Let's talk about virtue

Patience is a virtue.  I've heard that all my life.  It's true a lot of the time.  Of course, the opposite is true sometimes.  The saying "Strike while the brand is hot," is an example that applies to certain instances in life.  But for many opportunities, patience is the the virtue that gets a person what he or she wants.

In 1984, Steve Jobs decided to switch from a very productive Apple II computer to a different model with a different idea for what happens on a screen.  It was the beginning of all the things we do now with a mouse.  Jobs is definitely the father of the non-keyboard capabilities of the mouse we have today, but not at first.  Apple's board didn't see the value of the new product.  They wanted to stick with the old Apple II because it brought in 70% of the company's revenue.  Jobs didn't budge on wanting to take revenue from Apple II to finish the Macintosh computer and stop production of Apple II.  So, the board fired Jobs.  His dreams were dashed.

Steve Jobs' determination was intact, however, so he started a new company, which had a couple of start-up failures in some innovations for computers.  But, not all was failure.  He teamed with George Lucas, who also had begun a new movie company, Pixar, to create the first computer animated movie, Toy Story, a smash box office hit.  A little later, Apple's stock tanked on the stock market because of advances by Microsoft and lack of new products by Apple.  How fortunate for Steve Jobs.

Apple forced out its CEO, asked Jobs to return to give them new vision, and gave him free reign in guiding the company back to profitability.  This happened in 1997.  Jobs had waited from 1985 when he was forced out to 1997, 12 long, long years (100 years in computer years), before he could once again enact his vision for the Mac computer.  In 1998 he launched his very profitable iMac line.  That was followed by the iPod, complete with iTunes and Apple Store (a virtual store), iPhone, App store, and finally his iPad tablet in 2010.  He revolutionized the computer industry, the music industry, the telephone industry, the virtual store industry, and actually led the computer industry into its next phase of computing with a tablet to replace nearly all of what desktops and laptops do, and not with a keyboard and mouse, but with a touch screen.

It's an incredible story of genius.  But, it would never have happened if Jobs had been an impatient man.  Or, if his story of invention had happened due to impatience, it might have been on a more scattered timetable or without the complete list of all his devices. Instead, his story is one of genius and revolution.  It's a story of having to wait from 1985 to 1998.  It's an example of patience as a virtue.

We could all use that.  Since we can't see around the next corner due to time constraints, we have to trust and hope that waiting is a good thing and prepare ourselves for the next time opportunity that comes knocking at our doors.  Then we're ready to go through that door and make a difference in the sphere we live in.

Whan in aprille

This picture is definitely worth a thousand words.  It is so symbolic of how people allow themselves to petrify as they travel their paths from birth to death.

The book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, is a poignant depiction of this picture.  The Nigerian society of the book's main character is something that he understood well and became a leader.  But, as England colonized his area, all his values were changed because England sent their people to modernize the culture.  The book ends with his total inability to accept change.  He hanged himself in the last scene to show his disdain for British culture and to accentuate how humans can live without thinking about other ways to view traditions and progress.  The story is the perfect complement to the sign.

As I have observed people's use of language over the years, I have noticed the same reluctance.  A language application of the picture is also a good representation of Achebe's literary piece.  Between 1380 and 1590, that is between Chaucer and Shakespeare, the English used by people in England changed radically.  Chaucer's English was unintelligible by the time of Shakespeare's speakers.  And Shakespeare's plays, if performed, cannot be understood by modern speakers without practice in reading his plays before they attend.  Modern speakers absolutely don't recognize Chaucer's language as English, Also, the King James Bible of 1611, is not understood by modern English speakers because of its spelling, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

Things change not only on a macro scale, but also on a micro scale.  Just in my lifetime three irregular past participles have morphed into regular forms.  Pled has changed to pleaded, shown has changed to showed, dove has changed to dived.  Three unique past participles have converted to the more common pattern of  irregular past tense forms.  Stricken has been replaced with struck, swum with swam, drunken with drunk.  The auxiliary verb shall has dropped from use, the auxiliary modal verb may has been relegated to a mere polite form used in requests in a business setting, as in "may I ask your name."  The auxiliary modal verb might has replaced may on most other occasions. And, the auxiliary modal verb ought has been dropped in favor of should except in rural areas.  All of this in a short half of a century.

But I look at some people and they are so rigid.  Sometimes I see that the things they believe are the same as before they went to college, or before they experienced cancer, or before they had any of  life's experience.  Sometimes, I see people not using technology that has been around for a long time or driving the same way to a destination even though quicker routes exist because new roads have been built.  I see people's Facebook posts that tout the good ol' days as if the new days are not better, more improved, more advanced, speedier, or sounder.

Yessirree.  There's a burn ban in effect.  Don't bore me with the details of rain falling from the
 sky and a torrent of water moving along that covers half my sign.  That can't possibly make a difference!

