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I have read Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas and have listened to a few podcasts or other slideshows that he has done in the past. But, I eventually lost touch with his progress. This mainly occurred because I simply didn’t understand how many of his arguments applied or the number of tangible examples I could fathom were few and far between. Copyright law is so blown out of proportion and the reigns of the internet are in such disarray and our legislature so terribly riddled with corporate forces that any solution would be subject to endless belligerence until the momentum of the movement was sapped.

Well, Lessig has changed his tune. No, he’s not now tooting the praise of the RIAA, but instead is focusing his efforts on one of the problems, in fact the one problem that has a solution.

Lessig is now focusing his attention on political corruption, not any such bribery present but, as he puts it, “the economy of influence that governs Congress”. At first that phrase seems straightforward, but realize he used the verb “governs” with “Congress” as its subject. As its serf.

TED posted Lessig’s 2007 talk on their website and also has it available for download just below the Flash version. Lessig is one of the few people who gives better presentations than Steve Jobs but wouldn’t get credit for it because Jobs has a few higher marks on looks. This particularly presentation, “How creativity is being strangled by the law”, is phenominal.

I now understand his initial argument for why our future is gradually being destroyed. And destroyed by forces who care nothing for quality or even quantity but rather care all about quarterly profits. YouTube is probably the best example of an outlet for kids growing up today - and I’m not talking about me, because I am terrible with iMovie or any other video-editing stuff - who are getting used to the idea of living against the law, when that impression is a horrible precedent to be setting. Bravo, Lessig. And everyone else should watch that video.

I enjoy reading technical books. After I finish a textbook, I go to the library and walk around, purposefully getting lost amongst the 6 (is that right?) floors of Newman Library here on campus. The last time I did this, August 18 according to my check out slip, I found a wonderful read: Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making.

It’s British-written, thereby justifying the use of “straight choices” whereas the American connotation clearly would suggest some type of modern-day, sexual choices advise guide. Anyways. The subtitle “the psychology of decision making” is what this book boils down to. It’s a remarkable read for a university textbook, summarizing a field rather new to me without sugarcoating any of the complexity of probabilities and field-related jargon.

You hear frequently that people aren’t logical and that emotion plays an important role in our decision making. In fact, this is correct but doesn’t even approach a full assessment of why we spit out illogical decisions left & right. Take, for instance, decision weighting, a phenomenon illustrating that we evaluate the probability of an outcome to extremes when the likelihoods are minimal. Here’s their example:

Problem 1: Choose between (i) a 0.001 chance of winning $5,000; (ii) $5 for sure.

The probability calculation for this works out to: (i) 0.001 * $5,000 = $5; (ii) 1 * $5 = $5. However, the book shows that 72% chose option (i), indicating “risk-seeking”. Then here’s the second part:

Problem 2: Choose between (i) a 0.001 chance of losing $5,000; (ii) losing $5 for sure.

In this case, the probability calculation is still the same. But, here, 83% of people chose (ii), showing “risk-averse behaviour”. Way to go, human brain - “changing your mind” has never been easier. This quick study proves the viability (and profitability) of the lottery systems worldwide. (Here’s the lottery calculation: (i) a 0.000 000 000 1 chance of gaining $5,000,000 (0.000 000 000 1 * $5,000,000 = + $0.0005); (ii) losing $1 for sure (1 * -$1 = - $1); and those are the good odds).

I really enjoyed the chapter on “Decisions over time” that suggests our remembered decisions tend to make us feel better about ourselves even if we remember them incorrectly, or, conversely, justify a bad decision with some sort of excuse that it was inevitable or not our fault. And, “Predicting pleasure and pain” is amazing, or at least amazing because it shows how terribly illogical our decisions are.

Suppose you are asked to decide between the following two alternatives:
A: submerge your hand in very cold water for 60 seconds, or
B: submerge your hand in very cold water for 60 seconds, and then in mildly cold water for 30 seconds.

Well, obviously, you’re going to chose alternative A. But, people actually don’t prefer that choice. In a study that did not alert people to how long their hands were submerged, but used the same time frames as mentioned above, people rated alternative B as less painful and more likely to be chosen for another round. But this entirely contradicts with how painful the alternatives actually are when you integrate over time. Eventually, it was discovered that two very key factors are in play when experiencing pain: peak level & end level. Alternative A’s peak level is the same as its end level, but not so with alternative B; thus, B was rated as less painful if the experience had to be repeated.

