Gestalt

Following from my post on heuristics, i shall share what i just found out about the Gestalt Principles. Chong Long, my friend who's studying media in NTU introduced me to this concept after I asked him about some stuff on branding.

From my understanding, Gestalt psychology talks about the principle of totality. Our mind will see things by 'summing them up' to have them make more sense to us.

From wiki: 

Principle of Totality - The conscious experience must be considered globally (by taking into account all the physical and mental aspects of the individual simultaneously) because the nature of the mind demands that each component be considered as part of a system of dynamic relationships.

The Gestalt 'laws' are SIMILARITY, CONTINUATION, CLOSURE, PROXIMITY, FIGURE & GROUND.

One of the examples of gestalt laws at work is the symbol for WWF. And yes, i believe that the featured character is a favorite of ZhaoBin, here's a tribute to him for being such a great friend and for surprising me with a post card sent form USA. PANDA!!!!!

If you look at the above picture, the picture of the panda is not 'complete'. But we are able to perceive that see that it is a panda, but filling up the white spaces. 

The following picture is also very effective in communicating with the audience the need to spread the message about saving wildlife animals. A few black curved lines that is drawn on the panda's ears would allow us to SEE that it is like a transmitter radio station sending our radio waves. But wait! Have we ever SEEN radio waves 'live'? No...what we have seen is a depiction of waves as presented in charts and diagrams. Isn't the human mind amazing? 

 

However there is danger in the way our brain processes such info. We may recognize patterns or info when IT IS NOT THERE. If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, acts like a duck, IT MAY NOT BE A DUCK...at this point i'm thinking about the disney movie, bolt, where the dog acts, thinks, behaves like a super dog, but he's just an ordinary dog. 

After we have created an impression of what we think we should see, we paint a world where we see the thing. 

How creative and convenient, yet so dangerous if we are not aware of our shortcomings :)

Heuristic

We live in a complex world and we are forced to make thousands of decisions in a day. How we largely avoid banging into each other while walking on the street is a pretty amazing decision making process. Its a little waltz that we do intuitively, by processing thousands of signals and implement the appropriate action - speed, facial expression, level of congestion, weather,etc.

To simplify our decision making process, we often rely on heuristic to make decision. Heuristic, or 'rule of thumb' allow us to survive in this world without over taxing our brain.

An abuse of heuristic may lead to dire consequences. In behavioral finance, we learn that heuristics such as anchoring or sample size bias can lead to sub-optimal decisions. However, when heuristics are used in the decision making for doctors, misuse could lead to wrong treatment or possibly death.

Reading a fascinating book called "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman. Amazing book. It brings you through how doctors make decisions, what are the conditions that wrong decisions are made, and how PATIENTS and DOCTORS can work together to reduce misdiagnosis. I don't understand the medical terms in the book at all, so i shall not attempt to use it. haha.

Imagine you see a dirty looking old man reeking with smell of liquour sent into the ER with bloated limbs, you'll first assume there's something wrong with his liver, when in fact there could be something wrong with some other organs (too).

Another common problem is the one that is dealt with by jie chao on his post on bayesian analysis. Failure to adjust for base rate could lead to unnecessary treatments despite the very high accuracy of the test itself.

Doctors who work with mental checklist can prevent some of these heuristics. But doctors are human too, they have their own preference and incentives. As patients, we should look out for these human fallibility and be alert to point these out to the doctors if we suspect that it has occurred.

Amazing little book. It just might save my life one day...


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Daniel's parents are two of the kindest people that i've met. People who offer their help even when none was asked warm our hearts. I'll forever be grateful for their kind words. Hope Daniel recovers soon. Haiz, only he will air my fabricated dirty laundry in front of his family. Seriously, if he doesn't want to be in finance, he can be a really successful writer with his vivid imaginations. hahah.

Two drops of oil

My exchange to Canada is drawing near. And with my parents' support, I've also applied to internships in Hong Kong. Exciting, yet, i feel a little sad that i won't be around my family and friends for that period of time .

In  The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the following story is told by an old man to a young shepherd before he embarks on his journey to find his treasure. I love this story. And i hope we can all find out what our two drops of oil are, and never lose sight of it. 

"A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.

Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man's attention.

The wise man listened attentively to the boy's explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn't have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours.

'Meanwhile, I want to ask you to do something,' said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. 'As you wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill.'

The boy began climbing and descending the many stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was.

'Well,' asked the wise man, 'did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?'

The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.

