Specifically Incompetent

I’m not against progress. However, I am aware that some gains are connected to unfortunate losses. 

I don’t think many would argue that, throughout history, the division of labor, into many smaller and more specific tasks, enabled specialization and tremendous gains in productivity. Once we decided that not every man needed to be a self-sufficient island, quality of life rose by leaps and bounds. We let the farmers grow the food for all, which enabled doctors to devote their time to become better at dispensing care, and soldiers were free to improve their ability to protect us. Such developments have left the rest of us much more time to contribute in our own special ways, like watching YouTube videos and playing fantasy football.

But as specialization has gone further and further, our individual survival has become entirely dependent on the persistence of the social machine. I can tell you right now, if the manager at my local supermarket loses his keys and cannot open the store, I will perish within a week. I am not capable of catching or growing a single morsel of edible matter.

Worse yet, I think the specialization movement is accelerating. Here’s my evidence: Since most of the adults in my neighborhood are like me, earning a living at some hyper-specialized task that produces essentially no social value, we have enough time on our hands to don costumes and stroll the neighborhood with our kids on Halloween (only the farmers, doctors, and soldiers need to work dependable schedules). As recently as two years ago, I recall the mobs of children moving in an orderly and systematic fashion, up one side of a street and down the other, hitting each street in sequential order, and effectively canvassing the neighborhood. 

This year? I saw the little brats engaged in an exercise of ad hoc randomness, wandering from one lit up house to another, zigzagging, doubling back, and missing a great many houses all together. What do I blame? Google, of course. They have specialized "search" and reduced our dependence on organization.

The gains of “search capabilities” have come with the loss of ingrained, organized thinking and systematic intellectual classification. Prior to search, we had to keep track of information like which houses we had looted, and therefore, we approached Halloween festivities in a systematic manner. Today, kids are clearly not learning to store information in an organized way because they can just search for it.

Pretty scary Halloween for me.

English Majors

It's such a shame that the term "English Major" has come to imply "unemployability" in our modern, capitalist society.

I read somewhere that a degree in the humanities almost guarantees your ticket to a long and rewarding career as a Starbucks barrista.   Perhaps this is true, but it imposes an artificial perspective that a degree is only useful as a means to employment.  I think a much better perspective is that an education enriches your life in many ways; the prospect of employment is only one of them.

The New York Times ran a great piece today defending the value of an English degree.  The author focuses on the development of clear thinking and written expression as a core benefit.  I have to agree.  As a hiring manager, I rule out more candidates for poor writing and unfocused thought than for any other reason.  Were I graduating today with a degree in the humanities, I would be sure to emphasize this with prospective employers.  Well-honed communication skills are not going to develop naturally on the job; candidates either developed them as students or they are likely never to have them.

I was thinking about employability yesterday as I observed this guy above, just outside my hotel in Toronto.  He put on a Spock costume, stood in a high pedestrian zone where the ferry boats unload, and hovered around a bucket labeled "donations".  In the time it took me to eat lunch, he must have hauled in a couple hundred dollars.  Nearby, there was a guy in a black suit with red suspenders.  I don't think he looked like a TV character;  his gimmick was that he stood really still.  I think he only made about a hundred bucks during the 20 minutes I watched.

I don't know why I jumble these two topics together.  If I had a degree in English, I could probably offer a lucid explanation of why they are somehow related in my mind.  On the one hand, society doesn't owe anyone anything just because they are educated; everyone must create value in order to get paid.  On the other hand, many employers seem to overlook the value-creating abilities of clear-thinking English majors, which I see as a shame.

Spock caught my attention because his case doesn't fit either of my statements above -- I can't discern what value he is creating, but he is getting paid.

Haunted Hotels

I recently stumbled across this list of the world's Top 10 Haunted Hotels and, to my surprise, I've visited 3 of the top 10, and stayed in two of them multiple times.

While I didn't know that the Banff Springs Hotel (pictured above) had such a reputation, I was well aware (and in fact warned) about the history of the Hyatt in Taipei.  I probably stayed there about 2 dozen times on trips to Taiwan.

My Taiwanese colleagues always told me these same two stories, both of which they swore to be true.  First, the hotel was allegedly built, after great controversy, on a grave yard.  Second, in the first year after opening, three different guests committed suicide in the same room.

I admit that's a little spooky, but, if they ever make a Bed and Breakfast out of Tin Man's house in East Jay, Maine, that venue will surely shoot to the top of this list.  I am sure that imaginary reader Ryer agrees.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

While I consider myself fairly well grounded and generally capable of keeping the world in perspective, I admit that I am not immune to certain petty aggravations. I have alluded to such petty aggravations in previous posts when I was annoyed at Starbucks and when I was bewildered by our national caffeine obsession.

