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July 05, 2008
Bionumbers
Thanks to Tim O'Reilly for pointing me to an odd and fascinating biological time waster called BioNumbers. It's a database of mathematical values related to the living world.
The best way to explain it is with some typical random values spit out by the site...
| Water locked up in ice worldwide | 3e+7 cubic kilometer |
| Number of African clawed frog eggs laid per spawning | 650 |
| Number of alveoli in human lung | 274 to 790 million |
| Length of E. coli flagella | 15 microns |
This site is no doubt useful to biologists who sometimes have to put their finger on a number related to their work, in much the same way that a chemist sometimes really needs to know the melting point of Tungsten. But me, I just like viewing the quirky disjointed parade of values as yet another way to appreciate the extraordinary range and wonder of the living world.
Posted by Chris Spurgeon at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
The perils of perfectionism
There's a good article in Psychology Today about all the ways that being a perfectionist screws you up. In addition to the more obvious things the article discusses... such as how perfectionists are filled with anxiety and low self-esteem... the thing that caught my attention was how being a perfectionist can actually make you less likely to achieve perfection...
The truly subversive aspect of perfectionism, however, is that it leads people to conceal their mistakes. Unfortunately, that strategy prevents a person from getting crucial feedback—feedback that both confirms the value of mistakes and affirms self-worth—leaving no way to counter the belief that worth hinges on performing perfectly. The desire to conceal mistakes eventually forces people to avoid situations in which they are mistake-prone—often seen in athletes who reach a certain level of performance and then abandon the sport altogether.
See the article on PT's website.
Posted by Chris Spurgeon at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)