I think, therefore I write. (我思,所以我写。)

Cogito ergo scribo

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lessons learnt

I have successfully completed the Google course and received a certificate of completion from Google.



The course was quite interesting and i have learnt a few things that i did not know about in using Google search. I would say one of the most valuable lessons was the reminder of always take note of the credibility of what we found from the Web.

This is actually something we all know - what's on the Internet may not necessarily be correct and we must always take it with a pinch of salt. However, despite knowing this, we still rely heavily on the information we found from the Web and simply take it as facts. A lot of people, more often than not, would just believe what they read on the Web without validating it.

An example of such incident was shared during one of the sessions. It was about a fake quotation being wrongly attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. The article is quite a good read and illustrates a few things:

  • About communication - as mentioned in Fact #4 in a little story i have written before, words get distorted after going through a few hands. Sometimes the fact may even get so garbled that it is totally different from its original form. In this incident, even a simple copy-and-paste from the FB message can get distorted.

  • About the information age - the Internet is one powerful platform that can be used to create untrue facts. This incident shows how a FB message changed its form and spread over the Internet in such unbelievable speed. And due to the nature of search engines, the more people write about it the more hits we would get from our search results and hence wrongly making us believe that it is a fact. One thing that the course kept emphasizing was that the search results and result ranking do not mean authenticity and validity. It is simply a collection of what are out there on the Internet. When everyone says the same thing doesn't make that thing a truth. I think i do not need to re-tell the story of how everyone in the ancient time used to believe that the earth was square until one man proved everyone wrong.

  • About human nature - people hate being told that they are wrong, even when the facts are shouting right at their faces. They will get all defensive when people disagree with them and point out their mistakes. They do not understand that by not recognising their mistakes, they appear as more foolish than they already are and will continue to make a fool of themselves when they continue to make the same mistake over and over again.

  • About what we once learnt from school - punctuation is very important.

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Congratulations!! Sure it comes handy not for work but treasure hunts too, if it hits right :). Hmm, just thought, are you going to use the cert in resume ... And then, you didn't share tips and tricks but only psychological stuff, oh well, maybe it's proprietary or I just google for it.

Oh, this just reminds me of research and facts gathered from blogs (not yours) used as evidence in politics and also international court. And wiki is not always right too. Of course no one will admit mistake when comes to face-to-face, but there are reflection and introspection, to ponder the mistakes and to right the err quietly without losing much face and credibility. Sometimes it'll be even more stupid to admit outright depending the situation lor. By the way, who's the guy proved the world is round - I know that it was not "one" man and certainly more than one, some stayed quiet coz of persecution. Cheers, don't stay away from the gym :).

Just wanna share with you.
Dr Richard Teo's testimony after cancer diagnosis

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/dr-richard-teos-testimony-after-cancer-diagnosis-3953642-2.html

Share your cogitation



Sunday, October 21, 2012 @ 4:49 am: Lousy service
Monday, October 15, 2012 @ 8:00 pm: Deepest condolence
Monday, October 15, 2012 @ 6:49 pm: Treasure hunt - Foon Yew 99th Anniversary
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 @ 5:33 am: A little story of two frogs
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 @ 4:59 am: Went to gym
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 4:03 pm: Nothing
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 4:02 pm: Random thoughts on blogging
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 3:19 am: Farewell gifts
Saturday, September 29, 2012 @ 3:13 am: Upgraded
Friday, September 28, 2012 @ 4:46 am: Power Searching with Google