Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone across the globe.

May you all experience much love, interesting challenges, and happy thoughts in the new year.

Peace, friends :)

Linked thread: What do college coaches do well and not well?

Here was an interesting thread on Letsrun.com started a few days ago:

College athletes past and present, what are some things you think college coaches do right, and what do they do wrong?

Interesting reads (2014)

I think the two best nonfiction books I read this year would be Jack Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds (2009) and David Pilling's Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (2014).

Of Common Sense, it is almost certainly the most thorough investment book I have yet read. Much of it probably went over my head, yet the book itself was full of useful information on the premises of passive investing, drags on investment returns (taxes, expense ratios, etc.), and the many behavioral issues that prevent people from making money in the stock market. 

The book is dense and the style a little dry, but in terms of conveying its arguments and being generally useful I can think of no other book I read this year that exerted as strong an influence as Mr. Bogle's. And through it, I also happened upon Bogleheads forum, which has proven a very interesting and erudite crowd. 

For other reasons, David Pilling's Bending Adversity touched me as few works of nonfiction do.

Among other things, it inspired one of my two failed attempts at writing a novel this year.

Broadly speaking, the book is an examination of contemporary Japanese history through the lens of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and Fukashima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster. It's a work full of fascinating observations and telling imagery, portraying Japan as a country at yet another cross-roads in its history. Hope and resignation are present in almost equal measure throughout, and there is some guarded hope that Japan will emerge in a positive way from its decades-long economic slump, and natural and nuclear disasters. An excellent work all around.

So far as fiction goes, I would say Joann Harris' Gentlemen and Players: A Novel (2006) and Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (2006) were the most interesting stories I read this year. 

I'd heard of neither author before now, but came away from both books satisfied. Gentlemen and Players had a decent story and some greatly-realized characters, and packed a surprise that I never saw coming. 

As for Kafka, I was introduced to it while overseas, and became engrossed almost from the first page. The translation of Mr. Murakami's work is excellent, and is full of beautiful language, interesting characters, and an emotional poignancy that is both stunning and rich. I've since read some other works by Murakami, and am glad to have been introduced to him. 

Some runners-up for this year include Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning (2008), Chris Gullibeau's The $100 Start-up (2012), and Haruki Murakami's After Dark (2008). All were interesting, and left me thoughtful at the end.

I'm looking forward to another year of reading and new discoveries. 

2014 Tosher results are in...

Totals: 

87 Pence   (British)

€2.10         (European)

1kr.            (Danish)

25 Kuruş    (Turkish)

and

$68.96, of which 6 were paper bills. 

For those unaware, this is money that I found while walking around or cycling outside this past year. I used to collect coins from the ground as a kid, and save them in a jar labelled, "College Fund." Now that I'm finished college (and the bill has been paid), I donate whatever I find (excepting the foreign currencies, unless a charity can be found that accepts them). 

As it is, I now refer to the money as the "exercise dividend." It's benefits go beyond the money found along the way, and I would highly recommend some form of daily exercise outside. 

For those interested in the term "tosher," this link will likely prove interesting.

A 2015 prediction

Predictions for 2015 are all over the place these days. This is one from The Economist:

"... In 2015 the unshaven slacker in your basement will at last move out."

That is to say, folks aged 18-31, and like as not, only in America.*

"Parents in Europe may not be so lucky, alas. Nearly half of European 18- to 30-year-olds still live with their parents, thanks to sky-high youth unemployment in some countries. In Italy four-fifths of young adults live at home."

As with all predictions, the phrase to remember is, "We'll see."

The full piece can be read here.

*I should note that all the Europeans I know in this age-group have their own places. 

Essential Blue Mountain: 2014

Part of wrapping up the year on this blog involves looking back to what you and I thought were the most interesting posts of the past twelve months. This year was a little different, in that I started posting more links without commenting on them at length. As it is, the list that follows includes ten "highlight" posts from the past year, which serve as this year's "Essential Blue Mountain." 

Enjoy, and I hope you had an excellent year.

"The Way of Walking Alone" 独行道

You are Enough

A Word From Asimov on Creativity

Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

Keep an open mind

"The Art of Learning" (a brief review)

A bright side to poor market timing

When feeling down

"The superiority of anthropologists"

Advice from a Stranger

Common core update

Regarding the Common Core, David L. Kirp writes:

"Many teachers like the standards, because they invite creativity in the classroom — instead of memorization, the Common Core emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving. But they complain that test prep and test-taking eat away weeks of class time that would be better focused on learning.

A Gallup poll found that while 76 percent of teachers favored nationwide academic standards for reading, writing and math, only 27 percent supported using tests to gauge students’ performance, and 9 percent favored making test scores a basis for evaluating teachers."

It would appear then that the "rage against the Common Core" is not so much a rage against nation-wide standards, as it is an opposition to the extensive testing--and all the consequences that come with it (e.g. incentives to teach to exams, teacher evaluation, significant consequences for students, etc.)--that has accompanied its implementation.