Self-improvement: Temporary Inspiration Syndrome

A few months ago, I was swept up in the idea of making a high-altitude balloon with GPS sensors. Then, I realized I had to learn Arduino and some electronics. I stopped after a short while when I decided that my time is better spent on something else. In the past, I have also started and stopped on the flying airship, the social media website, and the calendar tracking website just to name a few.

These are what I will call "temporary inspiration." Creative people often encounter these temporary inspirations where action often does not or fails to continue after the initial idea is formed. Crossing the gap between your imagination and reality takes time and dedication. Yet, man creative types just find the step of taking action to be not nearly as interesting as the original idea itself. Besides, there's always more inspirational ideas which pop up in a creative's mind that takes his or her attention away from the often boring process of action. Unfortunately, temporary inspiration syndrome which creatives suffer results in nothing substantial created by creatives since they never finish what they start.

How can we ensure that temporary inspiration syndrome is not a persistent defect in a creative? The solution here is to not find the most inspiring idea since to a creative, the next new idea is always more inspiring, but rather to consciously create an external environment which will reinforce her efforts. There are several ways to do this but I'll just highlight three:

1. Build a team composed of at least one person who is a hardworking non-creative. A team, especially one backed up by people with more focus, enforces persistent work done on the same project through mutual accountability.

2. Find a client or potential client. Although it may sound counter-intuitive to find a client before even finishing a project, this is actually done quite frequently when the project requires funds you don't have which will require outside investors. By having an external agent which requires a certain level of competence, you're more likely to work on it.

3. Have immediate feedback. For instance, if you wish to write a book, don't isolate yourself in your room and just write page after page if you suffer from temporary inspiration syndrome. Instead, write a page or two and share it on a forum or blog. The people's comments will keep you accountable and inspired to continue knowing that this material is actually worth reading. The same process of breaking down into little steps that's immediately recognizable also applies to writing software or designing a product though these large projects also require having a team for timely conclusion.

If you have more suggestions or thoughts, I'll certainly be glad to hear it.

Sociology: Trust

How can you tell whether someone is a rapist or a murderer? You really can't unless you develop an intuitive sense which comes from careful observation of people. Even knowing their full past won't help if you're their first victim. Many crimes are done by people you've always thought would never do such evil. So how can you trust anyone?

There is no answer for 100% accuracy but developing your perception can help tremendously. Let's consider the case of a girl trusting a guy. How can you tell whether your friend or boyfriend is what he appears to be? If he seems too nice, something may be wrong. If he doesn't tell you much about his background, be alert. If no one trustworthy you know backs up his character, watch out. If the people hanging around him seem to be decrepit, nasty, or ___ (insert negative word), stay away. Though a lotus can come out of mud, there's a good chance he's just a mud pile pretending to be a lotus.

There's many books out there on this topic. It's best to read a few and examine from other peoples' mistakes. Learning from experience is a hard road here.

Entrepreneurship: Bottles for Rockets

While drinking the last drops of the Vittel spring water bottle, I just had a social entrepreneurship idea. Water rockets can be easily built from bottles and some metal, plastic, or even paper fins. These items are common in developing nations but bottle rockets are uncommon.

I saw an inspiring video recently about kids who live in slums that made beautiful musical instruments out of junk. Music brought meaning to their lives that otherwise would be just dirty and miserable. It brought magic. Similarly, space can also bring magic.

Imagination can be fostered in even the worst places. These kids' interest in science and technology are very limited due to lack of exposure to books, videos, and educated peers or parents.Yet, if they can make bottle rockets out of scrap, they can see that the magic power is all around them. This can be an excellent plan for developing nations and even developed countries with slums.

Sociology: Popularity of a Person or a Country

Which is more popular? A country or a person? Consider the country called Sierra Leone located in west Africa.Sierra Leone is known for its diamonds, the devastating civil war which lasted for 11 years, and its role in the slave trade centuries past. Most people have heard about the country but do they know anything more than that?

Now compare with a person's name. Obviously, there's very few people with the full name Sierra Leone*. However, there are people with the last name of Leone. There's two methods here to see who's or what is more popular and both uses Google. The first is a simple Google Image search for 'Leone' which can be seen as follows:

From the first screen, the statistics for each image linked to the country or a person as are as follows for the first 23 images shown:

Sierra Leone: 7
Sunny Leone: 5
Ashley Leone: 1
Pino Leone: 1
Matthew Leone: 3
Rudy Leone: 1
Jim Leone: 1
Jennifer Leone: 1
Donna Leone: 1
Paola Leone: 1
Carlo Leone: 1

Clearly, Sierra Leone does lead but not by much. Combined, from the image relation percentage, the popularity of people with the last name Leone is much greater than that of the country of Sierra Leone. Taking a look with method two of examining number of Google searches for each of the 10 people and the country Sierra Leone reveals the following number of results in order:

