Interrelativity

Category: Books

  • Letting Go of Emotions vs. Thoughts

    A while back, I wrote about letting go of blame and judgment, following an enlightening "Zen with Len" retreat I attended last January. While the retreat helped me release others from anger I was feeling about perceived betrayals or other wrongs, I was still left with my feelings of pain, sadness and fear in response…

  • Marriage, Romantic Realism and Relationship without Attachment

    I've been a hopeless romantic for most of my life, but I am becoming increasingly disillusioned about love. I don't see disillusionment as a negative thing, but as a positive process: letting go of illusions, and thus becoming less romantic – and more realistic – about relationships … especially long-term committed relationships … especially the…

  • There are no mistakes only lessons; a lesson is repeated until learned; tuition varies

    One of my principal sources of wisdom is Cherie Carter Scott's book, If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, an elaboration of her Ten Rules for Being Human, which initially appeared (inadvertently unattributed) in Jack Canfield's book, Chicken Soup for the Soul. My two favorite life rules are: 3. There are no mistakes,…

  • The Scientific Method: Cultivating Thoroughly Conscious Ignorance

    Stuart Firestein brilliantly captures the positive influence of ignorance as an often unacknowledged guiding principle in the fits and starts that typically characterize the progression of real science. His book, Ignorance: How It Drives Science, grew out of a course on Ignorance he teaches at Columbia University, where he chairs the department of Biological Sciences…

  • An Excellent Primer on Data Science and Data-Analytic Thinking and Doing

    O'Reilly Media is my primary resource for all things Data Science, and the new O'Reilly book on Data Science for Business by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett ranks near the top of my list of their relevant assets. The book is designed primarily to help businesspeople understand the fundamental principles of data science, highlighting the…

  • Valuable Advice on Preparing for Technical Interviews … and Careers

    The cover of Gayle Laakmann McDowell’s book, Cracking the Coding Interview, and links to her Career Cup web site and Technology Woman blog are included in the slides I use on the first day of every senior (400-level) computer science course I have taught over the last two years. These are some of the most…

  • Net Smart: a call for mindful engagement with technology

    Howard Rheingold shared some highlights of what he's learned and taught about being "Net Smart" Monday night at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle. Acknowledging the growing chorus of criticism of the growing prominence of online media – and it propensity for distraction, diversion and delusion – he noted that critique is necessary, but not…

  • On the Personal Philosophy of Carl Rogers

    A while back, I was delighted to discover the source of one of my favorite quotes: What is most personal is most general. The quote is from psychologist Carl Rogers' 1956 essay "'This is Me': The Development of My Professional Thinking and Personal Philosophy", which can be found in the first chapter in his 1961…

  • Client-Centered Therapy, Student-Centered Learning and User-Centered Design

    I recently finished Carl Rogers' 1961 book, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's Guide to Psychotherapy, in which the renowned psychologist describes his approach to client-centered therapeutic relationships. Rogers makes a compelling case for extending his approach to cultivating relationships with his clients to all personal and professional relationships, including those between parents and children,…

  • I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb

    We are all interconnected and we have responsibility for each other. This is the interpretation of the Swahili word, ubuntu, offered near the start of a short, inspiring interview with photographer Betty Press by NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host, Audie Cornish two weeks ago. The interview focused on the incredible photographs celebrating the lives of…