Final Reflections: Eli Hainsworth

My self-directed learning

The beginning of the course was a strong push into individual research. One of my largest problems was a busy work schedule, which kept me from having time to do heavy reading. This drove me to use the resources around me. One of these was a trip to the MOA, which gave me an opportunity to view are in a different way than I normally would: Instead of viewing the piece as an isolated event, I could see the emotions, fears, and hopes of the time period. In addition, I took up watching/listening to documentaries, since they provided an interesting resource that could easily be explored while engaged in other works or chores. A documentary on Prohibition, for example, changed not only how I thought of the time leading up to the 20s, but also about legalizing morality today.

My evolving project

My project was originally based around statistics, and in a way it still is. However, my problem was that my data could support two conclusions: either that we need to change information output or we need to educate those with access to data. A comment made by Katherine Baird on an early post indicted that I needed to flesh this issue out more clearly. Jordan's thesis, which touched on a similar issue, helped me point my views toward the latter conclusion.

I also got to witness, to my great pleasure, some of my ideas helping shape the posts of others. On one of Michael's early drafts, I mentioned an example that I thought may lend a nice light to his project, and also made some suggestions on how to present this information. to my delight, both appeared in the final version of his project. An environment of peer review is a powerful editing tool. 

Communication and History

Communication is more than just a facet of history. It is also the lens through which history is viewed. "History is written by the winners" is a common saying, but it is also rewritten by the current top dogs. I had a friend who took a class in history while he lived in the United Kingdom. When they got to the time of the Revolutionary War, he was expecting the same grand treatment we give it. Instead the teacher said "well, that's when we lost the colonies" and then he moved on. 

99.99% of history will lay forgotten one day. Although we may know the names of a few kings and laws, it's much harder to capture the feeling of an era. While it's easy to remember the the principles of learning that the Greeks created, it's even easier to forget the thousands of principals who oversaw such learning. Any high schooler can remember Hitler's name, although they probably cannot name the ruler of any country that he conquered.

The effects of such a limited view are startling. The purpose of history is to learn the patterns, and then apply them. However, our current view is like a list of all hills on earth that only includes Mounts Everest and Fiji. The wide canvas of history contains many strokes, but each is drawn in a thick red crayon. the finer details do not survive, so we build judgments based on an incomplete data set. This makes our "informed" decisions much more radical. It gives us presidential candidates who are straight out of a comic book. 

Although history is powerful, what is said--and what is not-- is much more so. History's most human stories remain untold because mankind is more interested with superlatives than with averages.

Literacy: Timeless Skill, Contemporary Skillset

Our world is as fluid as an airplane beverage during turbulence. Due to the ever-shifting nature of communication, it is essential to develop methods of sifting through, confirming, and effectively using the massive amount of data available to us. Since all communication-related problems cannot be discussed in such a short video, we have prepared a presentation to introduce our arguments in more detail. Our hope is that this project may be used as your own springboard for thinking about the world around you.

• Eli discusses the consequences of falling victim to confirmation bias
• Jason introduces dialectical thinking as a way to open new doors to information
• Sarah applies communicative reasoning to our educational institution
• Jordan provides new tools and suggestions for how to sort and filter through information

The Claw of Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is a serious problem. Despite the wealth of information available to us, it is possible that this overflow of information can lead to cherry-picking, causing us to focus on smaller, opinionized "snapshots" instead of the larger picture. Repeated conditioning can lead to this effect.

Some Bias-inducing methods

What does confirmation bias look like? Some examples from the lives of another may help us find it in ourselves. As such, I have been keeping track of some situations that can easily lead to one-sided opinions. With this being an election year, it hasn't been terribly difficult.

• A simple technique is to state an unfounded or untrue statement as a question. Newspapers and online articles are notorious for this. Is Donald Trump the next Hitler? What does your doctor really know about alternative medicine? 

Most people aren't like this.

• Representing the opinion of a few as the outrage of many. In my church, we have a tradition of showing support for our leaders with a semi-annual sustaining, similar to a vote. Although it is usually unanimous (people tend to not join churches that they don't agree with), we recently had a conference where about five people loudly voiced their opposition. Although the difference between 100% and 99.99% is remarkably small, this very noisy, very small minority is often mistaken as a much larger force.