1. Sierra Leone: 380,000,000
2. Sunny Leone: 57,400,000
3. Jennifer Leone: 16,500,000
4. Jim Leone: 15,000,000
5. Mathew Leone: 12,200,000
6. Donna Leone: 12,100,000
7. Ashley Leone: 11,000,000
8. Carlo Leone: 9,400,000
9. Paola Leone: 4,740,000
10. Pino Leone: 3,820,000
11. Rudy Leone: 2,800,000

Combined, the 10 people searches amount to 144,960,000 or over 1/3 of the amount of information for Sierra Leone. Clearly, the information for Sierra Leone still dominates but there is much interest in the people as well. As a sidenote, an interesting lineup of the popularity level of these people and what they do highlights what much of society has their minds wrapped around. In the order of the number of results by Google and removing the names Jennifer Leone and Jim Leone which are due to people with a really popular first name, people's minds are focused on:

1. Hot girls (Sunny Leone or Pino Leone)
2. Music (Matthew Leone or Ashley Leone)
3. Crime novels or fictional Venice (Donna Leone)
4. Science or justs Canavian disease (Paola Leone)
5. Politics (Carlo Leone)
6. Horses (Rudy Leone)

This is not very surprising at all given that to most people, politics and equestrian (art of horse riding) are hardly interesting, while almost no one will object to music and no guys will object to hot girls. Still,  the good sign remains that the country information still ranks first. Perhaps this shows that global politics is still interesting to many people but politicians are not since they come and go. *By the way, did you know that there's a town in Sierra Leone named Shen Ge? I plan to go there one day.

Sociology: Encounters with Homeless People

A few days ago, while I was walking around in Little Five Points in Atlanta, I came across a homeless guy who was begging for money. This incident on its own is not surprising nor is it surprising that he stopped me and asked me for money. I have been approached a number of times before. What is surprising this time is what went through my mind. I realized that homeless people have an attribute that many of us should have but lack: a barrier to talking with strangers! Isn't a lack of understanding between people best curable by open communication?

Now, I know that genuine communication is different from begging for money which is why I didn't give him any money but instead smiled and said that I'll buy him some coffee and chat for a bit if he doesn't mind. He said he was fine with that. So I went inside the coffee shop five steps away and bought two cups of coffee, one for myself and one for him. (I wasn't sure what flavor he wanted so I chose something that wouldn't be too strange.)

In our little conversation, I was able to find out that he was originally from South Carolina but came to Atlanta since a relative of his said there's work here. Since he got here a few months ago, he has been out on the streets in the area of Little Five Points. I noticed that he had a limp in his right leg. I asked him what happened. He told me that he got shot several years ago but he didn't seem to want to go into more details.

Our conversation ended rather quickly since he constantly felt like reminding me that I should give him money so he can go buy a baloney sandwich. I don't like to give money since I don't know what they'll do with it and I had no guarantee that I would get better stories from him by buying him a baloney sandwich even after satiating his hunger. I decided to just leave him alone.

Later, I was thinking that if I was with a friend who would be willing to do this though, I would definitely have talked to him a while longer. I was reminded of an incidence several years ago when my friend and I were walking on the streets of Little Rock and a guy we didn't think was homeless asked us for some money. Since he didn't look threatening or crazy, we decided to take him to a nice little restaurant and hear his story. We learned that he suffered learning disabilities and had a terrible family upbringing. I wanted to keep in touch with him with email which he said he had one. Unfortunately, we never got in touch again so I hope he's alright.

It may seem like I have these conversations all the time but it's actually quite rare. Since my conversations with homeless people don't usually happen on a regular basis, when they do, they leave a mark in my mind. While I was talking with this guy, I had another flashback of a really interesting conversation I had with a homeless guy a few years back at a hotel in Arizona.

I was in Arizona for a space conference and on one of those nights there was a party in a crowded hotel room. I did not feel that shouting over the music and chatter was worth it so I went downstairs to cool off. There, while standing outside, a homeless guy came up to me and instead of begging for money as I presumed, asked if he can borrow my phone to make a phone call. Apparently, someone was supposed to meet with him and etc. I told him to come into the lobby since it's cold outside and make his phone call. He did and said that he needed to wait.

We sat in the lobby and talked for a little while before he mentioned Bruce Li. Coincidentally, I had a Bruce Li movie on my laptop and so we started watching it. One of the guards came by a few times and was slightly suspicious but I told the guard that he was cool so the guard left us alone for a while. Ultimately though, it was quite obvious and the guard told him he had to leave. The guy made one last phone call and thanked me before leaving. I hope he found who he was looking for.

