Jeffrey Alexander Martin

This piece of wisdom popped into my head the other day, "Creators don't write for critics. Critics don't write for creators." I posted it on my Facebook page and got a few comments. The more I thought about it the more I realized the truth and importance of that statement. My Aunt Karen made a comment about it being true. Since I had been thinking about it I felt like articulating a bit more, so I did. - - - - - - - Jeff - I was just thinking about how when I write articles about books or movies I don't intend those for the creator at all. I intend them as part of a discussion to learn from for people that either want to appreciate and have a deeper understanding of the work, or for people that want to learn from the work so that they can create their own things. When I write something I don't think about any critics at all. I think about the reader at times, but as the person experiencing the work, not commentating on it. Creators and critics are us...

There is a problem with heroes. Today we will not solve this problem, but we will look at two examples, John Galt and Harry Potter. Articulating the problem is often half the battle. "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand is one of the most polarizing books ever written, people usually either love it or hate it. The book is about the slow fall and collapse of American society. John Galt is the hero, although we almost never see him, and even hear very little about him. He's a genius that created a way to generate unlimited free power, but because of the systemic corruption in the society he walked away from the entire society and started his own. (Atlas was the Titan that was punished by being forced to hold up the sky, although he's usually depicted as holding up the world. Ayn Rand states that the story is really a closer take on Prometheus. Prometheus is the Titan that stole fire from Olympus and gave it to man. For that he is chained to a rock and his liver is eaten ev...

This is a tool of humility. Given any current level of understanding, there is always more available complexity. That's the basic idea of Jeff's Hammer, let's dive into it a bit more and look at why that is. To understand or comprehend something essentially means to be able to grab and hold it with your mind. We have a limited capacity to do this. Humans have a very high capacity, but it's still quite limited. Luckily, some ancient geniuses figured out how to encode information into paintings, pictures, words, and symbols. This allows us to work with a lot more information, but this problem of limited information is not a solvable problem. One of the reasons that it is unsolvable is because to conceptualize anything, or to represent anything in symbolic form, we lose some of the information. A chair contains all of the data of the chair. A picture, a painting, the word chair written or spoken, a description of the chair, a 3D diagram of the chair, all of these ha...

As We Ascend is cool. They work with their fans to create their music. If you join their program as a label executive, which is closed right now, you can both participate in the process and see behind the scenes into the process of the songs being written and recorded. I like transparency, so it connects with me. As We Ascend was born just a couple of years ago, but the band is chock-full of experience. Here is the bio from their website:  https://www.asweascend.com/ - - - - - - - As We Ascend is a rock band from the greater Nashville area. Members Justin Forshaw and Jake Jones (formerly of rock sensation We As Human) along with Robert Venable (acclaimed music producer) all have extensive professional careers in the music industry and are able to bring a variety of musical expertise to the table. The perfect blend of melodic and heavy guitars, edgy vocals, and drums combined with pouring out their hearts for the lost and broken in their lyrics, gives this band their ...

I posted my article criticizing an overvaluation on high IQ in some high IQ groups. I was just curious. I don't read all of the comments on my articles anymore because the internet seems to be a place for hostile interaction rather than discussion, and if I do read them I don't usually respond because no one seems to want to have a reasonable discussion online. But, I did a little bit this time, just to see what would happen. Here it is. In the first few hours six people commented on my article in a Mensa group. Four people liked it and one person wowed it. Two of the commenters either deleted their comments or blocked me, which we'll get to in a minute. Two of the comments were good. Let's look at those first. (Note that I also posted this in the EPL High IQ Society, which I've found to be a more reasonable group, and received no interaction at all. My site stats say that 81 people have been on my site to see it so far.) Here's the article link too. http...

Over the last year I've been a member of a few high IQ organizations. I joined them after working to recover from brain damage, to prove to myself that I could do it. I've found something odd about this group of people. Having a high IQ doesn't seem that special when you have a high IQ because you've always had it. You don't know what it's like to not have a high IQ. That's why I never even thought about joining a high IQ society. Then, in December of 2015 I went on a misadventure to Africa that changed everything. I was told I was going to die, but I made it out, barely. I did multiple antibiotic treatments over several months. Things still weren't right. Then I found out I had multiple spinal deformities and there was a complication with at least one in my neck. A bone was pressing on my brainstem and causing damage. Over this time everything in my body had malfunctioned: I had a resting heart rate of over 100, even laying down, for about 2 year...

What types of meditation are there? Many, but I think I have a framework that can help to simplify the issue. Introduction You have two basic choices. The first is between sensation and imagination. You can either feel what your body is experiencing, or you can play with the images and impressions that are in your mind. The second choice is between directing your attention and not directing your attention. You can either focus, or just let what happens happen. These two choices form four basic quadrants of meditation. I'll give quick examples of how each works. Directed Sensation When my C1 vertebrae slid into my brainstem in late 2015 I had major issues. One issue was that I didn't even know I had spinal deformities, and I still wouldn't know for another few months. I was still trying to figure out what had gone so wrong in Africa and how to fix it. The pain though, the pain was a constant. Every system in my body was thrown way off. As you're losing y...

I'm in favor of global warming. Overall, I think it would be a good thing. Let's look at a few points. Here's the basic idea. Can the climate stay the same? No. If you think the weather can stay the same then I would ask you to try to get back in contact with reality in whatever manner you may choose, going outside or looking at history are two decent ideas. Notice that I said climate in one sentence and weather in another sentence, but I used them in a similar way. Many people that like to sell the idea of the apocalypse through climate change like to point out that weather and climate are not the same thing. True, weather is short term and climate is long term. Climate is long weather. Climate is to weather as cat is to kitten. It's not like people are making a giant leap when they think the two are somewhat related. Starting with the assumption that weather and climate are definitely going to change we have two basic options: hotter or colder. There are nuan...