I know someone who are very good at multitasking. They can do many things at the same time. I found that I can’t really multitask very well. I can only time-slice my tasks. When I am working on one task and want to switch to another task, I have to put down the on-going task first. I can swap tasks back and forth but it takes quite some time for me to get back on to an effective working state of the task. I found that it is easier to swap between tasks if the tasks are very different. I think human brain operates like a computer, it has different processing units dedicate for each type of tasks. The same type of tasks use the same processing unit. If you switch from one task to another, you have to first unload the old task and then load the new task to the processing unit. That can explain why my idea for writing blog entries dry up in the past few days. I have an 2000 words philosophy essay due on Tuesday. My processing unit for writing is blocked out by this demanding tasks.
Respect
There are many concept in our daily seems very simple, everyone suppose to knows what it means, but when you try to find a precise definition, you realize its meaning is actually very vague. Respect is one of such concepts. Many people respect means politeness, but that is not true. You can totally despite of someone yet be very polite to him. Many people thinks respect means agreeing, but that is also not true. You can pay respect to your opponent yet disagree everything he says. Respect is an altitude, it is inside the mind, it may or may not lead to certain external behaviors.
Respect requires an object to be respected, whether the object is a person, a organization or a religion. Is respect a property of the object or is it a result of something the object had done? I tends to believe in the later. Someone says we should respect elderly, teachers, authority, etc. I think no one deserved to be respect unless he earns it or he loses it. A good teacher, a gentle elderly, a just authority are respectable, but should we respect a bad teacher, a grumble old man, or a corrupted authority? Is it us who disrespect them or they disrespect themselves and their roles in the first place. Even when Kant says every men should be respected, his ground of respect is the rationality of men. Men is no longer respectable if he becomes irrational, on which he cease to be a man.
Instead of using a binary state of respect and disrespect, maybe we should measure respect using a scale. You don’t respect someone or despite of someone if you don’t know him, you are just neutral. The more you know about someone, the more you can tell whether he is respectable or not and you can adjust your level of respect towards him accordingly. You can also slice respect into smaller units according to his relationship with you. Someone maybe a very respectable father to his children, but at the same time he may be a very lousy teacher whom deserve no respect from his students.
What’s wrong with the undergrad mentality
Today is the last day of my philosophy class. The professor has office hour after the lecture. I don’t know which essay topic should I choose, so I went to see her. There is a small line up in front of her office. Some students want to check the grades of their exam, some other just like me want to discuss their essay. While waiting in line, I start the conversation with the classmates by asking them how do they think about the course. To my surprise, all three of them think the course is really hard. They did not get a good grade in the exam and not even know how to write a philosophy paper.
I chat with them a little bit more, I found out none of them are philosophy major. They take the course not because they are interested in political philosophy, it is because this course fulfill the requirement for a minor degree or is an elective of a certain a program. To them, this course is just another course, the final essay is one of the many essays due next week. The stop keeping up with reading after the exam, since the material in those chapters won’t get them any grades. They are very surprise when I told them I am taking this course for fun. I guess they wouldn’t believe why someone would eager to take a course that they think is a torture.
I remember I had the same mentality when I was in undergrad. A course is just a mean for an end, an obstacle between myself and graduation. I don’t really care what I learn, all I care about was getting good grade and an honor degree. I wonder does all undergrad think the same way. Students go to university suppose to learn enthusiastically and always aspire for higher knowledge. How come university becomes a system making students to jump throw hoops in order to graduate. It seems that is not the problem of university. I took the same philosophy course as the other undergrad students. I found the course very interesting but the undergrad think it is boring. If nothing is wrong with the university, then something must be wrong with the undergrad students. But what’s wrong with them? I was one of them too!
