Categories

My passion begins with biology, particularly human biology. I approach it as an engineer. I like to understand things in depth. I'm very inquisitive. I also like to explore limits and human performance is a continuing interest.

I have attempted to explain my long term dream before. This blog is an important step towards that dream as part of recording and sharing my findings, thoughts and ideas as I progress through my journey.

Over time this blog has grown quite big so to make it easier to understand I have broken it down into categories to reflect the themes that underpin it. Here I will explain what each category means.

Cells

Cells are the basis of life and biology. My fascination is with learning to talk to cells through normal activity. I have written so much about this I have spawned Cell Your Sole, a blog dedicated to this vision. In one line Cell Your Sole is about find something you love and adding activity. Get your cells to do the right things through fun.

The concept is about talking to your Cells through moving your feet. Humans have been molded through activity that is why we need and expect it. Challenge yourself and enjoy the experiences this brings. That is the philosophy. This is why we need to do it. How we do it. That is a lifelong quest. I’m sharing my journey. I want to hear about yours.

This category has found a life of its own at Cell Your Sole. I now post there first and have a full twitter(@CellYourSole), facebook and Google+ presence.

Competing

My training (PE, Sport Science, Management) is about competition, specifically human competition. I understand the urge to compete and I’ve been trained to maximise the potential of a competitor. What that means in practice. I’m only just beginning to learn.

I am a tennis nut, so that is my main focus however I believe competition is the basis of life so I see the value of competition everywhere.

This category has found a life of its own at The Competitive Urge. I now post there first and have a full twitter(@CompetitiveUrge), facebook and Google+ presence.

DNA

Follows my passion for programming, computing and biology. The popular term is computational biology. I always thought it was strange that I trained as a sports scientist yet ended up a software developer. Now I realise that engineering is the family business. I just look at the human body with the vision of an engineer. So my training in tech is preparing me for deeper explorations in the field of biology. Discovering computational and systems biology I am starting to see how I can bridge the two.

So this is where my current work can lead into my future work. I can talk biology while relating to what I do day to day. I see code everywhere. I’ve learnt a lot about how code works and it’s benefits. I can breath life into my day to day work by sharing it. I now see that my gwt analysis and offline moodle work are related to my passion for biology and human performance because they reflect the ever continuing evolution of technology. Just like species evolve, tech evolves. I think it follows the exact same patterns and I think we can understand the principles of evolution better by understanding its effect on tech

Evolution is the pressure on our code. The standard principles of evolution apply here as they do anywhere else. Yet the computational side is known and easier to test and prove. The biology side is the unknown. Proof there is much harder to find. Ethics and practicality are a challenge on both sides but biology is about life so ethics rules there. Computers aren’t alive so we can do what we want with them. We only need ethics when dealing with human aspects like personal data and customer facing elements like accessibility. Otherwise we can be more aggressive as developers than biologists can.

Ecosystems 

Ecosystems are about the living and non living compoents of an environment adding up to an interconnected whole. This is the study of my environment with a holistic view. They are underpinned by balance. To really understand something you must always step back and consider the whole. Both a concept reduced to it’s basic elements and also as part of wider processes and structures. Until you can understand it from multiple angles you don’t really know it at all.

This includes finding tools that enable a holistic view. For me these are simulation and virtual world tools. Unity 3D is my current favourite. I am excited about it because it is the first tool I have used that can express anything you want. Using it there are no limits to my exploration. With 3d instead of 2d you have all dimensions including time. It publishes to any device with any input type and much more. I just don't have the full skillset required to do exactly what I want with it but I have finally found a tool that can support the much wider vision that I have.

Play

Life should feel like play. It should be fun and interesting. But you have to work hard to make it that way. You have to be fit and strong mentally, physically and emotionally. You have to play the game of life well. Know how to turn losses into draws and draws into wins.

This is about turning everything into fun. So it’s about naturally fun stuff like watching films and tv, playing more tennis and less obvious stuff like cooking, gardening, shopping. Just finding ways to add the fun at each point.

Then it’s also about why this is important. How much is enough. Or maybe how much effort should be required to achieve the fun. What you need to do to make the fun beneficial, not bad. Like moving around to make yourself strong.

Keywords: Life as learning, evolving. Learning as play. Exploration. Discovery. Flow. 

Strategy

This is about strategy, learning and the knowledge economy. The underlying concept is that "The way you think defines what you achieve".

Relationships

I am really interested in how relationships form. Human relationships are the first topic of course. Something I was fascinated by while studying sociology and psychology. I am also fascinated by the interconnections between all things. The webs that tie together ecosystems.

Truth

In the real world your perception defines your reality. Many do not understand this but it is the truth. The search for truth is lifelong and full of misdirection. Learning to see things for what they are is a skill. Something I am always trying to get better at. Learning from others is my main approach.

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