Native intelligence and skill

[mthomas1]

Speaking of getting paid what you are worth:

"Professional Home Inspection - FREE!"

http://www.janglo.net/content/view/40895/

[hausdok]

Originally posted by mthomas1

Speaking of getting paid what you are worth:

"Professional Home Inspection - FREE!"

http://www.janglo.net/content/view/40895/

So what's wrong with that. It looks like a home inspection school needs a house for a test bed. In exchange for providing the house, the owner gets a free inspection report.

I teach a home inspection course every fall. It's hard as hell to get people to open up their house so that 20 to 30 people can come stomping through poking into every nook and cranny; you have to provide them some incentive.

I find a house, arrange for it to be used as a testbed and then I inspect it myself to make sure I know its condition. Then I provide the homeowner with the report free of charge. All that before I ever allow my students to set foot on the property.

I'd say that both sides of that deal are getting what it's worth to them out of it.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[mthomas1]

I read that as an effort by someone to obtain experience by providing free inspections:

"Have your apartment, house, or commercial space inspected FOR FREE from a newly certified Home Inspector ... contact ANDY HAAS 052-673-3704 Character references available."

Nothing wrong with that, unless the "client" is depending on the inspection to make a significant personal or financial decision and does not fully understand the possible limitations of the inspectors ability.

But then again, the way the industry works, that's pretty much the position of most of our clients were in when we were just starting out.

Just made me think about the concept of "value" for our services, - as perceived from both sides - was all.

Or, maybe I read it completely wrong... [:-dunce]

[Brian G]

Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

Weirder yet: You don't actually see through your eyes, or hear through your ears. Once the light hits your retina, all the information becomes electrical signals that travel through the optic nerves, and are interpreted by the visual cortex.

Did you happen to see Wired Science on PBS last night? They were demonstrating a system that lets the blind interpret visual signals from a camera with thier tongues...and it works! The guy negotiated around obstacles, threw wads of paper in a trash can, named playing cards on the table in front of him, etc. A lady used the same technology, slightly altered, to re-train her brain to balance herself, after losing the ability to do so because of inner ear problems. It all sounds bizzare, but could mean great things for the disabled in the future.

Brian G.

Tastes Like a Pair of Jacks []

[ozofprev]

Originally posted by Brian G

...Tastes Like a Pair of Jacks []

Again, you crack me up! I'll be looking for a repeat of that PBS broadcast. Very fascinating.

[Brian G]

No need to wait Brother Oz, you can get it right off the web.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/ed ... enses.html

Brian G.

Tasting Is Believing? []

[ozofprev]

Just watched it.

Bach-y-Rita did some great stuff with his life! Adult plasticity of the brain is certainly a positive attribute! You can teach an old dog new tricks.

It is fascinating that the use of the brain-port caused a change in the PET scans of the blind, but not in the scans of the blindfolded subjects. Actual loss was necessary, not just the perception of loss - but what's the difference?

The brain can actually 'grow' a new balancing system to replace the broken inner ear. That is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[Brian G]

Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

I think it's also the show where I saw the hoopster with the 360-degree court vision, Jerry Rice getting off the line quicker than lightning, and a hitter adjusting to a major-league fastball.

Actually, I think that was on a new show on Fox Sports channel. I want to say it's called Sports Science, or something simple like that. I caught that one too.

Brian G.

Wandering the Airwaves in Search of the Interesting (largely unsuccessful) [:-magnify

[John Dirks Jr]

Free IQ test

http://www.intelligencetest.com/

First go to the sample page and scroll down to the chart and guess where you think you might be. Then, go back and take the test to see where it puts you.

I havn't done it myself yet but I plan to.

[Brad Manor]

I've been following this thread faithfully but keeping quiet in an effort to conceal my own lack of intelligence. Since this thread started, I've taken a bunch of those online IQ tests - first out of curiosity, then out of vanity. With a little bit of variation, I've scored in the mid-high 130s which proves: you can't quantify intelligence! According to those results, I'm a fairly bright guy - but according to anyone who has ever spent any time with me, I'm half an idiot.

I think I'll stick to judging one's intelligence by how they think-act-communicate.

-Brad

[mthomas1]

Originally posted by AHI

Where do you think most people fall when they view themselves?

Well...

"There are many incompetent people in the world. Dr. David A. Dunning is haunted by the fear that he might be one of them.

Dunning, a professor of psychology at Cornell, worries about this because, according to his research, most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent.

On the contrary. People who do things badly, Dunning has found in studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well...

One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence..."

Someone with a lot more inspection experience than my own recently described me as being "humble" about my inspection skills, which I took as both a compliment and and encouraging sign - the people in this business (and just about any walk of life) who really scare me are incompetent people who are highly competent at projecting the illusion of competence.

[mthomas1]

Psychologists talk about this more generally in terms of the difference between cognition (knowing something) and metacognition (being aware of whether you know something or not).

For an example a inspector with better than average cognition may be more adept at recognizing a defect when they encounter it in slightly different form than previously because they can see the similarity, while an inspector with better than average metacognition may be more adept at realizing that a difference from a previously encountered defect is great enough so that what they are looking is some kind of different defect they have never seen before.

[ozofprev]

In case anyone took one of those IQ tests and did poorly, don't get too upset.

By practicing for tests like the LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, PCAT... you can increase your scores on IQ tests. Princeton Review and Kaplan (I preferred Princeton Review) can teach an intelligent person to do quite well on these tests. If, after much practice and taking such a course, you still do poorly, well... sorry. The courses can improve test scores, but not intelligence.

[John Dirks Jr]

I took the test at the link I posted and scored a 104. That's considered higher average, slightly above the middle of the pack.

Considering the brain cells I burned during my mis-spent youth, I guess I can accept that. Visual and language skills were my stronger points.

Being average is not a bad place to be as far as Im concerned.