Ruminating Out Loud

Daniel Lyons, who runs, or used anyway, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, argues in a post at Newsweek that there is no money to be made in blogging and chronicles the ~ 2 years of engagement that he has invested before getting burned out and deciding to quit.

The whole article strikes me as a good example of a case where one misses the forest for the tree. I consider blogging to be a medium of communication and a platform for engagement in self-expressions. The value in the process or the final product is not the intrinsic revenue that may be drawn from the distracting ads buried inside the content. I do not think it is even the content of the pages where these expressions are being poured in. I believe it is in the connection that is established between the audience and the creator. It is the establishment of a two-way dependence of attention-giving; the dependence of the creator in the interaction with the audience to draw inspiration for further creative endeavors and the dependence of the audience on the creator to obtain the intellectual and artistic stimulation of self, and hence draw pleasure from the experience of viewing and reviewing contents of the pages. When this interdependence is successfully established it has a way of resulting in rewards, monetary or otherwise, for the creator.

I think there needs be a paradigm shift in the way monetization of content on the web is accomplished. All the current models rely on the expectation of and banking on the distraction of visitors of a given page by clicking through ads to generate revenue. I think the working model for the future is one of interdependence and loyalty that is established between a creator and an audience. If I am sold on the stimulation that I receive from a given blogger or author, the likelihood of I spending money to see him/her speak in person and buy a published content by him/her is high. In this sense, the future of paper and web publishing will find a way to complement one another and co-exist with out friction. I suspect that the ease with which information can be spread and low-cost publishing can be accomplished through the internet allows for it to be used as an enticing tool. I think a blogger or a web-based newspaper at large should focus more in becoming more relevant and almost indispensable. The one consequence of the explosion of Null Information is that there will always be a tremendous amount of value in the gathering, consolidation, and synthesis of information. The more effectively one accomplishes this task, i.e. the more valuable the content of a blog is, the more meaningful following it garners and the easier it will be to translate it in to a source of sustenance.

There is one phenomenon that I find to be intriguing. It is the issue of limited perception that we experience in our day to day lives. The best manifestation of this is how we see the persons we are introduced to in our sphere of interaction everywhere once they have been brought to our attention. Has it ever happened to you? Whether at school or workplace, there have been a few instances where a person who co-inhabits the same space for quite a long time without it being known to us. For all we know the same persons frequent the spaces that we spend a significant portion of our lives completely oblivious to us. Then suddenly, once they are brought to our attention, we start to see them everywhere. What does that say about the human experience and how perceptive we are to our surroundings? Is there a limit to how information that is all around us is brought into bearing meaning? Is the learning process one that requires a conscious acknowledgement of the process? All these are questions that I have no answer to. I find them to be intriguing nonetheless.

Where does hope begin and when does it lend itself to believing and certainty? Can one afford to take risk if failure means losing all? For hope to be effectual, I believe it is a human instinct to need an insurance against future ambitions to align our thoughts and dreams into one or limited targets. The vision in the minds-eye that one can see and the safety-net one feels in the imagination of the fruits of a labor being applied at a goal and ambition are crucial in sustaining ones hope about a future outcome. But, that is only where hope finds sustenance. The birth place of hope requires the fertile ground for meeting the mundane everyday survival needs. I think it is in human nature not to take leaps of faith without the knowledge that the fall from failing to meet the goal is less than catastrophic. In some instances it may just be the realization that even when one fails, the basic needs for survival like food and shelter can easily be met.

Insurance in life is the less-than-desirable outcome and the fall-back position. So, what separates the pioneer from the rest? The answer to that rests in the impatience the leaders, trend-setters, and pioneers have with the status-quo. That feeling of restlessness can propel one into a state of willingness to take the fall in the knowledge if all else fails, there is still the status-quo to fall back to.

You would think that the honorable Justice Clarence Thomas would find in him the strength to at least stay awake through the inauguration speech. Well, if you thought that, you would be wrong. Thanks to this high resolution photography on that historic day, you can have a glorious view of a people attentively hanging onto every word the president said and those like Justice Thomas who disgraced themselves.

Asleep at the Inauguration

I have come to realize that a number of actions President Barack Obama takes require meditative reflection in order to grasp the full measure of the intention and desired outcome behind them. The hyperventilated punditry, which passes for media and analysis these days and has been so common place in the past some odd years, seems to be finding itself incapable of appreciating the strength of drive and the intellectual fortitude behind the decisions the president makes and the way he goes about executing them. He is a grand master; they, novice players of chess. They say great ones can see the whole game play itself out over multiple moves. They have a keen insight into the tango of action-reaction and move-counter move dances of thought and will played out on a chess board. I believe that the president exhibits similar characteristics in the arena of leadership and shaping public perception.

They said his inauguration speech was bland – lacking poetry and oratorical flourishes. These are the same people who were accusing him of being empty on specifics and all about speeches and words. They said words are easy, where is the beef. They had it really backwards. Whether you are chess player or a fighter in combat, understanding the opposing side and knowing the characteristics traits and tendencies give one the upper hand paving the way to a seamless victory. From the outset of his campaign for the presidency, he wrote and talked about the smallness of the politics as it was being practiced, which he believed was in direct contrast to the magnitude of the challenges facing the nation. He knew there was a yearning to believe again; to believe again in the yes-we-can mentality. There was a yearning for rekindling the hope and aspiration and dream of a world that could be in spite of the world as it is. There was a yearning for a political system that works; a system that is more capable of solving big problems than one engaged in a tit-for-tat game of blamocracy. There was also a generation yearning for inspiration to challenge oneself and provide meaning and purpose to life. He clearly knew that. He rightly sensed that the issue was not the absence of a multi-point policy prescription or a plan of one kind or another. He channeled the dreams and hopes of many and articulated his messages into melodic symphonies of words that are so uplifting, which leave the listeners levitated and overcome with emotions. That was one presidential campaigning and half.

Then, the inauguration arrived in a moment that is as equally challenging and intransigent for a system that is broken as it is to a people who have come to expect little from government. With the majority converted and the rest willing to lend a hearing, he was set with the challenge of communicating the hardship facing our nation while reminding us all of the glorious past and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that have been overcome in the unlikely experimentation is self-governance and organization that is America. The symbolic significance of his rise to the highest office in the land was self-evident in his image and needed no proclamation. In this regard, I was reminded of his acceptance speech for the democratic nomination in which he referred to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a young preacher from Atlanta, which the self-aggrandizing elements of the black community predictably riled up against. How could he dare not mention his name, they exclaimed. How could he shy away from the dark history of race relations in this country, they asked. When asked by Steve Kroft a similar question, the president in response said “I think people notice that… I think people understood the significance of that…” It is also that depth of insight not to blabber the obvious and let moments speak for themselves that characterized his inauguration speech. There was no need for poetry. Nor was there a need to engage in a collective-kumbaya-moment. The people who where there and the billions of eyes glued to their televisions knew the arrival of a new historical demarcation. They also knew that not only America, but also the world is amidst troubled economic times. The task at hand was not to provide an escape from that reality. It was one of facing challenges with grit and determination in the knowledge that this too shall pass. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met,” he inspired a people.

Then, in recent past there have also been few examples where some of his decisions were met with a quick anger, only to be brought to light in their full significance with the advantage of  hindsight. A prime example is the mini-controversy around his selection of the Rev. Rick Warren for providing the invocation and opening prayers for the inauguration ceremony. Those on the left we fired up for all the wrong reasons. How could such a person be given a platform that is as grand as this, they asked. I sense that it was not lost on the president that the Rev. Warren believes in truths drawn from the strict adherence to the bible. What could a preacher of the bible be expected to believe in after all? Yet, I think it was also clear to him that Rev. Warren cares not just about issues such as gay marriage and abortion, which have lately been adopted as being defining litmus tests for what constitutes as christian and moral values, but also about those of social justice. The president realized the task at hand was to bring about more understanding and accommodation. Bridging the gap between those caring about one issue or another and getting them to come closer is what the president seems to be good at. I can not help but think that Rev. Warren was left touched by the gesture extended to him. I read somewhere that some of the less agreeable language was taken of his website in the aftermath his selection. I sense that those who were so offended by his  selection were probably better served by it than would have been otherwise. Then, the other day we heard that he granted the first formal interview as a president to an Arabic television network. Some found this odd and weak. But, he realizes the fight against the religious extremists is not just one of conquering land and military engagement. It is one of winning the hearts of those who are willing to listen. Such an action broadens the avenues of communication and provides a higher platform for engagement and understanding. It is precisely these types of actions that steal innocent minds from the dangerous brainwashing that is fed by the extremists to perpetuate their destructive agenda.