• Selective presentation of information. The more overweight someone is, the less likely they're going to show off a full-body photograph.

• Mixing opinions in with fact. This tends to happen most often in arguments about religion and politics. 

• Idea Association If someone can link the entire southern United States to the idea of inbreeding, racism, and dull-wittedness, they've destroyed the ethos of multiple States in one fell swoop.

The Pond of Prejudice

Salty water, like strong opinions,
 should not be thrown in the faces of others

Our minds act as lakes, with rivers constantly pouring ideas into a repository.
When these streams are diverse and clean, they can fill our minds with a refreshing environment that allows facts to swim freely. When our sources are unclean or overly salty, only the most basic of facts and commonplaces can live on.


I recently read of an interesting study that illustrated this effect perfectly. A recently published book cites a study where participants were shown a picture of a white man and a black man. The white man was holding a knife in the picture, while the black man was unarmed. The study showed that a startlingly high number of test subjects--both black and white-- remembered the black man holding the knife in the picture. Although I disagree with the conclusions the author reached about how much action we should take concerning such issues, I do feel that we need to be aware of our biases before we use them.

This picture left intentionally vague

A slightly less recent example also makes this point clear. Although the link between autism and vaccines has clearly been proved false, there are still influential people who hold to such views. Some of them, like Robert de Niro hold to their old ways because the issue is steeped in emotion. Others do so because they hold others (Mommy bloggers, their yoga teachers) in higher respect than they do scientists.

Overcoming Old Ways of Thinking

The question on how to confront confirmation bias is one we must answer. Should we eliminate bias? Unfortunately, such a thing is impossible. However, we can close some saltwater streams and open our brain to fresh waters. Some ways we might do this:

• Build a diverse group of friends. In high school, joining the debate team was one of the best choices I have ever made. The mix of strong friendships and strong opinions led to intelligent discussions and rounded minds.
• Recognize demographics. It seems that Bernie Sanders' support is either the next Messiah or simply a radical candidate, depending on who you ask. Similarly, the recently released Batman vs Superman is either a rotten flop or an above average film. We need to recognize who gives us our opinion before digesting it.
• Beware sensationalism. Buzzfeed and similar sites have shifted our focus from facts to emotion. Colbert and Stewart, although reporting news, have a greater focus on eliciting laughs than anything else.

Although bias is deeply ingrained, once we recognize it, we can control it. In an age where Google can bring the answers we want straight to us, perhaps we should start looking for the answers we need instead.

Catching Confirmation Bias

As described in the above video, confirmation bias is a serious problem. Despite the wealth of information available to us, it is possible that this overflow of information can lead to cherry-picking, causing us to focus on smaller, opinionized "snapshots" instead of the larger picture. Repeated conditioning can lead to this effect.

The Pond of Prejudice

Salty water, like strong opinions,
 should not be thrown in the faces of others

Our minds act as lakes, with rivers constantly pouring ideas into a repository.

Building Literacy in a New Age: Skills and Suggestions

There is an enormous amount of information available today, with a nearly unfathomable additions every day. It is impossible for an individual to sift through this information, causing us to rely on synthesized data from other sources. Taking information in second-hand, however, leads to problems, and to be able to use and understand information (to be literate) in such an environment, we need some tools. For a brief overview of this information, pursue this visual summary:

A quick video introducing everything is also below.

For more details, read on.

Hot Dogs or Hot Topics: Which Wins Votes?

Last Saturday, I was feeling a little peckish, so I went down to J-Dawgs, the locally famous hot dog joint. Since the restaurant is fairly small and local, I didn't think I'd run into anyone I knew there. I certainly didn't think I'd run into Ted Cruz.

Yeah. This one.

To my chagrin, I was about two spaces back in line, watching a presidential candidate order a hot dog.

I was witnessing a fairly common campaign strategy. The presidential hopeful, dressed in an unassuming plaid shirt and slacks, trying the local specialty. Bonus points if the food is something as common as a hot dog. Ted Cruz was doing his best to appear as the common man.

The best part was that the tactic was unashamedly obvious. In fact,  as he was leaving the building, I heard his speech-writer say these exact words to him, "Remember, you love the Mormons, you love the people of Utah, it's a beautiful state with a rich heritage."

