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An Education
- 1. An Education Joshua Knowles University of Birmingham
- 2. Don’t panic! (Douglas Adams)
- 4. Take off your shoes
- 6. No worries! (mate) -Australian saying
- 7. Be happy
- 8. Be polite
- 10. Know where the fire exits are
- 11. Always digress! (Knowles; cf. JD Salinger)
- 12. The anti-library (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- 13. The jobsworth In case you don’t know: this is an employed person who is unprepared to do what you think is part of their job because to do so would break a petty rule, and doing so is more than their job’s worth to their employer. Hence they would be sacked if they did so, and refuse stubbornly any and all polite requests you might give them! (This definition by me, Knowles)
- 14. There’s no smoke without fire
- 15. Mud sticks
- 16. 2+2=5 (George Orwell) Comment: probably the scariest sentence ever to appear in a book. Winston Smith is forced to believe it after undergoing torture and brainwashing. The problem is he also believes 2+2=4 and 2+2=3, and thus has lost all ability to reason, or retain useful knowledge. Are we doing this to our students?
- 17. No Logo (Naomi Klein)
- 18. No Logo (Naomi Klein)
- 19. The right tool (for the job)
- 20. Life is difficult. (M. Scott Peck; and The Buddha)
- 21. Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. (M. Scott Peck)
- 22. Brevity is the soul of wit. (Shakespeare) ...NB: This is what I (Knowles) have been saying all along!
- 23. Love is blind. Comment: questionable. Consider...
- 24. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. [The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible....] (Oscar Wilde) NB: [ ] parentheses mine If love is blind why is lingerie so popular?
- 25. Who dares wins (The motto of the SAS)
- 26. Be good to yourself
- 27. How to win friends and influence people (Dale Carnegie) Note to self: I must read this again ... soon!
- 28. What (the hell) is Quality? (Robert M. Pirsig)
- 29. Swearing is a sign of intelligence
- 30. Matrices don’t fucking commute! Remember this – it will save you a lot of shit. (Especially if you try to control robot arms or want to render 3D computer graphics) (Knowles)
- 31. A Hilbert space is a vector space with a complete inner product. (David Hilbert) We live in a Hilbert space – spacetime.(Knowles) We usually work in a Hilbert space. Sometimes a finite dimensional one, sometimes an infinite dimensional one. (Knowles)
- 32. More Hilbert 2. Prove that the axioms of arithmetic are consistent. (There is no consensus on whether this problem is solved, though we know it can’t be proved from within arithmetic due to Kurt Gödel’s work on incompleteness.) 10. Find an algorithm to determine whether a given polynomial Diophantine equation with integer coefficients has an integer solution. (Proved impossible)
- 33. Observe the simple disciplines: polish your boots*, brush your hair and teeth, and shave well. It will make all your days much easier. (Knowles) *and your talks
- 34. Walk across the damned grass if you like. You will feel the damp, cool blades beneath your feet, and the conversation you have with the park keeper will brighten his day. (Knowles)
- 35. Fortune favours the brave
- 36. Fortune favours the prepared mind (So is bravery the prepared mind? Yes! See Plato’s The Republic. --observation by Knowles)
- 37. The division of labour (Adam Smith)
- 38. Wealth (of nations) is not constituted of gold in the bank (Adam Smith)
- 39. The veil of ignorance (John Rawls)
- 40. The Golden Rule: treat others as you would have them treat you (The Buddha, Jesus Christ, ...)
- 41. The purpose of the warrior is always peace (von Clausewitz)
- 42. Should I marry R? ...Not if she won’t tell me the rest of the letters in her name. (Woody Allen)
- 43. The Road Less Travelled M. Scott Peck
- 44. The four disciplines 1. Delay of gratification (to be learned from 5 years old) 2. Acceptance of responsibility 3. Dedication to truth (including openness to challenge) 4. Balancing (a.k.a. giving up) ..and Love provides the motive for discipline
- 45. Delay of gratification NOW LATER
- 46. Dedication to truth Who is open to the challenge of updating your CS curriculum? ...No? Then either your CS curriculum is the best and most current mental map of the discipline, or you are too tired or too bored or care too little about your students to do this vital task! (Sorry).
- 47. Acceptance of responsibility A. To solve a problem, one first has to accept it as our own problem. B. Then we have to take our time to solve it. Both of these are also PAINFUL, and we can see that this is just really a footnote to “Delay of Gratification”, which is the granddaddy of discipline
- 48. Balancing Prospect theory (Daniel Kahneman)
- 49. Computer Science A modern subject with ancient foundations (of course!)