Image - a bit changed these days

Watching CSI: Cyber makes one soberingly aware of how transparent a life we really live.  In many ways I like the transparency.  People in the past have always had the choice to live a transparent life or not.  Most people opted to have a transparent life to an extent.  They had a public image and a private life.

While that is still true, the extent of a private life is smaller these days.  But, that's a good thing.  The parts that are truly private stays with the individuals involved to keep the information private.  But, things like debit card purchases, withdrawals, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Dig, Flikr entries (which include tracking status to places of post entries, pictures, and checkins, breadcrumbs for websites visited, files stored on hard drives or any other kind of external drives, including the cloud, type of music listened to, and many other things are traceable now, if someone wants to actually know your information.  Public image is now a different matter.

Of c ourse, police detectives are not the people you love.  They may look at situations a little differently than I do.  For them, they want you to know that they can see for miles and miles.  They want you to know that they can choke you from afar if you are trying to deceive them.  Their theme song works well.

It's all good.  The people I love sometimes need to know information.  Sometimes I want the people I love to know information even if they are not asking.  I tell them I have nothing to hide.  They can trace me if they want.  Or they can ask me if they want.  I'll tell them.  The information in the two places is the same.  They don't have to see for miles and miles.  Simple as that.

Every weather change

Broke my toe recently.  In 6 weeks it felt better.  In 9 weeks the swelling had begun to go down.  Still, every time the weather dramatically changes, it aches.

How like life.  You break your toe, so to speak.  A glitch happens in your established routines.  A little while later, things are beginning to somewhat regain normalcy, but the effect of the glitch isn't gone.  A short time later, routines almost are back to the same, but compensations are still being made.  But you know your routine will not be exactly as before.  Then you come upon those natural changes, but you never plan for the timing of the changes due to kids being in a different phase of life, the necessity of a new car, house, job, then a glitch comes again.

Happens every time.  True story.

Mountaintops and valleys

I watch a show on the NFL channel called the Aftermath.  It has 3 analysts that break down the reasons for teams who have won and lost on any given week.  One of the three men has been doing the job for about 4 years.  The other two have been talk show analysts who have shared their opinions with other hosts, but they have not been on a show that supplies evidence for their opinions.  The experienced analyst is a pleasure to listen to.

Baldinger, Wyche, and Jones are the three analysts' names.  They have all played in the NFL and they have been out of the league for at least 5 years now.  But, Baldinger is the one to listen to.  He sits at the table with his computer ready.  When he speaks, he shows examples from the game of the point he is trying to make.  The others just talk.  A person can actually see the reason for the point Baldinger is making.  One has to trust that Jones' and Wyche's summary statements are true since they don't give evidence.

Even at the professional commentator level there is competence and incompetence.  I really hate incompetence.  I see it everywhere.  It represents the unwillingness to be good at what one does.  It is laziness on the part of the person delivering a service to you.  People reach a pre-set maximum for themselves and don't push much beyond that boundary.

Here are some things that have been said lately that show a level of incompetence.

Can you tell me why "happy" is not a verb, in the sentence, "I am happy?"

A teacher answering a student's question with, "It's not important."

A  person giving an order at a drive-thru for "a hamburger with cheese, with everything but oninons  and a Coke."  The order-taker answers back with "You want a hamburger with onions and did you ask if we have Coke?"

A mother telling her child that if his behavior is repeated she'll spank him.  Three actions later the mother speaks again to the child, "Do you want me to spank you?"

The secretary in charge of payroll handing a check to an employee on a Monday afternoon saying, "I forgot to give this to you last Friday."

The list is endless.  People show all the time they have set the bar pretty low in life.  They don't want to be good or they want to be lazy.  And they're not embarrassed.  This kind of behavior makes me know that the Bell Curve applies to everyday life.  Then, again, how can you see the mountain tops if your have no valleys.

Advance us

Thought generation is a very tricky subject.  Cognitive scientists and psychologists know a lot about thinking after the fact.  Medical doctors and anatomical researchers know a lot about the electrical stimuli that happens in the brain and how the brain looks.  But thought generation is a secret yet to be unlocked.

To be sure, cognitive scientists and doctors know how the brain makes connections and associations between thoughts.  It's the generation of thought in the first place that escapes description.  Vygotsky in the 1920s was one of the first to try to formulate theories about the subject.  His theories are a bit like reading a very circular argument using his own set of defined terms as of how thought occurs.  Many others have tried since that time rather unsuccessfully.

If a person has a new thought, what exactly happens?  If we knew, we could unlock the secrets of the universe.  We wouldn't have to wait on the Isaac Newtons of life to happen along some decade.  If we knew, we wouldn't have to honor those Edisons and Teslas among us to experiment endlessly trying desperately to discover something never created before.  If we knew, we wouldn't be having to reverse engineer UFOs that have fallen from the sky.

