THINK. Thinking is Hard Work

The history of IBM, the International Business Machine Corporation is as storied as any the world has seen. In recent times, Apple Computer had its iconic guru, Steve Jobs, to pave its pathway to fame and fortune. In earlier times, IBM’s Thomas J. Watson served much the same role in building his company into the tech giant it was to become. Watson coined the famous admonition, THINK – his way of spurring on the company’s workforce to bigger and brighter contributions. I recall as a youngster seeing his famous single-word motto displayed in such diverse places as banks, schools, and other institutions.

Photo: IBM Archives

IBM headquarters at Endicott, New York, 1935. Note the “THINK” motto emblazoned on the building. Pictured are 25 female college graduates, newly trained for three months as IBM system service women. Their role: after assignment to IBM branch offices, they assisted salesmen in assessing customer requirements and training customers on the use of IBM equipment. Their three male instructors are also pictured.

I find Watson’s admonition at once simple, yet profound. What does constitute the notion of “thinking,” and why is that a very non-trivial exercise? Critical thinking is important across all life-disciplines. I would venture, however, that science and engineering are more viable as gateways to understanding the process of critical thinking than most activities in which we humans are involved. Recall the oft-used phrase: “Its not exactly rocket science!”

My acquaintance with the subject derives from my educational and career background as an electrical engineer, here, in Silicon Valley, California. Anyone who has studied chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the college level can truly appreciate the notion of critical thinking. During my undergrad and graduate level years, I can recall, more than I care to admit, the long hours (even nights) spent on a concept or a homework problem that just would not submit to standard perusal.

Such incidents would call for sweeping aside the current method of attack in favor of a fresh new visualization of the problem. Often, this nasty situation occurred late at night while working under pressure to complete a homework assignment due the next day. The scenario just described demands what Thomas Watson so unabashedly promoted as his corporate motto: THINK. When persistence coupled with a fresh approach saved the day for me as a student, and later as working engineer, the joy of sudden insight and mastery of the issue at hand was sweet, indeed. That very joy and satisfaction serve to fuel the desire of science and engineering students to keep on studying and learning, despite the prospect of new and greater challenges ahead. One soon realizes that learning is primarily about harnessing the ability to think!

Thinking is hard, and most of us do not spend enough time doing it. At my advanced age and despite an active curiosity in earlier years, I still find myself formulating questions about all matter of things which I had never questioned before. Often my questions have to do with things financial. For instance: “Why is a rising stock price beneficial to the corporation involved since the corporation generally does not sell its stock directly to traders and investors? Ordinary folks outside the corporation who own shares as investors would seem to be the primary beneficiaries of such gains, and, yet, the mechanisms of corporate finance somehow bestow significant rewards to the corporation as well. How, exactly, does that work?” For a business major, that probably seems a naïve question, but, then again, how many business professionals have thought deeply about Einstein’s theory of special relativity? For us non-business types, it is quite easy to participate successfully as an investor in the complex equities market without really understanding what goes on “behind the curtain.” Ease of use leads to complacency, and complacency is ever the enemy of informative curiosity, it seems.

I worry about the younger generation, so many of whom seem to be satisfied with accumulating “factoids,” little isolated bits of information from the internet and social media. Thomas Watson understood that “to think” meant forming often non-obvious connections between seemingly isolated concepts and bits of information…and that is the hard part of thinking. The resulting “whole” of the picture which emerges by connecting the dots often proves the key to great scientific progress or profitable business opportunities.

Thinking was hard work even for history’s greatest minds. Isaac Newton stated the belief that his greatest personal asset was the ability to hold a particularly intractable problem clearly in his mind’s eye for days and weeks on-end while his conscious and sub-conscious mind churned toward a solution. Newton was clearly aware that such discipline and capability was not an attribute possessed by the rest of us. While attempting to apply his newly created laws of celestial mechanics to the complex motions of our own moon, Newton confessed to experiencing excruciating “headaches” over his difficulties with the moon’s motion. Thinking was hard, even for the greatest mind in recorded history! Certainly, the problems tackled by Newton were of a complexity far beyond our own everyday challenges. Albert Einstein attributed the essence of his genius to “merely” a combination of raging curiosity and the mule-like persistence which he brought to bear when uncovering nature’s most guarded secrets. Thinking and discovery were hard work for Einstein, as well.