The distinguishing quality of the president, which should have become apparent to many long before, is that he is not afraid to face big challenges. I sense that he realizes greatness is not for the faintest of hearts; it is earned by those who see the significance and consequence of their actions in the immediate future, but also take them with a methodical and precise understanding of their effects in the long run. That is what makes him the chess player at heart and an effective leader. Those who continue to underestimate and lose sight of the less-than-obvious intentions and wit of the president find themselves as being a minor footnote of history as he continues to trail-blaze an uncharted path into greatness.

The saying goes ignorance is a bliss. That, however, is referencing to the type of ignorance that is beyond the control of  oneself – the type of ignorance that one can be availed of up on proper educationing. It also points to the lack of knowledge about the existence of the ignorance itself.

In a heated discussion about the state of human affairs, a friend once confided in me that he continuously chooses to not be aware of the happenings around the world. He said he willingly chooses to be ignorant. He said he would rather not know for with knowledge comes responsibility and the awakening of a compassionate consciousness. Once awakened, that consciousness renders one restless in pursuit of seeking for alleviation of the ills of the world, or induce a type of guilt that takes the joy out of life, he stated. I was amazed by this claim for I hardly ever gave much thought to willful ignorance.

Surprised and puzzled as I was by that admission, I could not understand the reasoning behind it. That is a manifestation of the highest level of selfishness, I thought. I thought it was distinctively a necessary part of evolution that our collective existence depends on our ability to learn about, relate to, and care for one another. A mind that seizes to learn and a soul that stops to care are surely of a dying variety detached for communal existence, I thought. If we stopped to care to even inform ourselves about the demise of the less fortunate, what is to become of us? I asked: What is to become of us when we stopped to lend sympathy to the needy? Are we losing the communal fabric that clothes us together? I could not answer these questions. Can you?

Fractional distillation is a process by which crude oil is extracted from the belly of the Earth, refined and desegregated into its multiple components.  A more elaborate explanation about the process is found in the video above. The topic I wish to discuss about is far from the actual process of distillation. It is not even related to the grand energy challenge that we face, as central an aspired focus as it is to ROL. If there is any parallel to be drawn with previously discussed topics, it is one of relating scientific concepts to other endeavors of human experience, as can be seen here and here.

The topic I wish to ROL about is one of drive, refinement, and success. The distinguishing characteristics of fractional distillation is that the boiling point of the various constituents of crude oil are dissimilar due to their respective unique molecular weight. The heavier components tend to have the lower boiling point and are evaporated out of the bottom end of the distillation column. The lighter components endure the length of the column with agility and flight until the hotter sections of the column are reached and they are finally liberated from the crude composition.

It dawned on me: Is it not the same with success? Is it not the same with perseverance? Is it not the same with endurance? There is one trait that I think is a driving force for any form of accomplishment: drive. The willingness and eagerness to continue to work at an issue is what is the equivalent of the molecular weight of the crude oil components. I will lay the following claim from the outset: The underlying universal rule of life is that perseverance pays off. It may be a delayed return to effort expended now. It may even be a goal never realized, a dream never reached, and a life toiled with pain and suffering. In the process of it, even absent the desired outcome, one gets a sense of mission and direction to life that would not have existed otherwise. Indeed, those who persevere and perspire arrive at long last to the exaltation and fruition of their dreams, if not in their life times, but generations later. They lay the foundation on which the giants of the future scale to higher ideals and places of existence.

It takes more than a goal to get a want fulfilled. It takes the agility and flexibility and the high boiling point to make it to the higher strata of a destiny. For a destiny to be realized, some of the molecular weight bearing down on us needs to be shed – the low self-esteem and expectations need to be unveiled; the fear of rejects and failure conquered, and a sense of unwavering direction and commitment built. Only when that weight is let go can the soul be freed to flights of fancy and imagination. Only when the “yes we can” mentality sears deep down and holds root, can a son of a single mother and a goat herder aspire to be  and become the leader of the free world.

Distillation has consequences. It is fundamentally a process of refinement. As such, it discriminates against the components of the crude oil based on one primary trait. Life is much like that. Life has an exacting efficiency in distinguishing between the driven and the rest. It is ruthless in endowing opportunities on the prepared and rewarding the successful. A drive, however, is the not the only consequential trait as one could argue that there are many examples of suffering peoples despite efforts. There are examples of farmers who go hungry not for the lack of drive, but the absence of timely arrival of natural rain. There is a kid who will grow up amounting to little productivity not for the lack of drive, but the negative externalities of policy failures. Indeed, one could even argue that there are many that land on success by virtue of inheritance. In spite of these examples to the contrary, I still hold that life is really a process of fractional distillation for the misfortune of unrewarded labor is only a symptom of failed societal organization. And the landing on success without the refinement process leaves one devoid of the sense of purpose for existence. I say life is all about refinement and distillation. The winners rip the benefits of attaining, if not delayed gratification, the compass and meaning for life. The losers and the short-cutters waste away a life destined for greatness if only they could climb up the distillation column.

In the physical sense, levitation is a defiance of nature. It is a defiance of gravity; a force that is as powerful as any keeping us firmly aground and ensuring the working order of the small and grandiose stretching out to the heavenly bodies. Then, there is also levitation in the emotional sense. I am referring to the agility of thought and the free-floating of ideas and the liberation of a mind that is in the know. Therein lies the yearning at the boundary between ignorance and enlightenment; the desire to grow and mature and be lead, the seeking for a cause greater than the self, and the attainment of meaning to life.

Levitation is also an achievement of a state of freedom and uplift. That is the metaphor that came to mind in thinking about the inspirational values of speeches given over the years by gifted orators, who have the access to language and delivery and the precision in their economy of use of words. I was reminded of the levitation they provide in the uplifting of a spirit and hope and the renewal of purpose and sense of direction. More so after listening again to the “I have a dream” speech of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and superimposing it to the speeches of Barack Obama leading up to his arrival in Washington D.C. for his inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. The confluence of a call for liberation stretching from then to now is palpable. Rev. King dreamed of a day when people would be judged  “not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.” He sought for the awakening of a society and the liberation of a people. Soon-to-be-President Obama challenged a nation for new kind of independence.; an independence of the self. He said, America needs “a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives — independence from ideology and small thinking, independence from prejudice and bigotry, independence from selfishness.”

That is what great leaders provide. They do not fulfill every unmet need. They rarely meet all the excess expectations of success or the subdued fears of failure. The great ones call on a people with a grand vision and provide a guiding light and direction. They provide a forward momentum of commitment and a watchful eye of supervision and provision. The good ones know the values of their words  and the power of their language. They channel them to great effect in communicating a message of pain and sorrow, hopes and dreams, and vision and purpose. They quench the thirst and yearning for levitation.

Before the magic happens

and the sense of elation descends

a calming breath blows

the winds of uncertainty

a moment of doubt and incredulity

disbelief, devoid of equanimity.

Then, suddenly, the magic happens

clearing the fogs of ignorance

endowing the gratification of patience

the orgasmic explosion of euphoria

sets in the knowledge of knowing

a mind is liberated

a soul revived

a person re-born, from strongholds of illiteracy

That is when the magic happens

with rapture and joy conceived of brain sex.

.

Time has a photo-essay entitled “Obama’s Nation of Hope” by Christopher Morris. The following photograph grabbed my attention. In one simple image the transcendental ideal that is America is shown being breathed into life from a historical giant, Abraham Lincoln, to a boy who firmly retains his balance while gazing higher up; the continuity of perfection of the union goes on with great promise and a new birth of freedom and a new beginning.