防止野人慘劇重演﹐請給警察合適的裝備
這星期報紙有很多人評論野人慘劇﹐投訴香港警察不正當使用武力﹐開槍射殺尼泊爾藉流浪漢。慘劇的起因聽起來很謊謬﹐精神有問題的流浪漢在山頭小解﹐警員接到市民投訴前往調查。流浪漢持木櫈襲警﹐警員在警棍和胡椒噴霧不敵後﹐最終要開槍才能制服流浪漢。很不幸其中一顆子彈打中流浪漢頭部﹐最終送院不治死亡。不少輿論指摘警察濫用暴力﹐甚至上線上綱說警察種族歧視﹐故然射殺流浪漢。其實這次慘劇真正的兇手並不是開槍的警員﹐而是香港警察缺乏精良裝備﹐不足以應付這種場面。
警察雖然有責任保護市民生命﹐但我們不能要求警員冒不必要受傷的危險。警察拿槍指著精神正常人﹐疑犯因為害怕受到槍擊﹐便會乖乖放下武器束手就擒。可是野人神經不正常﹐用槍指著他沒有阻嚇作用﹐他還是依舊揮舞木櫈攻擊警員。根據警員手則在警員遇襲時﹐先要用最低級武力去制服疑犯﹐若不成功則轉用高一級的武力。在這次事件中很明顯警棍不敵木櫈﹐一個普通警員又不是葉問﹐怎可能憑手上的警棍制服揮舞木櫈的瘋漢﹐警員只好用高一級的武力胡椒噴霧。不過胡椒噴霧的有效射程很短﹐要埋身對著疑犯臉部噴才有作用。警員又不是李小龍﹐不可能空手入木櫈﹐對準瘋漢的臉部噴胡椒噴霧。結果最後只能開槍﹐在安全距離擊倒瘋漢﹐可惜子彈無眼兼殺傷力大﹐結果釀成今次慘劇。
若果警察的武器中﹐在胡椒噴霧和手槍之間﹐還有一個中間級別的武力﹐讓警察可以在遠離擊倒疑犯﹐又沒有子彈般大的殺傷力﹐這次慘劇就可以避免了。電擊槍正好提供這種有效程度的武力。電擊槍的操作原理很簡單﹐警察在遠距向疑犯射出兩枝飛標﹐飛標連接著高壓電線連。當飛標擊中觸到疑犯身體後﹐便作為一正一負的電極通電﹐以高壓電流令疑犯短暫失去行動能力。警察便可以趁疑犯癱倒地上時﹐上前為他帶上手扣制服疑犯。被電擊槍擊中沒有生命危險﹐亦不會留下永久性傷害﹐比手槍更適合用來制服瘋漢。電擊槍已美加多個城市警隊的標準裝備﹐香港身為現代化的國際大都會﹐警察的裝備又怎能不與時並進。我認為防止野人慘劇重演﹐香港警隊應盡快引入電擊槍。
Indian bonding
The visiting VP is taking the team out for dinner tonight, thank us for the hard work during the project. Business with your boss, your boss’ boss and your boss’ boss’ boss is usually timid and boring, you can’t talking freely as you are with your own friends. The topic of conversation is kinda general and vague in the beginning, we carefully talk things related to the project. We bashed the IT department, circulate anecdotes about our customers, while trying not to complaining too bluntly about the poor management of the project. Somehow the conversation slowly shift to our Indian experience. All but one colleague at the table went to the Bangalore tour of duty. The VP started with his Indian experience and we all have funny stories to share.
There are some common theme in our Indian experience. After we come back to Canada, we really appreciate the clean air and quiet living that we take for granted. We all wonder whether the highway between the guest house and the Bangalore office is still under construction. We have many stories of the India super inefficient labor intensive way of task management. Anything that we use computer or machine to automate, they use extensive man power in India. Construction workers chip gravel from a big rock with sledge hammer instead of power tools. The page number of engineering lab book is hand stamped instead of machine printed. The Indian experience connects everyone and light up the atmosphere as we recall how our trip to India. Usually you would want to end this kind of business dinner as soon as possible, but we sat at the restaurant, chatted and laughed for almost an hour after the dinner.