I feel like that the more privileged we are, the less open we are towards those who are less fortunate. I watched a documentary called Born Rich before on rich kids and it's apparent that most of these guys never interact at all with people who are not rich. In other words, 99% of the people in this world do not exist for these guys. They have their exclusive parties and getaway vacations. On the other hand, you have homeless people who are willing to talk to anyone to get some money or for those who are more genuine, have someone care about where they come from. Clearly, for society to operate well, the amount of wealth should not be an indication  of how much or how little you talk with your fellow human being. Communication between all parties should be welcome.

Sociology: Why Musicians are More Attractive

The female mind acts more out of emotion than reason. The reason that musicians have much greater sex appeal than most non-musical nerds* is due to music's direct access to the emotional part of the brain. Music, a favorite activity of musicians, is a drug that can create intensely good feelings in the brain. Intellectual conversation, a favorite activity of nerds, on the other hand, is a convoluted and complicated logical process that usually confuses the less intellectual-minded (which happens to make up most of the population).

"Falling in love at first sight" is not a logical response but an emotional one. Even a decent musician who can play some songs can trigger a series of chemicals creating a fuzzy good feeling in any girl's mind except those of the deaf or emotionally comatose variety. However, an intellectual discussion is far less likely to create the same emotions and can sometimes cause argument even if the girl understands the conversational topic. Thus, to reach a girl's heart, it's best to avoid the logical and appeal to the emotional.

The only times when the nerd is on equal footing as the musician for sex appeal is when the girl is a rational being herself or is impressed by intelligence. This will be a rare girl indeed and if a nerd finds such a girl, he has probably found another nerd. Even in such a situation though, too much logic is not good. For instance, consider the first kiss. A nerd analyzes the moment and decides whether it is the moment before doing anything. By the time the nerd does anything the moment has already passed.

In short, nerds rarely get into bed with a girl or have a romantic relationship since the nerd's favorite activity is usually too analytical to have much emotional appeal. On the other hand, music has a direct emotional appeal and enables the musician to be immediately more attractive to the female mind. This truth can be seen all around. While ugly musicians can hook up with attractive girls, even handsome nerds are often single.

I think I may have been too analytical here myself. This analysis is concluded.

Self-improvement: Life is a Banquet

While driving a friend home, he brought up the question that I asked him a while ago: "If your life is a movie, will people want to watch it?" He told me that if the last six years of his life is the same level of excitement as most people's entire lives, he can see why they all think that their life movie is too boring to watch.

He had told me a number of interesting stories in his life that I would definitely pay to watch if it was a movie. Yet, what's sad is that many people think that he's making things up. Those things coulnd't possibly have happened in his life! He couldn't possibly have had the grandest time in Hong Kong just because he knocked out a guy at a bar to save a girl's honor. He couldn't possibly have grabbed a gun away from an idiot rich guy in front of a club and later won a sham court case for his amazing restraint in not beating the guy up. He couldn't possibly have dressed up as a black guy and walked down some ghetto neighborhoods to see what would happen.

I have stories as well but many of the more interesting ones may give me a bad reputation so I'll refrain from telling them here. The bottom line is many people's lives are apparently so boring that they'll rather believe that such tales can only happen in movies. Yet, they watch adapted movies which show ordinary people encountering interesting situations and they believe those stories. I find it funny that many people will rather believe in a story that's probably edited and dramatized for TV production rather than someone who's telling them face-to-face a segment of his or her life.

There's a quote from a character called Aunte Mame in a movie:

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."

My question to you is if you're at a banquet hall with a table full of action, new characters, and plot twists, why are you starving in a corner instead of taking your seat at the table?

Sociology: Double Standards of Virginity

Recently, I was reading an article on Lolo Jones, the track and field athlete who has won a number of awards including the Olympics, which quickly led to reading on her comments on her virginity when she's past 29. I shall quote her lines here from her HBO interview earlier this year:

"If there's virgins out there, I'm going to let them know, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life — harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage."

She and others like her who believe in this idealism are following a flawed path without even realizing it. Religion or extreme conservative moral compass has blinded them to logic and truth. The logical reason that you make a vow in adolescence to not sleep with your partner is to prevent the long-term consequences which at that age you're very ill-equipped to deal with. At some point, moving forward by taking the jump into sexuality is a step to do to acquire greater social maturity. By not moving forward, the woman chooses to remain forever at the age of adolescence with her lack of experience. The growth of sexual maturity is one facet in the growth of emotional maturity for an individual.

Consider this scenario. When I encounter a man older than 35 who tells me that he's still a virgin, my first reaction is not of awe or admiration but rather of suspicion. I start wondering whether he's lying or whether he's socially retarded. If he is socially retarded but not overly creepy, I'll feel deeply sorry and offer to hook him up with someone I know. My reaction is not atypical; a man who has not followed his biological drive by that age is considered a deviant.

