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86129squids
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 02:06 am: | 
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https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/SMIDSY
Very interesting. Seems the above citation is lacking, please fill in if possible.
My latest MCN has a piece titled WYSIWYG. It speaks to the human vs animal way of looking at things... after all youn's great, GREAT posts, I'll re-read it and try to post here.
Joe, glad you're here. I've got a good buddy who used to ride, before getting rear-ended at a stoplight by a dingbat teenage girl... I'd love for you two to meet. |
Court
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 07:43 am: |
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>>>Weaving around in the lane is SMIDSY
I have always done that. It's not so much "weaving" as just changing lateral position in the lane frequently . . . if you stay in one relative location you get lost immediately.
Brain Games . . . I believe it was called "seeing is believing" had am amazing episode. Even on the television of computer screen, they would show something . . you would swear you saw it and yet it was never there.
Our brains don't actually "see" . . they simply take signals from the optic nerve and "interpret" them. The brain tends to use prior learning, expectation and habit and loves to take shortcuts when having to process lots of input . . . like traffic.
It will eliminate things that are small and things it does not "expect" to see.
We, as motorcyclists, happen to be one of those things.
Horns will do nothing but add noise to the accident . . . for the most part. |
Ducley
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 08:11 am: |
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I always ride like I'm invisible and they are out to get me.
+1 On watching the tires not the driver, except when I approach to pass on the driver's side.
I look at the driver's head through the rear window first. Then the mirror to see if they are looking in it. Then the front tires as I pass.
Doesn't always work but it has helped. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 10:24 am: |
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All this talk about what the brain expects and what it interprets, has me wondering about the train horns thing. When someone hears a train horn, they aren't going to expect to see a motorcycle. They are going to look for a train, or at least a large truck. What decisions are made when the brain cant visually find what it is hearing? Quite possibly a confused decision at best.
In my experience, if there is time for a horn to change the outcome, I can take other actions that will change the outcome. More often than not, the offending driver doesn't even react to the horn blast. |
Ratbuell
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 11:01 am: |
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My point exactly.
I don't rely on "them", I rely on ME. I know what I can see, I know how I can react, I plan my moves as far ahead of time as I can (my uncle taught me to play chess when I was 4...and it's helped me IMMENSELY all throughout life).
If there's time for a horn to change the outcome...there's time to make constructive avoidance maneuvers. If you don't have time to maneuver...neither do they (and you BOTH should have been paying better attention). |
Ourdee
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 11:50 am: |
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Outside of waking up a @$!%# Texter or the person walking out in front of you in a parking lot, here is my reason for a horn;
If I am hitting the horn, I am not flipping them off. That keeps both my hands on the bars for better control while calming my mind by releasing steam/frustration. This puts me in a calmer state, so that I wave at them like they are my long lost friend while they are flipping me off.
The butane/propane is not for flammability in my use. It is to use in place of a compressor and air tank as the power source for the horn.
Joe, My uncle taught me to use a slide rule when I was 4, so he could take me to work with him. He then used my skill to make fun of the other engineers. I remember him calling them trained monkeys and me making monkey sounds while looking at them. I miss the early sixties with him. Rubbing knots on my head and telling me I was cruisin' for a bruisin'.
I rode in England for three and a half years in the early 80s. I would guess that is where I picked "SMIDSY" up. It works. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 12:00 pm: |
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Still..... a flaming horn is such a mental image. |
86129squids
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 12:10 pm: |
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Great points all, about situational awareness and usefulness of a horn or hi-viz.
"Our brains don't actually "see" . . they simply take signals from the optic nerve and "interpret" them. The brain tends to use prior learning, expectation and habit and loves to take shortcuts when having to process lots of input . . . like traffic.
It will eliminate things that are small and things it does not "expect" to see.
We, as motorcyclists, happen to be one of those things."
I might add that these texters and yakkers on the roads today are using waaay too much "bandwidth" in their brains to even see or hear properly. Maybe "bandwidth" is the wrong word...
