David Daniels on one’s “other voice” (1998)

For writers and translators struggling to find the right mode of expression, the example of the singer David Daniels holds penetrating promise:

Upset that he couldn’t control the higher tenor-range tones — “I couldn’t sing in the top part of my voice,” he says, “everything would flip and crack, flip up into the falsetto” — he sought the help of a therapist who’d worked with singers with stage anxieties.

“I told her about my other voice,” said the affable Daniels, 31, chatting at the Opera House recently, “how it felt so natural, how I could do anything I wanted to do with it: sing high and low, soft and loud, and never worry about making an ugly, horrible sound. She didn’t understand what I meant by ‘other voice,’ as if it were separate from me, (when) it’s not, it’s part of me, who I am.”

Daniels decided to “make the switch” to countertenor after consulting with his teacher, George Shirley, who wasn’t entirely surprised: Earlier, Daniels had brought him a tape of himself singing a Verdi aria but told him it was a female friend. Shirley loved the sound and after a few minutes realized who it was.

“Everything about me changed,” says Daniels, who grew up in a musical family in South Carolina and sang professionally as a boy soprano. “I had a complete air of confidence and security.” Switching to countertenor, he says, freed him to do “everything I felt dramatically, musically, technically and emotionally that I couldn’t get out as a tenor. I can let myself concentrate on things that are really important — portraying a character and communicating emotion to an audience.”

Jesse Hamlin, “Countertenor of His Times: David Daniels puts muscle into high-voiced roles” San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, May 31, 1998, p. PK-35. On line at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/05/31/PK54634.DTL&ao=all (accessed 20120520).

There are some NPR interviews posted of Daniels discussing this, for instance https://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=22-Nov-2002&segNum=15&NPRMediaPref=RM

Student protests in Montréal and thoughts about tuition

While in Montréal last week, I heard a lot of unsympathetic comments about the protesting students, who have been upset about what my interlocutors describe as a very small tuition increase — much smaller than the 25% per year that CUNY is going to be undergoing starting in a few months.

There were smoke bombs thrown in the subway one morning we were there — the entire system was shut down during rush hour — and earlier there had been bags of bricks thrown on the tracks, with the same result. Riot police used tear gas and percussion grenades against protesters some weeks before we got there. Faculty and students tell me they have been heckled by protesters, some wearing masks, while trying to enter buildings. (The Montréal city government has proposed banning the covering of one’s face during a protest, and the Canadian government is considering a similar law.) So much class time was lost at some institutions that exams have been postponed and at least one campus (Université de Montréal) has canceled graduation ceremonies.

What is most interesting about this is the clear divide between linguistic-cultural affiliations of the students involved — it is “the French” who are said to believe they are entitled to free education, while some (only some) of the others whose opinions I heard in person or read in the papers want to see the army brought in to deal with the situation.

Feelings about free tuition were once high at CUNY, too. Here is a 2010 description from the New York Times:

CUNY colleges once were known as theaters of unrest. In 1970, students shut off elevator service at Hunter College and liberated the cafeteria by serving free food. Helmeted police officers were called, and classes were suspended. In 1976, as CUNY finally faced an end to free tuition, students marched in the streets of Harlem and boycotted classes for three days, while 13 members of the English faculty started a hunger strike.

In 1989, the possibility of tuition increases led students at City College to pour glue and stick toothpicks into the locks of 400 classrooms. Students seized administration buildings and blocked traffic across the city. In 1991, another series of protests prompted classes to be canceled and commencement to be delayed. (The New York Times, December 20, 2010, p. A23)

There are some other documents here:

• The 26 September, 1967, issue of The Campus, the CCNY paper, reporting and commenting on the decision to end free tuition. See “Compromise Termed ‘Sellout’ by Head of Alumni Group” (pp. 1-2) and “A CU Grows in Brooklyn” (p. 2). More issues of The Campus may be found at the same site.
• “When Tuition at CUNY was Free, Sort of,” a 2011 account of the older tuition system and its replacement by financial aid. This account appeared as CUNY was preparing to announce tuition increases.

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My view is that when something good — education, for example — has a cost to me, I tend to take it more seriously. That goes for both tuition and homework. I am not arguing in favor of exorbitant tuition or unreasonable workloads, though.

I have also found that people who audit my classes never do all the work assigned, even when they’re strongly motivated, and almost always stop attending before the end of the term. It seems to me that the absence of grade-pressure prevents most people from exerting themselves as much as they might.

Recordings for Classical Chinese

I have posted my recordings of what my current Classical Chinese students have been reading, at https://brannerchinese.com/w3302_2012spring/recordings/.

There is not enough of this in the teaching of Classical Chinese — well, there is not enough Classical Chinese in Chinese programs generally, because many people fail to understand the centrality of “Classical” and literary Chinese in the structure and aesthetics of modern Mandarin. I won’t preach about that here. What I want to assert now is how important the reading aloud of texts is to learning the language they contain. Hearing another person reading them aloud is also good, and so to aid my students (who I require to read aloud everything we study together, from a clean copy of the text projected on a screen) I made my own recordings.

I prefaced the fifty-odd recordings in this set with these comments:

I recognize that these recordings are quite helpful to you, and that is why I have prepared them.

But I have misgivings about them. For one thing, they force me to commit myself to particular character-readings and syntactic expression in stress, whereas I prefer to keep my relationship to the text more fluid. For another, they rob you of the chance to decide for yourself how to interpret the text, in just those ways.

In the end, though, I think it is better for you to have these to review from, in case they are of use to you for that purpose. I hope to find time to prepare more in the next days and weeks. They are not as good as an educative native speaker might produce, but I suspect they will still be useful. They may also be rather soft unless you listen to them with headphones or a properly amplified system.

