Passion Project Update

  Our passion Project is on genetics and it's going surprisingly well.  We have made a lot of progress but there's still more to be done.  We have researched a bunch of genetic and physical tests and then we tested our whole G&T class.  That way we will be able to see what genetic traits our most common.  We also tested our families so we can see how many of these tests are genetics.   Our major achievement is just having collected all our data.  The only obstacle we've faced is determining what counts as completion of the test.  For example, some people have a more obvious hitch hikers thumb than others.  That makes deciding if its an actual hitch hikers thumb harder.  We still have a lot of work to do on our project.  The next major step we have to take is analyzing our data.  We have to determine how many of our traits are actually genetic and how many are just physical abilities.   The only coming obstacle I can anticipate is deciding what all our data means. After we analyze all our data we have to create a power point showing our findings and explaining what having each trait means.  Overall we've completed a fair amount of our project but there's still more to be done.

Passion Project Reflection

I can't believe we're already halfway through the time allotted for passion projects.  My group and I  are doing a Rube Goldberg machine which is pretty cool. Our goal is to pump hand sanitizer using at least 15 steps.  We've completed 7 steps so far so we're about halfway there!  I'm pretty proud of our group because we've put in a lot of working trying to find the perfect combination of consecutive steps.  We have faced a few challenges that slowed us down.  One of the biggest challenges is that when our machine goes to pump the hand sanitizer its so powerful that it pulls the hand sanitizer off the table.  We have to find a way to get the hand sanitizer to stay on the table.  Another problem we're facing is that Thomas the train is having trouble going up the track. It doesn't seem to have enough power to make it up the hill.  On the bright side we’re getting together today to hopefully resolve the problems and add more steps.

Thomas Edison an Outlier

         When I had to pick an outlier to research at first i wasn't sure who to pick.  I knew it should be someone influential so one of the first people that came to mind was Thomas Edison.  I didn't really have much proof that he was an outlier until i actually started to research him.  After reading a lot about him i realized that he is indeed an outlier and follows some of the rules to be successful.
      Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio.  He was the last of seven children.  When Edison was young he had scarlet fever which left him nearly deaf.  Later in his life this disadvantage would come back to affect him.  Edison was only in school for 12 weeks before his teacher deemed him difficult and his mom decided to pull him out and teach him at home.  This wide open curriculum allowed him to self educate himself and learn independently. Edison getting pulled out of school might have actually been a special opportunity.  Although at first it might have seemed like a bad thing, Edison had more time than any child his age to focus on and learn what he wanted. He was also used to teaching himself new topics and experimenting to find things out on his own.  That explains why from a very young age Edison was an entrepreneur.  For example he published his own newspaper called The Grand Trunk Herald and he sold it to passengers.
         For example,  Edison was given a special opportunity.  He saved a three year old child from being run over by a train and the boys father was so grateful that he taught Edison to operate a telegraph.  This   opportunity allowed Edison to become employed as a telegraph operator.  Getting to work as a telegraph operator lead Edison to become very familiar with electrical science. That special opportunity really allowed him to discover his love for electrical science.
      Thomas Edison was also privy to accumulative advantage.    All his special opportunities put together lead to accumulative advantage.  From a very young age Edison capitalized on opportunities like when he was kicked out of school.  He didn't let not going to school stop him from learning.    Also when he became a telegraph operator he used every chance he had to learn as much about  the telegraph and electrical science.  Basically Thomas Edison's advantages started small and then snowballed down to huge advantages.
       Another rule of success  that Thomas Edison followed was the 10,000 hour rule.  Edison has basically been working towards 10,000 hours since he was a young boy.  All that free time he had as a kid allowed him to get a head start on 10,000 hours.  When Edison was 19 he began working at the Associated Press.  He worked the night shift so he could spend a lot of time reading and experimenting with electricity.  That also goes towards the 10,000 hour rule.  When Edison was only 22 years old he had his first successful invention which was an improved stock ticker that the Stock Telegraph Company bought for $40,000.  20-22 years of age is normally when most devoted people reach the 10,000 hour rule which is conveniently when Edison had his first successful invention.
     Edison became a well known inventor by the 1870's.  He created a few useful inventions but the most well known by far was the light bulb.  He then created the Edison Illuminating Company which provided electricity to paying citizens.  I think it's quite clear that Thomas Edison was extremely successful but now its also pretty clear that he's also an outlier.  He had a few special opportunities which lead to accumulative advantage and he also completed the 10,000 hour rule.  In my persona opinion Thomas Edison is a true outlier.

