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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Cariyaga said:
Not only that, but the Noburi's-siblings thing solved itself.
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And I'm happy it did, good for Noburi solving his issue on his own with no real drama. It would have been depressing if he never mustered up the courage and lost his chance to talk with his siblings one last time before leaving Mist for what could be forever.
 
eaglejarl said:
I think kids in America -- and probably the West in general -- grow up a lot more slowly than they could. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I do think it's a thing.

For the most part, American kids are not given any responsibilities and most of them spend most of their time in a public school system that is designed to educate mass numbers of kids, meaning that it needs to use standardized materials and can't provide individually-tailored teaching. The classes therefore move at the wrong pace for pretty much everyone -- too slow for some, too fast for others -- and the material is going to be uninteresting to most. This is before we even get into discussions of "teaching to the test", inappropriate subject matter, etc.

If you treat a kid like an adult, they will (IME) usually act like one to the extent that they are physically and cognitively capable of it. Also, effort matters far more than talent; when I was teaching, the student who wrecked the curve was by no means the smartest in the class but she was absolutely the hardest working.

Honoka and her peers are getting treated as adults. They are also students at an extremely selective military school, being offered the chance to enter the highest-status and probably highest-paid role in society. They are under military discipline, so there are clear rules of behavior and clear standards for success. Class sizes are very small and the country is strongly motivated to get as many ninja as they can, so it's possible to get a fair amount of individual attention. Add to that the fact that some of what they are learning will let them fundamentally reshape reality in ways that real-world kids literally dream about. (Granted, that's not the stuff that Honoka is officially doing; firsties mostly do academics, physical conditioning, meditation, military codes and behaviors, etc. Kagome has taken her out of that track, and she knows that if she works hard and learns the boring math stuff then he'll teach her how to blow stuff up and cheat and make stuff appear and disappear and generally be awesome.)
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Motivation, my ancient nemesis. If you had convinced me that it meant being free to design and test explosives at will I'd have had a PhD by twelve.
 
eaglejarl said:
I think kids in America -- and probably the West in general -- grow up a lot more slowly than they could. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I do think it's a thing.

For the most part, American kids are not given any responsibilities and most of them spend most of their time in a public school system that is designed to educate mass numbers of kids, meaning that it needs to use standardized materials and can't provide individually-tailored teaching. The classes therefore move at the wrong pace for pretty much everyone -- too slow for some, too fast for others -- and the material is going to be uninteresting to most. This is before we even get into discussions of "teaching to the test", inappropriate subject matter, etc.
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Inability to reform and lack of connection between the teaching profession and cognitive scientists and psychologists are more fundamental issues than standardized materials and lack of individually tailored teaching. One anecdote had a Japanese teacher came over here to learn from the American, only to learn that the Americans abandoned their reform that the Japanese thought they were copying from.

If we Americans can't learn from mistakes and implement reform, what hope do we have for improving our school systems?

Another example is that study methods of students can actually be atrocious. Apparently, what sometime counts for studying is reading your textbooks and your notes over and over again. Not only this is ineffective, it creates illusion of fluency. You're simply looping materials from your short term memories instead of recalling and reconstructing from your long term memories, which would actually improve your knowledge more effectively.

This is stuff I known from diving into the science of how to learn. I certainly didn't learn them when I was in public school.
 
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I'm not sure we should be planning to talk to Keiko, at this point.
Her final match offered proof that she has a big problem with overreacting to emotional stress, and *Jiraiya* should say something to her. (Does he know what's going on with her? As her stepfather, he ought to be told that after seeing Ami's letter, she went to the 7th path.)
 
JulieK said:
[Keiko's] final match offered proof that she has a big problem with overreacting to emotional stress,
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How did she overreact? She defeated her opponent in the Chūnin Exams tournament and did some political posturing based directly if Jiraiya's proven-effective behavior that will no doubt give the clan some extra oomph in the political arena. I see no way in which her behavior was inappropriate or, in fact, anything less than 100% completely optimal.

(Well, aside from the ultraviolence, giving every male in the audience an extra Thousand-Yard Stare point, and sending a fellow Leaf-nin to the hospital when he was in the process of surrendering. Who counts that stuff, though? I mean, ninja, right? ;> )
 