Bear in mind that these readings reflect (a) the specific versions of the texts that I have used in the course, ignoring what may be in your textbooks or other versions, and (b) my best choice of readings based on the various considerations that I consider relevant. Both undoubtedly differ considerably from what you may encounter elsewhere, and I urge you to listen widely and read aloud adventurously. I lean to the 1932 standard of Mandarin rather than the mid-1950s standard, though not in every case, and for certain words I prefer a more conservative reading (jū rather than jù for 俱, dài for dà 大 but only in the two compounds 大王 and 大夫, etc. etc. etc.). Generally I have avoided the old rùshēng 入聲 readings (zé for zhái 宅, bò for běi 北, etc. etc.), dear though they are to my heart.

To choose one’s own readings is an expression of temperament as well as understanding. My own tendencies are mainly philological and will probably not inspire you much. But if you have the time and interest, I recommend listening to the work of Mr. Hung Tzeh-nan 洪澤南老師, the most gifted performer of oral Classical Chinese literature I have yet encountered. Unfortunately, most of his work is not easy to get hold of, but his book Ták-ê lâi gîm-si 大家來吟詩 is on-line at Yuan Ze University 元智大學’s site. It is true that these materials are in Taiwanese rather than Mandarin, but they illustrate the basic nature of the oral performance of Classical Chinese literature: that it is to the reading of a text what shūfǎ 書法 (brush-pen calligraphy) is to the physical characters — an individual expression of understanding and mood, ranging from the exquisite heights of fine art down to (one hopes, at least) workmanlike presentation. Unfortunately, my reading has no artistic content, but I urge you to explore Mr. Hung’s work when you have time.

The experience of learning vim commands

There seem to be two different compartments in my brain for clusters of vim commands. One is verbal. I learned ddp to reverse two lines and xp to reverse two characters. When I did so I learned them first as “words”, and that’s how they remain in my head. I can access them fast as words, almost by reflex.

The other compartment is accretionary. I never thought of ggVG (for selecting the whole contents of a file) as a command cluster until I saw it in print, but when I did I recognized it at once as something I type all the time.

It seems most effective to let my highly verbal tendencies consolidate what I have gradually learned through accretion.

An anecdote about William Hung (Hóng Yè 洪業, 1893-1980)

William Hung was the most learnèd scholar of Classical Chinese at Harvard and mentored several generations of Harvard students. (Since he did not have a PhD, however, he was never allowed to supervise dissertations.)

Here is a story from his memoir, describing his college days at Ohio Wesleyan:

Russell B. Miller (the object of much conniving because he owned the only automobile in town) taught Greek. The text he used in Hung’s class was the Four Gospels. Miller would call on individual students to read the text and translate the passage into English, but for a long time, he did not call on the lone Chinese student in the class. When he finally did, Hung stood up and gleefully recited the whole chapter, from memory, in Greek! He never called on Hung to translate again.

Susan Chan Egan Latterday Confucian: Reminiscences of William Hung (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) p. 53

Calculus III progresses

I am struggling to get caught up on my Calculus III homework. The first exam is 12 days away. I’m deep in the section of the book about which the instructor said, “This is the longest homework section in the semester and it will be the majority of the first exam. Those are the problems to stress about.” (I am obedient in all things, sir.) He recommends ten hours of homework a week for a five-hour-a-week class.

When I started the term, it was taking me an average of 30 minutes per problem — something I can’t imagine the other students are experiencing. I spent four hours on actual problem-solving today, plus perhaps another hour or so of flash-card making and other sorts of review. It hardly seems very much time. But I am pleased to find that my average speed is now down to 20 minutes/problem. That’s cause for optimism, even if it still feels as though my brain is a corroded mass of old gears. Come to think of it, I’ve had that sensation every time I’ve taken math recently, but somehow the immediacy of the sensation is replaced by a feeling of accomplishment after the stress of the moment has passed. It has been 25 years since I took Calculus II, but I think the gear-box is getting back to functioning condition.

Initially, I studied by taking careful notes on the ideas of each section in the text book, and only doing problems afterwards. But now I think that’s for the birds. Doing problems and groping my way through the ideas as I need to has proven a more effective way to get comfortable with the material. The notion that theoretical understanding, gained from reading the chapter, is a useful guide to problem-solving, is nonsense here just as it is in every other field I know of.

By far the most common cause of error in my work is sloppy arithmetic errors — half the time, it is just the result of getting plus and minus signs wrong. This in spite of considerable effort to avoid such mistakes. I have had this problem since my childhood. Using LaTeX to do my problems makes it easier to find them, since I can now actually read and even search mechanically through what I’ve written.

Avoiding the Emailyama

A correspondent used the term Emailyama* a few days ago. I admire his ability to defer looking at email at all for what seems to be long periods — many days — and replying to serious message even less often, after a considerable length of time. Like me, he has chosen not to subscribe to a data plan for his mobile phone and has just simple voice service on it. I believe I can learn to do what he does to avoid the Emailyama. Of course, when you leave email alone for a while, it accumulates. Is the Emailyama stronger or weaker then? A puzzle. But it is better to face him on your own terms and at times of your own choosing.

The period when I have done without email for the longest — I mean, when I had regular access to email but chose not to use it — was when I was finishing my dissertation some 15 years ago. I allowed myself 20 minutes, twice a day, for all internet access unconnected to my research. I didn’t really miss it. I also took two hour-long walks every day, regardless of weather, at that time.

During my fieldwork trips I almost never had email; an American friend let me use his account occasionally when I was in the same city he was, but it was a minor part of my life — I spent a lot more time watching the early-morning slaughtering of pigs (to learn the names of butchering processes and body parts) and trying to make accurate records of dialect idioms, improvised dialect songs (shān’gē 山歌) of very old farm women, names of local plants and places, and secret language. Email would have seemed a terrific bore in comparison with those things.