- 50. Computer science: a definition Computer science comprises several foundational theories: computability theory information theory complexity theory, and the theory of NP-completeness logic, methods of inference, and learning theory decision theory game theory (network or) graph theory set theory discrete mathematics, including combinatorics and basic number theory... ...and their applications. (Knowles)
- 51. Computer science: a definition Computer science comprises several foundational theories: computability theory information theory complexity theory, and the theory of NP-completeness logic, methods of inference, and theories of learning decision theory game theory (network or) graph theory set theory discrete mathematics, including combinatorics and basic number theory...
- 52. Information theory 1. How do we send readable messages over slow, noisy communication channels? 2. How short can a message be whilst maintaining the integrity of the meaning to be conveyed? (Shannon) (Definition phrasing by Knowles)
- 53. Decision theory How to choose a car at the lot (or online). (Phrasing by Knowles)
- 54. Game theory How to get the maximum payoff in interactions with an other (or others) when formal rules of engagement apply. (Phrasing by Knowles)
- 55. Game theory ⊂ Decision theory
- 56. Graph theory How to determine properties associated with an object comprising nodes and links between them. For example, how to count the number of possible paths from one node to another one, or how to determine if one graph is equivalent (identical) to another one once the nodes and links are allowed to move without disconnecting any. (Phrasing by Knowles)
- 57. Magic (not) Magic does not exist; blood, sweat and tears do, and then learning, and then success...and finally death. (Knowles)
- 58. Magic (not) Derren Brown (illusionist)
- 59. Magic (not) Ben Hogan (professional golfer)
- 60. Magic (not) Attack of the Hawk (video)
- 61. Magic (not) How I write (Bertrand Russell). An extract: “There are some simple maxims-not perhaps quite so simple as those which my brother- in-law Logan Pearsall Smith offered me-which I think might be commanded to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. Second: if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end. Take, say, such a sentence as the following, which might occur in a work on sociology: "Human beings are completely exempt from undesirable behaviour-patterns only when certain prerequisites, not satisfied except in a small percentage of actual cases, have, through some fortuitous concourse of favourable circumstances, whether congenital or environmental, chanced to combine in producing an individual in whom many factors deviate from the norm in a socially advantageous manner". Let us see if we can translate this sentence into English. I suggest the following: "All men are scoundrels, or at any rate almost all. The men who are not must have had unusual luck, both in their birth and in their upbringing." This is shorter and more intelligible, and says just the same thing. But I am afraid any professor who used the second sentence instead of the first would get the sack.”
- 62. Magic (not)
- 63. Magic (not)
- 64. Acknowledgments Irena Spasić The Universe and all of literature (my ant-library thanks to my computer) A long list of colleagues and friends available on request, but particularly David Corne, Doug Kell, Simon Fong, Andrew Webb, Steve Miller, Sanaz Mostaghim, Aaron Sloman, Ela Claridge, Mark Lee, Barzan Rahman and Major Lieutenant, Christopher J Leese. And thank you for your kind attention and patience. Contact me at j.knowles@cs.bham.ac.uk -- Don’t panic! --
- 65. Selected References (in order of appearance) Douglas Adams, “A Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. M. Scott Peck, “The Road Less Travelled”. Hermann Hesse, “Steppenwolf”; “Siddhartha”; “Narcissus & Goldmund”. Timothy Gowers, “A Very Short Introduction to Mathematics”. Robert Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations”.
- 66. Selected References (in order of appearance) Percy Boomer, “On Learning Golf”. Curt Sampson, “Hogan”. J.D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye”. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “The Black Swan”. Bertrand Russell, “How I write” (essay). Richard Feynman, “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out”; and other memoirs of his.