Clearly, a double standard exists. When a man is past a certain age and still a virgin, you either find him creepy or you feel sorry for him. Yet, when a woman in the same situation is somehow considered "good to have standards". This is especially prevalent among the conservative religious ladies who attempt to model themselves after perfection. They genuinely believe that they should wait out for a prince charming to explore their virgin territory.

Our lives are meant to be filled with experiences which enrich us and enable to to understand ourselves and others better. Choosing not to have certain experiences due to limits placed by an antiquidated social model is severely damaging to proper function in the modern society. Not all sexual experiences lead to stronger emotional bonds but many do. Instead of congratulating the woman for holding out, we should be instead feeling sorry for her level of sadly stunted romanticism.

Research: Proposed Aerospace Papers

Predicting the Fate of Humanity for the Next Century
Much has been said about the Fermi paradox, the paradox on why if there’s supposed to be intelligent civilizations out there, we humans have not observed any sign of life. One depressing but possibly true answer to this paradox is that almost all intelligent civilizations eventually discover weapons of mass destruction and end up destroying themselves before expanding via spaceflight. In Michio Kaku’s book Hyperspace a while ago, the physicist made the statement that the next 150 years will be a pivotal stage of whether humanity will expand into the stars or revert itself to the stone age or become extinct. In this paper, a prediction following the spirit of Drake equation is proposed. This equation is called the Shen equation, i.e. Global Calamity Equation, and it predicts the probability that human civilization will terminate within a given amount of time:

P(civilization termination) = P(Nuclear War)*P(Global Epidemic)*P(Asteroid Impact)*P(Ecological Collapse)

The probability for each calamity is based on best estimates from literary reviews in their respective fields.

Modeling Galactic Civilization Expansion and Encounters
Though alien life has not yet been confirmed, it is interesting to speculate on the state of galactic affairs in the universe. How has galactic civilization evolved over the eons? Does contact between different civilizations necessitate growth or decay? If human civilization provides any indication, contact between human civilizations has seen the imminent collapse of less technologically advanced civilizations when confronting more advanced civilizations. However, this has not always been the case and sometimes both civilizations benefit.

In this model, the galaxy is modeled as a distribution of possibly habitable systems on a three-dimensional grid following the best estimates of recent exo-solar planet discoveries. With the passage of the first time step, i.e. a millennium, each galactic civilization expands by ten light years from its home star system. With the passage of the second time step, i.e. a millennium again, each galactic civilization expands by one hundred light years (to take into account technology advancement). This exponential rise continues indefinitely. Each star system encountered is settled thus unless already settled by another galactic civilization. Upon civilization encounter, a random number is generated which decides whether the star system changes hands between civilizations, remains the same, or is annihilated. The entire simulation is run for 1000 time steps or until the galaxy is thoroughly colonized.

On Piezoelectric Power Generation from Space Debris
With the inevitable rise of space debris in the near future, protection from hypervelocity impacts has become an important issue for any spacecraft launched. Given the high kinetic energy yield of such impacts, an idea is proposed to capture such kinetic energy through piezoelectric materials incorporated into current Whipple Shield designs. Capturing such energy can be used to power components such as onboard batteries. A model and design of such a space power shield is proposed here based on experimental and theoretical models from NASA’s ORDEM2K.

Self-improvement: The Lunge or Leap of Faith

There are times when you realize that you're caught up in the doldrums of daily depressing repetition that you feel utterly chained to its worthless mediocrity. You can find yourself doing the same tedious work, talking to the same people entertaining the same thoughts, and doing the same things before you fall asleep every night. As these mostly irrelevant moments of your life pile upon each other like layers of snow, your embers of life is slowly buried in this frosty entombment.

At this moment, you may realize your sad life and in desperation you go for the lunge. The lunge is the last ditch effort to free yourself from the snow of repetitive nothingness that has buried your embers of life. (Heavens forbid if you find yourself so deeply buried in snow that you can't even move your feet.) A close relative of the leap of faith, the lunge is distinguished from its cousin since it is an act of desperation whereas the leap of faith is an act of free choice.

A few days ago before I flew back to the states, I encountered on the same day two occasions two girls who decided to travel spontaneously. One has taken a lunge whereas the other has taken an act of faith. The girl who chooses to quit her bartending job and travel for months in Europe since she wants to escape the daily mediocrity of her work and life is taking the desperate lunge. The girl who chooses to quit her teaching job and travel for months in Europe to gain experience in her life before she returns to a teaching lifestyle is taking a leap of faith.

If we can take a leap of faith to refresh our lives, that will be ideal. However, that is the ideal world and sometimes in this real world, the lunge, despite its nature of desperation, is the only way to radically rejuvenate ourselves and discover once more why we choose to live. The alternative is to let ourselves atrophy in a sad cocoon of reality where without outside intervention (unlikely), our accumulated apathy towards our own lives leads us to the end of our lives, either literally or figuratively. What do you choose to do?