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* Yama is the king of hell in Vedic lore; his Chinese form is the Yánluówáng 閻羅王.

Tales from Calculus III

Twenty-five years after I took Calculus II, I am enrolled in Calculus III at City College. I’ve heard from many students that the instructor is one of the best in the program — he is leading one of ten sections this semester and I drew him by chance. Below are some observations recently sent to a few correspondents.

The instructor has said firmly:

The more problems you do, the more shortcuts you will figure out for yourself. The only way you can do this is to do a ridiculous number of problems. You must work almost every day on this stuff, for a couple of hours a day.

Homework is not graded, but we are supposed to keep a special notebook in which “assignments”, meaning hard problems apart from the homework proper, are to be done — and those he will examine on occasion. If we’ve done them. On Thursday morning we were supposed to visit his office before class to show him that we do, indeed, possess such a notebook. The point was to encourage students to make the effort to identify a notebook for those problems early in the term. I was the only one who came, though, and I’m going to be using LaTeX, with his blessing.

The assignment sheet for the semester went up just before class on Tuesday and he announced it in class and told us to do the first three sections, 23 problems in all, mostly vectors, which are not well handled in LaTeX. I spent six hours doing the first assignment and got through 19 of the 23; the last four remain undone several days later, despite my good intentions. On the day they were official due, several of the students were still asking him when he would post the problem sets.

This instructor says he is going at solving problems but his memory is terrible, so he has never learned LaTeX. Instead, he uses MathType, which provides a GUI. It’s a pity, because a math course is really the ideal place to introduce LaTeX and guide students in elementary use of it.

The instructor made a pitch to interest me in abstract algebra. I must admit, what he showed me seemed quite interesting and intuitively clear. I have yet to understand what the place of math will ultimately be in my life — I only know I am not yet done with this question.

I am the only student in the class of around 30 who is taking notes on a computer. Some students do open up a computer briefly, but it seems to have something to do with messaging. I ran into a little trouble today with LaTeX because I had anticipated that we was going to introduce determinants, which I haven’t learned how to handle yet (actually it’s not hard, I now see — the amsmath package has everything I’m likely to need).

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A correspondent, seeing the comment about doing “a ridiculous number of problems,” replied:

That sounds reasonable to me. The “problem” is that the advent of software like Wolfram|Alpha removes any real usefulness from this kind of skill … it is now a purely aesthetic amusement.

But I disagree. Skill brings understanding, and understanding leads to insight into other things whose existence you can predict but whose content and requirements you can’t easily anticipate. Much of the mathematical and theoretical component of the computer science education at City College consists of exposure to proofs, or to things like proofs such as building a linked list in C++, and so on. It is not as though we will ever need to build our own linked lists or derive Chebyshev’s inequality. But struggling to produce them myself helps me to understand and retain them, and there is considerable value in that.

Quintilian on laziness and difficulty in one’s studies

“Difficultatis patrocinia praeteximus segnitiae.” – Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 1.12.16

[For our own sluggishness we put forward the plea of difficulty.]

Finally making progress with Vim

Now that the semester is over, I am finally in the mood to risk using the text editor Vim for various tasks that are important to me, and so to have a chance to learn the thing for real.

Vim enthusiasts often mention the lack of hand movement as one of the attractions of this tool. I am not attracted by that, though. I prefer a certain amount of bodily entropy when studying, and the arm movements of typing are part of that. And I value the kind of memory that comes from involving my body in thinking. That is why I use standing desks (various home-made ones — I’m unwilling to pay the exorbitant prices demanded in the marketplace). That is why I still use paper books, whose physical shape serves as a guide to my recollection of what I’ve read. The minimal hand- and arm-movements needed for Vim are helpful to touch-typing, but I don’t place great store by them in themselves.

What I am really enjoying about Vim today is the need to think, even to calculate a little before doing anything other than actually typing text. It reminds me of learning to use a scythe when I was about 14. Naturally, my inclination was just to slash at the grass. But an adult watching me, one Pierce Skinner, came over and suggested that I pause for half a second before each swing of the scythe, to consider what I was about to do. My scything improved enormously and the act of fore-thinking felt very good. I am experiencing something similar right now with Vim and enjoying it.

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I see Pierce Skinner is now a practicing clinical psychologist in New Jersey.

Leibniz’s theodicy, dynamic programming, and strategies for learning

Leibniz, in his Essais de Théodicée (1710, I), says:

Il demeure toujours vrai … qu’il y a une infinité de Mondes possibles, dont il faut que Dieu ait choisi le meilleur; puisqu’il ne fait rien sans agir suivant la suprême Raison.

[It always remains true ... that there are an infinity of possible Worlds, from which it must be that God would have chosen the best, since he does nothing without acting in accordance with supreme Reason.]

Leibniz has been roundly ridiculed for this sentiment. Apparently he rejects the desirability of finding optimal subproblems, in the logical sense, within moral philosophy. Coming from the coiner of the term differential and what remains (300 years on) its modern symbol, this seems inconsistent. Then again, maybe it is Leibniz’s detractors who fail to see the possibility of optimal subproblems in the order of the universe, because they are distracted by the immediacy of human suffering. Perhaps Leibniz thinks that all this really does even out algorithmically.

The question of efficiency strategies is much on my mind these days, as I have been trying to master the units on dynamic programming and greedy algorithms before tomorrow’s final exam in Algorithms. There has been ample time, but somehow I never use time as effectively as I might, and I wonder if the subject itself does not contain lessons for me, going forward.