Let's give this a go

Wordcount: Under 241
[X] Action Plan: Flight Risk

  • As Keiko is leaving arena:
    • Let Noburi take point.
    • Actually congratulate her. She won the exams, that's huge!
    • Subtly tell her J needs her to stay around here to both talk and do post- tournament stuff; and that we got another letter from Ami.
    • If she summons Pandaa, have Hazou distract Pandaa by talking while Noburi tries to talk Keiko down. If she still manages to reverse- summons, just play it cool.
    • Tell J soon as he's free.
  • Once we get somewhere private:
    • Get her input both on what she wants with regards to us interacting with Ami, and what insight she has on Ami's character.
    • If she tries to say her opinion doesn't matter, tell her we do care about her thoughts, we want to hear them, and take it into account as much as we can.
    • Mention Jiraiya's thoughts and concerns on the subject.
    • We are open to talking about what's been happening, but willing to wait for now.
      • Both with us, and what happened with Shikamaru.
  • Verify Ami's story (if time permits).
    • Ask Akimichi if he'd check out a couple restaurants for us. Offer to pay for his meals if he does. If he asks why, just say we're confirming something for due diligence.
      • Have him visit a few restaurants. Inquire about their history, then ask about:
        • Connection between Byakuren's Cookbook and Experimental Cuisine.
        • Byakuren's Cookbook serving large groups of ninja.
      • Byakuren's Cookbook: name-drop Ami for regulars-only menu.
This is my first plan attempt, and I have a fair amount of time tonight to work on it, so tell me what you'd like on it and I'll put it together.
 
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@Halberdier, awesome start, man!

One question though - can we really do this one:

Halberdier said:
If she tries to say her opinion doesn't matter or waves away right to comment, channel righteous indignation because she's better than that.
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Hivemind has control over Hazou's logos, but I don't know whether we can affect his emotions as well. But I haven't been here long enough to actually know whether it was attempted before and what were the results. @faflec?
 
TarzanNn said:
@Halberdier, awesome start, man!

One question though - can we really do this one:



Hivemind has control over Hazou's logos, but I don't know whether we can affect his emotions as well. But I haven't been here long enough to actually know whether it was attempted before and what were the results. @faflec?
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faflec said:
Time to talk about Kagome's actions
  • Get mad.
  • Kagome, enough of this "stinkers" shit. That's the word he always uses when it's time to stop treating someone like a human being and you're sick of it.
  • Kagome calls Minami a 'dumbbutt' so he don't have to feel bad about what he tried to do. Well it was attempted murder and it was wrong.
  • Everyone on this team has done things that are wrong because we thought it was that or die. Okay. We're all ninjas, all killers, all terrible.
  • But this wasn't 'do or die'. This was trying to murder a fellow member of our new village because you thought there might be some danger from something she knew under hypothetical circumstances far in the future.
  • Fuck that. And you know what, fuck the idea that it's "legitimate" for a clan to kill an innocent bystander who did nothing wrong to protect its secrets.
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Spoilers: It happened.
 
Cariyaga said:
I mean, you can IRL.
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Believe me, I did, but adults tend to frown upon children wielding high-energy compounds and working around that was a huge inconvenience. I probably did more damage circumventing stupid restrictions than anything I would have done if I had simply been allowed to. It can be difficult to explain that the hacking cough really is going to resolve on its own without admitting that it is because the looted AC adapter you used in the electrolysis system you Jerry-built to generate the perchlorate nobody was willing to just let you buy didn't sufficiently smooth the rectified current and the consumer-grade laundry bleach you were forced to use as the reagent didn't like that.
 
Velorien said:
Bear in mind that the plan in question presented, admittedly in reverse order, instructions which Hazō could follow with a plausible outcome of getting mad. Omitting those instructions would be like saying "rob a bank" without further details.
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[+] Rob A Bank
  1. Open a rift into the Out.
  2. Jump through the rift.
  3. Find a bank. If no bank can be found, repeat steps 1-2.
  4. Rob the bank.
 
Velorien said:
Bear in mind that the plan in question presented, admittedly in reverse order, instructions which Hazō could follow with a plausible outcome of getting mad. Omitting those instructions would be like saying "rob a bank" without further details.
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Right, thanks for the reminder. I'd like to having something like the original 247 happen, because it is both beneficial and clearly in character for Hazou, but you're right that I'm going about it wrong (and it may not make situational sense anyway).
 
faflec said:
[+] Rob A Bank
  1. Open a rift into the Out.
  2. Jump through the rift.
  3. Find a bank. If no bank can be found, repeat steps 1-2.
  4. Rob the bank.
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See? Already 50% less terrible, at least if you don't mind the location of the rift or the state Hazō is in when he jumps through it. (Note: If left unspecified, these things will be up to the QMs.)
 
Now I want Hazou and co to do a literal heist.
 
MMKII said:
Now I want Hazou and co to do a literal heist.
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Say, did we mention that Lizardbreath has a wealthy merchant cousin who happens to have refused Hazō's mother credit when she needed money to support her family and also keeps his ill-gotten gains in a heavily-guarded vault?

Halberdier said:
@Velorien @eaglejarl @OliWhail

When is the ending ceremonies/ banquet/ whatever, is it later that day?
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It's not on the same day as Keiko's match.
 
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