Advice for a College Freshman

Advice for a College Freshman

1. Never let your classes get in the way of your education.
   


2. You can learn as much from other students as from the faculty.
   
   
3. When you find professors you can really learn from, take every course that they offer.
   
   
4. Read the forwards and introductions to your textbooks so that you have a better understanding of the author’s perspective and mission.
   
   
5. Read a good encyclopedia article on what’s covered in each of your classes before taking the class. You’ll have a broader perspective. Web searches will help do the same.
   
   
6. Ask yourself why your professor included each item on the syllabus.
   
   
7. Look for the human-interest stories behind the concepts you’re learning.
   
   
8. Learn how to do research using a library, the web, and other sources. You’ll be researching one thing or another for the rest of your life.
   
   
9. Learn statistics and how to lie with them so you’ll know when others are using statistics to lie to you.
   
   
10. The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates; so give yourself time to ask deep questions and search for answers.
    
    
11. Get off campus at least once a week. The world is a bigger place.
    
    
12. Read a daily newspaper or web-based news feed every day to stay informed on current events.
    
    
13. Try everything you’re interested in­sing in the choir, play an intramural sport, edit copy for the student newspaper, sculpt some clay. Help build a house or teach kids how to read. Just try it.
    
    
14. Spend time getting to know members of the opposite or relevant sex as human beings first. The rest of your education will follow.
    
    
15. Avoid pulling back-to-back all-nighters if at all possible.
    
    
    
    Copyright (c) Dave Schroeder 2002

Universism - Standing on the Insteps of Midgets?

This may be old news for many of you, but I first read about Universism in an article in the Atlanta Journal Counstitution this morning. According to their web site at www.universism.org, "Universism is the world's first rational religion. "

They say that "It's not what you believe, it's how you believe it! The future of religion is faithless. "

Their FAQ says the following about Universalism and Unitarian Universalism: "Universalism is a universally accepting philosophy, equally accepting reason and faith as valid, accepting many Truths, and in Unitarian Universalism, often making claims about various faith traditions serving as alternate paths to the same end - salvation. Universism, by contrast, takes a stand on reason and evidence, the right tools for a natural universe. On a practical level, Universists believe we cannot combat the ill effects of faith and offer a positive alternative if we do not take a clear stand against those faiths. Unitarian Universalism cannot do this."

As a humanist and a most-of-the-time rationalist with a great deal of respect for reason I can sympathize with what Universism is trying to do. But it seems very odd to me that they seem to be missing a lot of what has gone before in terms of humanist thought. They're also not very well-informed about Unitarian Universalism. It seems a bit sad that they're standing on the insteps of midgets when there are plenty of giants with broad shoulders around.

I plan to do more research to understand Universism better from an organizational dynamics perspective and also hope to analyze their beliefs in more detail--but at first glance Universism appears to be a lot like the Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep.

One interesting question comes to mind from what I've read so far, however:

Is it true that Unitarian Universalism cannot take a stand against the ill effects of "faiths"?

It will be fascinating to see what happens to Universism in the years ahead.
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Everyone-Is-Like-Me Syndrome

In the 1970s the headquarters for the Boy Scouts of America moved from New Brunswick, New Jersey -- near New York City -- to Irving, Texas -- between Dallas and Fort Worth. Scouting later became a captive of the religious right over issues such as Scouts who didn't believe in God and Scouts and leaders who were not heterosexual. For decades, while the Scouts were in cosmopolitan metro-New York City, issues like religious litmus tests and sexual orientation were not high on the organization's list of focus items. But with the headquarters in less diverse Texas, these issues became major, divisive problems.

An excerpt of On My Honor -- Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth by Jay Mechling explains a lot of the details of the evolution of Scouting in America and makes the same observation.

It's ironic that here in greater Atlanta recent Scout leaders were discovered to be lying about the percentage of minority boys they serve in order to ensure their share of revenue from the United Way.

