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Whimsy and personality
Feb. 19th, 2014 10:47 pmAlthough I graduated a year and a half ago, I still attend G’s lab group when it’s at a convenient time, and today he had a guest visitor, Lew Goldberg, who’s famous for his work on the “Five Factor Model” of personality. I have to say, the eccentricity of our group (and G. himself) makes me happy.
First, G. invited the students to ask Lew any questions they might have for him, and Job led off by inquiring when he had started to shave his head. (Answer: possibly before 1960).
Later, in his PowerPoint on what he liked and disliked in an article under discussion, G. had labelled his likes as, “Ra Ra Ra,” and then illustrated with a picture of Ra, and then discussion went off onto a tangent of what is it that Ra has over his falcon-head. A sliced-through watermelon? A pancake? I assumed it was the sun but didn’t know why it would have a protruding snake-head. (Wikipedia agrees with me and doesn’t explain the snake.)
Then, later, when G. had categories with “stability” and “plasticity” as separate concepts rather than opposites (“orthogonal,” in stats terms), and Lew questioned it, G. responded with a rather grand (and facetious) explanation about how Gumby is both stable and plastic, whereas bread crumbs are plastic but unstable. Mm hmm.
Ah, here we go, here’s Lew’s article: “How To Win a Career Achievement Award in Five Easy Lessons. On the bottom of page 513 you can see G. and Lew “jamming” with fireplace implements. I guess the head-shaving does come up, in the fifth lesson.
First, G. invited the students to ask Lew any questions they might have for him, and Job led off by inquiring when he had started to shave his head. (Answer: possibly before 1960).
Later, in his PowerPoint on what he liked and disliked in an article under discussion, G. had labelled his likes as, “Ra Ra Ra,” and then illustrated with a picture of Ra, and then discussion went off onto a tangent of what is it that Ra has over his falcon-head. A sliced-through watermelon? A pancake? I assumed it was the sun but didn’t know why it would have a protruding snake-head. (Wikipedia agrees with me and doesn’t explain the snake.)
Then, later, when G. had categories with “stability” and “plasticity” as separate concepts rather than opposites (“orthogonal,” in stats terms), and Lew questioned it, G. responded with a rather grand (and facetious) explanation about how Gumby is both stable and plastic, whereas bread crumbs are plastic but unstable. Mm hmm.
Ah, here we go, here’s Lew’s article: “How To Win a Career Achievement Award in Five Easy Lessons. On the bottom of page 513 you can see G. and Lew “jamming” with fireplace implements. I guess the head-shaving does come up, in the fifth lesson.