In the past year, calendar 2011, I have made headway clearing my desk of obligations from my past academic life. My mind is clearer, too. Though not as clear as I wish, since it has been cluttered with the new learning I have taken in during two semesters of Data Structures and Algorithms this year, the heart of the mathematical poetry that underlies computer science. It has been a good year and I think it will remain a memorable one for me, if perhaps not the best of all possible years.

I use the word “cluttered” advisedly above, since it seems to me that while I am perhaps able to study with preplanned efficiency, my mind does not learn that way itself. In particular, my mind seems to require a distinctly inefficient period of “shaking down” what I have learned before it displays any comfort with new learning, to say nothing of mastery. A really efficient learning strategy would include provision for that process.

Emanuel Derman and Paul Wilmott on mathematical models and self-delusion (2009)

Derman and Wilmott:

Simple clear models with explicit assumptions about small numbers of variables are … the best way to leverage your intuition without deluding yourself.

— “Financial Modelers’ Manifesto,” January 7, 2009, Posted at http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/paul/index.cfm/2009/1/8/Financial-Modelers-Manifesto , accessed 20111214. (Forum discussion at http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=67869)

Jim Coplien on reflection and problem-solving (2011)

Jim Coplien writes:

Failure can be your friend.

…

The very nature of kaizen [dpb: 改善] in Japanese culture is rooted in an introspective state of hansei [dpb: 反省]: of deep reflection and of identifying with the problem. Only then are we truly in a position to understand how we can relate to solving the problem, either by removing its cause, or working with others to do so, or to embark on a program of continuous practice to remove the problem. Also intrinsic to kaizen is that improvement comes not so much from solving the problem, but from going to the next level to remove its very cause. There is lasting value in fixing a software bug. There is broad, lasting value from improving the process to diminish the chances that such kinds of bugs can ever arise again. But we need those bugs, those problems, to trigger the process changes. In that sense we celebrate the opportunity that presents itself when a problem arises, though we soberly assess our place in that system.

Speaking of intentional practice, periodic reflection is a good thing. Explicitly take time to reflect on opportunities to improve — as an individual, a family, a team, or as a corporation. It takes trust and courage, but it builds trust and courage as well. William James said “The error is needed to set off the truth, much as a dark background is required for exhibiting the brightness of a picture.”

— Blog entry “There is No Failure — Only Feedback,” 20111130, on line at http://www.computer.org/portal/web/buildyourcareer/Agile-Careers/-/blogs/there-is-no-failure-%E2%80%94-only-feedback , accessed 20111205.

Karl Popper on understanding a problem (1963)

From “Science: Problems, Aims, Responsibilities” (1963):

There is only one way to learn to understand a serious problem — whether it is now purely theoretical or a practical problem of experimentation. And this is to try to solve it, and to fail. … Even if we persistently fail to solve our problem, we shall have learned a great deal by having wrestled with it.

— Karl Popper, “Science: Problems, Aims, Responsibilities” (1963), The Myth of the Framework, ed. M.A. Notturno, (London: Routdedge, 1994), p. 99.

Galileo on “reason conquering sense” (1632)

Galileo Galilei:

I shall never be able to express strongly enough my admiration for the greatness of mind of these men who conceived this [heliocentric] hypothesis and held it to be true. In violent opposition to the evidence of their own senses and by sheer force of intellect, they preferred what reason told them to that which sense experience plainly showed them … I repeat, there is no limit to my astonishment when I reflect how Aristarchus and Copernicus were able to let reason conquer sense, and in defiance of sense make reason the mistress of their belief.

— Dialogue concerning the two great world systems (1632), translated by Karl Popper and quoted in Popper’s “Science: Problems, Aims, Responsibilities” (1963), The Myth of the Framework, ed. M.A. Notturno, (London: Routdedge, 1994), p. 85.

Doctoral pedigrees

The Mathematics Genealogy Project at North Dakota State University documents lines of academic filiation (primarily through doctoral degrees) in mathematics. It makes for interesting reading. Though my degree is “Asian Linguistics”, I can connect myself to the mainstream mathematical tree through a sub-branch of four progenitor Doktorväter:

• Josiah Royce, 1878 (Philosophy)


• Henry M. Sheffer, 1908 (Philosophy)


• Yuen Ren Chao 趙元任, 1918 (Philosophy)


• Jerry Norman, 1969 (Oriental Languages)

[Update 20111213: Chao and Sheffer are now in the tree; see this post.] Sheffer and initially Chao studied logic, a field developed at Harvard by Royce. Sheffer is best known for having introduced the NAND operation to Boolean logic. Chao’s main scholarly contributions were in Chinese historical phonology and modern grammar. Jerry Norman has pioneered the rigorous study of Chinese dialect classification, which you might say is a type of applied logic.

Through Royce, I can trace my “pedigree” to various luminaries of the Humanist era: Erasmus, Vesalius, Ficino, Copernicus, Leibniz, and Marin Mersenne, a student of prime numbers after whom is named the Mersenne twister, a pseudo-random number generator now widely used on personal computers. To Kant, as well, and to non-Humanists like Thomas à Kempis and Thomas Cranmer. Most lines peter out in the early 15th century; earlier stragglers include the mathematician and theologian Heinrich von Langenstein, an antecedent of Copernicus who received his Theol. Dr. in 1375, while the neo-Platonist Georgios Plethon Gemistos seems to have received the first of his degrees in 1380.