Mightier than the sword

You can imagine my surprise, given my take on the current state of leadership in Africa, when I learned that Archbishop Desmond Tutu believes:

Obama himself embodies the best African tribal values. Remarking on Obama’s dignity, patience, and inclusiveness, Tutu noted that these traits reflect “the African in him.”

The African in him is the one who is making him ask, “What is the consensus?” That’s the African way at its best. The good leader in Africa is the leader who keeps quiet and lets others speak and then says at the end, “I have heard you all, and this is our mind.”

I find this thinking to be quite disconcerting and teachable. On one side, there is Africa made of the people who may indeed be patient, accommodating, inclusive, considerate, and truly remarkable in demonstration of dignity and endurance in suffering and humiliation. Before that thought settled in my mind, I was reminded of what disturbed me about this comment in the first place: The sweeping generalization that is as stereotypical as it is Utopian, idealistic and irrational. I think it is foolish to be speaking of the “African” way doing of anything. Africa is not monolithic. There is no one uniform culture or way of life in the continent, which is as vast in its geography as it is in the diversity of its tribes and cultures.

Moreover, the suffering that is prevalent all across the continent is not all the fault of past aggressions and current interferences by foreign powers. At the root of all the crisis that is ravaging the continent is the lack of all the qualities Tutu ascribes as being “the African way.” There is an incredible lack of dignity, patience, and inclusiveness in the leadership class across the continent. “The good leader in Africa is the leader who keeps quiet..,” says Tutu. The Africa I know is infested with leaders that are barking at each others throats with the mouthpieces of their guns. “What is the consensus?” That’s the African way at its best, says Tutu. The African way I know that is reality is filled with examples of I-know-it-all way of doing business.

I do not blame the Archbishop for thinking this way though as the people are fundamentally descent, as are others living on other continents; endowed with thousands of years of history and glory and prided with the diversity of cultures that is unparalleled. The irony is that the leadership that has been the cause of the stagnation suffocating the life out of the continent is in direct contrast with this reality.

Once in a while, one lets go of personal guard and allows imagination and wishful thinking to take over. Sadly, I think the Archbishop was just reflecting on the Utopian African way that is as real as Barack Obama is African.

It is not the food Africa is starved of, for there is plenty waiting to be equitably distributed. It is not water Africa is thirsting of, for rivers flood all across the land. It is not for the lack of means of any kind – earth-bound or alive. There is only one cancer that is the root cause of all evil: Africa is raped by poverty of leadership.

Raped by egoistic, selfish, and ignoramus buffoons who pretend to stand for her; humiliated world-over; left behind to die impoverished and in despair; stained by the blood of innocents falling victim to violence, cruelty, and lawlessness; hemorrhaging her precious resources – living and non-living.

Bloodied, exposed, and defiled by the ruthlessness of her own; helpless and powerless in exploitation; shamed by plagues and misery: Africa is raped by poverty of compassionate leadership.

A play-ground for aggressors and opportunists, exploited and sold, with bleeding arteries that became boarders between nations: Africa is raped by poverty of courageous leadership.

With potentials unfulfilled, promise unrealized, lands un-tilled and deforested, ravaged by civil-wars among brothers and sisters,  dependent on remission and gifts, an empty basket filled with hope and faith: Africa is raped by poverty of visionary leadership.

Africa is raped by poverty of leadership!

I failed utterly in my attempt to locate it now. It is hidden in the vast confines of the Null Information. It was an advertisement for the city of Chicago. The narrator in the ad says something to the effect of: most cities like to measure growth in charts and graphs. We like to use something more concrete; like concrete. Then, the ad spans through the multitudes of high rises gracing the sky of Chicago that are, needless to say, made of concrete.

Now, you may ask what does that have to do with wealth itself. Well, the answer is concrete. The essential message of the ad that remained stuck with me is the connection made between prosperity and advancement with a more tangible measure of wealth, like the one made of concrete. Starkly contrasted against this message, suddenly I was reminded of the recent news about the big debacle in the stock market which robbed the populace in wealth amounting to $7 trillion dollars within the past year; a presumed wealth and capital on paper that somehow evaporated into thin air. It is bewildering as to how one year a country could be rich by the tune of trillions of dollars (that is half the GDP of the U.S.!), then lose it the next year. Where did that money ginormous money go? How did it seize to exist?

It is the thought about and answers to those questions that brought flashes of that ad flooding back from memory and the desire for a more substantive look into what is the stock market.I have neither the expertise nor the inclination to write a treatise on the working principles of the stock market. Here, I will just attempt to put down my reflections about it and tie it to the message of that Chicago ad and the big debacle.

Frequently, we hear that the stock market went down by this many percentage points and up by another. In fact, it was reported that since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, “the S.& P. has moved more than 5 percent in either direction on 18 days. There were only 17 such days in the previous 53 years, according to calculations by Howard Silverblatt, an index analyst at S.& P.” Well, that may represent an extreme form of fluctuation in recent past, which by itself is worthy of another exploration and will not be covered here. However, the underlying susceptibility for fluctuation is what I find intriguing. Let alone well informed economists, even the lay (wo)men by now know that the U.S. economy is under significant duress. The structural issues that are causing the recession have been gathering strength over the years and will most likely take years to be corrected. During this time period, all sorts of statistics are released every now and then describing the symptoms of a slowed down economy that is in recession. And there goes the stock market wildly swinging all over the  place as if no body knew that unemployment numbers are going to be grim at best, company profits, if any, are going to be significantly curtailed, and dept and bankruptcies rates are going to be rising. Every time a new piece of information comes out describing the illness in the economy, everyone acts surprised and the stock market takes a nose dive. Then, there are also cases of an up swing out of no where that are based on flimsy developments that have little effect in addressing the fundamental problems with the economy; only to be wiped out again at the next announcement of a bad news. That fluctuation and the inherent capability for the stock market to be swung one way or another are what give me grief about it. As a measure of wealth, it is completely intangible and vaporous. I suspect that is also why such an astounding amount of “wealth” can be wiped out in such a short period of time. That leaves one to wonder as to whether the yardstick for measure of prosperity and wealth is misplaced or not. Is the hope of a better future or a retirement age based one a rosy scenario analysis of long term and sustained growth in the stock market completely misguided? I think it is. One only needs to look at the persons who are nearing or at retirement age now and are in desperate need of using the hard-earned income that they have been pouring into the stock market and are finding that it has evaporated. Is it any way for, let alone individuals, for institutions to be relying on and hope to draw their sustainability from the stock market? I think not.

Part of me yearns for more concrete. The stubborn thing about concrete is that it remains where you left it, barring some unforeseen natural disaster, which by the way can potentially be overcome by employing smart building codes. It is there in the good times and bad. It is there in sickness or health. It does not suddenly evaporate one day and seize to exist. It is indeed as lasting a measure of wealth and prosperity as one can get. The Colosseum in Rome, the obelisks in Axum, the Parthenon in Athens, the pyramids of Giza, and many others are historic truths that have proclaimed and shall remain to tell about the state of advancement of a people. The message of that Chicago ad harkens back and, I think, is in desperate need to be applied not just to Chicago, but the U.S. and the global economy at large. Would it not be nice if we had a more concrete way to measure wealth instead of charts and graphs of the latest ups and downs in the stock market? Would it not be great if only we used more concrete? I would say yes!

This is the time of the year when we start discovering that we have set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. It is the time when that new year resolution that was set in the spirit of excitement and desire for self-improvement slowly slips from the grasp of reality. It is the time for an awakening; a realization of limitation.

Resolutions and goals are intrinsically expression of desire for an upward progress in fulfillment. When they are properly set and utilized, they have a channeling effect on our focus and resources towards meaningful ends. In fact, a life without goals is one that is aimlessly wandering and drifting with every-which-wave that splashes across the shores. The failure is in not reconciling the current state of being with the final destination that one aspires to get to. There is the omission of and obliviousness to the process it takes to get there. It is in the course of that process a winner is made, excellence is achieved, bad habits conquered, and relationships built. It is that hard-work that is not taken into account when the new year resolution is proclaimed.

