Author Archives: thormay

51. Getting It Done, Or Your Gift For Mine? – An Echo from the Philippines

Posted on August 13, 2011 by thormay

On a stopover in Manila a while back, I wan­dered into a book­shop, look­ing for some­thing that could give me a fix on “the” cul­tural mind­set of the Philip­pines. This is a coun­try with which I have had only brief … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in competence, culture, management, reciprocation, Research & Study, teaching | Leave a comment

50. Why Write A PhD?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by thormay

note: here are fur­ther arti­cles deal­ing with the research process and the con­nun­drums of PhD study : Piss­ing On Every Lamp Post : the para­dox of schol­ar­ship; The Doctor’s Dilemma – Read­ing ver­sus Active Expe­ri­ence; How To Get The Degree … Con­tinue read­ing →

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49. Cultural Operating Systems – Thoughts on Designing Cultures

Posted on September 5, 2010 by thormay

This (non-aca­d­e­mic) arti­cle cov­ers a lot of ter­ri­tory, noth­ing less than the “cul­tural oper­at­ing sys­tems” within which we live, how they have changed, and how they might be changed. There is a kind of arro­gance in toy­ing with the ele­ments … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, economics, law, lifestyle, management, motivation, reciprocation, teaching, war | Leave a comment

47. The Contest for Competence (updated August 2013)

Posted on January 15, 2009 by thormay

If some peo­ple don’t break the rules some­times, then a nor­mal soci­ety will cease to func­tion. Break­ing the wrong rules for the wrong rea­sons is like break­ing legs though. And if every­one breaks the rules, then a soci­ety will dis­in­te­grate. … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in competence, law | Leave a comment

37. Some Mysteries of Language Learning

Posted on May 2, 2005 by thormay

Thor May 2005 – 2012 An expert is a fool a thou­sand miles from home. Hav­ing suc­cess­fully failed to learn about nine lan­guages, I’m a vet­eran lan­guage learn­ing imbe­cile, always a thou­sand miles from suc­cess, and an eter­nally hope­ful begin­ner. I’ve … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in culture, Language learning, Machine translation, teaching | Leave a comment

32. A Harvest of Souls – Talking to Those Other Fools

Posted on November 6, 2004 by thormay

“They had the infor­ma­tion, but not the knowl­edge” – David Ignatius in the IHT, dis­cussing infor­ma­tion over­load in the CIA; 30 Octo­ber 2001 Com­mon wis­dom on the net­works is that George Bush won the 2004 Amer­i­can elec­tion by har­vest­ing the souls … Con­tinue read­ing →

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30. The End of War

Posted on September 12, 2004 by thormay

In 1066 William the Con­queror hacked down a few British natives and did a neat takeover job on merry Eng­land. He wasn’t the first or the last to throw the dice for glory like this. These days his kind is … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in law, rules, truth, war | Leave a comment