Irrational Focus

Instinctively -- when you encounter one -- you know that you are looking at a bloated bureaucracy; the real question, is how to prove it? We obviously need some simple form of cost-based accounting, that gives us a decent metric on which to compare various organizations and their effectiveness. The key here is the the measure be simple and that it cannot be subverted by those trying to apply it. Clearly, it is in a bureaucracies best interest to hide its own inner ineffectiveness; that is the very essence of why the organization is defective in the first place. To keep it simple we only need to deal with two basic observations. The first is that at the end of the day all organizations produce either products or services, nothing else. Regulatory monitoring for instance, is just a service for the public to insure that the rules are followed. Building roads is a product, while maintaining them is a service. Everything falls into one or the other category. The second observation is that a...

Lonely in a sea of humanity? Urban dwellers encounter so many forgettable people on a daily basis that they feel entirely anonymous. It is funny to be surrounded by people, but to not notice. Faceless faces. Within that sense, we tend to not care much about about our behavior in public. People who would never be rude to their friends or acquaintances, have no problems behaving horribly towards strangers. They feel they won't ever see them again, so why bother being polite. The bigger the city, the better the odds of not seeing those people again. As more people congregate in larger groups, their behavior when they are alone degenerates. It can be wonderfully horrible in a big city to observe just how low people will let their behavior slide. It is not just that sense that the other people don't matter, so you shouldn't bother to be nice to them; some people actively go out of their way just to behave poorly to others. On crowded city streets it is noticeable, but it reaches...

What is it with people wanting to believe the craziest things? Given a bunch of presented facts, they'll pick and choose only those few which bolster their position. These, they will cling to forever, while ignoring all of the rest. We seem to decide first and then look towards reality to backup our position. Having a truly open mind seems to be rare if not impossible. There are always trade-offs to be made within subjective frameworks depending on one's needs and opinions, but I guess because people like flexibility they want to make trade-offs in accepting concrete and unassailable pieces of information. A fact is by definition an absolutely true piece of information. The sun rises every morning, that's a fact. The clock strikes twelve twice a day, that too is a fact. An alteration of either of these would likely mean you are not on the planet earth anymore, or your somewhere so remote it is just weird. For most of humanity, most of the time, these two things are indisput...

Small minds ensure that greed drives corporate policy. When it all comes down to money, we incorrectly value of all of those things that are really -- at the end of day -- far more important to success.

Whatever our origins and beliefs, we all agree that there exists idealistic concepts called good and evil. We all agree that they are distinct from each other, nothing can be both and that together they form the whole set of morality judgments. Things are either good or they are evil. Our categorizations may differ somewhat, as the concepts are deemed to be relative and can be localized, but our world has shrunk enough lately so that we all pretty much agree on nearly similar definitions. Since these are ideas of the highest order, to be truly civilized we must come to understand them to have only universal definitions. Where they change from society to society, region to region, the cause is our own immaturity; our own lack of progress. Not the ideas. Despite our infancy, we do know some things for certain. For instance, the cause can never justify the actions. You cannot do something evil, to justify something good. If your actions are evil, the cause becomes evil too, no matter how ...

For those that do, but don't worry about it. You've been told: just do it; the early bird gets the worm. To the winners go the spoils. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Everybody reveres action-oriented people, those that aren't afraid to strike out and get the job done. You can't win if you don't play. You'll be rewarded by society. All rich people wormed their way to the top, or at very least their ancestors did. They're the elite. They are better. Of course you know actions have consequences, but thinking about dull things like consequences only slows you down. Keeps you from succeeding. Push, don't stop. If you try hard enough it will get done. If you don't do it, someone else will? That bad things that are done by you, or in your name? Just trivial side effect of your great efforts. It all evens out in the end. Your accomplishments more than justify a few small problems. Complaints: just more wining. Whatever. You net worth is not negative. Ac...

Every so often, the idea that "we should change the world for the better" pops into someone's head. When this occurs, they -- like all thinking people that ponder over the deeper structure and meaning they see in this world -- sincerely wish for the world to become a better place. After which, they go back to their lives. They go back to worrying about money or they go back to worrying about their future. They go back to worrying about their kids if they have any, and they certainly go back to worrying about their friends and family. They go back to eating, and sleeping; to reading, and to talking to people. They go back to following the world as it moves through its many various patterns. Back to all of those things that bind us to our day-to-day existence. Some common things, some cultural and some regional ones. In that instance, just before they turn back to focus on their own existence, they usually wonder: why is the world such a harsh place? Why do so many horrible...