There is romance in seeing one’s connection to people like Leibniz and Erasmus, but it means little beyond that. Does anyone with a PhD today, in any field, not belong to those lines of filiation? As of today, Erasmus is shown to have 95301 descendants listed in mathematics alone. I have learned an enormous amount from Jerry Norman, and it is justice to call him my Doktorvater. I find myself in strong agreement with Chao’s model of formal Chinese historical phonology, too, and I have a special love for logic. But the model of linguistic fieldwork I use owes considerably more to Robert Austerlitz and Li Fang Kuei 李方桂 than to Chao, whose approach I consider altogether too literary. I also identify myself intellectually with my maternal grandfather, who left school when he was 12 but was a voracious reader and lifelong pursuer of ideas. At best, all that a paper pedigree can do is remind me to try to be true to the effort that generations of scholars, known and unknown, have made in order to seek knowledge and see clearly — to those ideas and those people all human beings are equally heirs.

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There is at least one program available to generate graphs from the Project: see http://www.davidalber.net/geneagrapher/.

Neuro-plasticity and strategies for improving cognitive functioning: “The Brain Fitness Program” (2007)

The PBS documentary “The Brain Fitness Program”, from the year 2007, describes conclusions from the past several decades about neuro-plasticity — the ability of the brain to reorganize itself and improve its functioning and efficiency. The main researcher whose research is highlighted is the psychologist Donald O. Hebb (1904–85), and there is also material about the rehabilitation clinic of Dr. Edward Taub. The documentary consists in large part of interview snippets with the neuroscientists William Jagust, Arthur Toga, Michael Merzenich, Jason Karlawish, and the authors Sharon Begley, Shannon Moffett, and Norman Doige, interspersed with animations and other illustrations.

The documentary is suitable for general viewers although it seems to be directed especially at older people concerned about avoiding cognitive impairment. To speak harshly, I found it motivational at the expense of concrete documentation. But it was interesting and there were two summary lists at the end that were relatively useful:

“Tenets”:

• Time 44:03. “Change can occur only when the brain is in the mood.” Paying attention and being alert and ready for action.
• 45:03. “Change strengthens connection between neurons engaged at the same time.” Trying something repeatedly allows the brain to selectively remember the most effective combinations of small variables contributing to the more effective tries.
• 46:02. “Neurons that fire together wire together.” Much of the brain’s functioning involves prediction, and the brain improves its ability to predict based on observation of things that reliably occur in series.
• 47:45. “Initial changes are just temporary.” The possibility of changing the brain’s structure increases when activities are repeated over time.
• 48:41. “Brain plasticity is a two-way street and we can either drive brain change positively or negatively.” Malleability can mean vulnerability, as well as the flexibility to change. Persistent bad habits and environmental interference are examples of negative effects.
• 49:52. “Memory is crucial for learning.” The brain maintains a model in memory of what it is trying to do and evaluates the results of repeated attempts to meet that model.
• 50:54. “Motivation is a key factor in brain plasticity.” Acquisition of new skills is the primary means for developing the adult brain.

“Tips for optimal plasticity”:

• 55:30. “You need your heart to be decent shape.”
• 55:40. “Training should be incremental.”
• 55:45. “Training needs to be taxing and systematically improving.”
• 55:57. “It should be interesting to engage the motivation circuits in your brain.”

(“The Brain Fitness Program”. Directed by Eli Brown; written and produced by Lennlee Keep. Santa Fé Productions, Inc., 2007. About 58 minutes; the DVD contains a number of interesting outtake scenes, as well.)

Code-switching between comfortable cognitive aptitudes and the main aptitudes used in math and coding

I continue to reflect on different kinds of thinking I rely on in my current activities.

My study of and research on Chinese involves a kind of technical thinking about abstract linguistic categories, but those categories and the evidence for them require doing long stretches of basically mechanical, clerical work — collation of field notes or minute philological details — the aptitude for which the people at the Johnson O’Connor foundation call “graphoria”. In this work one does relatively little interesting original thinking, except to the extent that one is aware of the higher-level problems to which the mechanical work and the minute details will contribute. And there is also something meditative and satisfying about paying close attention to minute details for a long stretch of time, so the work by no means simply mindless rote action. Working with Chinese words, spoken and written, in particular, seems to stir my musical and graphic-analytical proclivities, and I have the sensation that Chinese grammar moves a kind of structural thinking, as well. So the mechanical work is not without its interest and satisfactions, though those do not compare to the kind of thinking one can eventually do when one has the necessary data assembled for actually attacking a problem in a unified way. I often think that one of the things that makes formal linguistics so uninteresting is that its practitioners seem to spend a lot of time avoiding actually handling data at length.

In programming and mathematics, however, neither the graphoria nor any aspect of language or music aptitudes seem to be directly helpful. In fact, I often find that my motivation to turn my mind to non-linguistic quantitative thinking is hindered by whatever time I have recently spent on mechanical or linguistic work, because those are inevitably easier to pick up quickly than math or a complex programming task. I experience a wrenching “code-switching” moment when I have to do this. I have still to find a good way to get my mind into the mood for math quickly if I have been doing those “lower”-level tasks. The only effective way I have found so far is to put clerical tasks completely away from myself for weeks at a time, but in real life it is not possible to do that, and certainly not for the coming half year, until my last two or three book projects are done.

I get a little help from using a timer to force myself to to spend some period of time working concentratedly on one type of task before switching to another. But the code-switching remains jarring even with the pressure of the timer to aid the switch. I wonder daily if overcoming code-switching is after all simply a matter of patience and concentration.

Edsger Dijkstra on mastery of one’s native tongue as a vital programming skill (2001)

In an oral history interview with Philip Frana in 2001, Edsger Dijkstra talks about the importance of articulateness in natural language:

There is an enormous difference between one who is monolingual and someone who at least knows a second language well, because it makes you much more conscious about the phenomenon of language structure in general. You will discover that certain constructions in one language you just can’t translate. I was once asked what were the most vital assets of a competent programmer, and I said, at the time, a mathematical inclination and an exceptional mastery of his native tongue. I said “mathematical inclination” because at the time it was not clear how mathematics as understood at that moment could contribute to a programming challenge. And I said “native tongue” and not “English” because, well for lack of formalism, you have to think in terms of words and sentences using a language you are familiar with. Moreover, but I didn’t know that at the time, research has shown that when people acquire a second language, they never get a greater mastery of it than they have of their own language, their native tongue: that clearly sets the standard for how articulate you are going to be.