It’s long been agreed that we don’t make very rational decisions and are prone to changing our minds, but, it’s practically impossible ever to reverse this type of decision making. Even the authors pointed out how, in several of their own examples or own studies, they simply couldn’t help but chose the “illogical” choice. There are a mryiad of psychological effects and relations occurring when we make decisions. Take, for instance, how our brains break down with optical illusions.

Rationality and irrationality are both distinctly human - our unshakable curse.

I’m not a big fan of cycling race recaps. Given how easy it is to load photos and videos onto various websites today, there’s not much advantage to tagging on a written report of events. If you want to learn about football, you don’t “read some football articles” but will be much better off if you watch a few YouTube clips. Same thing with cycling. So, I’ll spare you the elaboration I could potentially harm us all with and instead just quickly mention, regarding the century ride today…

108.1 miles
19.5mph average
5:06:andsomeseconds

There was a terrible headwind going out that luckily stayed put for our return portion. We climbed the front and back side of some mountain and then had another steep ascent around mile 70. We maintained a 28mph revolving sprint for the last 20 miles, using the tailwind for our complete advantage. There were 12 of us. There are 12 large meals being consumed tonight.

On a pleasant note, I was invited to join the Rogues Cycling team. Given that the collegiate racing season lasts only until the end of April and the USCF season goes until October, I have a lot of summer months to keep myself busy. It sounds like Rogues will fill that gap.

Oh, and my knee doesn’t hurt at all. And I don’t even feel like napping. Maybe this has been a good day.

In preparation for the ride tomorrow, I made a really nice meal for myself tonight and savored every bite. Atkins is not for people who ride bikes. I probably put away 2 pounds of bread stuffs tonight, which means I am now at least 2 pounds heavier. Nice.

But, I still have one major food issue. I love chocolate. M&Ms are so easy to snack on in front of the computer that they have become my all-the-time, quick-fix appetite-pleaser. Come the start of the spring semester and racing season, I will have to drop this habit hard. Riders my size are generally about 10 pounds slimmer, resulting in unbelievably lean muscle. If I could just swap out M&Ms with something equally addictive and delicious - and not messy - I would switch over in a heartbeat. By about mid-December I need to make a concerted effort.

I tried out unsalted peanuts, but they leave you with oily fingers. Like I said, I am snacking while in front of the computer, so finger oils are a very bad thing. If there are suggestions to this diet replacement, I’m very open to try out different snack foods.

While at the gym Friday, I ran across an old copy of Bicycling magazine, a decent publication. They actually had some very good articles on food and training. Their website has a good article on diet replacements, too. It’s interesting that they suggest replacing a whole wheat bagel with a whole wheat English muffin. That’s something I’m willing to try, even though it violates my sacred breakfastime protocols. This article, about food for epic rides, is … interesting … but only two of the choices are vegetarian-friendly. And I already eat plenty of peanut butter. There are a couple more decent food articles on their website, too; I’ll leave you to drown in their long paragraphs.

Anyways. Tomorrow’s the day.

For the past two weeks, or whenever it was that I fixed the front derailleur, I have been using the Pilot as my weekly trainer and have taken the Madone out for big, team weekend rides. Well, the Pilot’s rear derailleur has felt awkward in shifting for the past week or so, missing shifts all the time or just not responding when I use the shifter.

Tonight, all of a sudden the rear derailleur wouldn’t respond. I pulled over and looked at it, tried clicking the shifter but it had seized, or something. My mechanical mind began breaking the issue down, searching from the last leg of the derailleur trail - the motion of the rear derailleur spring - and then moving up to the cable which felt fine and then reaching the shifter itself. I opened the shifter cover and something looked… different. Assuming that the cable had broken, I pulled the cable lightly to check and there was, in fact, some resistance. Hmm, some resistance there. Then, I tugged on the front housing and it came right out of the shifter.

The cable had actually broken and the front piece had somehow disappeared when I went to open the shifter. The cable was snug because it had frayed and was stuck on the housing as the taut cable had begun to eject itself. Unfortunately, when your rear derailleur cable goes out, you have just one choice of rear gear since the spring wants to pull all the way out - the highest cog is how you better plan on riding home.

This cog is generally intended for high speed, or, is always intended for high speed. Now, I had a few flat stretches left to go before I made it home, but I was at the lowest part of my ride. Luckily, I had my choice of a 1.8 mile superclimb or a 2.6 mile heavyclimb. I took the 1.8 to get it over with.

I guess everything worked out. I’m terrible at low cadence riding so the experience was serious training when I was only looking for a light Friday ride. I realize this entry means little to those not seriously interested in bicycle maintenance. Apologies.

Sunday’s ride is going to be Epic and high speed. I think this may be a challenge.