Improving the world, and one’s brain, at the same time

By Alvaro Fernandez | April 20, 2009

My wife and I just came back from an inspir­ing Gold­man Prize Award cer­e­mo­ny, where sev­en grass­roots envi­ron­men­tal change­mak­ers were rec­og­nized for their work and resilien­cy, and shared their pas­sion and pur­pose with every­one attend­ing the event. We did hear too from Al Gore, Tra­cy Chap­man, Robert Red­ford, and the founder of the awards 20…

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Is Intelligence Innate and Fixed?

By Alvaro Fernandez | November 10, 2007 |

Giv­en the recent James Wat­son “race and IQ” con­tro­ver­sy, I took on to read Stephan Jay Gould’s clas­sic book The Mis­mea­sure of Man, in which he debunks IQ (and the under­ly­ing “g”) as mea­sure of defined, innate, “intel­li­gence”. Fas­ci­nat­ing read­ing overall, very tech­ni­cal in some areas. The key take-away? In the last chap­ter, A Pos­i­tive Con­clu­sion, he…

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Clint Eastwood’s fountain of Youth: Learning

By Alvaro Fernandez | October 23, 2006 |

See this inter­view today. Quote: “By 76, most direc­tors have put their heavy lift­ing behind them, their pace slow­ing, the qual­i­ty of their films wan­ing. Not Clint East­wood.” Clint East­wood: “My father always said you’ve got to keep learn­ing, keep expand­ing or you will decline the oth­er way. I’ve always adhered to that.” Wise words. I…

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