Cognitive Fluency

At first, I wasn't sure what to think of the article "Easy = True" from author Drake Bennett of Boston.com. I personally think it's a bit of a stretch to try to associate how easy to understand a company's name is and how well it performs on Wall Street.

Perhaps that correlation doesn't necessarily mean anything, but by the end of the article it's hard not to be intrigued by some of the other implications brought up by Bennett. Specifically, I think the topic of fonts was very interesting. For me, it's definitely true that simple, clear font results in a more trusting response. Right away I think of the case of borrowing notes from a missed lecture from a friend. If their handwriting is sloppy and illegible, I probably have to pause often and the reading of the notes isn't smooth. In these instances, I find myself not even trusting that they took good notes in class.

On the other hand, if the notes are very neatly written or even typed, it becomes a lot easier to read. I'll transfer the notes to my notebook with confidence that the person was paying attention and is a good note taker. A situation like this is why the results of the font study listed in the article aren't surprising at all.

Another thing that interested me was the idea of "disfluency". As I just pointed out, I really believe that simple and legible fonts result in trustworthiness from the reader. It's no wonder that advertisements and politicians alike therefore use simple fonts and simple language when writing their slogans and ads.

I think in the right situation, however, disfluency can definitely be used in an effective way. Some high end and elegant products have sophisticated fonts on their advertisements. They'll use cursive fonts and fonts not easily read on a poster or billboard. The reason I think this works is because the advertisers don't necessarily want the ad to be simple and clear to the average. If they're selling an elegant product, they probably want the consumer to feel elegant while reading their ads. The consumers who are uninterested in the ad and think it's unappealing because of it's nicer and complicated font probably aren't a problem to the company. It's the feeling of being special and superiority for the people who do like their ads and buy their products that the company is trying to get. So as Bennett suggests, disfluency can work in some circumstances.

Overall, the article had a lot of cool points that I think a lot of us will realize are true in real life. I was personally drawn to the issue of font and trust, but there's certainly a lot more of the article that interested me.

Pairs Skating

With her heart pounding and blood rushing, the crowd cheering and speakers blaring, their coach nodding and fans watching, she took the ice with her hand grasping her partner’s, imagining the worst, hoping for the best, and knowing that everything was riding on this one moment, this one 3 minute moment, which would forever define her as a winner or a loser, competent or inadequate, successful or regrettable, famous or anonymous, and all she could think was, “He’d better not mess this up.”

Spring

Springtime again, the season of youth and rebirth seen in the young animals playing for the first time under the watchful eye of their mothers who have nurtured them through the dark cold of winter which the brilliantly shining sun has so valiantly defeated, bringing growth, happiness, and warmth to all things and only pausing to allow the gentle rain to nourish the earth which soaks up the life-giving water with vigor as a camel who, after long treks through the harsh desert, has come upon an unexpected and much needed oasis, the water sinking into the ground only to be soaked up just as quickly by the budding bushes and trees, making new leaves and flowers, between which the beautiful songbirds are perched, watching and waiting for morsels to bring back to their ravenous chicks who cheep endlessly, seeming never to be satisfied by the meager offerings of their parents; they must be ever watchful for the prowling cats who also have hungry mouths to feed, though the kittens seem more patient than their avian counterparts, and yet are not wholly content as they trot about in the shaded, wet grass under the porch where they came into the world not long ago, practicing their stalking and their pounces so they will one day be able to care for young of their own, continuing the cycle of life that begins for so many in this wonderful season.

Sentence

The one country that should do something is Germany, the engine of European economy, the strongest advocate for of closer European economic and political integration and its commercial policies increasingly determined by agreements among European Union members and EU single market legislation, the one that should bail out Greece out of its financial crisis.

Sentence

Jack thought of Locke as an intriguing man, physically handicapped but mentally capable, really old in age but truly reborn, deviating from society while always desiring structure and conformance, immeasurably wise but undoubtedly naive, violent and dangerous yet soft and gentle, constantly angry but always kind, immoral in his supposed righteous ideas, vitally important, inescapably meaningful, and truly miraculous, but insignificant, foolish, and pathetic at the same time.

All things at first appear difficult

This is a really old and common Chinese saying that you will still hear pretty often nowadays. It means that when people start to do something challenging, it is hardest to start to do it. I think this would be deductive reasoning since it is talking about a common rule for all things. It is not necessarily means that things actually get easier as things go along, but rather, having the courage to start something challenging is hard to do. Once a person gets on a routine of doing this hard task everyday, it becomes not as intimidating as it seems like in the beginning.
Therefore, the difficulty here means fear for challenge.

This saying in China right now can sound a little cliché simply it has become too common. Most of the time, people hardly put thoughts into it because it sounds like something we have already known forever. However, it is still very true and effective in my opinion. When people go through hardships or facing a challenge, they tend to truly relate with this. It still has the effect of motivating people. People use it for blog titles or day-to-day speech. It especially applies to things like entrepreneurship.

This proverb in Chinese language originally directly translates to " Ten thousand things start difficultly." Chines language articulate the connotation behind language and people are not use to write things out most explicitly. Also, the language tends to use many metaphors and other forms of rhetorics. For example, it is very common in Chinese language to use Ten thousand to represent everything. Numbers with similar function are thousand, hundred, and even sometimes ten. In old Chinese articles, two or three most of time doesn't mean the exact number. Examples like this can be found everywhere and all of these combined make the traditional Chinese writings pleasant to read. The English translation here clearly delivered the message however lost the beauty of the original language.

