Here are another couple of little blurbs I wrote for another scholarship.

1) What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

If I weren’t afraid, I would actually do very little worthwhile. For me, fear is an enormous motivating factor - from driving me to be more competitive to encouraging me to accomplish more. Somewhat ironically, if often pushes me to do things of which I am tremendously afraid - the fear of not doing it outweighing the fear of the deed itself.

Many things worth doing are pretty frightening - from skydiving to going down that ski run that makes you wet yourself; and still other things are worth doing exclusively for the fear they engender. It helps me learn things about myself: how do I act under the pressure? Do I have the stones to take the jump? What’s worthwhile enough for me to do that for?

Being afraid of losing my edge or not besting competitors and colleagues or not self-actualizing lights a little fire under me to accomplish. A fear of not getting to do what I want to eggs me on. It all generates a competitive attitude that benefits me in a big big way. Even evolutionarily, fear can help us to perform.

Besides, very few things beat the rush of being scared out of your gourd as you speed almost uncontrollably down the mountain.

2) How are you going to change the world?

My biggest strength as an empiricist and a person and what I hope to bring to those around me is a clear understanding and an appreciation for science. It’s essentially a formal definition of how we as humans come to understand the world we live in, and everyone should at least foster a minimalist awareness of the basic principles that drive it.

In raising kids, I want them to be very aware of how useful science is in terms of technological advances but also in terms of its efficacy as a methodology in it and of itself. “Indoctrination” is such an ugly word, but I really do want my children to understand the tremendous importance. And it’s not just limited to my children - friends, family, co-workers, and I’m totally bringing it to the blogosphere.

I hope that eventually we will live in a world that can take a more rational approach to the problems that face us individually, as families and even as countries. That’s not by any means saying that I want to do away with things like religion or art, and certainly not wanting to take a completely utilitarian approach to life. I just think the world would be a much better place if people would appreciate the mechanisms that underly the madness and how we ultimately know and understand them. Short of curing cancer and AIDS and feeding the hungry, I think it’s one of the most important things in the world today.