Education vs Intelligence

            About a year ago, I had an argument which I've kept on intending to write about and here I am finally getting around to it. The argument was, at its core, about the mass delusion in our world that education bestows intelligence and that intelligence cannot exist without education.

            The argument started with a conversation about my car which, at the time, made rather alarming rattling noises whenever it went over a bump. My brother (an avid car fan his entire life) had diagnosed it as a loose heat shield – a part he has frequently informed me is pretty much useless. No damage was being done, so it wasn't imminently important to fix.

            Now, the person with whom I was conversing took issue with the fact that I was trusting my brother on this for one – and only one – reason: my brother isn't a licensed mechanic. The argument went along the lines of him saying that, without the official training through apprenticeship, my brother isn't qualified to work on cars. My argument, of course, was that my brother took every possible auto course he could in high school and, beyond that, he enjoyed working on cars so much that he could practically take them apart and put them back together again.

            The reply to that was (in my paraphrased version): he hasn't got a piece of paper, therefore he doesn't know what he’s talking about. Masters train apprentices, who then become masters and train their own apprentices. The skills and knowledge are passed down.

            My argument continued to tracing that back to its origins. There wasn't always a master around to teach an apprentice. How did the first master become a master? By doing. The first master learned by trial and error, by taking things apart and putting them back together again – just as my brother had.

            The argument went on and I came to realise just how deep this concept is rooted in our society – more so in the older members, but, as with everything, it trickles down the generations. There is a very solid belief that, without a piece of paper proving your education, your arguments are invalid. Having an education has become synonymous with being intelligent and being intelligent has become impossible without an education.

            What is missed is that education is just training. That piece of paper is just an official statement confirming that you know what you know. That paper is bought with a tuition. It is also possible to cheat to get it. What good does that piece of paper do? Just look at how many people with degrees are working in the fast-food industry.

            Intelligence and knowledge, on the other hand, can come from anywhere – especially in modern times. You can learn anything on the internet. Yes, you need to be careful and ensure that the information you’re receiving is valid, but you can learn it there. There are also libraries full of books and a whole world full of experiences to learn from where knowledge and intelligence can be gleaned without a piece of paper to prove you know it. Some of the most intelligent and successful people in the world didn't even finish school.

            Now, I'm not saying that education is useless. Our education system is flawed, but it does a decent job. It’s the idea that education is the only valid source of knowledge and intelligence that is flawed.

            My brother ended up “temporarily” fixing that noisy heat shield by using zip-ties to hold it in place. When I took the car in for service, I was told, “What he did is working, so we’re going to leave it like that.” Today, those same zip-ties keep my heat shield from rattling around.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Know Your Audience

            During my quest to get published, I've learned a lot about the publishing industry. However, one lesson I've learned stands out as the most important is Know Your Audience.

            When I first came across this rule, I half disregarded it for two reasons. The first was that I did know my audience. I was writing my books for everyone – adults can enjoy them, but they’d also be able to read them to their kids and the kids would enjoy them, too. The style of writing and content fit snugly into the Young Adult category, thus I was covered (or so I thought).

            The second reason was that I was supposed to Know My Audience before I started writing my book, but I didn't even look into publishing until I’d finished my first book – it was a little late to be learning that rule.

            So, while doing research to better understand the categories that books fit into, I discovered a major flaw in my first book – one that was most likely (and feedback from at least one agent confirms this) preventing the book from getting into the publishing industry. Believe it or not, the most important factor when selecting a target age group for a book isn't the content, but the main character’s age.

            For example, the age range for main characters in Young Adult books is 12-18. In my first book, the main character was 9 for the first half and 16 for the second half. After learning this information, I upped her age to 12 for the first half (not a major issue, as the character acted old for her age anyway). I thought that might solve the problem, but there was another factor that – while I knew about it – I couldn't really do much about it: apparently, young adult readers will read about characters older than themselves, but not younger making the true ideal age range for Young Adult book characters 16-18, placing my split-aged book in no-man’s-land.

            All is not lost, as I just need to re-write the book entirely in the upper age range, using flashbacks and such to bring in the important bits from the younger age – a big task, but not impossible. In the mean time, my fourth book, which was written with knowledge of my audience, will soon be ready for querying agents.

            However, I felt I should pass my experience on to all the other aspiring writers out there who might not have completed their first book in the hopes that you may be saved some trials and tribulations. Do a lot of research on target audiences before starting your book (or in the early stages of writing) and make sure you fit perfectly into a category. It isn't impossible to get published if you don’t, but it’s a whole lot harder.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Easy Way

            My goodness, is it ever hard to come up with something to write about this week. My brain seems to think that, since I cheated on my blog last week, why not this week? Of course, the answer is that, if I did that, soon I wouldn't have any new blogs.

            It makes me think back to video games I used cheats to play when I was younger. The first one that comes to mind is Age of Empires. For those of you not familiar with it, Age of Empires is a medieval RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. That means it’s a game where the player controls an army and moves it around the map, fighting your opponents armies in real time (as opposed to turn based, like RISK or Civilization). At the same time, resources are gathered and spent on buildings, research and troops.

            Not long after I started playing the game, I was introduced to cheats. These were commands I could type to do things such as give me special units, kill all my enemies or give me free resources. The only ones I used very often were the resources ones – it saved a lot of time waiting for them to be gathered and let me build things much faster. It also made it impossible for the computers I was fighting to beat me.

