Class

Stop asking the government to fix this growing inequality. It is important to understand that a large pool of wealth is a bad thing. It doesn’t matter who has it, or what they use it for. It won’t be used as well by any one person as it would by many persons.

Accumulated wealth provided the capital necessary to build the society in which we now live, but we no longer need standing pools of resources when liquid capital can be extracted in small amounts from crowds to generate large sums with surprising speed.

The wealthy are no longer a necessary evil, now they are simply evil. Pools of money, simply by the nature of the money system, are able to grow larger by controlling production and receiving compensation for access, rather than actually producing anything of value. Like leeches or ticks, these sums of money extract wealth from those actually producing it, simply by having the monetary clout to open or close the doors.

Historically these pools are seized by violence. In recent history they have even been seized by the masses, but violence has a tragic cost and the problem, still, is not who owns the pools, it is their size. Without relying on government authority to demolish these giant financial engines, we can create a powerful disincentive towards the accumulation of a dangerous amount of wealth. We need not use violence, because shame will do the trick.

As I had tried to say earlier. If you see someone so rich that they don’t need to work, saying something about sacrificing for the nation. Spit right in their face. If you meet a person who is getting the degree that will get them the most money, just walk away, don’t hide your disgust. If you meet someone that really believes they can somehow save enough money to protect them from all the what-ifs in the world, pat them on the shoulder, look them in the eyes, and really try to feel compassion for a creature so petty and confused, so small.

It might not work great, but it costs nothing, and almost everyone can participate. Shame the wealthy, the defenders of the wealthy, and those with ambition to be wealthy. Shame them right out of existence.

Axiom

A solution should be less complex the more complex the problem is.

I’ve been thinking about this little guideline for weeks now. Its not a moral statement. It is a statement about processing information. I guess I should amend it. If you intend a solution to be successful, it should be demonstrate a simplicity commensurate with the complexity of the problem.

What I mean is that complex solutions work for simple problems, like those in the physical sciences, the kinds of problems faced by engineers. These are well understood systems with known variables. The problems are easy to define and the solutions easily demonstrated, checked, and rechecked. Compare these to the problems faced by social, biological, and ecological scientists, where systems contain numerous causal linkages, and each issue is known to effect other issues in unknown ways.

It comes down to a balance. The complexity of the problem multiplied by the complexity of the solution will yield a value, an index of complexity if you will.  I would say the human mind is capable of effortlessly effecting solutions in problem/solution systems up to a given level of complexity, and maybe with diligence and thoughtfulness attain an even higher level. However, at a certain point, a level of complexity is reached where it is impossible to know what you’re doing. Too complicated a solution to too complicated a problem yields a basket of effects and externalities that can not be accurately predicted. It is certain that some of those externalities will be negative.

In this way, even with the best intentions, if you try too hard to solve too big a problem, you’re going to do harm to people in unexpected ways. This is my hands off principle. Its the main reason I’m wary of any policy solution to a global or national level problem. Policy is always a complicated mess, and seems very likely to do more harm than good in response to a complicated problem.

I haven’t said anything in a while but I wanted to get this out.

Tyler in Town

So I sort of expected work to slow down after Mardi Gras. Everyone had said February would be a good month, but everyone was wrong. Everyone said March would be a good month, and I was wrong; it is. Anyway I’ve actually been really working at work. It’s nice. It makes the time move fast and I walk out with cash in my pocket, cash that I can spend in the many restaurants and bars of this great city. So Ross and I do spend it.

This week Ross’ brother Tyler is in town, so we are trying to show him a good time. Anyway I’m pretty sure that for the time being i’m drinking a bit too much and working on my projects too little. It has been a dangerously long time since i worked on my programming class, and I haven’t been posting much here either. It’s always tough to know how you should be spending your time.

I suppose things come and they go in waves, so I’ll get back to business soon enough. For now though, Tyler is in town, and that’s cause for celebration.

Barry Schwartz

So i’m stumbling today and came across this talk at TED. Barry Schwartz is talking about practical wisdom. Basically, he’s talking about the inherent conflict between rules and wisdom.  I just wrote 400 words about it and then my internet crapped out and its all gone. I guess i’ll try it again later

There is actually some interesting stuff coming

I keep writing about writing, or not writing. It is important to form a habit by sitting down and posting something on a regular basis, but without posting something of substance once in a while its a bad habit. As this post is also a post about posting, I guess i’m still not really addressing the problem, but I wanted to report loosely on what i’ve been thinking about. It will make its way to this page as soon as I have time to sit down and work it out.

I keep coming back to the idea of things that are built versus things that are grown. We’ve been having alot of discussions around this house that seem to all involve the boundaries between what is real and what is artificial, haecceity is the relevant term here. Please look it up, its an important concept. Anyway i’ve been thinking about what is human and inhuman, natural and unnatural, natural and artificial, and we’ve been having some disagreements in the kitchen.

I’ve been talking to Ethan about control structures, trees versus webs, and how information moves. We’ve talked about levels of analysis and how learning occurs.

At work there has been alot of discussion of management practices, what it means to be a good boss. I’ve been thinking about the nature of power relationships, the sources of authority.

Anyway, there are at least 3 good posts out of all that stuff, maybe well more than that. I just need time and maybe some dialogue to get it written down. All these strands of thought are related somehow. They have some common property, and when I figure out what it is, I’ll go to grad school to study it.

Hmmm

So I realize now that I actually did miss a day in there. There in that last post where I said that I almost missed a day, I had already missed one. Somehow I missed that. Weird.

Anyway, I went to Bacchus and Endymion last night. Then I went to Maison for a show Dj’d by Questlove. I got there and they weren’t letting anyone in anymore. Even when people were leaving, no on else was getting in. Big Bouncer guy was just turning people away left and right. So I got a little frustrated and started calling them all assholes and on of the owners came over and I was about to get kicked out but I walked away. Then I came back a few minutes later with the heartfelt apology and the story about how i wasn’t trying to get in but all my roommates were in there and wouldn’t come down and I was mad at them and not the bar and i shouldn’t have taken it out on him it was just a frustrating situation. So the guy was all “I really appreciate that man,” and like 5 minutes later he let me in! So I got to go to the show too, but i got to talk my way past a bouncer to get in there, which was just so much icing on the cake. What a blast.

I’m loving the parades and having Ross around at night. I wish Hannah was here for all this though.

Almost escaped me

Here it is several days into continuous (if less than spectacular) posts. Its 10:38 pm local time and I almost missed a post. Its Mardi Gras you see, and I’m very busy. So now I am thumb typing from canal street, as I keep one eye toward the parade so as not to be struck by flying cups or beads.

It has been an interesting weekend of reflection and revelry, and I am excited to write about it as soon as its over. For now, the parade continues.

Another Short One

Dang, I’ve got to rush another post here. Mardi Gras scheduling at work means we have to be in 15 minutes before the shift starts, and I really needed to wash my uniform before I work the next 5 days of the rush. I don’t think i’ll have another day off, so i need at least 3 clean shirts, assuming I can’t get more than 2 uses out of any of them. So we cut the blogging short to do laundry, wash dishes, and hang out with Dan Dore, who arrived in town yesterday. Still, I have a post up for the day, and it’s helping to build the habit.

today

short post for today. spent too much time cleaning up yesterday’s. Oh well. I did feel like i should mention that I have no put something up four days in a row now, and it looks like the beginnings of a real comeback. now its time to get to work.