Editor's Notes
- An Education Thanks very much to Irena for inviting me today, and for all of you for attending. If anyone needs to get up before the end, I understand, and please do so. You might miss some of the “payoffs” that I have prepared for the end though! Adam Curtis, the documentary maker starts all his films with the phrase, “This is a story about...” and that gives him considerable licence to present selected facts in a narrative of his own choosing. It is the same for all of us who teach or attempt to educate. This is a story about an education – an education to develop character (and all that entails), understanding, and hopefully near-optimal actions in the world. I am going to begin the story by showing you some short phrases (some of which are aphorisms, some not) which one might usefully follow or employ in making one’s way in the world. Anyone familiar with linguistics or with information theory will notice how compressed the phrases are when comparing the amount of potentially useful information in them compared with the message length, say counted in bits. Indeed my selection starts with two word phrases and that is not a fluke. We will get back to information theory later, and we might mention linguistics too ... Slides will be put on slideshare, complete with commentary. I also have an audio commentary so this can be watched as a film. How long did it take to prepare this talk? What’s the age of the Universe? So we’re sitting here and the Universe is talking to us, and I am a mere cipher(!!!) I will talk and not ask you many questions, but I may do, so try to stay awake if you can please
- Hah! Douglas Adams wrote the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (of four books!) – a science fiction series with considerable attempts at humour. “Don’t panic!” is the advice given on the front cover of the actual Guide, which is the subject of the books – a guide for intergalactic travellers who don’t have their own space vehicle. Having said that, the advice “Don’t panic!” is great advice to give any student, and indeed it is my intention from this day on to always start my lectures with 30 seconds spent to tell students that as long as they don’t panic they will learn and succeed and feel good about themselves. So just don’t panic! If anyone needs to leave early ... Stack of gold sovereigns on the front desk
- Anyone a fan? Apparently that’s Lance corporal Jones, played by the inimitable Clive Dunn
- Go on – do it.
- Which brings me to...
- The Aussies love to say this at all times. Keep it in your head whenever you might be worrying. Imagine a great Australian male wearing a cork hat, bermuda shorts and carrying a can of Foster’s and imagine him wArrying – it ain’t gonna happen, mite!
- Well, how (one may rightfully ask)? So perhaps this is NOT such great advice on its own. However, it is brief and memorable and it does imply that our own state of mind (or heart) is our own responsibility and is largely or entirely independent of circumstance. I was recently happy in a police cell, held for an alleged breech of the peace. I did press-ups, and enjoyed the 20ml of water they brought me to refresh myself.
- One of the first things we teach our children if we have any is to be polite. This is a rule that gives and gives. It is never tiresome to meet with a polite person. Sartre may have not said Hell is Other People if only he hadn’t lived with impolite Parisians! So far, has anything I’ve presented been difficult or controversial? It shouldn’t have been and hopefully you are sitting comfortably, adequtely hydrated, and with an open mind. We have about ten more of these phrases to look at, and hopefully they get more stimulating from here on. When we’ve done that we will start to look at Computer Science Education, and I will give some further short definitions and advice that have more circumscribed use in studying various branches of computer science. And from there I will move to a broader consideration of what one might call “skill”, and look quickly at examples of people so skilfull that some would have you believe they are divine, magical or just geniuses.
- Anyone here know first aid? [[slnc 2000]] Well done you! Phew... We’re all safe!
- Here’s Jason Bourne (or Matt Damon) noting where the exits are (presumably from some CIA training before his amnesia), and telling the lovely Franka Potente about it...
- Students like to hear you digress and then come back to the point. In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caulfield tells of why hearing a person digressing is always fun
- Our first phrase is a thing or idea and not a piece of advice. The advice would be to Get an anti-library. What’s that - you may well ask and I hope you do? Well it is simply the collection of books that you have close at hand that you have not yet read! The books you have not yet read but which you know contain useful information, and if they have been titled and organized well that you will be able to flick to the right page and employ usefully. Most of my library is my anti-library in that I very rarely read a reference book (note the term) from cover to cover. Story of getting 32 books from the library to prepare this talk. Which leads to the Jobsworth (next slide)
- Let’s have a read of the definition I’ve given there so we are all on the same page. Think then if you’ve ever come across a jobsworth. I find myself labelling people as jobsworths all the time but politely I don’t tell them (except in extreme circumstances!) Is that helpful to me to label them? Yes and no. For sure it is unhelpful if I believe that there current actions are a personality flaw, unchangeable, aimed personally at me, and other nonsense. However it calms me to think that this poor person is so tired or stressed or genuinely in fear for the loss of his (or her) continued employment that he is refusing to lend me that thingy just there behind him, or to engage his brain when interpreting what the computer in front of him is telling him.
- Hmmm! ... Not sure about that one; sometimes there just is ... But hey.
- Not on teflon tony, that’s Tony Blair, it didn’t!
- Truly terrifying! And a great example of someone, George Orwell that is, who gave his all for his art. Apparently, he almost killed himself from the effort of writing 1984.
- I disagree heartily... Sorry, Naomi! ... (Well, I guess controversy or just downright rot sells books – and there’s everything wrong with that!)