The problem is that it worked.

I knew full well that the "common man" act was just that: an act. I knew that the news van parked outside was not there by accident, and that he would have never stopped in the restaurant without an adviser's tip-off. Despite all this, I still felt a commonality with the candidate. We were held together with the strong bond that only fast food can provide. The reason candidates keep using these tricks is because they work. When we see them in such situations, we ignore the fact that the whole thing is staged, because our emotions kick in. We'd rather believe their appearance than the fact.

I know next to nothing about Cruz's policies, to be honest. I don't know if he's an honest guy. I'm not sure of his ethics. But I know that one time, he bought a hot dog at the same restaurant I was in. And sometimes that's enough to win a vote.

Building New Literacy in a new way: proposed videoscript

We have previously posted the brief summary of our group project on 21st Century Literacy. We actually condensed a larger script down, and felt that we should post the full script below, with some extra visuals. Enjoy! 

Building New Literacy in a New Age: Proposed Format

In periods of transition, many people naturally try to solve new problems in old ways.

They usually fail.

Literacy, in its traditional sense, is viewed as an important indicator of how well someone can function in society. Likewise, in the Age of Information, new literacy skills need to be developed. 

In our section of a larger class project, not only do we wish to show the need for these skills, but we also want to further develop them in ourselves. Multi-media platforms are an excellent way to spread information.

Consider the above video from YouTube channel SciShow.  

Project Log: Eli Hainsworth

Personal Project Posts:

• Are we Being Blinded by Bias? 3/2/2016

My first article where I lay out the dangerous effects of faulty or incomplete examples. I focus more on evidence than on proposing a solution. This led to the second post which had more to do with the root cause and possible solutions.

• The Power of a Poor Point of View 3/8/2016

An article refining my point about the power of obscured or over-hyped opinions, with more of a focus on the instigators. I'm currently trying to decide whether to focus on the ideas and people who cause this event, or on how to improve our own thinking to avoid such mental traps. 

For the Greater Good:

• Exploring Form 3/6/16

This was a write-up on the forms of communication used in a documentary, and how they may be used to make our presentation interesting. Having looked at form, I think now I should lean toward research and furthering ideas instead.

• Building New Literacy in a New Age: Proposed Format 3/20/16

A script and proposed format for our video. We've done a good job of consolidating the arguments and forming a coherent thesis (The entire script is written). Now the biggest remaining need is to prepare the technical side of the video and to begin filming. 

The Power of a Poor Point of View

The mind creates conclusions based on evidence that isn't there.

As a statistics major, the way people react to data fascinates me. In fact, the control of data is a powerful way to control opinion. When I spent a few weeks in China a few summers ago, I noticed that our tour guide would talk about recent Chinese history much more openly than I thought she might. I noticed that although she would freely admit that the world thought of Mao Zedong as

Exploring Form

In addition to the materials I was assigned, I had the idea of form on the back of my mind while going about my independent activities this weekend. While watching a documentary about the supercomputer Watson, which gained fame after beating the leading champions on "Jeopardy!", I noticed several things that made it a strong audiovisual performance.

The first was its accessibility to outsiders. The video, although about a highly scientific topic, explained it on a basic enough level where I did not need a vast background on the fields of robotics or computer science to understand. At the same time, when they discussed the statistical method behind the programming, I felt that despite my knowledge in that area, I was still presented with interesting information that increased my understanding of a field I thought I understood.

The other technique that stood out was picking the most interesting or memorable examples. Watching a supercomputer get an obvious answer wrong is already a great comedy setup, so the documentary had plenty of great fodder. However, the documentary did a great job of organizing it in a way where the humor or impact of a visual drove me back into caring about the program.

In my own project, I feel like I need to do a greater job at holding interest. Although what I'm discussing (ignoring info based on our biases) is certainly an interesting topic, I feel having a more striking example could prove useful.

Source video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAzeGkuQmUU

Are We Being Blinded by Bias?

My name is Eli Hainsworth, and about a week ago, I found myself doing something I never thought that I would do. I found myself defending 20% of Trump Supporters:

That headline is the mother lode for any person looking for the final nail in their "Trumps supporters are all racist" narrative. It was a statistic that was too good to be true.