that climate change is such a diabolical problem for humans to solve.

The relationship between effort (mitigating emissions) and the reward is entirely masked by the invisible nature of the achievement, the immediate costs, the distributed benefits of the results, and the time lag between not emitting CO2 and the still-not obvious results (having a liveable planet for the next thousand years).

Physics problems are tough but I venture to suggest that solving a human-collective action problem on a global scale, doing it without massive economic contraction, and doing it by yesterday is proving a bit harder still.

While we have a chance of at least trying to solve it we should be throwing all of our abilities at it.

By: Leigha Dickens

Leigha Dickens — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:42:34 +0000

I failed my first college
I failed my first college physics test too, by a similar margin. And angular momentum in particular really got me frustrated as a concept. Oddly enough, that failure and my angular momentum frustration were so powerful to me when I did break through them that that was how I knew that physics was going to be my field of study.

As a physics tutor I observed a lot of math-phobia, and I think that's a piece of the reason for quitting too soon. Folks let their anxiety get in the way of thinking rationally. Going into a math problem with this idea in your head that "I'm no good at math!" makes you end up focusing on the "I'm no good" part and quickly turn that into "and here's *proof* that I'm no good, because I can't do this problem" and all that noise in your head stops you from dedicating thought to the actual problem in front of you.

By: shtrum

shtrum — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:21:34 +0000

As someone with an
As someone with an architecture degree from a good school, i've come to realize that building science is a fascinating subject. Unfortunately, it doesn't always get the recognition it deserves, but i do occasionally see signs of improvement(albeit at a glacial pace).

And i had a similar experience, except in chemistry. I was awful at high school chemistry (actually got a 'D' one quarter). Took a couple chemistry classes at a local community college a couple years ago and loved it (straight A's). Both classes intense and taught by Ph.d's. 'Aha' moments and life experience are great for breaking through subjects with a hard outer shell.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:15:50 +0000

Ryan S.:
Ryan S.: Yeah, seeing something as a challenge rather than an assignment always helps. The other thing to remember is that we all have different abilities and skills, and sometimes it may be best to stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole and go look for a square hole.

By: Ryan Shanahan

Ryan Shanahan — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:04:34 +0000

Physics always threw me for a
Physics always threw me for a loop because no matter how interesting I found the subject it was still very hard. It was hard for me in HS, hard for me in College, and hard for me during Certified Passive House Consultant training. I've since realized that part of me likes the challenge. Looking at it as a challenge (that can be won) vs an assignment has always got me through tough subjects.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:59:02 +0000

Mary Beth:
Mary Beth: Indeed it is! That's me standing amid the three interconnected ultra-high vacuum chambers I used in my doctoral research.

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:52:09 +0000

What is the picture about?
What is the picture about? Is that you with a mind-numbing physics problem?

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:50:32 +0000

Dave E.:
Dave E.: Absolutely! They had autonomy and if they did extra work or figured out a smarter way to do something, they benefited directly, whereas the serfs in Europe would only make their feudal lord richer if they worked harder.

Barry: I'd say you have to work both harder and smarter, but you do raise a good point.

By: Barry

Barry — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:48:08 +0000

Great post, brings back some
Great post, brings back some memories. Had about the same experience in first semester physics. What I learned early in college was not to work harder but to work smarter. Not to say that I do not work hard, but there is a subtle difference. I still use that mantra today!

By: Dave Eakin

Dave Eakin — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:35:43 +0000

"He attributes a lot of
"He attributes a lot of it to the hard work of growing rice and the autonomy the rice growers had in Southern China."
The most important element Gladwell pointed out is that the rice grower's labor resulted directly in it being meaningful work, having a clear relationship between effort and reward (page 236). The lower-class rice growers were given autonomy by the ruling class because they could foresee the future demise of the food supply if not. [I've been a huge fan of Gladwell even before he had his books published and heartily recommend all 3 - "Tipping Point", "Blink", "Outliers".]
Unfortunately, not many professions today in the USA culture can echo this trait (at least those that are financially rewarding and steady) given our engineering/industrial bent of short-sighted goals, minimizing the human resources involved, and maximizing corporate revenues regardless of the impacts. But Gladwell's observation is still sound.