I snapped the photo above yesterday, while feeling both annoyed and bewildered. Naturally, it happened at Starbucks.

I went in with my 12 year-old and our brief visit was, in part, a reward for her completion of a very challenging but successful year in school. I should note that I was feeling a little disheartened that she considered Starbucks to be a destination of such high interest. As we entered, my fears about the corruptive influences of hyper-consumerism and peer-pressure were just below the surface.

Once inside, I was forced to wait in a long line of fashionistas, ordering incredibly ridiculous sounding concoctions, that took a long time to make and were, by all logical measures, way over-priced. I began to feel disappointed in the collective intelligence of my community, impatient about waiting for something I didn't personally think was worth waiting for, and pessimistic about the bleak future of humanity. But I pressed on.

After we ordered and positioned ourselves at the end of the bar where the drinks are served, I snapped the picture above.  As you can see, there was a crowd of children awaiting expensive caffeinated drinks. It struck me as wrong on every level.

In all honesty, I don't feel like I can afford to frequent Starbucks on a regular basis. Technically, I have the funds available; I just don't think coffee that costs $4/cup is a good value, and I don't think one should make a habit out of low value activities. Starbucks is convenient and always available when you need a coffee, but how can a 12 year old afford to pop in daily on the way to school?

One of those silly drinks plus a pastry (the standard order I observed) costs about $7, which is $35 per school week. I'm pretty sure you can lease a Honda for that amount.  How can 12 year-olds who have never worked a day in their lives, afford more than me, a haggard old duffer who has worked 70 hour weeks for the past 20 years?

What is wrong with this picture?

Real People, Real Life

I love it when real people are faced with an unexpected challenge and their natural reaction is honest and admirable.  It's even better when the whole incident is caught on film, their decision process plays out on their face, and the final result is noble and just.

Imaginary reader "Aunt Rose" called just such an instance to my attention today...enjoy!

NASA Junior High School

So I'm not saying that all NASA employees are still in Junior High School, just the ones currently controlling the Mars Rover, an $800 million dollar remote control vehicle for exploring the red planet.

Apparently, once the requisite samples were drawn from the planet's crust, measurements of the atmosphere were completed, and the general topography of the terrain was mapped, someone stepped away from the joystick and the Junior High kids took over the controls.

Dont believe me?  Check it out...

As you can see, these kids quickly maneuvered the Rover around to draw a large penis in the red sand, backed it away, and snapped a photo, which they immediately transmitted home and posted to their facebook accounts.  Unfortunately, all of the bloggers with Junior High mentalities then predictably downloaded the photo, and further amplified the foolery by promoting the image to their imaginary readers.

Lawyers Finding New Ways to Die

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Lawyers need to make a living and inventing new ways to blame corporations for accidents is great for business.  In fact, helping corporations protect themselves from lawyers who would blame them is also quite profitable.

This is a photo of an actual sign, on an actual gas pump, where I actually bought some gas recently.

What I want to know is this:  Has any gas-pump patron ever spontaneously combusted when static electricity ignited the fumes around the pump?  Ever?

Think about the waste in this folly.  Consider the time and effort some commercial team had to put into the consideration of this warning, the legal fees and effort associated with drafting the message, the design, printing and distribution of stickers for all the pumps across the nation that now bear this sticker.    What an utter, misguided waste of effort.

I think this was at the root of Auggie's rant back in 2009 when he wrote about "The Blame Game".

Overall, I think we have a pretty good legal system compared to others around the world.  I also think that it is systematically exploited by profit-minded lawyers.

Spring!

No better way to welcome spring than to have a couple of business meetings, on a park bench, in the shadow of a shiny MLB stadium. Actually, there are probably many better ways to welcome spring, but I went with the park bench thing.

This is Petco Park in San Diego, one of the nicer stadiums I have visited (and the nicest one, in the shadow of which, I ever conducted business)

Day Feels Scientific

Some people denote today as "Pi Day" day. This is based on the fact that today's date (3/14) represents the first digits in the numerical representation of the (inexact, surrogate) fraction 22 over 7, commonly denoted as "Pi" by Greek mathematicians. We all learned that Pi represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter, a number approximately equal to 3.14.

Adding to the day's scientific feel is the fact that Albert Einstein, the first scientist to reach rock star celebrity status, was born on this day in 1879.

For my part, I will contribute to the minor celebrations by sharing this minimalist artist representation of his likeness. The image is from Noma Bar, her collection of such images is worth browsing.

For those of you who favor the arts over the sciences, your day is tomorrow: the ides of March.  Imaginary readers who taught English in the Knox area will appreciate this.

Cats are Jerks

No need to elaborate. Read the title, watch the video, close the case.