With regard to resolutions and finding ways to effectively keep them, it is teachable to explore the issue of gifts, talent, and world-class performance. The first misconception about success, I think, is gifts and talents are desired by many and possessed by few. The thinking goes that athletic abilities, agility, dexterity, and reflexes are all endowed by creation. You can aspire to be a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods or a Michael Phelps or a Ronaldinho. Such pursuit leaves one exactly at one place, aspiration. That the life long preparation nurtured by environment only helps sharpen and polish a pre-existing set of skills that allows one to excel. They say a leader is born, not made. You can spire to be a Barack Obama. But, that kind of aspiration leaves one only at one place, imitation. These pronouncements are partially true in that it is highly unlikely for one to achieve a similar level of impact, let alone duplicate the success achieved by any number of these people. The key, however, is in the realization that the inspiration Barack Obama is to millions and the power he holds in his ability to communicate effectively, although cultivated through years of engagement with people of various backgrounds, is unique unto him. The abilities any number of athletes have and the package of skills they demonstrate in their craft is uniquely shaped by the environment they were brought up in and the life long coaching and preparation that has gone into accentuating their gifts and talents.

I believe excellence is a manifestation of unique gifts endowed by creation that for the most part wither undiscovered. I wonder what would have been of Roger Ferderer if he had not picked up a tennis racket; what would have been of Tiger Woods if he had not be handed a set of golf clubs; what would have been of Isaac Newton if he had not stumbled upon the thoughts about the issue of gravity; what would have been become of any person that is the epitome of excellence and a standard of high achievement. It is in musing about such scenarios that I have come to believe that there is a hidden unexplored potential that is waiting to be discovered; anxious to come alive and change the world. What distinguishes those that excel and those that fail to capitalize on the hidden gift and talent is the recognition of current level of abilities and the desire to continue to improve. Such marriage of reality with ambition is what results in sustained improvement resulting in remarkable accomplishments. It is what is lacking in the the wishful thinking that is new year’s resolution to many. The other factor is the impatience with status quo. Apparently, Obama was told that he was too young and inexperienced; that it was not his turn. He should just wait for a few election cycles before he ventures into such a grand adventure. Michael Jordan was apparently warming the bench at his college basketball team and Tom Brady as wallowing as a backup quarterback before he stepped into greatness by seizing the opportunity he had to start. It is that ability and readiness to excel that differentiates the “talented” from the rest of us. It is the impatience to self-improve and not simply settle for mediocrity. They are relentless in trying new ideas and overcoming defeats and despair; raising oneself to continue marching on the arch of success and progress.

Therefore, the lesson is that one should not despair about failing to keep a resolution. But, one should assess the current state of being, project a way forward, and commit to the process required to get there. Without that, those resolutions that are not achieved this time around and upcoming ones in the years to ahead will simply be wishful thinking. A wish without work is as thin as air; un-graspable and forever-invisible.

Here is a wonderful example of the application of Laws of Incremental Returns; that a journey of 1000 xm starts with a single step. It presents a schematic of the incremental growth in the size and scope of the International Space Station which is being expanded from the launch of  first module on November 20, 1998:

The first module of the International Space Station launched on November 20, 1998.

to the projected final configuration. All the while defying and employing gravity.

ISS: Proposed final configuration

Below are photographs from the meeting of President-elect Obama with all the living presidents at the Oval office in the  White House. Here is what I find to be striking: The placements of hands as each of them is posing for these and most other photographs from this event. The main contrast is between the hands of Obama, Bush (43), and Clinton. While Obama is clasping his in front, Bush (43)’s are spread out wide by his side in a confident pose. Clinton is standing with his clasped, but out of sight behind his back. And, Bush (41) has his hands in his pocket for the most part. Carter appears to be detached from the whole thing leaving a physical gap between himself and the other four.

What does this all mean? Of course, I am the least bit qualified to draw any meaning from these gestures. However, I could not help, but notice them.

Hemingway famously wrote a six word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never used,” which inspired the collection of six word memoirs. In celebration of the forever expansion of the English language, as marked by the milestone of one million words reached, and the beauty in the economy of selection of words, I have created a page dedicated to the telling of stories in exactly four words. I shall collect them as as I find them. You can participate in this venture by adding your stories in the comments section of the Four Word Stories page.

Please note that this is not to be confused with the four word story game in which participants contribute four words at a time, which aggregated overtime add up to a grand story. The intent here is to create stories that are self-contained within the four words. This is, indeed, a difficult task. Time will tell where this will end up…

Here is another top 10 list via Wired, according to which the “Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2008″ are the following. This information is included here not necessarily as an endorsement of the weight given to these breakthroughs in comparison to others, but to provide an insight into what some of the milestones are that were reached, during the year 2008, in the continued human endeavor to uncover the hidden beauties and mysteries of our universe.

1. Finding ice on Mars

2. Growing a new organ from a patient’s own stem cells

3. Finding another building block of life in our galaxy

4. Curing HIV in Germany

5. Breaking the petaflop barrier

6. Sequencing entire genome of a cancer patient, including tumor

7. Building loudspeakers from carbon nanotubes

8. Marking greenhouse gas levels — 800,000-year high

9. Turning water into fuel

10. Troubleshooting stem cell therapy

Here is an interesting statistics about the unemployment rate for workers with different educational background. As of November 2008, the rate among workers with:

College degree or higher: 3.1 %

Without a high school diploma: 10.5 %

(National average: 6.7 %)

Disappointment; we have all experienced it. Almost always it is a result of the falling short of something to our expectations. It is almost always induced by the action of another human being. We never get disappointed at the weather, or a car that fails to work, or a cat that somehow always seems to find ways to betray us. If we ever find ourselves upset at the action of a non-human being, our disappointment, if there was any, is short-lived and we find it in us to forget about it and move on with life.

As experience go, it is a kind that leaves one in despair, doubtful about self-worth, and shakes the foundation of one’s faith in humanity. There are potentially two sources of disappointment. One is that, indeed, that someone we are disappointed at simply fails to hold up to their end of the bargain. The other is that we unknowingly set an unrealistically high expectation for others, which they simply are not capable of meeting. In either case, the root cause is the divorce between reality and expectation. A friend recently pointed out that he has lost faith in others and that he used to believe the best in people he meets for the first time. Unfortunately, he has been continually disappointed that he has now resorted to believing the worst in others and gradually grading people upwards as they continue to live up to his expectations. I think there is one antidote to disappointment that can be a cure to either case. That is not believing the worst in others, but simply setting low expectations. Much like we do not get disappointed at non-humans, we can assume that someone who we are dealing with is just like a weather, a cat, or a car. That is not denying their humanity by any measure. It is quite simply accepting the fact that we humans are imperfect, prone to making mistakes, and, yes, disappointing others.

Operating in a low-expectation universe has the priceless quality of having a win-win outcome of any human interaction. In the event that someone does not live up to their promise, we have already prepared ourselves to avoid disappointment a priori. We do not set ourselves for disappointment. This outcome is one of avoidance of disappointment. The other outcome of an interaction is that someone lives up to their promise. In that event, we find ourselves to be pleasantly surprised and experience a moment of joy and confidence in humanity. So, I would say, we hold the key to a disappointment-free world. The answer is in thinking about the weather, a car, a cat whenever we are dealing with others.

I believe happiness and contentment are two qualities that are the major sources of sustenance of a human life. Even more so than nourishment and the promise of hope and a better future. As we learned in a previous post, there are practical steps one can take to ensure happiness. I take happiness to be the fruit of satisfaction, the result of a fulfillment of want/need, and the attainment of meaning to life. Contentment is a pathway to happiness. It is the sense of accomplishment and arrival at a desired destination. No wonder that researchers in the area of positive psychology have found that setting meaningful goals and avoiding comparison are key steps at drawing happiness in life.