Edsger W. Dijkstra, OH 330. Oral history interview by Philip L. Frana, 2 August 2001, Austin, Texas. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. http://purl.umn.edu/107247. P. 9 of PDF.

Anecdotal report on experimenting with creatine as a study aid

For two weeks, I have experimented with creatine, a non-essential nutrient widely used by athletes to build muscle mass. I have no interest in muscle mass, but was interested in reports of improvements to cognition and memory in certain circumstances — something that has begun to interest me keenly as I try to manage my time and shepherd my attention in order to learn mathematics as well as I can. I have achieved pretty dense technical expertise in Chinese and related areas, but math is harder for me than anything else I have ever studied. On the other hand, creatine’s effects on cognition and memory are documented mainly for people with impaired cognitive ability due to age, illness, diet, or exhaustion. Only the last of these might conceivably apply to me in my present life, and I am not aware of any cognitive deficit — in fact, I seem to get a lot more done than most people I know.

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Creatine. Creatine is synthesized in the human body from amino acids and can be fully absorbed for at least the first several months of use, after which its effects seem to drop off. There seem to be no known dangers to its use in my circumstances. The creatine I took was from Twinlabs, which says that it buys the raw ingredient from laboratories in Germany and China, and tests and packages it in the US.

Dosage. For ten days, I took 3.6 g of creatine monohydrate twice a day, together with vitamin B and C and some simple carbohydrates. These doses are typical of those in medical experiments and are at the low end of what is apparently common in use by athletes, for whom doses of 20-30g/day are not unusual. For the following four days I took no creatine at all but continued the vitamin B and C.

Effects. I noticed a very marked increase in the energy I felt, especially when exercising — when walking fast on New York streets (the so-called Gotham Breakneck) and on an elliptical machine. I would describe my mood as somewhat more excited than usual, but not to the point of being jumpy or jittery. When walking, I felt quite a surge of power — so much that at first I thought I ought to be careful lest I inadvertently bump into someone. For the elliptical machine, I can offer an actual measurement, since the machine I use measures the energy needed to resist the flywheel’s rotation and reports that as a number of calories. During the ten days of creatine use, I averaged 940 calories/hour of exercise. In the previous eight weeks, without any creatine use, I averaged 902 calories/hour. The increase was about 4% over my recent level — nothing spectacular, even if significant. Over the past two years I have averaged 924±70 calories/hour on the same machine.

Anecdotally, I noticed some increase in libido and food-cravings (though not overall appetite). Both may be attributable to the feeling of excitement I described above. Apart from that sensation, I noticed no changes in my overall range of moods. My sleep was noticeably sounder than usual. In my normal life without creatine, unless I have had a minimum of 80 minutes of strenuous exercise during the previous day, I typically wake up at night after 3-4 hours and have to force myself to sleep again, often by reading or writing. I think this is the effect of stress, which exercise relieves very palpably. During the period of creatine use I slept at least 6 and half hours every night and do not recall waking after 3-4 hours, even though I got the same amount of strenuous exercise I normally do — which is to say about 45 minutes a day, plus the modest effects of working at a standing desk for most of my work day and a small amount (30 minutes or less) of Gotham Breakneck walking. I typically take at least one short (10-20 minute) nap during the day, and also did so on the days when I was taking creatine.

There have been reports of dyspepsia or water retention with creatine use in controlled conditions, but I noticed none. All my bodily and mental functions appeared normal to me, except for the few items described above: mild but persistent excitement, considerable power when exercising, more energy during the day, mildly increased libido and food-cravings, sounder sleep without waking.

Most importantly, I noticed no improvement in my ability to get through hard intellectual problems, to prioritize tasks, to recall facts, or to concentrate generally. In fact, since each dose of creatine was followed by several hours of comparative excitement, I think the state of my mind for study was slightly less than ideal.

After ending the use of creatine, I felt completely normal beginning on the very first day — my levels of energy and attention seemed normal to me. My ability to concentrate on difficult ideas was no worse than when I was taking creatine.

Conclusions:

First, that creatine seems to be effective for increasing one’s energy level, especially for physical exercise. If I find myself tired or under heavy stress, I may take small doses again for a limited period of time.

Second, that creatine is of no use to me as a study aid. I had considered that patience and concentration are matters of time-management, which is a matter of discipline, which can be thought of as a matter of strength and stamina — and that creatine would help with the first step in this chain, that of strength and stamina. But I now see very much more clearly that patience is a consequence of the reflexive application of patience itself, and that the increase in physical energy brought about by creatine is actually a hindrance (say, a small one) to the cultivation and practice of patience.

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Readings:

Below are interesting extracts from the abstracts of about two dozen articles I examined while researching creatine. They should not be read out of context; the best thing would be to look up the original articles and read the abstracts completely and then try to understand as much of the original articles as one can in a reasonable amount of time. I spent a number of hours reading the materials and taking the notes below.

