Assumptions

Everyday in our lives we make assumptions about almost anything, whether we communicate them or not. Assumptions are beliefs that a person holds to be true in which does not need to be supported by evidence or research. Making assumptions can be good or bad. It is easy to understand a person's intention if we are able to put ourselves in their shoes.

Just today while I was out for lunch, I encountered a situation which reflected a bad assumption. My colleagues and I got to this restaurant to have lunch and they serve mostly Chinese food. So I made my order and waited. When the food came, I was surprised to see that I was supplied with a fork rather than chopsticks which my other colleagues received. I was particularly upset that the lady made an assumption that because I did not look like a Chinese, I would not have been able to use chopsticks but I felt it would have been better if she asked me before-hand.

Objectivity VS Subjectivity

A statement is said to be objective regardless of what anyone thinks of it or says about it. It is an absolute fact that cannot be contended and can be proven based on objective evidence. Subjectivity on the hand, is the direct opposite of it. Something is subjective if the perceived matter is significant to him or her and involve feelings, perception and judgement. It is an opinion and cannot be proven to be a fact, just an interpretation of reality.

Take durian for example. Most Malaysians love it; they say its because of the smell and texture of the fruit. However, a lot of foreigners find it to be stinky and that they hate the after-breath smell it gives them. For me, I love durians. This illustrates objectivity versus subjectivity.

Creativity

According to Downe (2005), creativeness is a form of directed thinking applied to the discovery of new solutions to problems, new techniques and devices or new artistic expressions.

http://www.businessinsider.com/history-sergey-brin-larry-page-and-google-strategy-2011-3#

As I came across an article written about the Google founders, I can't help but noticed that their creative personality has greatly contributed to their success today.
Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have in them the 5 pillars of creative genes which consist of dynamic, daring, resourceful, hardworking and independent.


Dynamic.
Both Sergey and Larry are always thinking out of their box. They are often curious and always strive to generate new ideas. In short, they are always out of their comfort zone just so that they can create and fulfill all their visions and ideas. For example, they created Google in 1998 because there wasn't any reliable search engine during that particular period of time. Other than that, Google is constantly coming up with new amazing applications and programs.


Daring
Google founders are indeed one of the most daring entrepreneurs in the world. They started the search engine without a single revenue and fund. However, they were persistent and they went forth with their idea. Their daring characteristic I must say is the greatest contributor to their success today.


Resourceful
Sergey and Larry are always striving to make Google the most resourceful search engine in the world. In fact, in order to fulfill that dream, they hire the best brains in the world so that applications and programs that help to make life much easier.

Hardworking
Without a doubt, Sergey and Larry are very hardworking people. They both started the company with zero money by using the facilities in Stanford University where they were both PHD students. They painstakingly worked until they were funded by Venture Capitalists. Now as a result of their hardworking, Google has become the largest search engine company in the world.


Independent
Both creators are very independent individual. When they first started in Stanford University, they have never relied on anyone but themselves. For example, in order to keep their cost low, they built their own servers to keep the web page running.


Without a doubt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page are two very creative individuals.

Brainstorming (Creative Thinking Warm-up Exercise)

Just a quick reflection on work related stuff. After reading the six stages on how to conduct a brainstorming session as proposed by Downe (2005). 
Brainstorming sessions at my previous workplace consisted of the manager giving a short briefing on the problem's background and what needed to be done. It would be then followed by a few rules in which we were told to throw out as many solutions as possible, encouraged to come up with creative ideas and strongly reminded not to criticize others' opinion.

Before we began, the manager did a short warm session to prepare ourselves to be creative. He asked us questions like, "How many ways can we draw a triangle?" and "What time was it 8 hours ago?". Then he gave us a 30-minute period for the brainstorming session to be conducted. As the session began, he started jotting down everyone's ideas. This was followed by the end of the session and our manager collected all the necessary information and thanked everyone for their absolute participation.

The Importance of Correct Punctuation

Like ambiguous statements, using correct punctuation is crucial in order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Some alternate meanings are fine but some are not so fine. Here is an example of one.