I think that part of the challenge we face in America -- part of what makes the divide between red and blue -- is the reactive desire for conservatives to return to the time when their part of society was more homogenous, back when everyone was like me, while the blues have a better understanding that diversity can be a benefit, not a threat.

Unitarian Universalist congregations -- especially those in red states -- have an important mission to fulfill in demonstrating that diversity of people and ways of viewing the world can be more vital than continuing to hold out for a society where everyone is like me.

Unitarian Universalist Evangelism

I just found the new outreach campaign by the Unitarian Universalist congregations of San Diego. There's a six minute video that's well worth the time and two 30-second television spots. The theme of the videos is "I believe..." and it shows the diversity of our movement quite well. They're definitely worth a look.

The rest of the UUSanDiego web site is well done as well. It's an overview of the six congregations in metro-San Diego and it looks very professional.

Perhaps we should think of creating a similar overview web site for the congregations in Atlanta.

Powerful Music of Freedom

Our church choir is learning Tshotsholoza, a south African song of freedom and liberation.

The link on the song name above points to a recording by the men of the Florida State University Chamber Choir. It's simultaneously wistful and uplifting.

The words to the song mean:

Buck up! Hey train, bore your way through the mountains from Rhodesia. Keep running through the mountains from Rhodesia.

The song originally referred to Blacks in Rhodesia who hid themselves on trains at their peril to find work in South Africa. It came to be sung as part of the freedom movement in South Africa.

The Spotlight of Ridicule

I'm reading a marvelous book called Freakonomics by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner. One of the pieces in Freakonomics explains how Stetson Kennedy, a strong advocate of equal rights working under cover inside the Klu Klux Klan brought down the rising KKK in the 1950s by sharing their secret handshakes, passwords, and rituals with the producers of the Superman radio program. All that ritual seemed hollow under the spotlight of ridicule when the klansmen came home and saw their kids parroting their secrets while playing Superman versus the Klan.

Levitt and Dubner note that today Stetson Kennedy would have likely shared the Klan's secrets on a blog or a web site. Either way, Kennedy's story is a not only a clear example of the creative use of information, it is also an outstanding example of physical and moral courage in support of social justice.

I wonder if Georgia students learn about Stetson Kennedy in their state history classes?

I think we could all benefit from learning more about him.

Move Along -- No Congregating Here

My wife and I visited the Mall of Georgia for the first time yesterday evening -- a busy Saturday night. We had dinner with other members of our extended family at a restaurant attached to the mall and then wandered around exploring the place for an hour or so.

One of the striking features of the Mall of Georgia is that it attempts to create an old-fashioned town square with a band shell, rides for smaller kids, and a fountain kids can play in as part of its overall ambiance. Many people have said that malls are the new town squares -- the Mall of Georgia is just more explicit about it. It was engineered by a company called PBS&J and they have more details about what it took to construct the place.

As we walked through the "town square" I noticed several signs in various areas -- what would be "side streets" in a typical town -- that said something like "Please Walk On. No Congregating Here."

The signs made me think about the differences between free and controlled spaces. There's a natural openness to spaces that encourage and allow for chance meetings that's very special. It's what's missing from the ubiquitous modern buildings with no inviting first floor cafes and shops and what makes them so cold and sterile.

It made me wonder how many churches explicitly try to control their spaces to the point where they're really saying to people "Move along -- no congregating here." It strikes me that intentionally including spaces for informal gathering and congregating -- and then having the courage to not put up signs saying "Move along..." -- would be very helpful for many local religious centers.

Research in what makes computer programmers more effective, as noted in Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware shows that they need a combination of private space where they can write code in peace and quiet, coupled with small group meeting space where they can come together and share information.

I think we all need a combination of personal private space and public sharing space.

Let's help the organizations we are part of do a better job of providing the latter.

Darth Jesus

I greatly enjoyed watching the latest Star Wars installement, Revenge of the Sith, earlier this week.

