In Search of the Unlikely
Sometimes, when a work of art achieves commercial success, it is described, after the fact, as an "unlikely success".You can only refer to something as unlikely based on some prior expectation. It was unlikely to be successful because someone deemed that to be the most probable outcome. The person who deemed it to be unlikely, and their reasons for doing so, are supremely important.Maybe the film didn't have the budget of a major studio, so...
Disagreement
There are certain types of debates in which I don't get involved. Generally, this is when a line is drawn and two opposing sides start lobbing stones at one another. This is a pretty good summary of why I keep my distance:"Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm...When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger."No, this doesn't surprise me, because everyone (including myself)...
Debating
Simple question: if there were a proposed change to be made in this country that would arguably leave everyone better off in some important way, but it put you out of a job, would you fight the change?
I use the word "arguably" very deliberately, because I learned very quickly as an adult that 1. almost everything is arguable, and 2. if it's arguable, it will be argued.
Mindless Negativity
Yes, it's true. There are tons of people out there who are characterized by vapid, mindless optimism. Yes, they are annoying. They are a turn-off. They don't actually accomplish much. But it's a massive mistake to correlate their optimism with their vacuous mindsets. Negativity also has the capacity to be mindless. And it my experience, it often is. Don't be overly negative in an attempt to appear smart. Usually, it has the opposite effect. And...
"Buy Me Dinner First"
I had to take my car into the auto mechanic earlier today. When I went into their office, I was given a form to fill out asking for my name, my phone number (information they already had), home address, and email address. Nothing on the form indicated why they required this information, and what they were going to do with it. "What do you need this information for?" I asked him. He told me they...
Up Next
I moved out of Michigan about three years ago. I did so for the perhaps overly-cited "personal reasons". In my case, it happened to be true. The economy was in decline as I left, and it really got about about a month after I left (in September 2008), but that had nothing to do with it. I left because it dawned on me that I had a ton of unhealthy thought patterns. And a social...
Why I Do Not Care What The Government Is Doing
I should preface this by saying that I don't have a dog in this fight. Not really. I don't really think of myself as a Republican or a Democrat. I'm sure if you psychoanalyzed my dreams you could figure out which one I am, but I don't actually believe that would accomplish a whole lot. I don't call myself a moderate, because that term is essentially meaningless anyway. But, for practical purposes, I don't vote....
Next Generation
When I was a teenager, there are tons of lessons my parents, my teachers, and elders tried to teach me. Many of these went in one ear and out the other. I wasn't ignoring them. But a lot of knowledge comes from direct experience, not from "Here's the way things are, because I said so." I learned most of these lessons later, on my own, from the world when I became ready to learn them....
Stretch
I'm pretty sure that websites are profiling me. This isn't a bad thing. Amazon clearly knows my book browsing and purchase habits so well, it does a better job of picking books for me than any of my friends and family. Algorithmically, it's complicated, but they're basically just cross-referencing what I've bought and looked at with other people who have looked at and bought the same things. So when I land on the homepage tomorrow...
The Age of Privacy is NOT Over
In late 2009, then-CEO of Google Eric Schmidt was asked by CNBC about Google's policy regarding privacy. He responded with a somewhat alarming quote: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Whenever he's asked about it, Mark Zuckerberg seems to take the stance that the age of privacy is over in a world permeated by Internet connectivity. That the heads of...