The self-stated attributes of these two towering intellects have, as their common foundation, the willingness and the ability to THINK – to think long and hard about difficult problems and critical relationships in the physical world. I concur with Thomas J. Watson: although operating on a much lower plane than Newton and Einstein, we all need to THINK more deeply than ever about the world around us and about who we are. Consider the legacies left to us by Newton and Einstein – all the result of unbridled curiosity and the willingness to think deeply in search of answers to their own questions.

Back-to-School Time: Have You Nurtured Your Student’s Curiosity Lately?

Yes, it is back-to-school time for many of the world’s youngsters. In America, late August and early September is when students return to school to meet new teachers who will be entrusted by parents to help educate their children.

Have you, as parents, guardians, or mentors nurtured your student’s curiosity this summer? My book on education, learning, and mentoring suggests that successful learning and top student performance stem from a healthy curiosity – the desire to know and understand the world around us. Such a “learning attitude” (or lack thereof) is influenced primarily by the home environment and the adults at home – not by the students’ school and teachers. Equipped with a good “learning attitude” acquired in the home, students prosper at school; without a proper attitude, many disinterested youngsters flounder in class while being easily distracted by social media and the associated electronic connectedness so prevalent today.

Sadly, many of these children will, in the course of their schooling, waste the most precious opportunity that society will ever offer them – a good education and a pathway to lifelong learning. It need not be that way, however.

My book is a hands-on, how-to manual for parenting/mentoring with the end goal of insuring school success for students – especially in science and mathematics.

Nurturing Curiosity and Success in Science, Math, and Learning, is available from Amazon for $14.95. This link will take you directly to Amazon and the book.

www.amazon.com/

Now Available: My New Book, “Nurturing Curiosity and Success in Science, Math, and Learning”

Today has been a special day! After many months of the gestation process, copies of my new book finally arrived. “Gestation” is an appropriate term for use by any author when referring to the birth of a new book and its long-awaited delivery – not by the stork, but by UPS!

From initial concept to a tangible book-in-the-hand is a long, hard journey – ask any author – but the satisfaction of finally holding and perusing the end result is worth it all.

After publishing my first book on motion physics for the layperson four years ago, I was in no way ready to consider beginning yet another book. However, for both authors and imaginative inventors, a good idea is hard to resist, and the theme of America’s students struggling in science and math relative to students in other countries proved too important and interesting to pass up. More important than national test scores and rankings are the frustrations felt by many parents, guardians, and teachers when their students are underperforming in school.

 Why Do So Many Students Struggle with
Learning – Especially in Science and Math?

Student standardized test scores in science and math are mediocre at best and falling for America’s students relative to many other countries – a rather shocking development. Once I began to seriously reflect upon why so many students are underperforming in school, the reasons quickly became clear to me.

Diagnosing the problem was the easier half of the drill; finding cures for the ailing performance of so many of our students proved more challenging, yet I am confident in my ultimate RX prescription for healing our students’ academic woes. The integrated guide and plan I offer as a remedy for parents, guardians, mentors…and teachers, too, is based on common-sense parenting/mentoring and learning principles – many of which have been lost to recent generations. Today’s ubiquitous technology, while often very helpful and even necessary, is also identified as a significant cause of our problems – but by no means the only one.

As I wrote the book and solicited comments, one that surfaced more than once went like this: “The parents and guardians who, together with their students, most need the guide and plan you offer in the book, are the least likely to buy it.” I sadly agree, to an extent, but remain confident that many struggling parents and guardians will take advantage of my ideas and suggestions.

   

I envision a very viable market for the book with prospective parents and the parents of preschoolers who wish to be proactive in maximizing school success by providing an early, nurturing environment for their youngsters. Not everyone is initially equipped by nature with the insight required for effective parenting/mentoring. Good parenting is like so many other ventures in life: The best way to proceed is by working hard and by working smart. Highlighting that latter part will prove to be how my book offers the greatest value to parent/mentors.

For a closer look at the book and how to order it, click on “My New Book on Science / Math Education” on the blog header or click on the following link:

https://reasonandreflection.wordpress.com/about-my-new-book/

To go directly to the book’s dedicated website for still more information and to order, click on the following link:

http://reasonandreflection.com/book2/

For an excerpt from the book, also see my previous post: “Teaching Children Math…By Example,” in the archives for Sept. 27, 2014. Click the following link:

https://reasonandreflection.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/teaching-children-math-by-example/

 

Teaching Children Math…By Example!

Here, in the United States, achievement test scores in math and science are second-rate and falling with respect to many other countries of the world. Why is this happening? To say that the reasons are several and complex would be a true statement – to a point. A thorough examination of the reasons for America’s declining performance reveals a common-thread: A lack of common-sense in the way we both educate… and raise our children to have a “learning attitude.” A learning attitude and the foundation for success in school comes from home.

