Library: Exercise: Einstein vs. Edison

Library: Exercise: Einstein vs. Edison [∞]

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1. Read the article Would You Pass Thomas Edison’s Employment Test?

1.1.Vote <1 : Do you retain all facts you have ever learned?

1.2. Discuss <5 : How would you know if you have forgotten something?

1.3. Research ? : What is the difference between reasoning and intelligence?

1.4. Analyze categorize : Identify questions on the test as requiring knowledge, reasoning, or intelligence.

1.5.Vote  : Is the Edison test worth attempting to pass vs. Is it a waste of time?

1.6. Discuss ? :

1.7. Analyze evaluate : Are there things on the test the are worth memorizing? If so, add them to your I want to memorize diary .

1.8. Analyze evaluate : Are there things on the test that make you curious? Add then to your I-want-to-research-sometime diary .

This is probably enough for one day

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2. Read the National Park Service review of Edison.

2.1. Discuss  : There are two sides to the 'Edison story'. What motivation did the ones telling the story have?

2.2. Analyze evaluate : Would you prefer that your life be reviewed by the press or the park service? Which has the larger audience? Which is more fair/forgiving?

2.3. Analyze evaluate : Compare the quotes on doing good selflessly with the attitudes of Edison. Is a legacy still a legacy if no one knows about it?

2.4. Edison said of his employees: "not the money they want, but the chance for their ambition to work."

2.4.1. Discuss  : Is it fair that the more you like your job, the less you should get paid?

2.4.2. Discuss  : Is that Edison's trade off with his employees?

2.4.3. Discuss  : What else did Edison offer employees besides a job they liked?

2.4.4. Analyze evaluate : Is there a skill or ability that you would like to learn and would take a lower pay, just to learn it?

2.4.5. Analyze evaluate : Is there a company you would work for at a lower rate, just to be able to say you worked there?

2.5. Skim  : "Albert Einstein – was he a thief, a liar and a plagiarist?"

2.5.1. Discuss  : Prior art

2.5.2. Discuss  : Was Einstein an inventor or theorist?

2.5.3. Discuss  : Do ideas deserve the same protection as invention?

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3. Einstein and Edison were geniuses who saw things differently and did things differently; or were they?

3.1. Research 15 : What products did each produce. These articles may or may not give sufficient information.

3.1.1. Thomas Edison article and vids

3.1.2. Albert Einstein article and vids

3.2. Research 10 : How many people did each employ?

3.3. Analyze evaluate : How did each change the world?

3.4. Discuss  : Which model do you prefer?

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You have examined concepts of intelligence, reasoning, and learning. No doubt we all use all three. We usually use them naturally. The purpose of these exercises was to help you explore when to intentionally memorize, or to access another resource.

4.1. Discuss  : Give an example of a subject where you remember many facts about it. This is sometimes called 'domain knowledge' in industry. A welder is expected to know inspection methods, plan reading, safety procedures. These are not things you want your welder to have to look up. However, he might look up material properties, and specifications.

4.2. Discuss  : Name one career you might be interested in.

You likely have not chosen a career. For the sake of discussion, name one of interest to you, and the kinds of things you would want to memorize and those things that are available in other resources.

4.3. Discuss  : How do you decide when to memorize, or when to use books?

4.4. Before calculators were invented, engineers used to memorize pi to 8 or 16 digits (3.1415926535897932). They did this just because they used it often. Other resources now extend our memory.

4.4.1. Research  : Other memory extenders.

4.4.2. Analyze categorize : Categorize your list by the kind of information and how it is accessed.

4.5. Display - {{{2}}}: What have you learned about memory extensions.

References

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