RS4 Fear Thy Nature

The podcast I listened to covered two main focal points. The first of the two being Sleep No More, a British play and the Stanford Prison Experiment.  As I listened to this podcast I thought of two main ideas that covered both parts of the podcast.  When you are put in an unfamiliar place you may sometimes act and think differently and in some cases you are even unaware of your doings.

The first segment of the podcast covered the British play Sleep No More.  It was about a one of a kind theater that was co produced by a man by the name of Felix Barrett.  They started off by a bouncer asking to see each and everyone’s photo ID, but would not tell the people why.  They were then directed down a dark alleyway, which then lead them to a very nice bar scene with a jazz band playing.  Already to me this seems like something very different to me.  I would feel out of place and confused.  After being at the bar scene for a while they were given very elegant masks and had all of there belongs taken and were given a few rules to follow including no talking to one another.  They put the masks on and entered the theater.  This was not your ordinary theater this theater was an old warehouse that was multiple floors. They were told they could wander around to any of the several scenes that were set up.  This is where I then realized that people acted and thought very differently when in unusual situations.  While the people were going through Barrett’s play they would seem to think things that were happening were real.  For instance there is a scene where one of the actors was falling and it was reported that almost every time one of the audience members will run over and save them from falling.  Another example is a woman saw a dress hanging on the wall so she just went over and grabbed it for no reason as if she was going to change into it.  This play is so intricate and diverse compared to anything else that it just puts people in such a different mindset.

At some points during the play experience people would do things and literally had no idea that they were committing an act.  The example I have from listening to the podcast was there is an actress behind a glass wall dancing and all of a sudden this women, one of the audience, starts throwing anything she can find at the glass where the woman was dancing.  When pulled aside she claims she had no idea she was doing that.  The other example of this came from the Stanford Prison Experiment.  The volunteer prisoners and guards were doing things that would be done in an actual prison.  The guards actually thought they were patrolling a prison and were yelling and curing while the prisoners were crying in agony. And when these volunteers were interviewed after the experiment ended, they had no clue of some of the things they were doing, let alone forgot that what was happening was not real life, it was only an experiment. 

As I listened to this podcast my mind went through so many different thoughts and so many different scenarios.  People get lost in their own mind and don’t have any physical control while their mind takes over.  Being put in an unfamiliar place and asked to do certain tasks or watch strange things and your mind thinks differently and you act in strange ways and in some cases you don’t realize what you are doing because your mind just takes over.

RS3: Economics Meme

Heres my meme for RS3...


http://imgflip.com/i/35v9

RS2: Maastricht, Marijuana And The European Dream

            Marijuana and the EU was a very interesting podcast that really got me thinking. Why would the mayor ban the drug from the foreigners and only allow it to the local people?  I believe the decision that the mayor of Maastricht made will anger the coffee shop owners, cause other stores to go out of business, and it could possibly cause more crime.        

            With the new law the mayor of Maastricht passed, it does not allow anyone from outside the village to purchase any marijuana or even step foot into the coffee shop.  The only people who are capable of making the purchase of the pot is the locals.  To the coffee shop owners this kills there business, the stat that was given was that 93 percent of the coffee shops business was from the foreigners.  So for the coffee shop owners there business was shot.  They lost all off there income and are faced with the closure of their stores in the near future.  I don’t think that the mayor thought his decision all the way through, he did not realize that the new law was going to hurt so many people financially.  After the mayors decision the coffee shop owners have decided to take the case to court.  They were arguing that the Euro was created in order to help the free trade system so they could go anywhere in Europe and not have to exchange currency in order to buy something.  People could cross the borders into Maastricht and go buy a bag of potatoes but they couldn’t buy the marijuana even though it was legal there.  With foreigners not allowed to buy the marijuana they had no purpose to come to Maastricht any longer.

            With the foreigners not coming to Maastricht any more for the marijuana the other businesses would suffer as well.  The amount of people that the coffee shops brought in allowed for other shops to flourish due to the mass of people in the area.  This is a goo example of the guidepost we learned about that had secondary effects.  You remove the pot smokers from the town you take business away from the other stores.  The mayor basically sabotaged the town’s economy with one rule that he hoped would just eliminate the foreigners from buying weed from his town. Instead he eliminated the town’s main source of business.  Illegalizing marijuana to be purchased by the foreigners wouldn’t stop them from smoking the drug.  

