Return to Life

Tomorrow I return back to work after nearly two weeks off. Feels so strange to be away from the class while they have all been there doing cute things and getting the wrong answers. It will be great to see them all and at least getting very fresh blog material.

I am unsure of how I will cope with waking up at 5:50 am again, as I have been currently rolling out of bed around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I've planned a 9:30 bedtime in preparation though - hopefully the sleep schedule isn't too far gone that it's not possible.

Today I started reading a book called, You Are Not So Smart. The level of metacognition necessary for this book is exhausting. I am spiralling downward as I try to think about the process of my thinking. It is basically a revisit to my university degree but summed up with fresh case studies and factoids. No matter how much of an intellect I pride myself in being (big time), I still believe in magic. I also define magic to include, anomalies and random chance. My whole life I would draw conclusions or make connections from coincidences much to my stepfather's shame. "No Katie, just because you saw a moth on the wall after watching Mothman Prophecies, it does not mean the universe is calling to you." How exciting if the universe is connected! What if there is all a deeper meaning or purpose to everything? What if that coin I dropped on the sidewalk yesterday was picked up by a small child just as a bird swooped down to avoid a telephone line, and therefore prevented the baby from getting knocked into the road? Then that baby grows up to resolve the next world conflict. Boom.

This book I'm reading points out all our fallacies in the hopes of correcting them with proof. The chapter I am on is called The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy and it hopes to correct the idea that we THINK we take into account random chance when determining cause and effect, when really we get caught up in it and believe it to be magical or mystic. The first case in point is the "connection" between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy's assassinations. The entire point is to show how two random events can look closely related and connected by a higher meaning, when really it is just a pure coincidence. The moment I read the page, I Snapchatted it to all my friends without providing context. I don't care how much "logic" you throw at me, it's magic. I've included the page here for you so you can get caught up in the hysteria as well. Knowledge be damned, magic is fun.