But we don't know.  So, there is much yet to learn about everything around us.  It makes life exciting and worth the thrill of discovery.  With 6 1/2 billion brains on the Earth, it's a little mathematically difficult to have a thought that is new.  But, it's still possible.  If you find yourself in the fabulous position of having one of those unique thoughts, please do something about it.  The world needs it.  We advance as a civilization because you had it.  But, it does have to be presented.  Advance us all, please.

The real lab

I know it is really hard for people, but imagine this - that people want to be taught how to speak a second language and they have no formal training using or developing their native tongues.  That may not sound like it should be a huge obstacle, but consider how most schools teach language.  That's right, through grammar and written language.  Grammar and written language, of course, are an exercise in formal training and these second language learners have none.  So, to develop it after a child's learning window has closed for acquiring it naturally, is to learn it by repetition and being in many hundreds of different circumstances over time.  Right again, that's impossible.

So, what a challenge it is to learn a second language without being able to rely on the formality of grammatical nomenclature, written expression, or a sense of what is native expression.  There is a way, of course, to learn a language without the three methods just mentioned, but many educators don't know how to do this since they were taught formally, and they tend to teach in  the way they learned.  Many of them will tell you it's impossible to teach a second language without describing what happens in grammatical terms.

If people would think how they learned science, (in the lab, right?), then they can better understand how to learn a foreign language.  There is an axiom that has to be followed.  To the extent that grammatical description is not used, then to that extent people have to be in the lab.  And by lab, a classroom environment is not meant.  A real world environment is meant. So, the successful formula is GD-n=L+n (Grammatical Description - the amount of ability from understanding grammatical description  =  use of the Lab of the real world + the amount of ability from hearing, practicing, and experiencing real world language) 
Public, private, and business schools who don't discover this don't really teach for fluency, they teach to say they have taught.  The proof of any method is always in the success of the students who become bilingual as a result of the method. That measure alone would condemn most of the language learning methods used.  Roughly, and without regard to a person's determination to learn, 1000 hours of actual practice of language are necessary to achieve a measure of fluency.  That excludes any instruction by a teacher.

As the world becomes more globally networked, the need for a second language is likely to be more in demand.  Those who pay attention to what is on the horizon for higher paying jobs should begin looking at the field of second language development to include on their lists.  And ABSOLUTELY, method is important.

But then...

The above scene from the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster, is my favorite of all time for what it symbolizes about Life.  No one truly prepares for all that (s)he encounters.  We prepare for a baseline in Life, but not for the individual encounters.

In the movie clip, Jodie Foster has prepared all of her life for what might come her way in the form of planetary science.  She even made the arrays ready to receive signals from other life in space.  She thought she was ready, but it proved to be a confluence of failures for her even though eventually she was very satisfied.  She prepared all of her life for the one moment she thought she was prepared to hear.  When it came, she swung into immediate action as she trained herself to do.  Then everything changed on her.  Numerous unexpected events tested her mettle in ways she had not prepared for even though the initial event happened according to her plan.

This clip captures the moments her entire life was centered around and prepared for.  It is the moment her life changes in very unexpected ways, none of them to her liking.  Eventually, all those changes worked out for her, but only after a whirlwind of unplanned situations.

I have supremely prepared for the encounters I wanted to happen in Life.  I've had more than a few of those eye-opening moments when I swung into action according to my plan.  But then...

Replacement time now

Over the course of the next two years, until the end of 2017, more and more developments will happen to indelibly change the status quo from the world of print and reading to the world of the visual arts and graphic presentation.  The digitization of the world around us and the world outside of our own has fundamentally changed the way people think.  It is painful to see people try to read anymore.  It is also becoming slower in its development in children because the world they live in develops their brain connections (synapses) around entirely new stimuli.  The following two app developments for phones serve as sterling examples of things to follow fast and furiously.

MasterCard today announced a pilot for a new way to "sign" a charge to their cards.  According to a poll MasterCard had conducted, 83% of Millennials  use their phones to purchase online.  So, now there is an app to take a selfie, by simply blinking into your phone's camera.  That verifies your purchase, and the picture is translated into 1s and 0s and sent as your code to complete the purchase.  What a masterful approach! Note there are no typed passwords using this method.

Also an advertising campaign started today on TV to download the app called LetGo.  A person simply snaps a picture, sends it to the LetGo app and it is immediately put on the LetGo network for people to buy.  People can sell their own pictures now instantly.  What a fantastic innovation in entrepreneurship!  Note the need for picture production is greater than the need to write an ad to sell anymore.