"Southern Cook'in"

For American's, this is something usual for them as it means that this restaurant serves food from the Southern parts of the country. However, for other people from other parts of the world may initially make a wrong assumption that patrons would have to cook the food themselves in the restaurant. Perhaps it may have chased off some customers, we will never know.

Headlines in the news (Ambiguous Statements)

 Kids Make Nutritious Snacks 

Ambiguous statement is a statement that can be interpreted in different ways to mean different things. 

In my personal opinion, writers should always choose their words wisely in order to avoid confusion to the readers.
 
For example, look at the bizarre headlines above; 
- Include your children when baking cookies
- Kids make nutritious snacks
 
Both sentences seem to imply that children can be made into food! When the truth is, we know that the writer is trying to say that we should get our children to help out in the kitchen or kids are able to make nutritious snacks.

Ad Populum Appeal to Force Fallacy

Do you believe in good luck? Better still, do you believe that chain letters can bring you good fortune? Whether you like it or not, people still send you them. More often than not, chain letters are often ignored by many.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE! You MUST send this or face dreadful bad luck. *NOTE* The more people you send this to, the better luck you will have.

Believe it or not, that is a fallacy right there!  
Ad Populum Appeal to Force Fallacy.

The creator of the chain letters is trying to persuade the reader to send the letter by using threats of bad luck that might fall upon him or her.

Mind Mapping

When it comes to studying it may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I'm talking about myself. Sometimes we encounter an overload of information in that we end up with too many stuff to remember and we are just not certain if we can hold that much or not. There is an effective way of helping yourself remember things better, it may not be something new but it sure is useful; it's mind mapping. A man named Tony Buzan came up with it in 1970.

It is the technique of summarizing large chunks of information into a tree-like diagram. Then notes can be written onto its branches or leaves, whichever you fancy. And it is a known fact that by adding colours and making the diagram more interesting, our brain tends to capture the image of the information so much better than a plain black and white tree. This is because, in order to improve memory we ought to use as much of our brain as possible, hence by drawing, colouring and writing information, we are actually utilizing both sides of our brain.


Other than that, our work is more organized and easier to look-up some we need to do a quick review.

Fallacies of Generalization (Sweeping Generalization)

I would also like to share about a blog entry I came across last week written by a teacher friend of mine. This friend of mine was distressed and disappointed after a statement made by one of her students in class. 
Let me first give a brief background of her students, her students consist of international students that are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Korea, Japan and China. 
Her class generally consists of well-behaved students who are in their teens to late forties. However, there is also a particular group of students from Iran who are always rebelling against the rules that were set on the first day of class. Having being concerned over her students’ learning and growth in acquiring English as their foreign language, she constantly reminds and  calls out students who are disruptive, speaks in their own native language in class and often prefers to have small talks with their fellow peers. 
What shocked her the most was when one particular student stood and claimed that my friend hated all the Iranian students with the reason that she only picked on them and not students from other countries.
I personally felt that the particular student had given a sweeping generalization of her teacher. It it fairly obvious, that an unfair and irrelevant conclusion towards the teacher was made based on the thought that only Iranians were often told to behave in a pleasing manner in class thus concluding that the teacher dislikes people from Iran without taking into the account that the students from other countries were very much well-behaved hence the logic that they do not have to be reminded at all.

Fallacies of Prejudicial Language - Loaded Question

This is a personal experience that I have faced in my work place regarding the suitable payment that we should wage our talents for an animation that we have been working on. 
As the sound engineer I personally felt that a number of the talents deserved to be given a higher payment as they have performed really well in their delegated tasks. 
Considering that, I have proposed to a colleague of mine who is my producer that we should increase the payments for the said talents as we were given an ample of fund to run the production. However, the producer blatantly denied my proposal without even consulting my boss she asked me a question which I felt was a fallacious argument using the fallacies of prejudicial language armed with a loaded question that made me agreed to her decision. 
“Would you want the boss to feel that you are wasting the company’s money by maximizing the talents’ payment?” 
After going through the types of fallacious debates that we have. I personally felt that during that particular moment I was being conned into assuming that what she said was indeed true. 
Instead of agreeing and believing that what she said was true, I should have instead inquired if minimizing the talents’ payment has been a normal practice which has been approved and well-liked by the boss and organization.