Across the six movies in the Star Wars series, Anakin Skywalker -- the Chosen One -- has a "virgin birth" in The Phantom Menace and after a spectacular fall in Revenge of the Sith ends up redeeming the galaxy from the evil empire and gaining "eternal life" in Return of the Jedi. The mythic elements are quite powerful -- Joseph Campbell would be very proud of his apprentice, George Lucas.

Examining the Star Wars saga for parallels in the Christian mythos it came to me that the story of Darth Vader is somewhat like what the story of Jesus would have been if he'd given in to temptation in the desert and taken up secular power in first century Palestine, only to have a change of heart and die on the cross in the last reel after all.

Human heroes, it seems, are more real if they've got feet of clay. It impresses me that despite influences that would have tried to suppress expressions of the humanity of Jesus in the gospels, the picture of Jesus as a fallible human being still remains clear. The disciples exasperate him, he is wracked by doubts, his anger gets the best of him, and so on.

Come to think of it, it's only through love for his son that Darth Vader is saved in Return of the Jedi. Maybe there's something to be said for the patriarchal Father of some parts of the Old Testament -- the God that has no problem killing innocents or destroying entire cities -- being redeemed by love for the Son.

Luddite in Self Defense

A friend mentioned recently that she was getting a number of new electronic gadgets this weekend. My brother's kids are Game Boy addicts and have recently become enamored of their iPods. I'm a technically savvy individual -- I've made my living as the Chief Technology Officer of start-up and mid-sized companies -- so why did it take me quite a while to buy a digital camera? Why do I still not have an iPod. Why am I no longer the full-speed-ahead damn-the-torpedos early adopter I was when I was younger?

The answer is simple.

Time.

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I find that I only add a new electronic gizmo to my collection these days when I'm convinced that the net amount of time I'll gain from having the thing will balance out to a net savings. For example, the hassle of having an iPod means I'd have to invest more time in managing and growing my music collection. Right now the only times I tend to listen to music are when riding in the car, and CDs are just fine for that. If I get back on the road and have to do a lot of flying in the future I can see the virtue of getting an iPod to use for listening to audio books, but for now, the downside of the extra time I'd spend fiddling with my iPod (and let's face it, if I got one, we're also probably talking about "my daughter's iPod" as well) just doesn't balance out to a net savings and an improvement in my quality of life. If an initial investment in an iPod and setting up my music library would truly result in greater convenience and time savings -- something I'm not convinced of at this point -- I'd buy one.

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This rule applies to software as well as hardware. For example, I recently had to upgrade my anti-virus software. It did not go well. I'm not what you'd call a helpless or naive user, but after at least an eight hour day of fiddling with it, uninstalling, reinstalling, reading technical support advisory documents, and so on, I just got the system to the point where it works acceptably and now have to remember to manually check for updates a few times a week.

The moral of the story is that our tools can easily become our tyrants.

Sic semper tyrannus.

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I'll write later on how to figure out the right time to hop on board a new technology -- pragmatic wisdom painfully gained by years of being a technoogy executive. The sub-title is S-shaped Adoption Curves Are Your Friends.

Opportunities for Creativity

It's been great to take some time off from the hectic pace needed to manage technology for a $175M company and shift gears for a few months. Now that we've moved to a new home in suburban Atlanta and have most everything unpacked, I'm enjoying a chance to be more creative and try new things, like:

• Playing the role of the Cowardly Lion in a local production of The Wizard of Oz
• Singing tenor in my church choir
• Writing music again, such as a song celebrating the Unitarian Universalist' principles
• Signing up to give the Sunday message at our church on August 8th
• Reading and re-reading books without a deadline
• Traveling to England and Wales this summer
• Starting to write fiction -- at least in my head at this point
• Getting more in touch with my body through working out and swimming

I really appreciate the opportunity I've been given to catch my breath and figure out what I want to do next in my life.

Now I just have to do it.

Should be an adventure.