February 1

I’ve found that just a little bit of organizing has given me a lot of sanity.


This term’s IHUM, despite being completely different, also manages to give us a day off to watch a documentary about pornography (well, Sara Baartman, technically). The professor inserts the DVD but it does not play; the screen just says “Now loading…” indefinitely. She calls tech support who tries to insert a cleaning DVD and concludes the DVD player is broken. We move into another room and try again but the same thing happens. (Probably over half an hour has passed by now.) Finally a student suggests it might be because the DVD is a copy. ‘But it’s OK, it’s for educational use!’ the teacher sputters. ‘Oh, you think the DVD player might not know that?’ DRM strikes again.

Since there’s no video to watch, class is cancelled. I have a little time before I meet a reporter who’s trying to pitch a piece on me. He’s very friendly and has a cute accent. As the interview comes to a close, he quietly tells me that he really doesn’t like Blake Ross very much. I try to stifle a grin and skip happily off to class.

In today’s edition of Dr. Zimbardo’s class, we are learning hypnosis. There is a standard test to see to susceptible you are to hypnosis — I do reasonably well — and we’re encouraged to keep practicing on our own.

posted February 26, 2005 11:39 PM (Education) (3 comments) #

Nearby

Stanford: Second-Grade Level
Phillip Zimbardo on Time Perspective
Stanford: Go, Team, Go!
Intellectual Diversity at Stanford
Stanford: Shocking
Stanford: Sanity
David Horowitz on Academic Freedom
Stanford: Reach Out and Hug Someone
Stanford: Allergic Reactions
Stanford: Limerick
Stanford: Psychology is a Fraud

Comments

There is a standard test to see to susceptible you are to hypnosis — I do reasonably well

Does doing well on this test mean you are more susceptible to hypnosis or less susceptible?

posted by extra88 at February 27, 2005 07:18 AM #

More susceptible. From Zimbardo’s perspective, hypnosis is a good thing.

posted by Aaron Swartz at February 27, 2005 02:05 PM #

Who’s Blake Ross? Seriously, that’s what I asked (I forgot his name, it turns out).

In response to your AS v. BR thing, I can only say—it’s not a competition, man! Pursue the work you find interesting, and don’t worry about what other people are doing. Firefox is an interesting and important product. RSS is an interesting an important spec. You’re doing cool stuff, so stop worrying the small stuff (and magazine covers are, in fact, small stuff).

posted by at February 27, 2005 10:57 PM #

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