Happiness and contentment are, however, are fleeting emotions; moving targets needing continued refocusing of effort. In the age where we are inundated with promotional information that is aimed at making one feel incomplete and lacking, achieving these states is a tall order to most. It turns out that marketers have perfected the art of invading and exploiting the gap between a desired and current states of being. In almost all cases, the desired state of being is one that is shaped by societal norms, which have been carefully cultivated over time with the help of promotions themselves. The need for belonging and acceptance are probably the most insanely moving emotions that can persuade one to to acquire anything and everything that can alleviate those feelings. One is made to feel that happiness and contentement would be achieved if only you could buy A, B, and C, if only you could go to a place D, if only you could watch a movie E or a TV program F, if only you could look like a person G, if only you could eat and drink a food type H, and if only… It is a never-ending entrapment; a vicious cycle aimed at creating an alternate reality and perception. The unfortunate consequence of this state of being is that, sure enough, the act of consuming a presumed means to happiness and contentment may give a momentary fix for the craving of belonging and acceptability. However, those senses of fulfillment are short-lived leaving one having to immediately face reality with all its glorious trials and tribulations. The transition from a state of fulfillment to one of depravity helps reinforce the original sin that kicked in the sense of lack and unwantedness in the first place, which in turn creates a state of desperation and anxiety that can only be relieved if the the aforementioned actions are taken again. There is where the trap is set for one to want and need to have something that is not inherently connected to any source of long-lasting happiness and contentment.

Then, one would have to answer how one can achieve happiness and contentment or avoid getting trapped in the perpetual despair-happiness cycle. At the root of the answer to this is the understanding of the primary needs for survival. Our collective evolution overtime has been predicated upon our ability to lead a simple life. That life is one of fulfilling our basic needs of fuel, safety, continuity of existence, and a sense of self-confidence and excellence to navigate a way forward in times of hardship. I believe we have, overtime, built the ability to survive and thrive in moments of despair. We have developed a sense of belonging and community through a collective sharing of responsibilities. The key then is in the realization that there is a reservoir of survival-kits to live on. The battle against the despair-happiness vicious cycle is, therefore, lost is at the moment when one cedes this know-how to those that instill a sense of incompleteness. The battle is lost when one begins to feel inferior because of looking a certain way or coming from a certain background. It is lost when one attempts to deny the natural being he/she is and aspire to look and feel like someone else. That is where the entrapment begins. That is where one steps onto a slippery slope having to be committed to a forever-insurmountable uphill climb. The key, therefore, not to give in. Not to cede any space to information, which instills a sense of inadequacy masked by pronouncements of care and compassion.

Surely, it is a difficult battle to win against. It is a battle between an indvidual and a society backed and shaped by billions of dollars of mass mis-information. To win, one would have to excercise descipline, which is a quality that requires perserverence and self-confidence. Parents can play a prominent role in shaping the world view of childreren as the grow up to help lay the foundation. For those lacking that foundation, let us always remember it is better late than never.  Let us start by not give in to the latest advertised I-steps plan to get there. Let us look within inside and be confident and fulfilled in who we are. Achieving that is already a long way to happiness and contentment.

There is a surging interest in tapping into the collective wisdom of a group. Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, one book summarizes it in a title. The idea behind such thoughts is that the sum of the collection of independent insights is better than that of the individual. The thinking stipulates that the collection of individual inputs results in a type of wisdom, called conventional wisdom, that surpasses that of a well informed individual. There are many examples in multiple human endeavors where this is applicable and are chronicled elsewhere.

For a mathematically-inclined, it does not come as a surprise that, indeed, there is a net positive effect to the aggregation and averaging of inputs over a wide spectrum. The simplest mathematical demonstration I can think of in this regard is the normal (or Gaussian) distribution. Known as “the bell curve,” the Gaussian curve is mother-nature’s way of doing exactly that; the aggregation of the highest outcome about the mean of a certain parameter. According to this formulation, 68.2 % of outcomes lie with in one standard-deviation from the mean, 95.4 % lie with in two standard-deviations from the mean, and e.t.c

In fact, one can cite many examples where the enormity and complexity of a given task is so great that no one or few elites can accomplish it. Here at wolafen, the vast reservoir of facts stored in wikipedia has been utilized as a reference for multitude of topics. The power of the Google search, which is built upon the gathering and interlinking of individual decisions about the relevance and usefulness of pieces of information, is also used to locate information of interest. These are two examples where the wisdom of crowds has been applied to a practical end.

The paradox I see in wisdom of crowds, or conventional wisdom, is in might of predicting outcome and shaping it. Conventional wisdom, by necessity, is not immediately linked to originality. It is a gathering of facts and ideas and organizing it in such a way that it is acceptable to the majority. It is a description of events as they occur in the now. It is an insight into the present collective psyche of a group about a given topic.

I believe no revolutionary or transformational idea is part of conventional wisdom. The type of idea or insight that causes a dislocation in the time evolution of thinking rarely arises from the wisdom of crowds. This is not to be confused with the appearance of some unexpected outcomes as a result of averaging of multiple inputs. That is merely a process of organization. The type of idea I am thinking about is one that is so original that it ends up overturning conventional wisdom and sets its own course for evolution of thought.

It took the standing against conventional wisdom for one to believe and set out to prove that the Earth is not flat and that it is indeed round. It took the standing against conventional wisdom for Newton to believe that the heavenly bodies are governed by the same laws of nature as a falling apple from a tree. It took the standing against conventional wisdom for Louis Pasteur to believe and set humanity free of plagues of diseases by infecting one with same type of microbes that are desired to be fought against in order to induce the development of internal immune system. It certainly took the standing against wisdom of crowds for Barack Obama to decide to run for President of the United States and prove that a non-white and skinny guy with a funny name can rise up to the highest office in the land. Such luminaries have a fundamental effect in the course of the human experience. They provide insights previously unknown. They pave a new course in history. In the process, they shape future outcomes.

That is the paradox at hand. As mighty as one may think conventional wisdom or wisdom of crowds is in organizing our efforts and thoughts, it is beholden and crippled by the same averaging effect that give it its power and limit its ability to shape future outcomes. It appears, despite the prowess of crowds, that the hand of elite few may still have more power in stirring the time evolution of our collective experience.

The drastic losses incurred in the financial markets is one of the prime examples of a major collective human experience during the past year. This particular decline in the stock market value amounting to $7,000,000,000,000, which I would call the big debacle, is discussed in a NY Times article. Excerpt from the article:

…In a mere 12 months, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 4,488.43 points, or 33.8 percent, its most punishing loss since 1931. Blue chips like Bank of America, Citigroup and Alcoa lost more than 65 percent of their value. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index sank 39.5 percent, almost exactly matching its decline in 1937.

All told, about $7 trillion of shareholders’ wealth — the gains of the last six years — was wiped out in a year of violent market swings.

But what is striking is not just the magnitude of the declines, staggering as they are, but also their breadth. All but two of the 30 Dow industrials, Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, fell by more than 10 percent. Almost no industry was spared as the crisis that first emerged in the subprime mortgage market metastasized and the economy sank into what could be a long recession…

The markets have become incredibly volatile, especially since Lehman Brothers sank into bankruptcy in September. Since then, the S.& P. has moved more than 5 percent in either direction on 18 days. There were only 17 such days in the previous 53 years, according to calculations by Howard Silverblatt, an index analyst at S.& P.”

I am impressed by those who engage in a thought process about an experience that is being had. This is a great example of that active form of learning; living and learning simultaneously! Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explains, in a vivid talk given at TED Talks – a reservoir of knowledge, the experience she went through when she “had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one.”

Biography of Dr. Taylor:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness …

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the “Singin’ Scientist.”

… makes the best decision possible. That is according to a study (reporting via physorg.com) out of University of Rochester which has “shown that the human brain—once thought to be a seriously flawed decision maker—is actually hard-wired to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we are given.” 

Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002 Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make rational decisions. Since then, this has become conventional wisdom among cognition researchers

Contrary to Kahnneman and Tversky’s research, Alex Pouget, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has shown that people do indeed make optimal decisions—but only when their unconscious brain makes the choice.

“A lot of the early work in this field was on conscious decision making, but most of the decisions you make aren’t based on conscious reasoning,” says Pouget. “You don’t consciously decide to stop at a red light or steer around an obstacle in the road. Once we started looking at the decisions our brains make without our knowledge, we found that they almost always reach the right decision, given the information they had to work with.”

Pouget says that Kahneman’s approach was to tell a subject that there was a certain percent chance that one of two choices in a test was “right.” This meant a person had to consciously compute the percentages to get a right answer—something few people could do accurately.

