psnajder

All you have to do is create a network under these guidelines. One system to do whatever you can in that awesome system that does a batch of particular things. Then you invite your friends and say, look, you can do all these awesome things just by being in my awesome system/network! They, understanding its awesomeness, will have to join. You offer them even more things that are progressively more awesome. And more people join. And more people surf under one unique sign-in.

One night you get home and feel happy, satisfied, knowing that your network of users has finally experienced the greatest possible, most efficient, most awesome system ever invented. And before you go to sleep, you pick up a phone and call your mom to tell her how happy you are.

I'll just assume he built it out of mashed potatoes.

The things I do to my relatives are so awful, I can't ever explain, no matter how many times you ask.

In Strauss and Howe's book Generations (I highly recommend reading it, if not visiting this Wiki explanation on their theories of social cycles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_(book)), they say very simply that whatever Generation you believe is yours, is yours. That is, if you were born in 1981 and felt that Nirvana and Reality Bites and Microserfs were items that you feel define you and your peers, then you are Gen X. If you were born in 1981 and are/were more interested in Hanson/Britney and Varsity Blues and not reading books (I keed!), then you are a Millenial (Gen Y). I was born in 1977, an unrepentant Gen Xer.

I think most of the comments here support this general self-assessment. (God knows that anyone in Gen X was all-too aware of the fact.)

P.S. Obama, born in 1961, is on the X/Baby Boomer cusp. But given his single-parent upbringing and general awesomeness, I have always considered him our first Gen X big-time leader. The biggest unspoken issue of the 2008 campaign is our movement away from a Baby Boomer or GI Generation president in a very very long time (Eisenhower was our last Pres not from GI/Boomer Generations). McCain, born in 1936, would be the FIRST member of the Silent Generation to become President, ever (Bush II: Boomer; Clinton: Boomer, Bush I: GI; Reagan: GI; Carter: GI; Ford: GI; Nixon: GI; LBJ: GI; JFK: GI; etc.). The real question of this election is: do you want someone from the old school that can't logon to a computer leading us in the 21st Century, or would you give that task to one of the do-nothing, lazy, slackers that you have come to know and love?

I'm in the middle of the Einstein bio by Isaacson, who uses many of the documents referred to in this 2006 article to paint Einstein's private life as it complimented his public works. (I certainly recommend the book to you all!)

One of Isaacson's main points is that it was not mere intellect that made Einstein superior. Great scientists, such as Poincare, were working in the same fields at the same time, but were conditioned within the realm of university research to hold on strong to the classical beliefs of Newtonian science. The four papers Einstein wrote in 1905 (written during his patent office period while he was essentially blacklisted from a position at a university) each had the benefit of his outsider voice. While his work in college was above average, it did not translate into genius until Einstein had the ability to generate, on his own, a complete theory of how he intellectually envisioned the world. More important than Einstein's given intellect was his particular perspective.

Anyways, I find judging intelligence by means of a test is absolutely pointless; IQ, in particular, measures only a few ways that a person can be intelligent.

In conclusion, as always: Genius is as genius does.

I am a very proud product of a Montessori classroom, attending from kindergarten through my "fifth year." To my peers with children, I suggest it is as the ONLY option for elementary education (but lean towards AMI-accredited schools). If you want your child to understand how to problem-solve, instead of memorize facts and tables, I urge you all to seek the same.

I wrote about the perfect world that a Montessori-based education system would yield here:

http://patrick.snajder.net/blog/index.php?/archives/44-Save-...

By the way: I never had to wear a uniform and, how did I turn out? I like to think people enjoy my presence and I like to solve problems.