Learning by Powers of 10

May 14th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

“The ability to collect, store, and manage data is increasing quickly, but our ability to understand it remains constant.” ~ Ben Fry – Computational Information Design – http://benfry.com/phd/

GATHERING INFORMATION

We’re great at reading, gathering, searching, and finding new and interesting ideas. With search engines now almost anything on the internet can be found using the right keywords. The problem now is not finding information, but sorting and relating it to other information we already know. We start doing this sorting and categorizing at a young age – this is a dog, it’s an animal; this is a cat, it’s also an animal. Slowly over time the number of categories and items we understand expands through learning – Kampala is the capital of Uganda, which is a country in Africa, which is one of 7 continents. These layers can become quite complex and deep. As I learn more about Uganda I store it away in my mind with other information about the country or maybe even relating it to some of its neighboring countries.

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

Once we have a basic framework, we start to hang new information around what we already know. However, without an understanding of the big picture new information can seem meaningless. For example, in my economics class we jumped straight into utility theory formulas without discussing the broader context of how and why we need to analyze individuals utility preferences.

After looking at these graphs long enough I started to build an understanding on my own, but only through repeated rote exercises – copying the board directly from the professor. If instead we could slowly zoom further in to each level of detail, the foundation for each idea would be much firmer. The best example of this idea of zooming if of course Powers of 10 by Ray & Charles Eames:

Why don’t we have a massive Powers of 10-esque way of presenting knowledge? We have Wikipedia, but right now we can only see one page at a time. The average person can’t aggregate data into any sort of meaningful visual form.

LEARNING AS EXPLORATION

Once a beginner sees the big picture – micro vs macro economics – its time to zoom into those groups for more information. Prezi presentations are the most popular way to visually represent this movement. Concepts only become visible once we zoom down through the larger items.

View Original on Prezi

These broad sweeps of information should not be limited to something that only the professor does as part of a presentation. By visually representing the data so students can explore and relate interesting ideas on their own, learning can become exploratory and interesting again.

Imagine a zoomable Prezi for any topic you want to learn that has detailed layers that allow you to skim the broad concepts or learn all the way down to ongoing research.

The problem with Prezi’s is that the proportions and layers are all built individually by the presenter. We need a new system that allows the data to persist between Prezi’s, for this web to expand through the efforts of everyone just like Wikipedia is built by the masses instead of one author.

BIG HISTORY

Microsoft’s ChronoZoom research project is one of the best examples I’ve seen of trying to give the broadest sense of context with an ability to zoom in to what interests you. ChronoZoom is part of the broader field of Big History – best summarized by David Christian at TED – which tries to place human history within the context of the full history of the universe. Imagine learning history in school with this massive level of context that’s fully zoomable.

NOT JUST PRETTY; COMPUTABLE

I keep talking about representing the ideas or data visually but the key here is that the web of information isn’t just a static mindmap that’s used once; instead by defining the relationships between items we can sort, pivot, rotate, filter, and re-organize the data in ways that answer questions. These sorts of questions are the ones I hope to answer and illustrate in future postings.

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Weekend Food Tour of Tuscaloosa

February 27th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

We have a lot of friends come down to visit us who have never been to Tuscaloosa. It’s a mid-size town with a few things worth seeing, but the main attraction is the football and food. When there’s no football, we just have to make do with great food.

Friday Lunch: City Cafe

The best of the best! Classic southern meat and three. The only thing that’s changed since the 1960′s is the prices – they go up about $0.05 a year. Closed on the weekends, and only open for breakfast & lunch so you have to prioritize.

Friday Dinner: Nick’s in the Sticks

Double check the address before you leave, you don’t want to get lost looking for this place. It’s tucked just off the road with a sign that’s easy to miss so look for a parking lot full of cars. Expect to wait about an hour or more. Buy a couple of drinks at the bar (everybody talks about the “Nickademus” – make sure you have a DD!) and then smoke a few cigarettes outside while you wait.

One of the best steaks I’ve ever had – thick, bacon wrapped, and actually a true medium-rare.

Saturday Breakfast: Rama Jama’s

There is some serious debate over who has the better breakfast – City Cafe or Rama Jama’s. I lean towards Rama just because the memorabilia is entertaining for folks who’ve never seen Bama Football madness. 2 eggs scrambled, with sausage patties, toast, cheese grits, and coffee. Mmmm! That’s a good way to start the day.

The great thing about Rama’s for a weekend breakfast is you can walk off your pain by taking a look at the football stadium. Around the front towards University Blvd is the Walk of Champions with large, gaudy bronze statues of all the football coaches who have won national championships over the years – 14. Don’t forget it! The really crazy part is thousands of people line up to see the players walk-in towards the stadium before every home game.

Saturday Lunch: Bama Smoke House

Don’t let the fact that it’s built in next to a gas station throw you off. They have the best ribs in town. If you’re feeling hungry or thinking about splitting (you’ll change your mind), get the 2-meat with 2-sides. The smoked sausage pairs up great with the ribs. This is not my favorite pork in town – drive right down the street to the Pigg Shack if you want a great pork sausage.

Saturday Dinner: Cypress Inn

The best part about this place is the view. You can’t beat a sunset dinner looking out over the river. If it’s raining though, the indoor seating is decent.

Pretty much the cheapest thing is the best thing on the menu! Get the smoked chicken with white BBQ sauce and ask for extra rolls. I know this is cheating the system, but grab that chicken and stuff it into a warm roll. Wow!

If you want to play by their fancy rules and not eat with your fingers, get the catfish or maybe a pasta. Everything else is hit or miss.

