Mind Spring Or Mind Set

There are always choices. No matter what cards are dealt you, there is a point where a particular choice has to be made. Of course, it depends what kind of deck you have.

Yoky Matsuoka is a brilliant associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. She is merging robotics and neuroscience in what she calls 'neurobotics to create more realistic prosthetics.

She is working on an arm and hand that matches bone for bone and muscle for muscle with strings for tendons. Her purpose is to have nervous system signals control the function of the prosthetic piece just like a natural appendage.

The road to where she is now was long and started with a strong desire to become a pro tennis player. The likelihood of that happening in Japan, her birthplace was slim to none, so her parents sent her to the US.

Try as she might, she never made the tennis grade,having to leave competition because of injuries, though she put her all into it.

It was found on the way that she had a strong acuity for math. This led to academic achievement, thus to a B.S. from UC Berkeley (Don't even say it.) and an M.S. and Ph.D in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T. She continued achieving til she arrived at her present job/work.

I don't know her 'politics', nor anything else save how she got to where she is.

She, as a kid, repudiated her intellect. She wanted to 'fit in'. She went as far as not studying til days before tests (and still got where she is), not wanting to be seen with a book lest she be branded 'nerd'. This lasted even to M.I.T. where she used a nametag with the epithet 'Airhead'.

Her mentoring prof urged her to stop citing that she was 'p******' on her gifts (my word not his AFAIK). He emphasized that it was ok to be 'smart' and that she could still have a complete life.

She has achieved an integrated life balancing work with family and other outside interests.

Let us compare her to a certain young man of my acquaintance.

His whole life, he has been told how brilliant he is. He has always been a coddled, fat baby. He is 'boundary challenged' (I've seen this play out with many of our school shootings etal over the years). There is no focus nor any goals save for losing himself in gaming.

Beyond recreation, it is a walk through a world where fantasy and reality blur.

The problem is that no discipline was consistently applied.

Combined with being told he was so smart, it was a recipe for disaster.

Since I've known him, he has been an arrogant brat.

The reason I bring it up is the piquant contrast between him and Yoky M.

He thinks he's smart and behaves poorly, rather densely.

Yoky knew she was smart and acted dumbly.

Hers is the integrated life, while his is the fragmented life.

It is, of course, a choice.

But when the deck is stacked with self indulgence by people who wallow in mediocrity, there is really no choice.

Now, there are those who come from very adverse backgrounds who rise above their circumstances. At some point, they listen to themselves and others.

I hope this 'boy' (He is technically an adult, but deals very immaturely with his life.) overcomes.

But I doubt it. The generational disfunction is so intense that it would be a miracle.

Choices there always are. Spring forth and grow. Or, get set in concrete, weighed down with delusions of grandeur.

Unless one's mind is made up, spurred by the spurious ie, misery loves company. There is no way for some to disembark from the disfunctional merry-go-round.

I'd say the choice has been made.