Olga Werby

Olga Werby, Ed.D., has a Doctorate from U.C. Berkeley with a focus on designing online learning experiences. She has a Master's degree from U.C. Berkeley in Education of Math, Science, and Technology. She has been creating computer-based projects since 1981 with organizations such as NASA (where she worked on the Pioneer Venus project), Addison-Wesley, and the Princeton Review. She conceived, designed, and illustrated the award-winning "Field Trips" series of programs distributed by Sunburst Communications. Olga has a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Astrophysics from Columbia University. Olga currently teaches interaction design and cognitive theory at the American University in Paris and the University of California at Berkeley Extension Program. She was part of the faculty of San Francisco State University's Multimedia Studies Program, the Bay Area Video Coalition, and the campus of Apple Computers. Olga is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. She also holds a California teaching credential and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District where she often tests science-related curriculum materials in public elementary and middle schools.

Book, book promotion

Amazon Book Sale

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reading versus watching

For many many years, I’ve been a sales associate at Amazon. I’ve started just as they’ve started, when selling books over the Internet was a novel and cool thing. I haven’t written back then (but soon after). And for as many years, Amazon has been trying to get me to promote things. But that’s just not what I do — I’m not interested in selling home products or pushing beauty items. In decades of being an associate, I’ve never made a dime, but I hope that some of my readers got discounts of books I’ve recommended over the years. This month, Amazon tried to reach out again by giving me a list of 200,000 products to choose from. And less than 0.5% of those were books. And of those, a smidgen of a percentage were books that I actually own and love, have bought over and over again (I have multiple copies of many of these; but I’m not a hoarder), my kids and friends have read, I’ve recommended and for which I wrote reviews. So, Amazon finally figured me out — it gave me an opportunity to share books with my readers that I endorse at a discount. So…

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Cultural Differences, Newsletter

Quest for Immortality

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The Fountain of Youth (1546)

Whenever it comes, death seems very unfair, and humans have been hard at work on combating this scourge for as long as we can remember. After decades of self-investment via education, relationships, employment, children, hobbies, travel and experiences, who wants to just give it all up? We hate death when it comes at an old age, when it cuts short life in its prime, and perhaps particularly when it gets the young before they had a chance to live. Humans have longed to extend their lifespans or, barring that, the memory of their existence for as long as we have records of humanity.

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book promotion, Newsletter

The Powerful, Fame, and Anonymity

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All powerful being noticing a human for the first time

Those who crave fame don’t truly appreciate anonymity. And those who have it, desire to find a way to hide from it. We live in the world where everyone seems to want their 15 minutes of fame and attention. For artists and writers having a wide audience is must if they want to sign with large agencies to represent them, if they want their work to be bought and sold. Or even if they want representation by an agent or a contract with a publisher — everyone wants an established market for stories.

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Book, book promotion, My Books, Newsletter

Change

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Lizard_Girl_and_Ghost-Cover-Front

We mark the passage of time through personal milestones and seasonal holidays. Another major marker is bearing down on us — December! All the gift giving, family gatherings, end-of-year parties, and toasting mark another round trip around our star. We are on a continuous ride through time and space. We are never at the same place at the same time. Our lives are flux personified. Change is the thing that lives are made of. Humans hate change. We always yearn for the good old days even as we don’t remember them personally and even when we totally misunderstand history. Nostalgia is big. Change seems bad. I get it. I’d rather go the same old restaurant, order the same food, and wear the same comfortable clothing year after year. When my favorite store closes, I take it personally. When my neighborhood changes, I take it as an affront. I want things stable and familiar. I don’t want to spend my mental resources learning useless-to-me new ways of doing things. And I have a sense that most people are more like me than not, given that we all fall somewhere on the spectrum of hating novelty to needing it. So when the…

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Newsletter, Working Memory

Room for Creativity

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The lion man from the Stadel Cave in Hohlenstein, Lonetal.

We often say someone is “creative”, but what is creativity good for? It’s not just for solving problems, although it takes a lot of creativity and expertise to figure out the thorniest issues. Creativity is a way we express ourselves and stand out; there are lots of experts but the best have both the creativity and the expertise to get a job done. While I believe most animals evolved to have some creativity, humans take this trait to the max (as we do with most things). Consider the Lion Man — a 40,000 year old statue of a humanized lion carved from ivory. Read the origin date again — it was created forty thousand years ago my cave men! It’s about a foot tall, has the head of a lion and body of human. It’s one of the earliest examples of human creativity we know about, in addition to all of the cave paintings that date to approximately the same time. But unlike cave painting which tend to depict scenes of real life, this statue is something else. It’s a fictional creature. Nothing like that ever existed in nature, it’s a figment of someone’s imagination. The statue, which was found…

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Newsletter

Reading the Same Stories Over and Over Again

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Gargoyles Reading Books

Lately, I feel like I’m reading the same story over and over again — a smart woman who might be a scientist or librarian meets a tall dark stranger with supernatural strength and military expertise and with an unlimited bank account; together, they save the world and may or may not have a romantic relationship (although very likely they do). Sounds familiar? It’s a very popular storyline; perhaps I should write something like that! But let me give you a few examples of these types of stories. These are all the books I’ve read. And don’t get me wrong, they are a fun ride…but it does get a bit repetitive. Vampires are some of the more popular strong, dark, handsome, and rich types. Augmented humans are another set that fit that bill — they have been made to be stronger and more intelligent than normal men. Then there are demons and an endless variation of humanoid mythical creatures (werewolves, angels, gods, mages and witches, etc.), aliens, cyborgs, and other superhero types. Immortality (or very long life span) helps with wisdom (they can speak any language), martial arts and military strategy training, and especially wealth. It is certainly easier to write…

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