Over the next two years, smart educators will make writing code a part of their math curriculum rather than their optional technology curriculum.  Algorithms and programming for digitization of everything will absolutely take over what is going to be produced in this world.  And because the realm of the visual presentation will assuredly replace the fading need to store and transmit the alphabet, these same smart educators will make video storyboards and video transmission a part of their English curriculum rather than their 6th grade, 5-hour introduction in technology.

Assuredly... Absolutely... Now!

Turning thoughts

I'm here tonight on my patio watching the sun disappear below the horizon and the skies gradually change from bright blue to dark blue to gray to star-lit black.  Gazing at the transformation is not mystical.  It happens everyday in the same way.   But, it is thought-provoking.

Watching the change allows me to ponder the type of day it was as it disappears.  Was it a productive day?  Did I accomplish something of note today?  Did I make the day work in my favor?  Was someone else better today because I was in their day?

It also reminds me of the process of the daily phenomenon that is so much larger than I am.   A planet turns on its axis in the middle of nowhere in space as it rotates around the sun and spins away from the sun so that it faces only the darkness and coldness of nothingness.  I am but a speck on the planet peering out into the vastness.

On one hand, my life is meaningful because it makes a difference to me how I live.  On the other hand, my life is completely swallowed and overshadowed by the insignificance of life on one planet among hundreds of billions of them.  It's good for me to contemplate both the importance and insignificance together I think.  That perspective keeps me from arrogance, but allows me to make a mark in the world in some manner or another.

Subtle flattery

A psychological study done about 3 years ago reported that if someone (speaker A) stands or sits in a position similar to the person one is talking to, then the other conversant (speaker B) is more likely to identify with the speaker A.  That is an important principle for those in sales.

In addition, if speaker A were to use a couple of the same words carrying the main idea of the topic (content words), then the identification of speaker B with speaker A was formed.  The measure of both words and body position gave an enhanced strength of identification.

A common saying in English is that flattery will get you nowhere.  But, a subtle form of flattery seemingly gets a person places.  Even if one is not trying to sell someone on some product or idea, showing solidarity with someone else is appreciated.  A number of sociolinguistic studies have been conducted to explore the idea of identification.  People identify with others using a variety of methods with speech.  The father of sociolinguistics, William Labov, conducted one of the first studies showing that the presence of final "r" or lack of final "r" in words like park, car, and floor was connected to social status (which is linked to solidarity).  The Milroys in Dublin, Ireland, two decades later showed the strength of the solidarity in speech with the idea of covertly using slang forms when working with others of the same status even if a person didn't speak that way at home.  Other studies with populations from other countries are numerous.

One of the traits of the so-called woman's intuition is to somehow know when people are connected or not.  But, showing loyalty or bondedness is part of the socialization process for girls as they learn to converse with each other as teenagers.

Call it socialization, covert solidarity, or (non)prestige status, the result is the same whenever it is studied.  I know I've had "better luck" with people when I follow the suggested features for identification with someone.

And what would happen if I applied this principle to software in advertising?  Watch below.

Showing contempt in (not) conversing

I was eating a barbeque place for lunch the other day.  I was by myself, so I sat by a monitor on the wall to watch the NFL channel.  About five tables away three men were engaged in a conversation they were really enjoying.  They were telling stories about the people they worked with.

I like to hear samples of conversations because it reveals a lot about the individuals engaged in those conversations.  One of the really noticeable, very predictable behaviors of language is that it follows one of the world's oldest observations: familiarity breeds contempt.  A number of societies have seen this to be true, even making it into Aesop's fables, The Lion and the Fox.  Shakespeare uses it in The Merry Wives.  Mark Twain is famous for saying it and adding "children" to the quote.  Latin works have it.  It's a time-tested saying.

So the men "talked up a storm" we might say.  What about others in the restaurant who were eating around me.  Well, it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon, so there were not many people in the place.  However, after I had been there about 15 minutes, two couples came in separately.  One was a couple in their mid-20s it appeared, the other a couple in their mid-60s.

If I follow the line of thought used in the age-old observation, the younger couple would have not been together long enough to have contempt for each other.  But, the older couple would show contempt.  As I listened to the younger couple's snippets that were loud enough to hear, I could hear laughter, animated stories, a number of questions, a lot of short answers, but very little silence.  The older couple came in sat down, began eating, looked around at the empty tables, watched TV, but did not talk to each other.  In the 25 minutes they were there, they spoke twice to each other, that I was aware of, and then only a one turn exchange.

I see this pattern again and again.  It's an amazing pattern.  The very reason conversation exists is to share and ask for information.  When a person gets to the point that the reason for conversation's existence is not enough, then (s)he should not waste another person's time.  (S)He should exit before the point of contempt.  Society has a lot of people wasting others' time.  I would rather be around people I want to share with or want to ask questions of.  I can be by myself the other times.