So . . . I'm going to try blogging again after my abortive first attempt several months ago. Seeing as I never really told anyone about my failed first blog, I don't know why I'm referencing it here, other than as a defensive mechanism should I not really post with this one either. If you do happen to come across my previous blog by mistake, please ignore, as it consists of an opening blog like this one, and then a long, rambling, unstructured rant about uncertainty (I think). Read this one instead.
My intention with this blog is to write about a topic that is on my mind a lot, that of uncertainty and randomness. What I'm hoping to do is take topics of general interest (news, sports, judgment and decision-making) and look at them from the view point that none of us really know anything and that we impose certainty where there is none. My wife tells me this is a profoundly boring subject, so I guess the degree of difficulty for keeping people reading will be high.
Making things even more complex, I'm probably one of the worst people to be discussing this. I am, and have always been, a certainty-oriented person. I enjoy solving puzzles, I teach about discover the root of a problem and solving it, and I'm always looking for answers and explanations. I (like several other million people) recently watched the end of Lost and throughout its run I was spinning theories and explanations for what was going on, mostly wrong (though I did correctly predict a few things, and choose to remember the times I was correct and forget those times I was wrong). But at the same time, I'm a contrarian, and have always been. If everyone believes in one thing (for example, anthropogenic global warming) I will doubt it, if for no other reason that everyone else believes it (though in this case, I think there is more room for doubt).
I have also been told that I am verbose and have a tendency towards long words and a dense writing style (and I enjoy using parentheses). I will endeavour to be brief and to the point, though there will be ramblings.
My goal, at least at first, is to post at least one thing each weekday (realistically, 2-3 times a week). Topics coming up soon will include the NBA playoffs, Lost, generating meaning where there is none, though really those are all the same topic.
Read it, don't read it, up to you. Feel free to comment - as a contrarian I enjoy a good discussion so please provide one.
Blog to you tomorrow (?),
Eric