Sunday Breakfast: Waysider

Legend has it Coach “Bear” Bryant used to eat breakfast here, so if you want to become a legend then you should too. Basically, think of this as your grandmother’s dining room that hasn’t been redecorated in decades, with a few extra tables and chairs. The nice way of saying it is, it’s “cozy” or “intimate.” Arrive early to get a table.

Sunday Lunch: Carmelo Cafe

We wrap the dining blitzkrieg with a lunch similar to how we started. Think of Carmelo’s as a nice, fresh, organic-ish version of City Cafe. When they run out of something, it’s done for the day. Simple, fresh dishes made from local ingredients.

Pick anything you like! You can’t go wrong here. I usually get the catfish, but only after changing my mind 10 times.

 

Plan B’s / Honorable Mentions:

Archibald’s BBQ – This is the original Archibald’s (not to be confused with the many unsuccessful off-shoots) and this is for the folks who think I didn’t include enough BBQ shacks on the list. They’ve got 4 stools and a wood fire for cooking in a run down cinder block shack. You can’t get more local and run down than this.

Catfish Heaven – Seriously great catfish in a less than ideal dining area. Most folks just grab it to go, but they do have a couple tables. Try the purple drink!

After Dinner / Bars:

The Alcove – Best bar in town with the best selection and atmosphere. They’ve got great outdoor seating and they keep the music low enough so you can actually have a conversation! They’ve always got great regional beers on tap.

The Gray Lady – Decent alternative if the Alcove is too crowded. They’ve got the turf from the old football stadium hanging up over the bar. Yeah, football is serious here.

Sweets and Treats:

Edelweiss German Bakery & Cafe – Best Coffee in town, with a decent patio for outdoor seating.

Rama Jama’s – Swing back by for a milkshake if you need a nice lazy afternoon.

Mary’s Cakes and Pastries - This place is tucked away, almost behind City Cafe, in downtown Northport. You will walk out happy.

Gigi’s Cupcakes – I don’t get it, but some folks go crazy about this place. Too much icing for my taste.

Ben in 10 Seconds

February 26th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink

Q: How to Make Visual Cross-Connections?

February 20th, 2012 § 2 comments § permalink

After a bit of reading online I think I’m finally on the trail of what I’ve been searching for – how to link different ideas together across different hierarchies. Here is the situation now – I am studying economics and as I learn about key economist I want to understand where they are in the context of different schools of thought. For example, Milton Friedman is listed as “Chicago School of Economics” by Wikipedia, Ludwig von Mises as “Austrian“, and Paul Krugman as “Keynesian.” The typical presentation is a simple hierarchy, maybe in a mind map format.

It’s simple to understand the levels of the hierarchy but what I want to know is what are the cross-connections between different people. For example, which people tend to co-author articles with people from other schools of thought? Which individuals bridge the space in-between different schools of thought? Which universities are graduating people into these schools of thought? For example the University of Chicago seems to have fewer Neo-Keynesians.

As a seasoned researcher you come to expect a particular bias merely through your experience, but as someone new to the field I have a hard time placing what some of the influencing factors on the research might be. If however there was a way that I could see quickly which schools some of these main thinkers came from or worked at, I could orient myself in a broad sense quickly. When I start to ask these questions I begin to wonder if these hierarchies of thought we create are all that meaningful.

We all have an urge to categorize and sub-divide but the problem with traditional hierarchies is we are limited to a single dimension or way of sorting. The future is in “semantic” links that allow items to be linked together with meta-data describing the type of link. I will be posting more soon about some of the partial solutions I’ve found. So far nothing seems to answer the underlying problem.

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Q: What’s so bad about deflation?

October 11th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

We have been learning in macroeconomics class that deflation is an incredibly negative situation, especially from the perspective of central banks. Monetary policy becomes less effective in managing the economy once you have serious deflation. From there the basic argument goes that the economy may enter into a deflationary spiral causing lower prices to lead to lower production and therefore lower employment.

Another classmate asked the basic question: is deflation really all bad or is it just bad for our current system? There is no incentive to save now because of the artificially low-interest rates that set by the Federal Reserve. If interest rates reflected the cost of money, as we defined it at the beginning of class, then people would be rewarded for saving and as deflation started to take place interest rates would rise causing more savings and less consumption.

Now this increase in savings would cause aggregate demand to fall in the near-term. But what are savings? Saving is just setting aside money for future spending. No one saves with the intention of never spending the money, they just think they can put it to better use later.

So if interest rates were not set by the Fed but instead allowed to reflect the natural price of money, more people would save and be rewarded for their savings. At some point even if interest rates were 0% forever, debt taken on by individuals still means that future consumption is merely being pushed forward for present spending. That does not change the basic definition of debt as something that has to be paid back. The debt still must be paid back there is just less future consumption.

Back more to the original question now, if deflation starts and people leading up to this have been rewarded for saving, then wouldn’t people eventually buy things as prices fell even if they thought the price might fall a little bit more? Or put another way, there has to be some threshold where people would see an opportunity to invest even if prices could fall further? I’m thinking of Warren Buffett investing billions into Bank of America recently when few people wanted anything to do with the banks.

One of the counter arguments seems to go that: lower-income people will never have a large enough savings cushion to weather a true deflationary spiral with high unemployment. My question now though is, are people really better off with the current system? It looks like we have at least another year or two of slow to low growth. That hurts everyone but especially the people who cannot find jobs to get back into the economy.

If you see something I am missing here, please comment. This is a genuine question that I am trying to learn more about and answer.

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