Pouget has been demonstrating for years that certain aspects of human cognition are carried out with surprising accuracy. He has employed what he describes as a very simple unconscious-decision test. A series of dots appears on a computer screen, most of which are moving in random directions. A controlled number of these dots are purposely moving uniformly in the same direction, and the test subject simply has to say whether he believes those dots are moving to the left or right. The longer the subject watches the dots, the more evidence he accumulates and the more sure he becomes of the dots’ motion.

Subjects in this test performed exactly as if their brains were subconsciously gathering information before reaching a confidence threshold, which was then reported to the conscious mind as a definite, sure answer. The subjects, however, were never aware of the complex computations going on, instead they simply “realized” suddenly that the dots were moving in one direction or another. The characteristics of the underlying computation fit with Pouget’s extensive earlier work that suggested the human brain is wired naturally to perform calculations of this kind.

“We’ve been developing and strengthening this hypothesis for years—how the brain represents probability distributions,” says Pouget. “We knew the results of this kind of test fit perfectly with our ideas, but we had to devise a way to see the neurons in action. We wanted to see if, in fact, humans are really good decision makers after all, just not quite so good at doing it consciously. Kahneman explicitly told his subjects what the chances were, but we let people’s unconscious mind work it out. It’s weird, but people rarely make optimal decisions when they are told the percentages up front.”

Pouget analyzed the data from a test performed in the laboratory of Michael Shadlen, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Washington. Shadlen’s team watched the activity of a pair of neurons that normally respond to the sight of things moving to the left or right. For instance, when the test consisted of a few dots moving to the right within the jumble of other random dots, the neuron coding for “rightward movement” would occasionally fire. As the test continued, the neuron would fire more and more frequently until it reached a certain threshold, triggering a flurry of activity in the brain and a response from the subject of “rightward.”

Pouget says a probabilistic decision-making system like this has several advantages. The most important is that it allows us to reach a reasonable decision in a reasonable amount of time. If we had to wait until we’re 99 percent sure before we make a decision, Pouget says, then we would waste time accumulating data unnecessarily. If we only required a 51 percent certainty, then we might reach a decision before enough data has been collected.

Another main advantage is that when we finally reach a decision, we have a sense of how certain we are of it—say, 60 percent or 90 percent—depending on where the triggering threshold has been set. Pouget is now investigating how the brain sets this threshold for each decision, since it does not appear to have the same threshold for each kind of question it encounters.”  

The Boston Globe has a breathtaking display of photographs portraying the vastitudes of joy and pain, love and hate, calm and calamities, and peace and terror in the human experience during the year 2008.

2008 has been an eventful year to say the least – it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I’ve done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It’s not thestory of 2008, it’s certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days.”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

As we remember those that are getting swept by the silent tsunamis at distant lands and shores, we should also keep in our hearts and minds those going through the quiet storms that are shaking the foundations of the lives of many in our own backyards.

Yet again, I shall return to the words of President-elect Obama:

…That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers’ keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great tragedy, it’s most evident during times of great hardship, it’s most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control and so it takes it out of the realm of politics. We all understand that we have to come together.

But that spirit can’t just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there’s some folks that are going through their own quiet storms.

…

There’re people out there who’ve seen their jobs shipped overseas. There’re people out there who don’t have healthcare, maybe they’ve been trying to pay it on a credit card but mostly they’ve just been putting off trying to see a doctor. There’re seniors out there that don’t know how they’re going to pay their home heating bill this winter. There are folks out there that don’t know how they’re going to fill up the gas tank. There are young people in this audience right now that have graduated from high school, have the grades and want to go to college, but don’t have the money. There are young people being born in the inner cities, right here in Milwaukee, that don’t see any prospects for the future that think the only path available to them is a casket or a jail cell.

All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.

Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for.”

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the 2004 Tsuinami of the Indian ocean, which caused a tremendous amount of destruction, took the lives of more than 200,000 people, and caused the displacement of many others. It was a moment that shall remain transfixed in the collective imagination of all the people. In a previous post, we have covered how social media facilitated the transfer of information from the affected regions to the different corners of the globe. While commemorating this anniversary, one can not help but feel saddened and depressed about the continuing silent tsunamis taking and causing havoc in the lives of many more across the globe. Almost always, these tsunamis are occurring in the forgotten corners of the world, where no media attention is paid and the socioeconomic condition is poor that the affected have little power by way of plugging into the sphere of the social interaction. When I speak of these people, I am thinking of the millions that are brutalized and affected by the continuing unrest in Congo, the hundreds of thousands in Darfur, the millions living in a lawless land that is Somalia, the thousands that are having to suffer from among the most avoidable illnesses such as Cholera in Zimbabwe, billions in the world living on less than three meals a day, the millions that die from treatable diseases such as malaria, the millions more that die of starvation and malnourishment, and millions more living in the dilapidated of circumstances devoid of any hope for a better future. The silent tsunamis are everywhere and are quietly destroying the lives of significantly more people than those affected by the one we remember today looking back at the horrific images of destruction that were brought into the attention of the world.

These people are helpless. They are unsafe fearing from attack of not just the ill-intentioned, but also those that are charged to protect them. They are terrorized to live another day. They are voiceless in the global discourse. They are desperate and hungry. The world needs to remember past disasters and check to see if the necessary learnings about prevention and preparedness have been taken. But, let us not forget also those that are living through the silent tsunamis now. They need an outlet of voice; a helping hand. In the moment of despair and anguish, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a gem hidden deep in President-elect Obama’s speech on November 4, 2008. He said:

…And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”  

They are waiting for the new dawn of leadership to rescue them. They are waiting for miracles.

Thomas L. Friedman, in a recent column, discussed about the need to “reboot America.” Below is an excerpt from it:

…our present crisis is not just a financial meltdown crying out for a cash injection. We are in much deeper trouble. In fact, we as a country have become General Motors — as a result of our national drift. Look in the mirror: G.M. is us.

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage… And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.”

While I agree with the sentiment described in this column and elsewhere, I feel that the analogy used to describe the transformation that is needed to take place in America is misplaced, at the very least. The idea of rebooting speaks to the re-powering of a system; a re-energizing and resetting of a pre-existing order. I believe the more apt analogy to be used is one of the need to “upgrade America.” The nature of the grand challenges facing the nation are such that just a resetting of the system as it is now will simply not do. The economy needs a boost of activity and an influx of governmentt-driven/sponsored works to jump start it. The energy infrastructure will require a complete transformation of how energy is created, stored, transported, and utilized. The environmental challenges will require the coming to terms with the changes taking place in the climate and the ecosystem and a changing of way of life. The educational system will require a radical rethinking how education is delivered to the masses and how assessment is made about progress being made by the students and the competence of teachers. The health care system will require the altering of ways of delivery of care and broadening of access to the more than forty million that do not currently have it. The policies set forth by the President and congress will need the realignment of priorities towards an encouragement of a more equitable distribution of prosperity through the different economic classes. The emergence of new global players and the facing of threats posed by non-state agents will require the rethinking of foreign policy in the new century. So, I say to Mr. Friedman and others, we do not simply need a reboot. Let us not kid ourselves. The ingredients for thriving in the 21st century may be there.  But, at this historic juncture, we are going to need a full-blown upgrade of not just the hardware, but also the software of America.

If one is asked to name a hobby, an assortment of physical activities and creative expression is usually listed. One may say I enjoy playing a sport A, B, or C. Another may have inclination more towards absorbing knowledge in all its forms; a time spent by reading and reading passionately. There are those that enjoy the process of writing or partaking in a creative process of self-expression. Then, there are others that take delight in the social interactions arising form communal activities.

I am hit by the sudden realization that there is actually not a defining hobby that I have consistently partook in. That is not to say I do not enjoy the less-than-frequent sport outtings or reading for pleasure or the togetherness and belonging arising from fellowshiping with friends and family around one type of an activity or another. It is the recognition that there has been an absence of a thread connecting through all these activities. It is the discovery that there was not undeterred continuity or periodicity to these activities; a lack of continuum of evolution and growth.