Therefore, the difficulty here means fear for challenge.

This saying in China right now can sound a little cliché simply it has become too common. Most of the time, people hardly put thoughts into it because it sounds like something we have already known forever. However, it is still very true and effective in my opinion. When people go through hardships or facing a challenge, they tend to truly relate with this. It still has the effect of motivating people. People use it for blog titles or day-to-day speech. It especially applies to things like entrepreneurship.

This proverb in Chinese language originally directly translates to " Ten thousand things start difficultly." Chines language articulate the connotation behind language and people are not use to write things out most explicitly. Also, the language tends to use many metaphors and other forms of rhetorics. For example, it is very common in Chinese language to use Ten thousand to represent everything. Numbers with similar function are thousand, hundred, and even sometimes ten. In old Chinese articles, two or three most of time doesn't mean the exact number. Examples like this can be found everywhere and all of these combined make the traditional Chinese writings pleasant to read. The English translation here clearly delivered the message however lost the beauty of the original language.

"Actions speak louder than words"

I think that this saying is a little cliché simply because most people have heard of it, however I think that “cliché” has too much of a negative connotation associated with it. Just because it’s cliché, doesn’t mean that it’s bad. I once heard someone say that clichés are clichés for a reason—it is because they are so true, that they have become so over-used. I think that this saying, “actions speak louder than words,” is extremely true, but even though most people have heard of, I don’t think that many consider it in their daily lives.

In my experience, people are fixated with words and what people say. We “hang onto” words and we usually believe them (even when we are given reason to do otherwise). When people “break their word” or don’t follow through on what they have promised, we usually overlook these faults when their words say that it won’t happen again. I think that we could all do to remember that “actions speak louder than words” in these scenarios. If they never actually DO anything, their saying that they will do it means nothing.

The physical structure of this saying is interesting as well. By using personification and having the nominalization “actions” speak, the act is emphasized rather than the person doing the act. This makes the saying universally applicable. It’s not important who does the action, only that it is done. It’s not selecting certain people’s words that aren’t louder than other people’s actions…”words” in general aren’t as loud as “actions” in general.

This saying is also rather ironic because we use words to “speak” and yet it is our actions, which aren’t used in speaking, that do the speaking better.

I think that this saying uses inductive reasoning because we usually start by looking at a specific event in our lives that happened some time before, and it is usually down the road that we realize that this statement is applicable to that situation. After we look at the specific scenario and the events that subsequently occurred, we usually see whether someone’s words weren’t truthful, and realize that we should have paid attention to the person’s actions instead of trusting their words alone.

Quote

In 1989, author Lynn Hall wrote the novel Where Have All the Tigers Gone?. The story is about a middle-aged woman who returns to her hometown to attend a high school reunion. Through the trip home and the reunion itself, she is able to reminisce of the past and notice how different her perception of the world and her childhood relationships are in the present. One of her summarizing resolutions of her life that has stuck with me ever since I stumbled across it, reads:

“We do not change as we grow older. We simply become more clearly ourselves.”

The quote itself does not really use any tools to convey its point. There is no humor, exaggeration, or repetition. The diction level is constant throughout, at a conversational level right in the middle of formal and slang. It is not a cliché; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It works because it gets a reader’s attention by going against what we are supposed to think.

For this reason, my first impression and the impression I think most people have is that this quote is unattractive or wrong. It seems that one of the key, fundamental facts that we must learn to accept in life is that people change. Since childhood, we get the constant advice from parents, teachers, and mentors that “things change” and “people change”. It’s like it’s a way of rationalizing growing distant from former friends and not feeling the way we used to about others. This way of thinking revolves around the idea that everyone eventually changes from who they are, into a new and different person, and that’s just the way it is.

Upon further analysis, I believe that Lynn Hall’s take is more accurate than the traditional stance. Personally, I’ve experienced the event first hand. From the time I was in first grade up until about 7th or 8th grade, I had a very close friend that most people would have considered my “best” friend. We would literally do everything together and were truly inseparable. I honestly believed we would be lifelong friends. However, towards the end of Middle School it quickly became obvious that my friend’s priorities were changing. He quickly evolved into a shell of his former self, and we’d have droughts of several months were we didn’t even speak.

We still keep in touch to this day, but it will obviously never be like it was before we grew up. During high school, my parents would always tell me that he changed and they couldn’t believe it, and that it’s really unfortunate given how close we once were. But when I really think about the “changed” version of my friend, I come to realize that he’s been different longer than he was the friend I couldn’t be separated from. It may be time to realize that those years we spent as buddies were when we were just kids, and who he is now is who he truly is. It’s a very difficult thing to admit to myself and accept, but I think it is right.

The context of Lynn Hall’s quote is very similar to my situation, as her story centers mostly on her childhood relationships. When we’re kids, we’re so young, inexperienced, and naive. It’s easier to make friends and get along with people as kids, because life is simple. As we get older and are exposed to a bigger variety of things, it becomes clearer to ourselves what we want in life. This is how people grow distant from one another and how relationships imminently end.