September | 2021 | oliviatamccue

Book Reviews – how we think, how we learn

by ccue

The abundance of great books has been a source of happiness. In this last mile of the career, I am more interested in education, learning and development. As such it is a treat to read these great books on how we think, how we learn, how our brain remembers and forgets. I have also enjoyed reading the Cheery Friday emails of Dr. Barbara Oakley since attending her classes “Learning how to learn”, “Uncommon Sense Teaching” on coursera.org.

How we think

There may be no more critical time, than now, to educate the students how to think, how to differentiate the good and the bad from one’s own thinking and others’ thinking, how to cultivate the students with a system to think, to analyze and to differentiate so as to make rational choices and not become victim of fake news, polarized views and biases. “How we think” is a must-read for those who have a say in the education system. Published in 1910, it is among the most profound books about what “thoughts” are, how we think throughout our life, and the role of education in shaping how we think. It gives a rational discourse of the hits and misses of the education approaches. Over a hundred years after the publication, there is still so much work to be done to better our education approaches.

One round of readings is hardly enough to grasp all the essences. As a caution, this book is very dense and it has taken me a long time to finish the first round.

How we learn : Why Brains learn better than any machine for now

Published in 2020, over 100 years after the book “How we think”, the author started with the seven definitions of learning; and how human learning is still far superior than machine learning.

Human beings are born with a comprehensive start-up kit to support each baby to thrive in all kinds of environments, learn all kinds of languages; our nurture helps to select the right configuration to optimize at different stages of learning. There are optimal times to learn different matters and it is encouraging that we continue to learn throughout our lifetime. To learn well, we need to pay attention, engage actively, learn from errors and consolidate what we learn.

f you’re into learning and education, and want something more than a casual read, this is a good book to read.

Forgetting – The benefits of not remembering

Many have lamented about forgetting about things, and wish for a better memory. Dr. Small shared his patient stories and used them as references to give a discourse of the latest understanding of how the brain works, from the metaphor of hippocampus as the teacher, prefrontal cortex as the library, amygdala as our emotional center, to our working memory, long term memory.

If you are interested in a slightly deeper understanding of neuroscience or intrigued about the brain function in normal aging versus Alzheimer, the book is for you. Or if you want to be convinced that a bad memory may actually be a blessing in disguise, you would enjoy the read.

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Pismo Beach – Staycation along Pacific Ocean

by ccue

With all the travel restrictions, we watched YouTube videos about staycation. We developed a staycation itch, and we did just that during the labor day weekend.

Californians are blessed with the scenic Pacific coastline, which is within driving distances from the Bay Area. The wildfire situation has complicated outdoor activities. A few weeks ago, we cancelled a fishing class in Oakland due to the air quality becoming unhealthy to sensitive groups. Over the Labor day weekend, the weather and the air quality at airnow.gov were reasonably good. We chose Pismo Beach among a few other choices of staycation off the Pacific Ocean coastline.

We left home on Monday morning, and arrived at San Luis Obispo for lunch at Bon Temps Creole Cafe. We ordered Po-Boy and Muffalettas; the sandwich portions were good, the outdoor seating was comfortable, and most outdoor tables were occupied. After lunch, we swung by CalPoly. CalPoly has this “learning by doing” approach. It has developed a good reputation of churning out good computer science students to meet the insatiable job demands of many Bay Area companies. As much as I have heard good things and have positive working experiences with the graduates, the same cannot be said about its campus which is unimpressive, and disappointing.

Pismo beach is about a 10 minutes drive from San Luis Obispo. The Inn at the Cove offers good rates during the weekdays, has spacious rooms with clean hardwood floor and a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the balcony, we enjoyed the peaceful ocean view, interleaved with an almost non-stop gliding of seagulls and pelicans; and hundreds of birds resting on a few big rocks off the Pacific Ocean. The rocks are far enough, so the brown pelicans show up as many black spots on the rocks. Bird lovers should bring their binoculars to observe them. The outdoor swimming pool is right downstairs. We had the swimming pool just for ourselves for a while and it felt great. The pool was small but still good enough to get some exercise. We felt refreshed and took our time on the pool chaise doing nothing but reading some books.

Pismo Beach Pier Plaza (downtown) is less than 2 miles away. The downtown is lined with restaurants and shops. There are a continuous rows of hotels, inns and cottages overlooking the Pismo Beach. It is very lively and quite touristy. The beach is long and scenic. The intermittent ocean waves add to its charm. Even in this pandemic time, there were a good number of people on the beaches enjoying themselves. The family, the couple, the groups looked happy and relaxed. We went to the pier area to watch the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Many seagulls and pelicans flew “in front of” the sun, but we were not able to freeze the scene with our camera. Pismo Beach seems a good place for beginner surfers, and there were a few of them on their surfboard waiting for the right waves to come. It was a nice walk to the end of the pier, which left us ready for dinner. We had a good dinner deal at a BBQ place afterwards.

Our hotel rates include breakfast in the morning. The breakfast is nothing extraordinary, but has a good variety and everything one would expect for breakfast. It gave us a good level of energy to stroll along the Pacific coastline, visiting Shell Beach, Dinosaur Caves Park and Pismo Beach. We saw more pelicans, there were so many of them that it actually smelled when we got too close to those rocks.

Watching the few travellers strolling on the soft sand along the beach, hearing the ocean waves, and appreciating the clams, oysters, mussels that get washed ashore, Pismo Beach is a beautiful place to be. We make a mental note that if we return for another staycation, we will pick a place with a balcony facing the ocean, and we can easily walk to the beach.

We took another dip at the hotel swimming pool before checking out. We stopped by at San Luis Obispo one more time and had lunch at Novo on Higuera Street, the busiest street in the town. The chicken satay and the wrap were pretty good; what we enjoyed the most was the spicy margarita with jalapeno and pear; we will be ready to return just for the drink. The waitress was very friendly and recommended us to visit the nearby Morro rock, formed 23 million years ago. Morro rock is quiet with fewer people, but does not leave a strong impression.