There is nothing wrong with being wrong

Salam a Dobry Den

Today i would like to talk about the importance of being WRONG. Yes that’s right it’s as important to be wrong as it is to be right.

From my experience with my Malaysian colleagues(not to offend anybody unless of course it is true for them), i noticed that we always have the knack to get things right. Yes that’s actually a good habit, but it can be dangerous. Sometimes i could see students always trying to get things right. And sometimes they try too much that it could actually affect how they study. I don’t blame them as we were taught that way. The education system does not permit for any errors. But let’s try think back to our high school years. I bet we’ve forgotten most of the things we studied but we usually have a stronger memory of what we got wrong.

Edited : Oh yeah, i would also like to add something that i just thought about. You see, we’re sometimes too obsessed about being right that it could lead to  the lack of confidence. I often hear soft voice to answer questions asked by the lecturers. And sometimes this lack of confidence could lead us from the right answer to the wrong one. All because we are afraid to be wrong.

Here i would like to share a research done on how we study. It is an American based research, but i believe it applies to all of us.

“People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.”

by Scientific American

I personally try to guess my way out of questions, and i really don’t mind being wrong. Though that doesn’t mean i like being wrong. I love being right, but i know that i can’t be right all the time.Being wrong however makes me remember things better so that i can always be right if someone were to ask me a similar question.

So yeah, i would again stress the importance of being wrong occasionally, not all the time especially during our student years. We are currently living as students in a controlled environment, it is OK to make mistakes, to be WRONG and remember those mistakes so that we don’t repeat it. But once we face reality, there is no room for mistakes especially for doctors whose decision might affect something as big as the matter of life and death.

E-mail vs Social Networking & IM

This post was inspired by a post i read in a friend’s blog yesterday.

    E-mail, has revolutionized the way we communicate. When it was first introduced around 1970s, people were going crazy on the possibilities that could be made possible by email. Imagine saving papers and ink, and delivery time. It gave a big impact to those who live in those era.

    However, in the 21st century world we’re actually living in, a group of websites connecting friends and family are merging and they are called Social Networks. Examples of these networks are :

                       

     Facebook         Twitter       Google Wave

    Here we could also include Instant Messengers(IM) such as MSN messenger and Yahoo Messenger as a social network, though without having to log in any specific site, but well they still socially network you.

    These networks, they further revolutionize the way we communicate. Email takes minutes sometimes hours to be sent. These networks however takes only seconds.

I would also like to quote the article here

“We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone”

    Now this quote is only true for those who are truly internet savvy. However, even in today’s world people are connected to the internet more frequently and longer than they used to. Some might stay online for even 24 hours straight. With the increasing sales of laptop , it shows that the crowd craves for mobility for 1 thing, but on the other hand it also somehow increases their online time, because they now have a mobile device which can easily access internet provided that there is wifi.

    Social networks also has an advantage to email, is that it is fun. I mean, people usually use email for official purposes, and we all know that SPAM is NOT FUN.

    Social networks are more user friendly with nicer GUI(graphics user interface) and it’s more for casual use. However, it is also being used as a platform for any official announcements.

    Also some might argue, that email can send attachments. But with IM’s those files can easily be sent. And even with the new Google Wave, sending files would be just a drag and drop. In other words, social networks is in many ways better than email.

    So what does this mean for E-mail? Well it’s far from dead, true, the usage is declining but only to a certain level. Because people still need to email for business, or when they can only access internet for a short time. Like what gizmodo imagined here.

“We all still use the fax machine.”

   And even letters, (like that really old traditional way of communication of which our future kids might not even have to use) has not gone dead. So we can expect email follow in it’s footsteps.

And besides people still need an email account before they can sign up for these social networks. You know, for the notifications and verification and stuff.  =P

To put it simply :

Our grandparents used Letters.

Our parents used E-Mail.

And we are using Social Networks

And our future kids will use telepathy something else.

So please don’t blame the young ones for not paying attention to their email inbox. Just tweet your announcements or poke them in facebook and you’ll be sure to get their attention and your message across. =)

Paths

I like this picture very2 much.

Yet another year

    A new academic year has begun and along with it more trials and tribulations. So i will once again be in the mood to post in my blog again!

Woooo

It’s been 1 month and 3 days and i’ve finally completed my exams. Here i’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to those who have helped me in any way.

And of coz none other deserves my gratitude more than Allah SWT. For without Him, I wouldn’t be able to pull this off. So lets say :

Thank You Allah & Alhamdulillah =>

Hibernating

I'm gonna stop blogging during my exam month.. Can't afford to waste my time..

I'll start blogging again in july.. see you guys again..

Orchestra

I love orchestrated songs. Especially from those games and movies.

Anyway here is one worth listening to

Please if you guys have any orchestrated songs worth listening which you think would be my taste besides those typical LOTR, please do inform me at the comment section =>

Transforminator

Watch this, it’s funny. =>

Windows 7 64-Bit RC

Yes, I've managed to install my windows 7 64-bit RC and finally got it working. I’m currently triple booting my computer with

1. Windows 7 64-bit RC
2. Windows 7 32-bit RC (goodbye vista)
3. Ubuntu

Guess when I have 3 OS(operating system) on my computer I am considered a computer geek.+1 bonus for a linux based OS. Nevertheless I'm proud of being who i am.

Initially i kept on getting bluescreen error, then i found out that the problem was with my networking settings. I had to manually enter my wireless settings in order for it to work. Now it’s just smooth sailing. Hrmm i wonder if i should inform Microsoft about this?

Anyways Windows 7 64-bit RC is AMAZING. It’s snappier than Vista(obviously….) but, it seems to be running better than my Windows 7 32-bit edition. Maybe it’s because of the 4gb RAM i have. 32-bit can never utilise that much RAM. So yeah I'm happy. It fixes some bugs, those tiny things that isn’t really that significant, but yet it annoys you. I can now minimize Yahoo Messenger without having it disable my Aero theme. =>

Aero Peek is a very2 nice added feature too. I really love the new taskbar. It’ so productive. Here’s a screenshot :

I also like the new device window and management, it managed to install everything on first log on, except my wifi driver:

It’s supposed to have better networking capability. But I haven’t tried it yet. Maybe some time after my exams.

Oh yes, I can run Windows Live Writer again on this 64-bit Windows 7. Hope it continues to work. Best of all, it’s free until 1st June 2010. But probably only until 1st of March it will start shutting down every 2 hours or something. Well at I still have at least around 10 months of free OS. =>

Errr… WAKE UP.. okay2, i won’t blog about tech stuff anymore. I have more casual readers than tech geeks. Haihz.

Praha

I'm in Prague again and I'm extremely bored. I'm sitting on a bench typing this blog. And I'm stealing starbucks Internet to post it online. Haha. Good thing it's not protected.

Anyway here is some picture of the inside of Paladium.

Courtesy of :

-- Post From My iPhone