            So some people continued to cross the borders and purchase marijuana from local dealers.  In a way it was cheating the system.  Either they come to the dealers in Maastricht and cheat the system and it crosses the line of being illegal/legal or they purchase the drug from illegal dealers from where ever they are from increasing the crime rate.  By allowing the purchase in the coffee shops in Maastricht it eliminated the crime because of the pure fact that it was legal there.  If you are a pot smoker and you are told you cant buy at the coffee shops any longer, its not going to stop you from smoking. You will find other means of acquiring the drug no matter how you need to do it.  So with the law in place I only see crime on the rise until a solution is made.

            I learned from this podcast the real meaning of secondary effects.  Sometimes you may not see he secondary effects until they are already upon you.  The new law in my eyes will cause crime, close down other shops, and anger the coffee shop owners.

RS1 How to be a Genius

   David Dobbs wrote an article called How To Be a Genius: It really is 99 percent sweat, to prove to people that you’re average Joe can become just as talented as someone born with a special talent. His article states that being a genius takes time and effort, he talks about what characteristics will help you rise above the others in your field, and why hard work can either make or break you.

   Dobbs clearly states throughout the article that to become a genius you have to put in the time and effort, blood, sweat and tears.  Nothing in life comes easy, especially to become masterful at something.  Dobbs claims being a genius is not something you are born with, its something that is developed through time.  In his article Dobbs states that "scholars of elite performance to speak of a 10-year rule: it seems you have to put in at least a decade of focused work to master something and bring greatness within reach."  Just use Tiger Woods as an example, he was born with a talent to golf but he did not get where he is today without hard work and practice.  Tiger was recognized as a premier golfer at a very young age and continued to impress with his progressively increasing talent. Even today after all he went through with his ex wife, he has pushed through and is still an elite golfer with tremendous work ethic that will carry him to many more championships.  To develop such talents you need to hold certain traits that can aid you to your success.

   To become an elite in your field of expertise you need other characteristics to help aid in the development of your field so you can rise above the others.  The obvious answer is hard work.  Without the effort you put in you would get nowhere. You need to be dedicated to pursuing your goals. Set the bar high and do not give up when you are put down, strive on through.  Another characteristic you may need is to become a good listener; reason being is because to learn everything you need to know on your way to the top is to get mentors.  The example Dobbs uses is "music students that attended New Yorks elite Julliard School compared to those who attended other schools.  The students who attended Julliard received one on one relationships with mentors who prepared them for challenges they would face after their studies ended." The other students who attended other schools lacked the one on one attention from mentors and faded off the map because they never were taught to deal with challenges they were to face after school. This clearly shows me that to get to the top you have to allow the people around you to teach you things that they have learned through their years of practice. Hard work requires a lot mentally and physically and can can make or break you.

    Hard work can encourage you or it can overwhelm you. To Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth and The Beatles hard work encouraged them to keep going and become the best they could be at their personal fields.  They never gave up and when they found themselves stuck in an obstacle they would push through and persevere. All of the people I listed above are where they are now because they took their talents and pushed themselves to the limit. They never quit and they pushed themselves because they knew with their hard work they would be at the top of their game.  Unfortunately for some hard work overwhelmed them and caused them to fall off. They may have had the talent to become something but they did not have what it took to put it to good use.  A perfect example for this would be the 2012 Boston Red Sox.  If you look at the team on paper they have a very talented team and if you look at their record they look as if they are a very below average team.  The team has talent but they aren’t putting in the hard work needed to become the team they should be.  An example is the Red Sox pitching staff last year; they were eating chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse.  They did not treat themselves well enough to perform to the fullest.  In life it comes down to who wants it and who doesn’t.

   Becoming a Genius takes a lot out of you, but it is rewarding in the end.  You need to be willing to do whatever it takes to perform at your absolute best.  Dobbs gave us characteristics that you need to aid yourself in rising to the top, he proved that hard work can either encourage you or overwhelm you, and he stated that being a genius takes time and effort.