Zoom, ZOOM Universe

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The following has been lightly edited and re-posted from earlier this year. Don't miss Bob Berman!

Bob Berman, author of the book "Zoom" and an editor at Astronomy magazine, will be on hand next week IdeaFestival 2015.

From Brian Greene to Michio Kaku to Sean Carroll, the festival has a long history of bringing acclaimed physicists and science authors to the stage to describe why our universe is indeed stranger than fiction.

"Zoom" has been reviewed by the New York Times, which praises the author's "talent for toying productively with received reality."

Part of that received reality is the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't-nature of quantum physics, the science of the impossibly small. In an improbable twist, experimental physics can pinpoint the place or direction of these specks of matter, but never place and direction, simultaneously. Bell's theorem raises problems for our received notions of cause and effect, which depend on knowing the local variables that would determine any single outcome. Quantum experiments show us that we can't know the starting conditions. There is no context-independent starting point, no "cause" knowable by us.

This tension between perception and reality can be documented as far back as the Greek philosophers Paremenides and Zeno, who "toyed with reality" by arguing that our senses aren't reliable. Motion, they said, is an illusion. And Zeno cleverly created paradoxes to prove it. You've undoubtedly encountered his dichotomy paradox at some point in high school or college.

Motion is an illusion? Hardly. Everything moves Berman will point out at the IdeaFestival. Zoom, zoom.

Don't miss it.

Stay curious.™

Wayne

Know How? Do You Know-Do?

Image: Some rights reserved by JD Hancock

There is no shortage of know-how. Know-do, you will. Business Yoda.

Harvard Business Review cautions business leaders, managers and would-be entrepreneurs to avoid the “smart-talk trap.”

At the center of both stories is a particular kind of inertia that plagues companies of every size and type. In our four years of research at nearly 100 companies, we observed it at global conglomerates and at 20-employee start-ups, at capital-intensive manufacturers and at knowledge-driven service firms. It is not the inertia of indifference or ignorance but of knowing too much and doing too little. We call this phenomenon the knowing-doing gap.

It’s good reminder that in many cases, knowing what to do too often substitutes for doing what you know.

Stay curious.™

Wayne

Creative Minds are Messy Minds

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A cognitive psychology who explores issues of creativity and intelligence, Scott Barry Kaufman has a regular perch at Scientific American, as well as other venues such as the Creativity Post. We're fans. The IdeaFestival blog, citing Kaufman, recently pointed out that among other characteristics, creative people are "open to experience" and that they know their own emotions.

We're guessing some of you will relate to his conclusion in yesterday's "Beautiful Minds" entry at SciAm: creative minds are messy minds.

In researching my new book on creativity with Carolyn Gregoire, something that became clear is that creative people have messy minds. They are really good at mixing and matching all sorts of seemingly contradictory emotions, ideas, and personality traits to produce something truly original and meaningful (emphasis supplied).

In other words, the answers are everywhere.

You don't want to miss Kaufman's talk. Register to attend the IdeaFestival today!

Stay curious.™

Wayne

The Space Between

The serene aesthetic at Ryōan-ji would not be possible without it. Music and comedy depend on it - meter, the well-timed pause, the drawn breath before the news. Because it doesn't need something more to explain something more, poetry takes advantage of it.

Leaders lean into it.

Thanks to it, one can be taken by surprise at the bed of a dying relative by this thought: despite everything, the future will be OK. One finds it in the heavy but satisfied pant after running a five-minute mile, or in the infinite now after the whispered I Love You at 17, and in even in the space

after the period

at the end of this sentence.

"The space between," no-thing, does a job.

I hope to see you at the IdeaFestival. Stay curious.™

Wayne

We're OK with Your "Moonshot Thinking"

Moonshots live in the gray area between audacious technology and pure science fiction. Instead of a mere 10% gain, a moonshot aims for a 10x improvement over what currently exists. The combination of a huge problem, a radical solution to that problem, and the breakthrough technology that just might make that solution possible, is the essence of a moonshot.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy

Think of a Polynesian Islander in a dugout canoe deciding one day that they were going to go that way. - the video, "Moonshot Thinking"

Do you use a kitchen microwave, a laptop computer or cell phone?

Would modern life even be possible without them?

Knowing that slide rules and vacuum tubes were an awful way to compute quickly in space, Apollo program leaders took the integrated circuit, an idea that existed largely in theory, and built a practical solid state command and control system that could navigate to the moon, and reliably and safely help human pilots land their spidery vessel on the lunar surface. In spectacular fashion, they ushered in the digital era. Forty-five(!) years later, daily life beats to the rhythm of its electrified heart, the integrated circuit.

That's some return on investment.

Can the benefits of "moonshot ideas" be measured and assessed beforehand? No! Are they useful? Yes, but their practical results won't be known for a very long time, and may come as a complete surprise to future generations. Moonshot ideas will take planning, engineering and execution to carry out. They will take a careful managing of constituencies and timetables. The dream leader will need accountants, squad leaders, sales and marketing, software developers and, in general, people who get things done.

But all that will come later. Do you have a moonshot idea? Here's how you can know: if it seems impossible, if you don't fully understand it, if you're bewildered, daunted, just a little afraid, congratulations! You might be on to something.

You're the Polynesian Islander millennia ago. You're not thinking straight. You've got a chance.

Stay curious.™

Wayne