It is in this context that I started pouring in my self-expressions, either by writing about a given topic, drawing, or gathering pieces of information of interest, into these pages. I have previously spoken to the sense of active learning or consumption of information that arises from this process. I have also described the transformation in my thinking about the concept of time. I am learning there is a sense of liberation in the ability to pull in numerous sources of knowledge, digest and store them with remarkable ease of access and connectivity. There is also a sense of joy, and I must say an addictive quality, to the process of seeking for information and learning; a momentary excitement of discovery. It almost feels like a sleeping giant has been awakened and is actively thirsting for knowledge. This, I must say, is a remarkable transformation in my thinking about education.

I have reached this point after having spent decades, from childhood to adulthood, in the world of structured learning environment guided by the immediate need to complete a homework/task or pass an examination. Absent that structure, one is suddenly confronted with the the unbounded nature of knowledge and the lack of framework for absorbing it. I think learning is, fundamentally and at the truest form, a process of absorbing, digesting, and expressing. This medium has provided for engaging in these processes in unison. It is the process of active reading, synthesizing of information, and writing that provides the venue for sustained learning; the framework for organizing thoughts and relevant information. Here, in these pages, I think, a hobby is born. Born to the pent up craving for freelance learning and expression. The mind is awakened and is wanting to absorb. No more puzzlement as to what my hobby is. I have discovered it is learning and, to be exact, blogging.

To those of us that have long been seeking for an answer to this question, it is beautifully answered by 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Let us all aspire to live by it in all our dailing dealings. Amen!

Love is always patient,

Love is always kind,

Love is never envious Or vaunted up with pride.

Nor is she conceited,

And never is she rude,

Never does she think of self Or ever get annoyed.

She never is resentful,

Is never glad with sin,

But always glad to side with truth,

Whene’er the truth should win.

She bears up under everything,

Believes the best in all,

There is no limit to her hope,

And never will she fall.

Love never fails.

• Total spending: Noway
• Household goods: Norway. Canada is close second followed by Denmark, England and Germany.
• Clothing: Norway. England is close second followed by the U.S., Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
• Alcohol and Tobacco: Norway. Switzerland is second followed by England, Finland and Denmark.
• Electronics: Norway. England is a close second followed by Denmark, Australia and the U.S.

Who Is Buying What

There has recently been a tremendous amount of buzz spreading all over the internet around the shirtless pictures of President-elect Barack Obama. O!, gushed The Huffington Post.

O!

Thinking about this incident, I could not help but be impressed by the subtle, but symbolic, example it sets for the nation. Every bit of news coverage of  his daily work activities during the transition process has been making note of the fact that he incessantly goes to a gym without fail. He is probably one of the busiest persons on the planet and yet makes time to exercise on a daily basis. Needless to say, the fruits of such habits clearly manifest themselves in his good physical health and shape the images that surfaced project.

This is to be contrasted with the obesity epidemic that is affecting the nation. Below are graphs from CDC that show the percent of U.S. adults that are obese:

Percent of Obese (BMI > 30) in U.S. Adults (2007)

It is incredible to note that almost all the states have > 20% of their population as obese. Now, let us look at the same type of map from years past:

1986

1995

2001

The pace at which the numbers have been increasing is cause for alarm and is crying out for a major intervention and an act of strong leadership. What are the consequences of obesity? The answer to this question can be found from Weight-control Information Network, at National Institute of Health:

Obesity is more than a cosmetic problem. Many serious medical conditions have been linked to obesity, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Obesity is also linked to higher rates of certain types of cancer. Men who are obese are more likely than nonobese men to develop cancer of the colon, rectum, or prostate. Women who are obese are more likely than nonobese women to develop cancer of the gallbladder, uterus, cervix, or ovaries. Esophageal cancer has also been associated with obesity.

Other diseases and health problems linked to obesity include:

• Gallbladder disease and gallstones.
• Fatty liver disease (also called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH).
• Gastroesophageal reflux, or what is sometimes called GERD. This problem occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter does not close properly and stomach contents leak back—or reflux—into the esophagus.
• Osteoarthritis, a disease in which the joints deteriorate. This is possibly the result of excess weight on the joints.
• Gout, another disease affecting the joints.
• Pulmonary (breathing) problems, including sleep apnea, which causes a person to stop breathing for a short time during sleep.
• Reproductive problems in women, including menstrual irregularities and infertility.

Health care providers generally agree that the more obese a person is, the more likely he or she is to develop health problems.

Emotional suffering may be one of the most painful parts of obesity. American society emphasizes physical appearance and often equates attractiveness with slimness, especially for women. Such messages make overweight people feel unattractive.

Many people think that individuals with obesity are gluttonous, lazy, or both. This is not true. As a result, people who are obese often face prejudice or discrimination in the job market, at school, and in social situations. Feelings of rejection, shame, or depression may occur.”

That is where I see Obama leading by example. Without saying a word, the good physical shape he is in communicates the result of sustaining an active lifestyle. The discipline with which he goes about attending to his daily workouts communicates the type of committement it requires to stay healthy and, for that matter, overcome obesity. He is indeed a leader unlike any other.

We have by now heard the news that Mr. Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, a 65 years old hedge fund manager of Access, which lost $1.5 billion in the Madoff scandal, was found dead an apparent suicide in his Manhattan office. The depth and reaches of the Madoff scandal are only beginning to be unraveled. The issues of ponzi schemes and affinity fraud were covered in a precious post. With regard to the death of Mr. de La Villehuchet, this occasion presents a teachable moment to educate ourselves on Emile Durkheim, who is considered to be the father of sociology; specifically on his theories about societal organization and its impact on the individual. In an articled entitled Zero Confidence, Prof. Steven Lukes of NYU uses Durkheim to explain the collective distress our society is undergoing in the face of the economic downturn and other calamities. The discussion on Durkheim’s Suicide is particularly insightful and timely. Below is an excerpt from the article:

…To gain some grasp on what might be happening, perhaps we might turn to the French sociologist Emile Durkheim, whose classic study of suicide, published in 1897, developed the notion of anomie. He first expounded this idea in his book The Division of Labour in Society, in which he treats it as an “abnormal” form that the division of labour takes in modern industrial societies. But in Suicide anomieplays a central role as a social cause of suicide and one of the principal ills of modern industrial society.

Anomie signifies the breakdown of the normative frameworks of our lives, the upsetting of rules, expectations, one’s sense of one’s place in society, one’s status vis-à-visothers, a social condition with grave psychological effects, leading in extreme cases to suicide. In fact, one could say that Durkheim’s book is not really about suicide, but rather about the distinctively modern condition, ever more present in advanced industrial societies (read capitalism), that induces a distinctive kind of suffering – a pathology that is at once social and psychological, that occurs in the economy at times of booms and busts, and of which the index is a high and rising suicide rate.

Durkheim called anomie “the malady of infinite aspiration”. His central idea was that human beings need regulation – a framework of informal and formal rules that set limits to what they are entitled to expect, for instance, in the form of economic rewards. It is an idea that contrasts sharply with the culture of capitalism, not least its US version. Could there be any more striking contrast with his idea than the culture of Wall Street and the City of London in the last three decades? Durkheim, who was a late-ninetheenth-century socialist, hoped to “moralise” capitalism – a notion that has, perhaps, a somewhat conservative ring. But recall RH Tawney, egalitarian socialist, who once wrote a pamphlet called The Sickness of the Acquisitive Society.

Anomie, for Durkheim, manifests itself in times of economic disasters, when “a kind of declassement occurs, suddenly thrusting certain individuals into a situation inferior to the one they occupied hitherto. They must therefore lower their demands, restrain their wants, learn greater self-control [...] they are not adjusted to the condition imposed on them and they find its very prospect intolerable; thus they experience suffering.”

And it is also found during crises of prosperity when the scale regulating needs “is upset; but a new scale cannot be improvised [...]. One no longer knows what is possible and what is not, what is just and what is unjust, which claims and expectations are legitimate and which are immoderate. As a result there is no limit to men’s aspirations [...] appetites, no longer restrained by a disoriented public opinion, no longer know where to stop.”