- You see, here are just two examples of why the logo is perfectly indicative of unrivalled quality and performance. The Patek Philippe grand complication gentleman’s wristwatch, at 42,000 pounds, and the only slightly less expensive Titleist Pro V1 golf ball. I own 2 dozen of the latter and can attest as to their projectile qualities, spin,and unmatched click and feel. They also roll straight on a level surface. Believe the Logo, that’s what it should be... But beware of fakes...of course.
- Which brings us to ... We all know the importance of knowing your tools, selecting your tools, sharpening your tools, updating your tools. Software sure has a lot of tools in it, and boy do they need updating and constant practice!
- Now we are starting to get really serious. Religious-level serious one might say...
- And we’ll come back to more on this gem from M Scott Peck shortly... But for now, let’s just observe that nearly everyone is neurotic to some degree, and it is because we are all avoiding necessary suffering. The suffering we are avoiding is solving our own problems and moving on. We just don’t do it – we avoid – and then we get neurotic. Our students – sorry students – are highly neurotic. And professors are probably even worse as a rule.
- That damned bard beat me to it by just 400 years!
- Who can understand the attraction of this guy, for example? But anyway, I think this may be short but it is definitely questionable.
- Here we go, Oscar Wilde gets much closer to the truth in only a few more bits of message length. The lower one is ... Well ... Lower, (much lower) ... but amuses momentarily if one has not had too bad a morning.
- Yup... Definitely true. Or it’s very difficult to win if you don’t dare to take risks - put it that way.
- Yes, do! Please do! Students, especially you. Drinking 8 pints of an evening does not count. Neither does working until complete exhaustion, however.... Get the balance right: drink the pints in the morning and then you won’t have a hangover, and can concentrate at about the right level for maximum absorption of the wonderful knowledge we are dishing out so kindly.
- This is my favourite (short) joke. Anyway, I only like short jokes, or random digressions and personal tales. Funny because Woody has wonderful comic timing, of course. But also funny because Kafka, and Dostoevsky and The English Patient all use characters who go by initial so it is a literary trope which he is taking the piss out of. That makes it doubly painful for me!
- All the above is from The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck with some parenthetic notes by myself.
- Any fans of “I’m a celebrity”? I did not delay gratification during my undergraduate days. There weren’t too many drunk nights or drugs or girls. I was in the library, just on the wrong floor. I admit there was a bit of looking at girl students, but mostly I was just reading Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre when I should have been reading Einstein and Feynman ;-) Last night I had to delay gratification by not watching Tiger Woods, my favourite player, playing after a 13 month break due to injury. I hope it was worth it!
- This slide why balancing is so hard. We need to give up but for some psychological reason, we hate it. We subjectively feel the pain of having someone remove our half-eaten cornflakes (even if we can go and get another one) much more than seems rational. When we gain a new car, house, job, we only slightly enjoy it! So giving up so we can do new important stuff is fundamentally hard!
- This is my own definition of computer science.... On the next slide is my longer definition.
- So, in summary, what I’m saying with this proposal of a curriculum in CS, and Life (all the slides at the beginning) is that we can largely teach all the important stuff by carefully chosen short messages (learning is all about compression, after all) and some digressions for illustrative and rhetorical purposes... I hope I convinced you or at least bumped into you and nudged you slightly.... [[slnc 4000]] Now, in the final part, I am going to show some magic that would happen if we did all the above... We would develop skills and expertise and creativity in ourselves, our children, our colleagues, and our children. ...One might call it magic when one sees the result, but I assure you it is not.
- Real gun, real bullets, 4 in the barrel, and Derren decides whether or not to fire it at his head. His only clue is the man sitting to his left who has loaded the gun... It is not magic though.
- “I just shook a hand that felt like five bands of steel” “Hogan dug it out of the dirt” (genius at golf, that is) Hogan practised till his hands bled “There are not enough hours in the day to practise all the shots I need in a round. I just love to practise.” (Ben Hogan) “I feel sorry for guys now (guys on Tour). They don’t know tough things. I knew tough things. Every day was tough for me; the depression; and it made me tough.” -Ben Hogan When Hogan got his first caddying job he had to fist fight the older caddies. Then they rolled him down a steep hill in a barrel. That’s just the way it was in Texas in the depression.
- This is Ben Hogan, accompanied by Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”.
- Note: Russell is talking of simple maxims. Again we see the best always want the shortest, most concentrated advice. No filler; no BS.
- We’d better finish with some musical magic. Obviously I could choose Mozart or Bach as examples of genius. But I choose, for personal reasons, Janis Joplin and her singing Kris Kristofferson’s song, “Me and Bobby McGee”. She died, I believe, at 27.
- What I cannot create I do not understand.