TOW #7 - Visual Text: New American Airlines Logo

I said goodbye this Friday to a group of German exchange students at the airport and still feel a little sentimental. Naturally, I thought it was a good idea to do my TOW on something related to that, and it seemed perfect, as American Airlines just merged with U.S. Airways on October 17th and came up with a new logo.

American Airways had always used the red and blue colors, along with an eagle, which they kept in their new design. The red and blue are obviously patriotic colors, and the addition of the white eagle improves the color scheme and makes it even more patriotic. The new logo incorporates an eagle into the shape of the wing of an airplane to add more motion, resulting in a logo that seems ready to take off.

One thing that I thought that could have been improved was that the new logo doesn't use anything from the logo from U.S. Airways, which was a blue (sometimes gray) rendition of an American flag with a tiny square in place of the stars. Although the former logo wasn't the most effective, the shape of the American flag was one way to provoke pathos in customers with "American pride", but that was sacrificed for the airplane/eagle shape. This new logo doesn't give an impression that the two companies merged but rather a feeling that American Airplanes has simply changed their logo like Google did recently.

The simplistic overall view of the logo seems to match the recent trend, which is to make logos and layouts as clean and simple as possible, instead of adding intricate details. The former American Airlines logo had a bit too much details on the eagle and U.S. Airways might have had too many stripes relative to most of th logos that are updating. The new logo is more visually appealing to most viewers now and seems more elegant than tacky. Personally I like this logo better and think that the new company did a nice job.

TOW #6 - Does Creativty Scare You?

We're told from an early age, "Be creative!" "Let your creativity flow!" According to the text "Does Creativity Scare You?" by Oliver Burkeman, we humans are actually pretty scared of creativity, and no matter how much emphasis we put on it, we're just wired to be scared of it. But the old advice still applies - we do need creativity. Rather than let our fears take over this creativity or completely reject it, Burkeman says accept the fear that's there and try to work around it.

After introducing the idea of "fearing creativity," Burkeman includes a personal experience that others may easily feel as well to set a connection with the readers and make the readers trust him more. He says, "For many, the thought of expressing themselves creatively is frightening. (Anyway, who am I kidding? I've often felt panic at the sight of a blank page" (Burkeman 2). Although the first sentence might have brought skepticism to the readers, the second sentences lays out a situation common, relatable, and understandable to many and even establishes ethos for the writer.

Burkeman references professionals in order to show the studies that back up these ideas. He references a study done in Cornell University, which actually says that humans evolved to fear creativity, as most creative ideas seem to go beyond the limits of safety. He also references the Creativity Journal, which shows that teachers tend to dislike the more creative students unconsciously, although almost all would say that's not true. By referencing these studies, the readers can see how prevalent this fear against creativity is, which surprised me as well.

Burkeman lays out a solution to this problem of fearing creativity through analogy. Creativity is an abstract concept that's confusing to explain using hypothetical situations or theory, but he clears that out with an analogy: "I much prefer [a certain professor's] approach, treating fear like an annoying younger sibling, or a beloved though rather trying family pet. The trick, if you can do it, isn't to ignore fear, or destory it, and definitely not obey it, but to make space for it. She uses that odd but useful analogy of a road trip. Fear always comes along for the ride, and that's fine - but that doesn't mean you need to let it anywhere near the steering wheel" (6). That makes sense - we shouldn't ignore a family member, but we shouldn't let them get everything they want either. This analogy of using fear effectively in creativity clears up previous perhaps confusing statements.

We're constantly told that creativity is a virtue that we should constantly cultivate, but Burkeman argues that and says creativity is both a vice and a virtue - and suggests that maybe the biggest virtue of creativity is that it's both a vice and a virtue.

TOW #5 - What Really Keeps Women out of Tech

     I often think of myself as a "nerd" (which is true) and have loved math since I was little. I've also been extremely curious as a young girl til now, but quite honestly, I hated the idea of becoming an engineer until just a couple of years ago and got dizzy even thinking about computer science. Why was that? This article by Eileen Pollack seemed to answer this for me. As a woman who used to work in the science and technology field, Pollack explains in her text "What Really Keeps Women out of Tech" that for women to be included in this field, certain restrictive engineering gender stereotypes must be removed through her use of personal anecdotes and referencing common settings of a technology work area.
     Eileen Pollack worked as a programmer at a lab in Tennessee, and she explains, "I felt out of place among my mostly male colleagues because I hated drinking beer and din't like being mocked for reading novels. Not to mention that the men who controlled access to the computer made me listen to a barrage of sexist teasing if I wanted to be given that day's code to run my program." Because of her mostly female-associated traits of not liking beer as much and reading novels, she was treated as a social outcast among her colleagues and wasn't as welcome. These gender roles and traits restricted people like her and other people with female-associated traits like hers.
     She also references the common setting and image associated with technology and engineering fields. She quotes a psychology professor from the University of Washington, "Dr. Cheryan theorizes that this decline might be partly attributable to the rise of pop-culture protrayls of scientists as white or Asian male geeks in movies and TV shows like 'Revenge of the Nerds' and 'The Big Bang Theory.'" This is a common setting and stereotype of a group of engineers, which shows a possible reason why girls may feel unwelcome in such a community.
     Certain gender roles that may seem irrelevant in such a seemingly open-minded generation may actually be the outdated factors that prevent an open-minded generation from thriving. Through her use of personal anecdote and explaining the common sight that people know and relate to, Pollack illustrates the need for an innovative change in such an innovative field.

TOW #4 - The Tao of Pooh (IRB Part 1)

INTRODUCTION
     In his book The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff uses allusions to old texts and Winnie-the-Pooh, builds a narrative structure, and make Taoist analogies to Pooh to show that in Taoism, the seemingly clueless and dumb people can be the best teachers of its deep and meaningful principles.
     Benjamin Hoff often refers to not only Taoist texts but also other texts from East Asian religions like Confucianism and Buddhism. This allows readers to both understand Taoist teachings as wells as establish ethos as a credible writer on this subject. He also includes certain excerpts and quotes from Winnie-the-Pooh to show how Winnie-the-Pooh closely related to Taoism. Hoff quotes a poem from Winnie-the-Pooh:

"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly,

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie..." (Hoff 39).

     He then compares it to a Chinese philosopher Chuang-tse, who said, "You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber... It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way" (Hoff 42). It's obvious that a fly can't bird but a bird can fly, but people don't really remember this fact and try to hard to wedge in things into places they don't belong. By alluding to both texts, Hoff first shows the nature of Pooh and Taoism to his readers.
     Along with alluding to both texts, Hoff uses these allusion to draw parallels between them to now actually show his purpose. As said above, Pooh seems to perfectly realize deep Taoist principles and recognizing that everything in nature has its specific purpose, and people shouldn't be desperate to try to alter that or deem something worthless because it doesn't do what they want it to do. Saying things like "A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly" may make one seem empty-headed, but this actually represents Taoist teachings and shows that people who seem this empty-headed can be the best teachers of Taoist principles.
     Hoff's text is structured in a narrative style that makes it seem like a story of Hoff and Pooh's conversation while walking around Pooh's village. Most Winnie-the-Pooh stories follow a similar structure where Pooh is faced with a problem and he walks casually around places with his friends or to his friends and eventually stumbles across the solution along the way. By following this pattern, Hoff stays loyal to Winnie-the-Pooh's general spirit and the Taoist way of not purposefully scrambling to find a solution to a problem but rather allowing things to flow until a situation unfolds itself. Although Pooh's way of floating around to reach a conclusion may seem naïve or empty-headed, Pooh's way teaches the fundamental Taoist way to others.