Changing congnitive schemas

Cognitive Schemas are everything we tell ourselves about ourselves. Any new information must fit into the existing schema.

For example, Janet always drives at 55 MPH. She does this to save fuel. How can we present Janet with new information, that will cause her to change her behavior?

Unsuccessful choices:

"I read on some blog that 60 MPH is actually the most fuel efficient speed" - this is telling Janet that her facts are wrong, therefore she is wrong. Janet is likely to dismiss your argument as lacking credibility.

"It isn't safe to drive that much slower than the rest of the traffic." - this is telling Janet that her values are wrong, therefore she is wrong. Because saving fuel and driving safely are not directly comparable, she can easily dismiss your argument as affecting something that "doesn't matter."

Potentially successful:

"It really bothers me that you drive so slowly" - this doesn't challenge her schema, but clearly sets up an alternate consideration: do you value your fuel savings, or our relationship? This could result in changed behavior + resentment, or unchanged behavior + guilt. Neither of which are particularly good situations.

"Consumer Reports did a study, and found that many cars are most fuel efficient at 55 MPH, but your car is most efficient at 65 MPH." - This acknowledges Janet's values (saving fuel), and confirms that she has her facts right (55 MPH is generally the most fuel efficient), and then provides additional information that fits within her schema. This incremental schema adjustment is likely to be well received, and result in a behavior change.

Bernardo grape stomp

I attended a grape stomp party yesterday, which resulted in me sleeping for most of the day when I wasn't out drinking. I got to try 4 different wines and hang out with some cool folks. And stomp grapes.

Stomping is actually a fairly efficient method of turning whole bunches into juice. Within half an hour, the whole barrel was juice, with around 15 people tromping around at a time. That comes to about 8 man-hours to juice 50 cases worth of wine. Wine sells at wholesale for, say, $5 a bottle for a basic red blend, so at 6 bottles to the case, that means $1500 of gross revenue to the winery. Actually paying someone minimum wage to stomp would be less than $100 of that, and the rest is available for rent, bottling, bottles, and paying for the grapes. Or, of course, you can just invite all your buddies over, have them bring the food, and throw a big party. That gets your stomping done for free, and you just have to give everyone (ie, those 15 people) a bottle (or even a case, if you have multiple vats to take care of) of last year's product.

Reviews:

Riesling - Bernardo's Reisling is one of my favorites. It's lightly bubbly, with a sharp peppery taste. It goes well with the cheese plate appetizer.

Chardonnay  - was not very memorable. A little buttery.

Burgandy - A nice strong red, which paired well with the tri-tip and veggies. They cook their peppers & zucchini in a style I would call grilled & chilled.

Sirah - Very drying in the mouth (even though that isn't what "dry" wine means). Paired ok with the suggested chocolate, but very well with cheesecake. Quite nice.

I have a lot of thoughts

I keep having thoughts about how things work, and don't work, but I often forget them. Hopefully by having a single place (in the cloud) to write them, I can remember them better. Also, I might eventually get feedback, and that will improve my thoughts.

Topics to review:
Game Design
Economics
Politics
Project Management
Software Testing
Mawwaige
Movie, TV, and Book Reviews
Game strategies
Criminal Justice, and other Utopian Ideals
Food and Wine reviews
Proper use of Capitalization

I don't really have any qualifications in any of the above, beyond being 2+ standard deviations above the mean in Intelligence, and having a few years of Experience.

I've had a bunch of Education:

• Biotech lab work (HS)
• General Chemistry, Physics, Math, English, History (HS)
• Calculus and Differential Equations (College)
• Theater (HS)
• Violin (Elementary School)
• Basic sketching (PBS special)
• Project Management (UCSD Extention)
• SCRUM master training (corporate education)
• CS 101, in C (College)
• BS in Chemical Engineering
• Social Psychology (College)
• Philosophy of Ethics (College)
• Women's Studies (College)
• Water Chemistry (College)
• Theories of Law Education (From watching presentations and classes)
• CS Theory (read-along with my mom's MS in CS)

I've had a few other Experiences:

• Played Magic: The Gathering from age 13-28, with a few gaps (including now)
• Magic: The Gathering rating at about the 10th percentile, before it was abolished.
• Played just about every single trading card game released between 1996 and 2000
• Was on the VS System Pro Circuit 5 times (out of the 8 that were held), with a mean, median, and modal finish of Day 2, no prize.
• Married almost 3 years
• Two dogs
• Many rats
• Several cats
• One house, bought and maintained for 2 years
• Bicycled everywhere until I was 18
• Project coordinator for a construction/home repair company for 1 year
• Analyzed engineering drawings for part content, and to re-draw them isometrically
• Helped develop and test an Enterprise level application
• Test lead & project manager for ongoing deployments & smaller software products
• Lived in New York, San Diego, North San Diego County, and South Orange County (LA)
• Visited Mexico (Guadalajara) and London (Greenwich) for extended stays
• Vacation trips through most States west of the Mississippi, Paris, Edinburgh, Washington DC
• Visited all the museums around Central Park, as well as the rest of the park. On many occasions. 

So, that's me so far. Let's see how long I can keep up with the goal of writing something meaningful every day. I've got quite a backlog in my brain, so it should work out OK.