A Slightly New Direction…

So far in my blog posts, I have either given you a tedious amount of background on me or went into relatively heavy theoretical stuff that I state as fact and don’t site references for (see The Components of Thought, The Origin of Thought, and Thought and the Environment as examples).

I think, moving forward I’m going to try to write more concrete posts that are more relevant to more people.  I’m not saying I won’t dabble in the theoretical.  I’ll just do less of it, and will better tie it to concrete applications.

My interest in computers is based primarly on interactions, such as the following:

• People interacting with themselves.
• People interacting with other people.
• People interacting in communities.
• People interacting with software.
• Software interacting with other software.
• And, lastly, people interacting with other people through software.

I think I got them all.  Anyway, the point is that there are lots of applications, particularly in the Web 2.0 community that are all about the above interactions.  Also, there are a lot of interesting ideas in both the design world and the software development world as well.  So, from now on I will try to hit these.

Eventually, I would also like to contribute software.  As I explore the landscape, I’ll better be able to formulate my ideas.

I think my next post will be about Twitter, as I’ve become a bit of an addict as of late.  My twitter id is @purecognition.  Give me a follow, if you like.

If you have been reading my blog, I thank you for your patience as I find my voice.  If you have an ideas for things I should look into, based on my previous posts, please feel free to comment.

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Opps…It’s a stack, not a queue…

Analogies are used in computer science all the time.  And, one application of them is in data structures.  A stack data structure means that the items are taken off in the opposite order that they are put on…think of the dishes in a buffet.  A queue data structure means that the items are taken off in the same order that they are put on…think of the line at a bank.

I mistakenly forgot that blog posts are on a stack…which means they appear in the opposite order of when I publish them.  So, my series of posts concerning my background are now in the opposite order than intended.  Sorry about that.  In the future, I will take that into account.  For now, if you wish to read about my background, you’ll have to from the bottom up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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One more guideline…

Oh yeah, I almost forgot one more guideline. As stated in a previous post, I’m going to stick with a conversational writing style. I can’t stand formal writing, and I know that I won’t keep up with this if I move in that direction. When someone writes formally, I feel like they are trying to almost disguise that they “a human actually wrote this.” I like humans too much to disguise my being one. I’m probably one of the few people I know that went into computers because they like humans.

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My blogging guidelines…for now…

I’ve never blogged before, so I’m sure it will be a learning process. My guidelines will change as I learn what works and what doesn’t. However, here is what I am starting out with:

The general theme will be the mind, the computer, and connections (both potential and actual) between them. I will try to refrain from using overly technical terminology from either discipline without explaining it. However, I WILL use technical terminology because will allow those who wish to further explore a given subject, the most important tools to do so…keywords. My content probably won’t be too controversial, but it might be controversially technical. I pride myself on being able to communicate complex technical subjects to anyone whose interested. Plus, I’ll be happy to field any questions along the way. Because of this, I doubt a subject’s technical complexity will ever prevent me from discussing it.

This blog will basically be a means by which I can publicly explore a subject (or domain) that is a strong passion of mind. My hope is that it bears fruit in terms of software and software frameworks that have value to people, schools, businesses, etc… Once I get comfortable with Web 2.0 (the part of the web with collaborative content from users), and what it has to offer, I plan on making this exploration more community driven.

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My Background – Part 7: From Cognitive Science to Computer Science…

I was worried that I wasn’t going to be as interested in computer science as psychology. But, that fear soon subsided. It turned out that computer science is just as rich as cognitive science. And, there is the added benefit of the fact that human created computers and understood their creation better than the mind. It was nice not to have to “guess” as much, and just know that that was how us humans did it. To bad God couldn’t have at least been a guest lecturer in some of my psychology courses.

Also, it turns out that studying computers IS studying humans. My study of the human mind didn’t stop when I because a computer scientist. Humans created and programmed computers in their own image…on multiple levels.

Right now, a thousand examples of the statement above are swimming through my head. However, I’m going to stop with it because those examples each deserve there own posts. I’m also going to stop with my “background” for three reasons. First, my “career” experiences will make it into the future blog entries by the very nature of what they are. Secondly, as helpful as my career has been in terms of learning experience, my path before it is what helped me form the interests that I have now and am blogging about…for the most part. And, lastly, I’m getting bored.

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