Cognition and Memory

• Following 24-h sleep deprivation, creatine supplementation had a positive effect on mood state and tasks that place a heavy stress on the prefrontal cortex. McMorris et al., 2006a.
• Creatine supplementation aids cognition in the elderly. McMorris et al., 2007a.
• Creatine supplementation only improves cognitive processing and psychomotor performance in individuals who have impaired cognitive processing abilities. Rawson et al., 2008.
• Creatine seems to be totally absorbed since no creatine or creatinine was detectable in feces. Ingestion of creatine combined with BG facilitates its retention by slowing down its absorption rate and reducing its urinary excretion. Deldicque et al., 2008.
• During sleep deprivation with moderate-intensity exercise, creatine supplementation only affects performance of complex central executive tasks. McMorris et al., 2007b.
• In vegetarians rather than in those who consume meat, creatine supplementation resulted in better memory. Irrespective of dietary style, the supplementation of creatine decreased the variability in the responses to a choice reaction-time task. Benton et al., 2011
• The median healthy life span of Cr-fed mice was 9% higher than in control mice, and they performed significantly better in neurobehavioral tests. In brains of Cr-treated mice, there was a trend towards a reduction of reactive oxygen species and significantly lower accumulation of the “aging pigment” lipofuscin. Bender et al., 2008.
• After taking the creatine supplement, task-evoked increase of cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin in the brains of subjects measured by near infrared spectroscopy was significantly reduced, which is compatible with increased oxygen utilization in the brain. Watanabe et al., 2002.

Habituation

• Recent findings in healthy humans indicate that the beneficial effect on muscle function and muscle total creatine content may disappear when creatine is continuously ingested for more than two or three months. The mechanism for this habituation to chronic creatine exposure is poorly understood. (Derave et al. 2003) [DPB: Full text was not available.]

Effects of Withdrawal

• Withdrawal from Cr had no effect on the rate of strength, endurance, and loss of lean tissue mass with 12 weeks of reduced-volume training. (Candow et al., 2004). [DPB: in other words, after cesssation of creatine, its lingering effect on strength, endurance, and loss of lean tissue mass is indistinguishable from not having taken it at all.]

Safety

• We advise that high-dose (>3-5 g/day) creatine supplementation should not be used by individuals with pre-existing renal disease or those with a potential risk for renal dysfunction (diabetes, hypertension, reduced glomerular filtration rate). A pre-supplementation investigation of kidney function might be considered for reasons of safety, but in normal healthy subjects appears unnecessary. Kim et al., 2011.
• There is little to no evidence that any of the newer forms of creatine are more effective and/or safer than CM whether ingested alone and/or in combination with other nutrients. Jäger et al., 2011.
• Short-term Cr supplementation appears to be safe but does not enhance push-up performance. Armentano et al., 2007.
• To date, studies have not found clinically significant deviations from normal values in renal, hepatic, cardiac or muscle function. Few data are available on the long-term consequences of creatine supplementation. Perskey et al., 2007.
• Under conditions that exist the human stomach (high acidity and supply of nitrite from food and saliva), creatine can react to form N-nitrososarcosine that is known to induce esophageal cancer in rats and stomach cancer in mice. Archer, 2004.
• Main side effects were gastrointestinal complaints. Although serum creatinine levels increased in Cr patients because of the degradation of Cr, all other markers of tubular or glomerular renal function, especially cystatin C, remained normal, indicating unaltered kidney function. Bender et al., 2008.
• While creatine may enhance the performance of high-intensity, short-duration exercise, it is not useful in endurance sports. Because commercially marketed creatine products do not meet the same quality control standards of pharmaceuticals, there is always a concern of impurities or doses higher or lower than those on the labeling. Graham et al., 1999.

Caffeine and Creatine

• High combined doses of creatine and caffeine does not affect the LBM composition of either sedentary or exercised rats, however, caffeine supplementation alone reduces the percentage of fat. Vertical jumping training increases the percentages of water and protein and reduces the fat percentage in rats. Franco et al., 2011.
• Caffeine ingestion after creatine supplements augmented intermittent high-intensity sprint performance. Lee et al. 2011.
• Although caffeine and creatine appear to be ergogenic aids, they do so in a sport-specific context and there is no rationale for their simultaneous use in sport. Higher doses of caffeine can be toxic and appear to be ergolytic. There is no rationale for creatine doses in excess of the recommendations, and some athletes can get stomach upset, especially at higher creatine doses. Tarnopolsky, 2011.
• These findings suggest that the acute ingestion of this preexercise supplement ["containing caffeine, creatine, and amino acids"] may be an effective strategy for improving anaerobic performance, but appears to have no effect on aerobic power. Fukuda et al., 2010.
• Improvements in VO2max, [critical velocity], and [lean body mass] when GT ["proprietary blend including whey protein, cordyceps sinensis, creatine, citrulline, ginseng, and caffeine"] is combined with HIIT ["high-intensity interval training"]. Three weeks of HIIT alone also augmented anaerobic running performance, VO2max and body composition. Smith, et al, 2010.
• As indicated by a greater T(lim), acute caffeine ingestion was found to be ergogenic [New Oxford American Dictionary, version bundled with Mac OS 10.5.8: "intended to enhance physical performance, stamina, or recovery"] after 6-d of creatine supplementation and caffeine abstinence. Doherty et al., 2002.
• It is concluded that Caf intake (3 days) prolongs muscle RT [relaxation time] and by this action overrides the shortening of RT due to creatine supplementation. Hespel et al., 2003.
• Caffeine pharmacokinetics were not affected by concomitant administration of creatine or by physical exercise. In conclusion, neither maximal performance and subsequent recovery nor aerobic performance were enhanced by oral creatine supplementation in the study. Vanakosky, et al., 1998.
• The data show that Cr supplementation elevates muscle PCr concentration and markedly improves performance during intense intermittent exercise. This ergogenic effect, however, is completely eliminated by caffeine intake. Vandenberghe et al., 1996.

Citations

• Archer, 2004. Creatine: a safety concern. Toxicology Letters. Volume 152, Issue 3, 25 September 2004, Pages 275


• Armentano et al., 2007. The effect and safety of short-term creatine supplementation on performance of push-ups. Military Medicine [Mil Med] 2007 Mar; Vol. 172 (3), pp. 312-7.