Dang, Court- I bet you're one of those teachers for whom I'd really appreciate the lectures! Didn't have too many of those over the years...
Time to re-read that MCN article. I'll see about posting a link here, VERY salient to this thread. |
Ourdee
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 12:15 pm: |
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"Bandwidth" should have to do with how wide the razor strap is you use on them. |
86129squids
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 12:33 pm: |
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Court
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 01:38 pm: |
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>>>>Dang, Court- I bet you're one of those teachers for whom I'd really appreciate the lectures!
Columbia gets some interesting requests from "civilians" to attend my lectures and the semester-end reviews are always interesting . . . perhaps, Shocking to some of the old guard at Columbia.
One thing is certain . . . I would stack my former students up, for the most part, against anyone in terms of critical thinking.
They can learn when they get to work . . . my job is to teach them to T-H-I-N-K.
One fun fact . . . . There is an aura of fear that permeates my classes with regard to cellphones. I have but 2 classroom rules. Rule #1 relates to cellphones and is . . . having exhausted all the attempts to find a "gray area" . . . rather simple.
"If I see your cellphone during the semester you will flunk the course. Your first knowledge will be upon the receipt of your final grade".
It cuts out all wasted time in the fool's pursuit of a "reasonable middle ground". The luxury of being in charge.
By the way . . . . my most "visited" class is the one where I use the Fender Stratocaster to teach Construction Blue Print Reading.
If you are interested . . . this is one of the reasons that led to my cellphone policy. The other is the "Indian Point" incident. Remind me to tell you sometime . . .that one is GREAT.
https://hbr.org/2010/12/you-cant-multi-task-so-sto p-tr |
Airbozo
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 11:49 am: |
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Right on Court. Just rule #1 alone would make me interested in sitting in on one of your lectures. This statement: "They can learn when they get to work . . . my job is to teach them to T-H-I-N-K." Would be another reason.
That is the same motto the SO uses when teaching.
Also love the Brain Games Shows. I wish it was required viewing for ALL students. |
Ourdee
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 01:20 pm: |
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When teaching metal repair I always thought that over 90% of the training was about shaping the students thought process. If I could give them a want to they could let the greatness out. Every one of them had it in them. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 02:06 pm: |
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I taught Fortran as an adjunct lecturer at University of Cincinnati. I told them on day one that the class is really "Structured Problem Solving", and that even though you will likely never use FORTRAN, it will be a really valuable class.
Programming classes (any language) are a great vehicle for teaching some foundational technical elements of structured problem solving.
What Court is teaching is another whole level, as it's not artificially simplified and constrained like programming is. |
Airbozo
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 06:33 pm: |
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I have a good friend who made an insane amount of money supporting several large scale programs written in FORTRAN. He didn't want to work anymore so he threw out an absurd number when asked what it would take for him to support them and to his surprise they not only matched his request, they offered him a bonus.
When I took my first programming class it was in PASCAL. The instructor told us the same thing you said, that no one programs in PASCAL since it is only a teaching language. I had to disagree since the company I was working for at the time programmed their main product in PASCAL and had to keep an old SCO XENIX machine alive to support the compiler. They even ended up buying the source code so they could support the compiler themselves when SCO tanked... |
Sifo
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 06:59 pm: |
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I can barely remember ANYTHING about my one and only FORTRAN class. I wound up getting cornered into a career in BAL. I honestly never saw that one coming! When I had finally recreated myself, and got a consulting gig in client server work, I got an offer to go back to BAL work. I got the what will it take question. I threw out an absurd 3 digit per hour price. I really didn't want to give up the new work I was doing for a one year contract in 1960's tech. They came back with a counter offer $2.00 less than what I said it would take. That was a tough one to walk away from, but in the end, I'm glad I did. I was much happier working on something fresh.
About a year later I got involved in a project for a large oil company (you know the name well) to work in Nigeria. $30K per month! 3 months on, 3 months off. Live in their secured community when there. The project fell through, but damn that was a tempting paycheck! |
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