            I actually thought I was good at this game.

            At some point in time, I decided I should play the game without cheats and discovered I couldn't. Without those free resources coming in, I just couldn't keep on top of my army well enough to beat anything harder than the “easy” computer. In the end, I always had to return to typing “powpowpow” about twenty times and destroying my enemies with my army of bazooka wielding, tricycle riding babies.

            The same sort of thing happened with Morrowind (Elder Scrolls III, also known as Skyrim’s grandpa). That game was hard when you started playing it. Before you raised your character to a decent level, worms could kill you. Luckily I once again was given cheats, which made it so I could actually play the game. Unfortunately, once again, without those cheats I can’t play it at all.

            Cheating makes everything so easy and our brains are wired to do everything the easiest way possible. Once we know there’s an easier way, it’s hard to go back to the harder way. But there’s something we don’t realise about cheating until it’s too late – and that is that enjoyment doesn't come simply from winning; it comes from overcoming a challenge. Those games I mentioned? I don’t play them any more because they aren't fun if I cheat and my brain gets mad at me if I don’t take the easy route and cheat.

            Just so it’s clear that this doesn't just apply to video games, in elementary school I was the biggest cheater ever in the game 7 Up – and I was never caught even once. In this game, all the kids hid their heads in their arms on their desk while seven kids that were “it” went around and each secretly tagged someone. Then the seven kids went stood at the front of the class while the seven tagged kids guessed who had tagged them. If they guessed correctly, they switched with the person who was “it”.

            Cheaters in this game were easy to spot and call out because they had to lift their heads to see who tagged them. Then there was me. I figured out that if I positioned myself just right, I could see the floor and, consequently, could flawlessly pinpoint my tagger by the shoes they were wearing.

            After cheating made this game boring, too, I was able to use this skill to always choose the wrong person so I didn't have to leave my desk and participate more.

            Games are meant to be challenging and so is life. There’s only one thing that cheating and taking short cuts achieves and that is getting something done. But just getting something done isn't enough, because if it isn't done properly it becomes empty. Cheating in games makes them boring. Cramming for a test so you can pass leaves your head as empty as when you started. Stealing things makes them worthless. Taking the challenge out of life makes it feel dull and meaningless.

            So, get out there and challenge yourself. Do things and do them right, because in the end it’ll feel more rewarding and you’ll find you've accomplished far more. I know I did and I ended up with a pretty good blog post.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Short Blog, Long Scarf

            Following Toronto ComiCon, I really am far too tired to write a blog. My wife, however, say’s it’s okay as long as I write at least three sentences. There, that’s three.

            So I leave you today with a picture of Colleen in our booth, dressed as the fourth Doctor, featuring the 15 foot long, 3.5lb chainmaille scarf she made. In the background, you can also see the nifty chainmaille Spiderman mask I made and many of our other products.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Monsters from my Closet

            Today I shall tell you of the monster in my closet. Well, monsters, really. And they aren't there any more. At least, I hope not. They were dreadful.

            They’re funny things, though, monsters in closets and under beds. Where do they come from? My own observational skills tell me that they come from the half-shapes we see in the dark – things that are often made of the shadows and silhouettes of multiple items, making us wonder what we could possibly gave hanging from the back of the door that could look like that. On the other hand, common lore (backed up by a quick internet search) suggests that the monsters came as stories used to scare children into obedience. I suspect both are true.

            It’s an odd tradition, though, telling children there are monsters in their closets or under their beds and will eat them (or drag them off) if they don’t behave. Yes, fear is the easiest way to get anyone to do what you want (although far from the best and encourages bullying), but this particular story lacks a certain logic. I mean, really... if you want your child to go to sleep, do you really want them thinking there’s something lurking under their bed?

            That said, I'm quite confident my parents never told me there were monsters anywhere in my room. My brother might have, but I have no memory of it. So it’s strange that I actually had such monsters lurking about. It’s possible that my monsters were inspired by their common presence in books, movies and the minds of my friends.

            Regardless of how they got there, two monsters took up residence in my childhood closet. At first, there was only one. He would come out of my closet, searching for children who were still awake so he could eat them. Luckily, I was very good at pretending to be asleep.

            Unfortunately for me, I had a keen mind. I knew that everything in the world had an opposite, balancing factor. So, it was only a matter of time before my monster brought his brother along. His brother was a monster who only ate children who were asleep.

            Still, my luck hadn't run out (as can be told by the fact that I'm here today to tell you this tale). Neither of the monsters were very smart. They would go to opposite sides of my bed, so I was able to close one eye and keep the other open. This fooled one into thinking he was seeing an awake child (when he ate sleeping ones) and the other into thinking he was seeing a sleeping child (when he ate awake ones). They would inform each other of their findings, then switch places. All I had to do was switch which eye was open and which was closed.

            They would go back and forth for some time, getting frustrated and hungrier. Eventually they would give up and wander off, back into my closet, and I was finally permitted to go to sleep. After running this ploy for long enough, my monsters finally gave up and stopped coming.

            I have to wonder if they might still be out there somewhere, hunting unsuspecting children. Perhaps they merely fed off my imagination and, since they were unique to me, they faded from existence after I had defeated them. If you do happen to come across them, though, tell them “hi” from me and give them a wink.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.