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COVID-19 Home Day 1

March 18, 2020 COVID-19 Telecommuting Day 1 Some initial thoughts and processes Today, Wednesday March 18 is my first telecommuting day due to the Covid-19 virus epidemic. On Monday, March 16, we had a big meeting with the County officials and was explained to all of us that the County decided to allow people to telecommute from home should either have children whose schools closed, or have health conditions or concerns. I had asked to be included due to recent health problems that render me vulnerable, and that I wanted to work from home. The county officials were very understanding and I was added to the initial list. The same day, everyone received an email with instructions on how this process needs to be done. On Tuesday, March 17, I did follow the process protocol. Specifically, I had to talk with my direct supervisor and explain the situation, as on Monday he was away for his flex time day off. I had to fill two forms: a memo which detailed the process, and an HR qu...

mindscribble.net web page redesign

Today finally I have spent quite some time redesigning my new mindscribble.net web page. Although I have not finished all the pages, I have nevertheless migrated most of the content from the old web page. In the next few days and weeks, I am committed to upload new content. It turns out that it is easier to devote a certain amount of time, if not every day, at least a few times a week to the web content. I also now consolidated and listed most of my multiple accounts and profiles in the home page, including my personal profiles (e.g., facebook, twitter), as well as my professional ones (linkedin, OrchidID, ResearcherID, GitHub, etc.).

My own, personal Greece...

After spending a few weeks in Greece, i came back to my realities feeling a bit uneasy about the direction that my country is heading. Perhaps, I am realizing that my sense of place has shifted over the years, and that the place I used to call home for my childhood and a significant part of my adult life looks and feels not only a different place, but almost a different planet. While being in the country one gets the impression of a deep schism among, across and between social, economic and political groups and realities. Greece has transformed from a country striving towards (new) social contracts in a country where the few suppress the many. A country where the social realities of the haves overshadow the needs and rights of the have-nots. And, most importantly that the discourse has lost any sense of rationality, as it is far from being grounded in social, economic, cultural and political realities. What becomes apparent to people with basic common sense and with fundamental critica...

Harnessing Social Complexity: my thought process

I woke up very early today again. I am developing into a full-blown insomniac, but it does not seem to bother me much, as I get the chance to experience the sun rising every day, along with all the beautiful sounds of the birds as they are welcoming the new day. Some days feel better than others; today somehow I feel more cheerful than usual. It is early morning and I already finished a number of tasks set out to do for my day's worth of work. Last night, I went through a particularly difficult thought process. Again, I found myself still wandering about the reach of our scientific understanding of complex social behaviors in real world systems and experience-rich settings. My concern is not as much as to the individual characteristics of the social system itself, or its various components, as much as its functionality in diverse and heterogeneous social, environmental, cultural, economic and geopolitical conditions and settings. My impression is that we are good on understanding...

My process of scientific inquiry - Part 1

I find very interesting how my own personal scientific discovery process plays out. It is an exciting process, but often leads to an overwhelming or overload of thoughts racing through my mind. Often, when faced with a research problem, my main and primary concern is how to understand what my experiences, judgments and data tells me. What is the deeper story and meaning of the things I observe and experience? Is there broader principles and patterns that I can detect? Sometimes it starts simply as an intuition. Reading few interviews, or trying to answer a simple question could trigger this intuition. The feeling that something is there, and somehow I am missing the point, is a powerful motivator. It is not unusual to find myself not been able to sleep or do anything else important without having those taunting questions tantalizing my brain. Some might think this sounds like torture, but for me, this is all about being a scientists. This often "tingling" feeling about such t...

Empowerment, Cognition and Learning

I read a very interesting editorial article in Science this month, written by Bruce Alberts [1]. The editorial raises attention to the science function to frame "scientific habits of mind" including skeptical attitudes and emphasis on logic and evidence. Some clear characteristics of such scientific habits of mind are honesty, creativity and openness to new ideas. It also calls for a new type of science education that aims to empower how students think and act, especially when are called to perform challenging problem-solving tasks. Empowering students for learning is not a new idea. I would point to Bloom's taxonomical approach to learning [2]. Among other functions, Bloom's taxonomy addresses issues of quality of life [3], computer-based problem solving [4], or the empowerment of multiple intelligences [5]. The taxonomical approach to learning, dating back to the late 1950's was developed by Benjamin Bloom as a cognitive tool to boost the intellectual intellig...