'Then go back and observe the marvels of my world,' said the wise man. 'You cannot trust a man if you don't know his house.'

Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.

‘But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?' asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was gone.

'Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,' said the wisest of wise men. 'The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.' "

What is this feeling...

Exams are finally over! This is my most shiong semester ever. I think that AT and AFA is a deadly combo, should be taken with care. I'm most uncertain about the outcome of my essay based exams. The two numerical ones are just off. AFA would depends on how much prof gives us marks for 'workings'. For MS, the finals is so freakin easy that in a course the 'bells' the students, mid terms will become the determining factor....n i didn't do well in midterms....haiz...

On a positive note, i am truly grateful for my experience in Accounting Theory. It opens my mind to new ideas, new realities and possibly, new definition of 'true and fair' that accountants hold so dear to. I also realize how inadequate my abilities to read, write, and speak are. If i can't express my thoughts, how will the other party understand what i intend to say.

Thankful to all those people who helped me tremendously this sem, xin hong, chin ta, shakeeb, say wai, wen xiang and many more.... I hope we all do well.

Reading jie chao's post on the futility of exams makes me a little sad. I agree with his general idea that exams tells us little about how a person will perform when given a task. But i think that to a limited sense, it shows the discipline, mental curiosity and work ethics a person has. Furthermore, in the SMU where a subject that can be taught over a year is taught in 14 three hours seminar, to do well, one must learn 'how to learn'. If someone is equipped with the right skills to learn, one can evolve and adapt to the ever changing environment. What we learn in schools have a useful life of probably 4-6 years after graduation anyway. So have the right perspective and attitude towards learning is what i've gained most over the past 3 years.

Time to apply some more financial institutions in hope of getting some internship opportunities next summer. Given the current nationalization of banks, i wonder what the future of the financial market will look like....

To all my friends applying for internships, ALL THE BEST! 

so tired....i am.....rather lost....sleep....

One Day More!

Listened to Les Miserables on my way to school. Sang (hopefully silently) in the MRT and felt better.

I'm really stressed out by this exam, more so than any other terms. It could be a combi of the modules that i'm taking and also that Andrew, Daniel & Damien, whom i've depended so much on for the past few exams are now on exchange. Fortunately those that are still around provides me with sufficient support to survive...

There is a glimmer of hope for AFA, understood some concepts better over the past week. However, speed is still a HUGE problem. Since i don't have the luxury of time during exam, i must level up in terms of speed over the next few days.

Tmrw is my AT exam. I think i got my content knowledge. But how do i present them in a form that show the prof i know my stuff? The following advice is given by Prof JJ "Try to spend a little time reflecting back on what it took to write a good General Paper in A levels....Also, try not to be repetitive in your arguments....Of course style is important so try to write with a dark pen, in a way that I can read, and with good professional quality." GP is my weakest subject in JC and I've not written a single argumentative essay for the past 6 years!!! I can only imagine the pain JJ will be going through trying to decipher my message when he marks my paper.

MS, by Prof Pascale is NOT EASY. Haiz, Andrew said she's fine and that her exams are fine. But now i realised that that's Andrew speaking. Once he understands something, he can execute smoothly. I can't do that. I need to practise. MS as taught by Pascale is so fluid that attempts to spot qn and find model solutions are futile. Totally ignored MPW. Leaving it for the rest of Friday afternnon and Sat moring before sitting for the exam.

One day more to AT. One week more to liberation! Run Freedom Run!!!!

To whoever reading this blog and having exams. ALL THE BEST!






Tomorrow is the judgement day
Tomorrow we'll discover
What our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn
One more day
One day more!

Learning Curve

From MPW...Stages of learning

1. Unconscious Incompetence

2. Conscious Incompetence

3. Conscious Competence

4. Unconscious Competence

My improvements in AFA over the past week;

Unconscious Incompetence --> Conscious Incompetence

Luckily there's such a thing called 'past year paper' and 'exams'. If not i'll probably be at the stage of unconscious incompetence forever.

The current financial tsunami showed the world who has been swimming naked when the tide was high...mmm...the market has a peculiar way of showing off the emperor's new clothes. However, those who can identify accurately their own circle of competence, AND not stray out of it, will probably be constantly in a state of Conscious or Unconscious Competence. Ask the Fried Hokkien Mee uncle if he thinks about what to do after heating the wok he'll probably laugh. Thats Unconscious Competence.

Hopefully within a week i can level up....

Comic Relief

Joel sent me these funny pix...much needed relief form studying...thx!