Joyas Voladoras Essay Response

After reading this essay I feel that it had a very negative and discouraging  message. This essay was basically saying that no matter what you do to try to save your heart from pain, its still going to get hurt.  This quote proves what I'm saying. "You can brick your heart up as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and it comes down in an instant....."  I think that sends a very pessimistic message. It's almost warning you that you will get hurt despite everything you try to do to stop it.  After reading this I feel that its not worth it to try to keep my heart safe.  It makes me want to stop trying to save myself all the hurt that I will experience in life.  Now I guess I understand that you can never possibly stop yourself from being hurt.  Maybe you can lock your heart up so it's not effected by some things but then something will happen completely unexpected and your barrier will come down.  I'm done trying to lock my heart up and keep it safe.  I undertsand now that I can never truly protect my heart from everything.

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen

The song Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen has a lot of great advice.  One of my favorite pieces is
"Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young."  This is a great piece of advice because you should never continue to hold on to people that don't appreciate you.  You should also never let go of people who really love and care for you.  This is an important piece of advice that as soon as people understand this, the happier they will be.  My other favorite piece of advice is "Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good Be nice to your siblings, they're your best link to your past And the people most likely to stick with you in the future."  I like this piece of advice because it basically says how important your parents and siblings are.  I have a brother and although we don't get along but I don't know what I would do without him.  Same with my parents.  We often have different view points but I would be devastated to lose them.  This song has a lot of great advice that I'm going to try to follow.
I also have my own piece of advice to add.  All I have to say is eat healthy and stay in shape.  Don't pollute your body with unhealthy substances if you expect to live past 40.  Exercising and eating healthy will make you look and feel younger.  You will need your body in the future so it's no use destroying it when your young.  I know as a kid everyone wants to look skinny, but when it comes down to it staying in shape is a lot harder than it seems.  That would definitely be my top piece of advice to give other people.

What's worth knowing?

Schools teaches us a variety of different skills but somehow manage to  skip over the most important ones.  Sure we're taught math, writing and reading but we're not taught how to communicate our feelings or read other peoples expressions. School teaches us all the academic knowledge we need to know but fails to teach us any social knowledge.  By sitting in school everyday I'm not learning how to tell someone how I feel or how to understand what someone means just by looking at their face.  Now both those skills are extremely important but their not taught at school.  Sure people say you can't survive in the world without knowing math or learning to write but how can you survive never being able to tell someone how you feel or never being able to understand if a person is upset.  I believe that being able to read peoples expressions is immensly important and yet its never taugth to us.  Neil Gaimen was completely right when he said that schools don't teach us alot of stuff thats worth knowing.  As he said before they dont teach you how to love or how to be rich or poor.  Yet, arguably those are two important skills that will help you later in life.  I want to know why schools skip over such important information.  How are we suppose to go into life with such huge gaps in our  education?  How are we ever going to learn to love and trust someone if its not taught?  Maybe its assumed that we will pick it up on our own but that's not always the case. School needs to teach us  these things or atleast have them explained to us.

Wasteland Documentary

      The wasteland had a lot of memorable parts.  I think the most memorable part of the movie was when the catadores or the pickers saw the pictures that Vik had created.  I liked this part because the people were in awe and fascinated by what Vik had created.  I learned from Wasteland to be grateful for what I have and never take anything for granted.  you don't really understand how much you have until you see how little other people have.  From watching this film I will start to appreciate everything I have.  Until I watched this film I didn't know that people lived in the garbage.  After seeing this I want to appreciate everything no matter how big or how small.
       I think the people that had their lives turned into something bigger felt proud.  To them it probably felt like all their hard work paid off and they were finally being recognized for the good work they had been doing.  I think they also felt a bit overwhelmed.  This was something completely different than what they normally did.  At first I think it took them a little bit to get used to the idea that their daily jobs were turning into something bigger.
       I think I would feel overwhelmed too and a little scared.  I wouldn't know what to make of having my whole life turned into something more meaningful.  I would also feel shocked because I would be surprised that someone other than myself was so interested in my life.  I don't think there are aspects of my life that would lend myself to similar types of art.  My life isn't really full of anything interesting.