RSS Feed

Posts Tagged ‘readings’

  1. Jesus, the readings

    September 19, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    The readings this week kept reminding me of my brother and my mother. More specifically, the things they always tell me seem to relate back to the readings. Obviously, I got distracted and can’t think thoroughly afterwards. SO here goes.

    My brother always told me (without going into detail) that it is important to make links with other people, because that is how it will help you get a job and he believes that degrees won’t help you find a job. Regardless, they are important to have in this current society because according to what my mother says, it apparently increases the income you earn. I still don’t get what this means, however. Anyway, preferential attachment would come into play here since that meant that people who know the employer (on very good terms, I must add) are more likely to get hired. Studies also show that employers hire people they want to be friends with which could be that those acquaintances you make might want get to know you more and thus, are more likely to hire you? Makes sense, I guess.

    The term, “the rich get richer” is what she, my mother, always says. On another note, I believe with all my naiveté, that the reason why the rich get richer is because they have the money to spend or invest in ventures that will return more money back to them. The poor on the other hand, have to spend their money on necessities to survive and their children’s education (if they have any) and they are certainly not cheap. Then again, the wealthy have to pay huge taxes compared to the middle-low classes of society, so essentially they are helping by giving back the money to the people.

    I also found it interesting how Barabási mentioned how nodes that are already heavily linked are linked at a faster rate, like how “highly cited papers are more likely to be cited again”. This is kind of related to popularity in a way, since for some reason, popularity equals to success. When something is highly popular, it is more well known by other people thus linking more people to said thing, and it will be considered “good”. I guess it’s a part of human nature to assume that when something is “highly linked”, it should be something good otherwise, why is it highly linked?

    Okay, I’m done for now since I don’t have anything more to add on.


  2. Making the Extraordinary, Ordinary

    August 8, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This week’s required reading was about design fiction and I really enjoyed reading about it.

    It made me think though, are the stuff that we use in our daily lives a product of design fiction? Like the phone. So many years ago, one in a thousand households owned one telephone (not real statistic). Back then, the people probably thought that such a thing was bizarre and uncommon. Nowadays, everybody above the age of seven owns a mobile phone and some even consider it as a part of their body to the extent that they admit if they lose it they would die.

    In a way, I suppose DF COULD be the basis for new inventions in this day and age. That kinda defeats the purpose of it being fictional and creating a whole different world, though but  still, what if? What if one day, there was this teleportation device outlet outside of your home nearby that allows you to teleport to other outlets? You’d have to pay a fee though. Some might get nauseous from using it. Planes and cars and other common transportation we see now would probably be gone and the thought of using them would be considered prehistoric. Also, everyone would get fatter. 

    OR what if one day, there was a device that allows you to enter a game’s reality or any kind of vitual reality? You could be in space, without being in space. You could have a totally awesome zombie apocalypse setting and bash zombies. Even better, a Jedi battle with a virtual light saber and crazy Jedi powers!? Of course, there would be consequences like making you see hallucinations from extended use ’cause your brain got confused. You could die like this guy.

    Kinda sucks.

     


  3. Reading 02: Single/Double Loop Learning

    August 1, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This week’s required reading was about Chris Aygris’ theories of action, double loop learning and organizational learning.
    Aygris and Schon suggests that there are two theories of action which are espoused theory and theory-in-use.

    Espoused theory: “The words we use to convey what we do or what we would like others to think we do.”

    Example:

    We might explain our sudden rush out of the office to
    others, or even to ourselves at some level, by saying
    that a ‘crisis’ had arisen with one of‘our’ clients.”

    Theories-in-use: “The theory that actually governs his actions.”

    Example: 

    “The theory-in-use might be quite different.We may have
    become bored and tired by the paper work or meeting and
    felt that a quick trip out to an apparently difficult
    situation would bring welcome relief.”

    Then there’s single and double-loop learning. Single loop learning involves looking for a different strategy when the current approach is unable to achieve the goal. The new strategy must work within the confines of the governing variables. The current goals, objectives, values and beliefs are unquestioned and will remain unchanged. To put it simply, strategy changes, everything else, no.

    Double-loop learning, however, allows the governing variables to come under criticism and to be changed if the need arises. This results in a change in the way strategies are made, so in other words, the conceptual framework changes.

    Finally, there’s Model I and Model II, which inhibit and enhances double-loop learning, respectively.

    From what I understand, Model I has an autocratic style of leadership because decisions are more likely to be made objectively and are imposed upon others. Its characteristics include showing weaknesses like emotion, incompetence, ineptitude to be frowned upon which in turn creates a need to suppress negative feelings.There is a higher chance for resistance against changing goals to “win” in a sense that the goal is expected to be made a success and if not, it is seen as a “loss”.

    Model II, on the other hand, has a more participative style of leadership because control is shared and opinions and inquiries are encouraged. Theories are tried and tested and information circulates within the organisation easily.

    It’s interesting to see that Model I seems to reject innovation whereas Model II enhances it because it allows more creativity due to open communication and more freedom of choice.


  4. Reading 01 Interpretations

    July 31, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This is really late but I’m gonna go ahead and post anyway.

    Last week, Adrian wrote and posted a very metaphorical reading. I have to admit that I literally imagined this while I was reading it.

    I have a simple mind

    Obviously, I’m sure he didn’t mean to produce a mental image such as this when he wrote it so I gave it a bit more thought.

    Instead of a boat, I thought of a mouse cursor. I replaced the ocean with a cloud and put in network resources such as videos, blogs, audio files, etc. which are the ideas that other people have contributed to the cloud. None of these are connected to each other but you can certainly ‘access’ them when you touch them.

    Basically, the ocean/cloud is a gateway to a world that has an endless amount of ideas that other people have put in. Although Adrian only described and mentioned one boat, who says that there can’t be more boats? Anyone can be in it or access it. I believe that’s what network media is.


Skip to toolbar