• Bender et al., 2008. Creatine improves health and survival of mice. Neurobiology Of Aging [Neurobiol Aging] 2008 Sep; Vol. 29 (9), pp. 1404-11. Date of Electronic Publication: 2007 Apr 09.


• Bender et al., 2008. Long-term creatine supplementation is safe in aged patients with Parkinson disease. Nutrition Research (New York, N.Y.) [Nutr Res] 2008 Mar; Vol. 28 (3), pp. 172-8.


• Benton et al., 2011. The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores. The British Journal Of Nutrition [Br J Nutr] 2011 Apr; Vol. 105 (7), pp. 1100-5. Date of Electronic Publication: 2010 Dec 01.


• Candow et al., 2004. “Effect of ceasing creatine supplementation while maintaining resistance training in older men.” Journal Of Aging And Physical Activity [J Aging Phys Act] 2004 Jul; Vol. 12 (3), pp. 219-31.


• Deldicque et al., 2008. “Kinetics of creatine ingested as a food ingredient.” Eur J Appl Physiol (2008) 102:133–143. DOI 10.1007/s00421-007-0558-9.


• Derave et al., 2003. “Creatine supplementation in health and disease: what is the evidence for long-term efficacy?” Molecular And Cellular Biochemistry [Mol Cell Biochem] 2003 Feb; Vol. 244 (1-2), pp. 49-55.


• Doherty et al., 2002. Caffeine is ergogenic after supplementation of oral creatine monohydrate. Medicine And Science In Sports And Exercise [Med Sci Sports Exerc] 2002 Nov; Vol. 34 (11), pp. 1785-92.


• Franco et al., 2011. The effects of a high dosage of creatine and caffeine supplementation on the lean body mass composition of rats submitted to vertical jumping training. Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition [J Int Soc Sports Nutr] 2011 Mar 01; Vol. 8, pp. 3. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Mar 01.


• Fukuda et al., 2010. The possible combinatory effects of acute consumption of caffeine, creatine, and amino acids on the improvement of anaerobic running performance in humans. Nutrition Research (New York, N.Y.) [Nutr Res] 2010 Sep; Vol. 30 (9), pp. 607-14.


• Graham et al., 1999. Creatine: a review of efficacy and safety. Journal Of The American Pharmaceutical Association (Washington,D.C.: 1996) [J Am Pharm Assoc (Wash)] 1999 Nov-Dec; Vol. 39 (6), pp. 803-10; quiz 875-7.


• Hespel et al., 2003. Opposite actions of caffeine and creatine on muscle relaxation time in humans. Journal Of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md.: 1985) [J Appl Physiol] 2002 Feb; Vol. 92 (2), pp. 513-8.


• Jäger et al., 2011. Analysis of the efficacy, safety, and regulatory status of novel forms of creatine. Amino Acids [Amino Acids] 2011 May; Vol. 40 (5), pp. 1369-83. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Mar 22.


• Kim et al., 2011. Studies on the safety of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids [Amino Acids] 2011 May; Vol. 40 (5), pp. 1409-18. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Mar 12.


• Lee et al., 2011. Effect of caffeine ingestion after creatine supplementation on intermittent high-intensity sprint performance. European Journal Of Applied Physiology [Eur J Appl Physiol] 2011 Aug; Vol. 111 (8), pp. 1669-77. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Jan 05.


• McMorris et al., 2006. “Effect of creatine supplementation and sleep deprivation, with mild exercise, on cognitive and psychomotor performance, mood state, and plasma concentrations of catecholamines and cortisol.” Psychopharmacology (2006) 185: 93–103. DOI 10.1007/s00213-005-0269-z.


• McMorris et al., 2007a. “Creatine Supplementation and Cognitive Performance in Elderly Individuals.” Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 14: 517–528, 2007. DOI: 10.1080/13825580600788100.


• McMorris et al., 2007b. Creatine supplementation, sleep deprivation, cortisol, melatonin and behavior. Physiology & Behavior [Physiol Behav] 2007 Jan 30; Vol. 90 (1), pp. 21-8. Date of Electronic Publication: 2006 Oct 13.


• Persky et al., 2007. Safety of creatine supplementation. Sub-Cellular Biochemistry [Subcell Biochem] 2007; Vol. 46, pp. 275-89.


• Rawson et al., 2008. “Creatine supplementation does not improve cognitive function in young adults.” Physiology & Behavior 95 (2008) 130–134. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2008.05.009.


• Smith, et al, 2010. The effects of a pre-workout supplement containing caffeine, creatine, and amino acids during three weeks of high-intensity exercise on aerobic and anaerobic performance. Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition [J Int Soc Sports Nutr] 2010 Feb 15; Vol. 7, pp. 10. Date of Electronic Publication: 2010 Feb 15.


• Tarnopolsky, 2011. Caffeine and creatine use in sport. Annals Of Nutrition & Metabolism [Ann Nutr Metab] 2010; Vol. 57 Suppl 2, pp. 1-8. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Feb 22.


• Vanakosky, et al., 1998. Creatine and caffeine in anaerobic and aerobic exercise: effects on physical performance and pharmacokinetic considerations. International Journal Of Clinical Pharmacology And Therapeutics [Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther] 1998 May; Vol. 36 (5), pp. 258-62.


• Vandenberghe et al., 1996. Caffeine counteracts the ergogenic action of muscle creatine loading. Journal Of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md.: 1985) [J Appl Physiol] 1996 Feb; Vol. 80 (2), pp. 452-7.


• Watanabe et al., 2002. Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation. Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation. Neuroscience Research [Neurosci Res] 2002 Apr; Vol. 42 (4), pp. 279-85.