Moreover, “because prosperity has increased, desires are heightened [...]. But their very demands make it impossible to satisfy them. Overexcited ambitions always exceed the results obtained, whatever they may be; for they are not warned that they must go no further. Nothing, therefore, satisfies them and all this agitation is perpetually maintained without abatement. Moreover, since this race toward an unattainable goal can afford no other pleasure than the race itself, if pleasure it is, once it is interrupted, one is left quite empty-handed. At the same time, the struggle grows ever more violent and painful, both because it is less regulated and because the competition is more keen. All classes are set against one another because there is no longer any established classification. Effort grows just when it is least productive. How, in these conditions, can the will to live not weaken?”

Durkheim thought that we all need social or moral regulation – rules, or norms, that set limits to what are otherwise limitless and destructive desires: from “top to bottom of the scale, greed is aroused unable to find ultimate foothold. Nothing could calm it, since its goal is infinitely beyond all it can attain.” But he also thought that we all need social integration: we need to be attached to social groups and to the wider society. The lack of such integration is a further pathological condition (which he called egoism, meaning social isolation or detachment) leading to rising suicides, which is why, he argued, the suiciderate goes down during wartime and at moments of national crisis, when people pull together and feel the strength of social bonds. Solidarity in the face of a commonly experienced danger is, he thought, a protection against suicide.

Merry x-mas to all!

To the rest, happy Festivus!

In the spirit of continuing the process of correlating concepts in physics/science with that of day-to-day human behaviors, here we will discuss why some ideas go viral and others do not. The formulation presented here concerns with the idea of quantum tunneling. When a wave-like entity at a quantum scale encounters a potential barrier of a higher energy than its own,  it undergoes one of the following: (1) reflection, which occurs when the entity is not able to penetrate through the barrier, (2) tunneling, which is the processes of partially-passing through the barrier, or (3) combination of both. In all cases, the ability of the wave to surpass the potential barrier is dependent on its energy level and the width of the barrier. The mathematical description of this dependence is given by: Θ ~ Exp[- √Eb³ .  Xb], where Θ is the tunneling probability, Eb is the barrier height, and Xb is the barrier width. Hence, the larger the barrier height and width, the more difficult it is for the wave to penetrate through. In the event that tunneling occurs, the amplitude of the wave is diminished as it passes through the barrier.

Barrier Penetration

Now, with that rudimentary introduction to quantum tunneling, let us proceed to the postulation of what the reason behind the ease with which viral ideas spread is. Below is the graph representing the different regions of interest.

Why viral ideas spread quickly

The three distinct regions consist of the genesis, refinement, and viral-spreading of an idea/information. The vertical axis represents the potential of the idea/information to have any type of impact, which is its ability to inspire, depress, delight, annoy, revolutionize, disgust, or any other strong reaction that can make people itch until they share is with someone else. For an idea to break out of the genesis phase and go viral, it needs to overcome what I call the refinement barrier. This barrier, much like the potential barrier in the case of quantum tunneling, allows a given idea to pass through only if the width of the barrier is thin enough and the idea has the necessary potential to overcome it. In the cases where the potential is not sufficiently high, the idea/information will have to tunnel through the barrier and undergo a process of refinement. That is, the lower the potential of the idea, the more time it requires to refine. The higher the potential, the easier it is to propagate it through without much refinement. The nature of potential for impact of ideas gives a characteristic triangular-shaped barrier. Consequently, some ideas have such low potential that they are reflected right back by the refinement potential as the length of time required is simply too much to allow for the process to work. Hence, the primary factors determining the ability of an idea/information to go viral are its potential of impact and the time-length of refinement it requires. In the cases where the idea does undergo refinement, much like the wave that has a diminished amplitude, the refinement process condenses and filters the idea to make it more strong-reaction-inducing.

One wonders about the role marketing and publicity have in the spreading of an idea/information. The aforementioned analogy would dictate that there is an intrinsic potential an idea/information has to have a strong impact. No amount of advertising will change that. What the publicity will do is lower the refinement barrier height. In so doing, the probability of an idea going viral is dramatically increased. The other effect advertising can have is contracting the width of the refinement potential, which has the effect of reducing the time required for an idea to undergo the refinement process. This is accomplished by merely making more resources, e.g. number of people participating in the process, available to partake in the process. The unfortunate reality of this formulation is that if an idea/information does not have the necessary potential for impact to tunnel through the refinement barrier mostly by itself, that is, if it requires the help of major advertising push, its long-term acceptability and utility will most likely be minimal and will not last in the viral-land for a long time.

So good, so creative, so delightful!

The process of writing transforms thoughts into structured composition of words. I believe the difficulty in writing, for that matter in any creative process, lies exactly in the challenges posed by the extraction of the inherent randomness in the thought process while transforming them into ordered synthesis and description of ideas.

Why writing well is hard

There is a parallel to be drawn with the concept of increasing entropy, as described with the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that the natural tendency of processes is to progress in the direction of increase in disorder. For any process, countering this tendency requires the input of work in order for it to occur. That is precisely why writing well is difficult. The second law stipulates that there is a price to be paid to take the the randomness of the thought process and organize ideas in ordered format. The price is the work that needs to be put in the writing process.

The work required to take an idea through the three stages shown above requires the lowering of the overall randomness of the system of thought. There are no shortcuts to it. One only learns about the path of the least resistance through study and practice. This process could be one of developing faculty with the language of expression or other instruments of creativity. It could also be, in the process of reading, the sheer absorption of ways, intentionally or unintentionally, in which other great writers were able to accomplish this task. What differentiates the good from the not-so-good is the discovery and channeling of that unique path.

So asks Seth Godin in a post that explores the implications of the explosion in content creation and dissemination. Below is an excerpt of the post:

… Of course, the decentralized nature of the net means that it will never be physically full. As long as we can keep making hard drives, we won’t run out of space to store those inane videos of your Aunt Sally. What is full is our attention.

Ten years ago, you had a shot of at least being aware of everything that mattered. Five years ago, you had to be really selective about what you took in, but at least it was possible to know what you didn’t know. Today, it’s impossible. Today, you can’t even read every article on a thin slice of a thin topic.

You can’t keep up with the status of your friends on the social networks. No way. You can’t read every important blog… you can’t even read all the blogs that tell you what the important blogs are saying.

Used to be, you could finish reading your email, hit “check email” and nothing new would show up. Now, of course, the new mail is probably a longer list than the mail you just finished processing.

The internet isn’t full, but we are.”

This is a wonderful observation. I do not think that this particular topic is properly examined. Of course, an observation that was previously made about Null Information concerns exactly with this issue that Seth is referring to. He is making note of the tremendous amount of content, and information about the content, that is being generated, and the relative scarcity of our own time and attention to make use of it. Indeed, even with the increased productivity and prolonged work-day, we have a limited amount of time and attention to be paid. On the contrary, what goes into the Null Information is rapidly expanding and explosively growing. One is a finite resource the other has an infinite room for growth, especially given how storage is becoming cheap and increasingly portable.

There are two issues this raises to me. One is the need for coming up with drastic evaluation, assortment and synthesis of information. This could be in the form of increased efficiency and exactness in location, indexing and delivery of relevant information (e.g. better search algorithms), or by tackling it with renewed vigor by the age-old approach of division-of-labor and specialization. More so than at any time before, there is a need for development of expertise, not necessarily only in filling once brain with an amount of knowledge about a body of information,  but also in locating where the information is/how it can be utilized/who can benefit most from it/ and making it readily accessible. The distributed nature of this task could allow for taking piece by piece on the behemoth that Null Information is becoming.

The other issue that this paradigm reminds of me is the limited nature of our foresightedness. Sure enough we have an explosion in the amount of information that is being made available and we are seeing a big danger sign staring us right in the face. But, my sense is that people in the old ages, when printing press was first discovered and made popular, were probably thinking of the same thing; fearing the rapid dissemination of all the information and knowledgethat is good and evil. Looking at it from today’s perspective it is difficult to argue that we have not fared well by the advent of the printing press, and we express little concern about all the books that are getting published in masses and filling up library shelves. The society as a whole has gradually figured out a way of filtering out, although still highly modulated and manipulated by marketing rather than substance of the books, what is relevant and important.

I think, in the long run, the issue is not going to be so much that there is just too much information out there that is beyond our ability to pay attention to, but it is rather about people, companies and society, at large, figuring out a way to organize and make infomation relevant and useful to the seeker.