It has been a looong time. I tend to think it's because I'm able to post links and comments over at Facebook, but I realize I don't get nearly as detailed there as I do here. That is because I really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, because actually telling someone that is even slightly religious that religious stories are simply fairy tales is ridiculing their beliefs, and of course ridicule can seem malicious even when it truly is not.

Ok, enough about that. I've started reading The Invisible Gorilla by Daniel Simons and Christopher F. Chabris. Interesting read. At times it reminded me of Black Swan and Don't Think of an Elephant. Black Swan is about unpredicted events and their influence, and the other describes how people use words and phrases to influence what others think and believe.

The opening quote from Benjamin Franklin says it all; it is hard to know oneself. The authors demonstrate why people should be critical of how they view and interpret existence. The book has been personal in a number of ways. They talk about things that distract a driver, and I listen to books when I'm behind the wheel. I've been an x-ray tech for two years now, and they talk about Radiologists and how they interpret diagnostic imgages.

They also talk about doctors and their confidence levels, or rather the fact that people prefer confident doctors, even though it has little bearing on competence. I work in a teaching hospital, and my confidence of how our medical professionals are educated and trained has decreased significantly based on my observations of my own experiences and observing other students, especially residents.

The authors also talk about people's own perception of their knowledge, and demonstrate how much it can be skewed. My own experiences have made me painfully aware of how unreliable my perceptions are. Two experiences I remember vividly. I was in a classroom learning about systems of the EA-6B Prowler aircraft. The instructor was a belligerent technical representative from the Grumman Corp., the company that produced the plane. He asked if anyone could explain how computers deal with computational errors, explicitly how parity bits work. I raised my hand, because I was familiar with them, although when I tried to explain I failed miserably. The instructor pounced, exclaiming in a booming voice, literally, that I didn't know if I couldn't explain it.

One other incident is illustrative. During a discussion about hard drives, I was explaining partitioning. Another individual pointed out that I was wrong, and of course I looked it up. I was wrong of course, and of course my understanding improved. The individual was exasperated at the time at my willingness to pass along misinformation.

Halfway through the book, and looking forward to the rest.