Morgan’s Blog

  • What are you changing into? (and why this explains the horrible economy)

    The title of the post alludes to an old cliché, “the only constant is change”.  Today I had a strong reminder of the importance of this saying – especially in these challenging times. It’s a Sunday. Rarely do I check my email first thing in the morning, because it’s counterproductive to getting real work done […]

  • re-imagining the American Dream

    Today I ran into yet another person who’s dissatisfied with where she’s at in life. The disillusioned seem to make up about 80% or more of the people that I meet or have the opportunity to talk deeply with. Some dissatisfaction can be a good thing… it motivates us to want and achieve more. That’s […]

  • Goal oriented or fun oriented?

    Today, I had fun. For the past few years, whenever I’ve gone on a bike ride, I’ve been goal focused. Mountain biking: distance and elevation. Have I pushed myself hard enough? Road biking: speed. Have I kept up a high enough average pace? How many people have passed me? How many did I pass? Today: […]

  • Super-sizing your work is screwed up

    Perhaps the most stark contrast between Europe and the US is the issue of quality vs quantity. I recently returned from a 2 week sojurn in Europe, and was shocked the first time I went into a US grocery store. Shocked at the quantity of it all, and yet, amongst all that quantity, the difficulty […]

  • Would computers really want to do math proofs?

    Roger Penrose wrote a book titled “The Emporor’s New Mind.” The book roused quite a bit of controversy, because he claimed that he had proof that computers can’t think in the same way that humans do. To illustrate, he used the complex subject of mathematical proof making. Using various fancy arguments tied to Gödel’s incompleteness […]

  • Why I hate writing grants

    No, it’s not the writing part that bugs me.  I actually like that part.  Being able to put together well-constructed plans and rationales is fun.  Describing a project-to-be is fun. But… there’s another part about it that I really hate.  It’s that you can’t be authentic. I often use the analogy between writing a grant […]