    

My upcoming book (available in October), Nurturing Curiosity and Success in Science, Math, and Learning highlights many of the issues at play while offering concrete suggestions to parents, mentors, and even teachers on how to “right the listing ship” of learning at the national level.

My book is not primarily concerned with our national achievement rankings, however; its prime focus is on helping parents and mentors at home partner with the schools to improve their student’s school performance and future prospects. The book addresses all aspects of learning and student motivation while paying special attention to those typically troubling subjects, science and mathematics.

To illustrate one of the many approaches I advocate for parents, mentors, and educators, Chapter 5 in the book presents “The Lottery Prize Choice.”

Beginning of Book Excerpt:

The important point is this: Some facility with mathematics is crucial to an intellectually rich and materially prosperous life … for most of us. The more math you know, the greater the potential rewards in life, monetary and otherwise. It is our task as student mentors to first convince ourselves that this is true. Only then can we proceed to make a convincing case to our students. Perhaps you have tried simply telling your student that “math is important; you need to know it!”…and that got you nowhere!

 I advocate a subtler, common-sense approach, appealing to students’ curiosity and their inexperienced instincts by using real-life examples instead of merely preaching the virtues of mathematics for getting a good job someday, being successful, etc.

To illustrate my point, consider the following example which seems appropriate in this age of mega-million lotteries:

 The Power of Math: The Lottery Prize Choice

Congratulations! You just won the local lottery. You are given the choice of two prize options:

Option 1: $10,000 in cash – paid immediately!

Option 2: One penny in cash – paid immediately! But hold-on, there is the proverbial “fine print” attached to option 2: The town banker has consented to hold your penny in the bank and pay you an interest rate on that penny of 1% compounded and applied daily for a maximum of five years. At that time, or any time sooner upon your request, you will be paid the total accumulated amount in cash.

A Note on how the “compound interest” in option 2 works: The winner gets one penny at the awards ceremony and promptly deposits it in the town bank. The next day, the penny earns 1% interest (one one-hundredth of a penny) which is added to the original penny. Now the prize is worth 1.01 cents (1 plus 1 times 0.01). The next day, the 1.01 cents earns another 1% interest on itself which makes the total holding equal to 1.0201 cents (1.01 plus 1.01 times 0.01). This continues every day for five years.

The $64,000 question: Which option do you choose?

If you choose option 1, you will be sorry! Yes, you will have $10,000 in cash in your pocket – immediately. That can buy a lot of neat stuff like computers, stereos, smart-phones, a trip to Disneyland!

If, on the other hand, you had an understanding of the mathematics of finance – merely basic math in this case coupled with some mathematical reasoning ability, you certainly would choose option 2, wait five years and collect your $770,000 penny-accumulation!

Just imagine what that could buy? How about some Ferrari automobiles, the best college education, a beautiful new home, your future retirement, and/or ….?

Of course, it is unlikely the town banker would ever offer such a deal, but the example emphasizes to anyone, the power of mathematics – even the basic mathematics employed above. The calculation involved in this problem is simple, easily done on any student calculator. The solution to the problem – coming up with the right decision – requires a respect for the power of numbers which one obtains given a minimal dedication to the study of math.

Here, in this example, is a great illustration of the old adage, “knowledge is power,” and, despite the unrealistic premise of the generous banker presented in option 2, the lesson of this example is not far removed from the many problems recent home-buyers faced due to their poor understanding of mortgage finance and interest rates.

We have focused on mathematics in our discussion so far in this chapter and in the above example for no other reason than its importance to science and to a complete education. The lottery prize problem is but one example of a real-world, hands-on, approach which can be effective at generating student curiosity and interest in the possibilities of mathematics. This book will often emphasize the close relationship between science and mathematics while continuing to stress, as well, the importance of math alone in finance, statistics, and everyday life.

 End of Book Excerpt!

Appendix 1 in the book illustrates the simple math involved in the problem for the benefit of parents and mentors.

Two overriding messages are presented and developed within my book:

– We often look in all the wrong places for ultimate solutions to math, science, and learning problems: “Better” schools, “better” teachers, more class time, and more technology in the classroom are not the ultimate answers.

– A “learning attitude” begins at home: Nurturing a real curiosity and interest within students about the wonderful world which surrounds them demands some common-sense insights and practices from parents and mentors. Such an approach is the true key to success. As Albert Einstein once insisted, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” And he was.