Nothing - Nic; Photo by Jaroslaw Pocztarski
My Hero says: My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves & the quality of their knowledge too seriously & those who don’t have the courage to sometimes say: I don’t know…” I say, on this blog - “…goofiness is important, it reduces the probability of b.s.“
Only difference is, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, aka “Hero”, that suggests that moment of doubt, the moment of saying “I don’t know”. And when I say I’m trying to reduce the chance of b.s., I’m first and foremost talking of reducing my own b.s. I suspect that’s not Taleb’s starting point. But I’m going to fantasize that on reading this he will crack a perfect joke, take himself down a notch, and remain My Hero.
In fact, my own viewpoint aligns with My Hero’s. That is, an awareness of ‘not knowing’ is the right starting point for much analysis or action. Unfortunately, being told that one doesn’t know more than one knows can seriously disturb many a machismo and ego.
I’d like to interlace Disney & that 2002 web phenomenon “Hot-or-Not”, to illustrate. With my own perverted sense of weekend relaxation, I spent one Saturday standing outside the downtown Disney store in the rain, holding posters of Winnie (leaking paint) and protesting the sacking of sweatshop employees in Disney’s factories in Bangladesh. It was a a complicated case. A contractor was found to have violated some labor laws in his subcontracted factory, so Disney peremptorily closed off the contract, resulting in all the employees losing their (already miserable) jobs.
I had struggled with the case. There were many complexities, not least of which was the contradiction between Disney following it’s ‘ethical’ guidelines to justify a move that resulted in real terms in even more damage to the workers than the initial violation. Was it as simple as Disney giving itself a checkmark for following it’s ’socially responsible’ principles hoping that no one dug around to see that it’s scorecard in real terms had just gone even more negative? Or should I be considering the corporate viewpoint, of the spirit “but what’s a good well-meaning company to do?” Sarcasm aside, though, I do have some sense of how hard it is to toe the line of a principle you’ve set yourself especially as it’s ramifications play out in a complex society. For example in this case, was it more important for the company to send a strong message to its’ other contractors, which in the longer run would be beneficial to workers everywhere? (Just for the sake of argument – I’m not assuming that this was truly Disney’s consideration – and there are in fact some much better alternatives).
After thinking about it, I decided that even though I couldn’t balance all the possible pieces of this puzzle to land on a comprehensively supportable course of action, I should still join my couple of friends to protest Disney. My philosophy, that we generally operate with an incomplete understanding of all the factors at play especially for distant scenarios, was a starting point. Against this backdrop, I felt it eminently sensible to put in a pitch with what what was likely the statistically underrepresented side – the side of the sacked workers.
There are many such situations where I feel that supporting the underrepresented side is justified, even if the scenario seems complex, when the impact may be severe along the axes of health, food, shelter. Disney didn’t need my help at all. By being silent, I was in effect supporting Disney, not the workers. Somewhere someone would adjust all the parameters and make decisions that would impact the scenario. Me, I could do my bit to just ensure that those whose voices aren’t heard as often get a bit of support. If you think of all the time that you’re spending not acting and contributing to the statistics (noise included) of the default, then a few times of standing in a crowd protesting the other side just can’t be wrong.
That evening, through some random connections, I ended up hanging out with the guy who founded ‘Hot or Not’ and found myself explaining my day’s activities and my rationale. But Hot (Not) was not only unconvinced by the rationale for my actions but also grew steadily angrier. It became apparent to me that for someone who had just convinced himself that he was smart beyond the norm, having just recently been catapulted into sudden fame and perhaps even fortune, what I was justifying was in turn pulling the rug out from under his rationalized sense of his position in the world. It was obviously upsetting to his sense of self that I was putting the weight of my personality behind a world view (similar to My Hero’s dare I say) where his newly proven smarts could never be sufficient or perhaps even useful. I guess when your future wealth may depend on the profound and quantifiable metric, ‘degree of hotness’, you can’t bear to hear about how it may actually be less useful than something unassessed, something immeasurable at it’s core.
Posted by minik 
Posted by minik 
Posted by minik 
I’m lost – have they really closed the Parkway Speakeasy? Via Facebook I learned that some of my friends had joined the Save the Speakeasy group. I rarely join groups on Facebook, but this one was a no-brainer. I joined, only to find an image of a poster announcing their last night on Mar 22nd 09.
In Oman, TV channel hopping, we land on the Qatar channel. Camels are racing in one long straight course. Alongside them, on either side of the roped-off course, are 2-3 wide columns of cars, 4×4s. The camels are galloping, with an occassional one or two trotting – very fast. For a moment I’m confused. It looks like they have no riders. Then our eyes catch the strange-looking contraptions tied on the camels back. Believe it or not, the contraptions are little robots. The one function we see them perform is occassionally whipping the behind of the camel, as a camel jockey would. We’re transported into a futuristic world – I could imagine seeing this in Second Life, but instead these are the sands of Qatar, a hop skip and jump from our physical location in Muscat.
Just 
Bostoners had Cheers, or at least TV-watchers had Norm. I and a few other lucky ones had Lydia, Ricardo, and ‘the coffee cart’. They’ve now left. I’m still here. In memory of what to me now was an Oakland institution. Small enough to know everyone’s names, a welcome stop on the way to BART and work, it always put my mind in another space where it was okay to take a few minutes to loiter, chat, commiserate, catch up. Kathy and Chris. Julio. Endo. Theresa. The man with the snazzy neckties. The woman that called in her orders of nonfat vanilla flavored drinks. The Mexican Chocolate I never tried. Ricardo’s famous latte with designer ‘hearts’ swirled on top. Walking in one day to notice Raj’s CV on the counter (”What a talented guy!”) Jaunts to the coffee cart with mummy and papa to introduce them to the gang. I’ll miss it all – but hopefully this sets the stage for the next exciting phase for Lydia and Ricardo, away from the heartaches and stress of entrepreneurial life, and towards some stability and security.
Conversations overheard, statements delivered. Zimbabweans in South Africa, one finds out her study permit has been ‘lost’ by the university – her life is on hold as she frantically calls up office after office. Another is on the phone checking on the status of something, quickly moving from a polite enquiry to an emotional exchange – “you know I don’t want to be here, I’m just asking for information”, tears in his eyes as he slams down the phone. Someone stuck. And the handsome young man who came while we were here, and left while we were still here, back and forth from Zimbabwe, under the radar, fighting the fight. When he left, I said, lightly, as one might in my world, ‘hope it’s a good trip’. His response was determined. “It will”.
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