On This Day
Sean, on The Corporation: “The flaw in the movie's argument is that it is a product of a modern liberal ideology, and that ideology is based partly on the concept of John Stuart Mill's "Open Society," the free marketplace of ideas where the truth magically floats to the top of every debate. Thus, to invert Goebbels, if you tell enough people the truth enough times, they will believe you. This is a fairly silly assumption to make, because if this principle is established, all the Thrasymachuses of such a society have to do just one thing to stay in power: make it impossible to criticize the established order by controlling the form of the media, thus preventing the populace from distinguishing between truth and lies, serious debate and entertainment. Actual content matters little in the mass media; on a visceral level, it does not matter if you're watching a Mike Moore or Wachowski Brothers film, because it's hard to tell the difference between the two.”
Oakland Athletics' Assistant General Manager Paul DePodesta: “I was in Las Vegas for a weekend playing blackjack. A person at the table to my right had 17 and said they wanted a hit. The whole table stopped and even the dealer asked if he was sure he wanted a hit. Finally he said he wanted a hit. The dealer deals the card and of course it was a four. What did the dealer say? “Nice hit.” But I'm thinking, you're kidding me. It was a terrible hit. Even though it ended up working out, it wasn't a good decision.”
He doesn't explicitly connect the dots, but in the speech DePodesta talks about "being the house", in that an organization needs to figure out the probabilities that a certain way of doing business will be successful. In the annecdote, he seems to be suggesting that it is in the best interests of the house to not only know the probabilities, but to encourage (or at least not discourage) competitors' view that the way they are doing things is the correct way when in reality the probabilities of success are low.
Management by Baseball has more detailed coverage of the speech, and has promised more in the near future.
Todd, writing in November 2003 in response to my thoughts on "tolerance": “All we can really expect, if we want to live together, is that we can coexist amid disagreement. The best way to do that is to encourage tolerance not as an ideal, but as a necessary compromise that let's us have freedom of thought and the ability to live as we wish so long as that lifestyle doesn't prevent others from doing the same. I know that's pretty libertarian of me, but I also think it's the only realistic way to live in a time when thawed antiquarian freaks roam the earth.”
James W. Prescot, writing in 1975 (updated with 1989 data): “I am now convinced that the deprivation of physical sensory pleasure is the principal root cause of violence. Laboratory experiments with animals show that pleasure and violence have a reciprocal relationship, that is, the presence of one inhibits the other. A raging, violent animal will abruptly calm down when electrodes stimulate the pleasure centers of its brain. Likewise, stimulating the violence centers in the brain can terminate the animal's sensual pleasure and peaceful behavior. When the brain's pleasure circuits are 'on,' the violence circuits are 'off,' and vice versa. Among human beings, a pleasure-prone personality rarely displays violence or aggressive behaviors, and a violent personality has little ability to tolerate, experience, or enjoy sensuously pleasing activities. As either violence or pleasure goes up, the other goes down.”
The article, with the emphasis in the original, covers a lot of ground: it attacks the Judeo-Christian basis for the denial of bodily pleasure; the way the culture and laws of the United States allows some addictive drugs that give people competitive edges (more in the culture than law) or that either deny pleasure or encourage violence and bans the drugs that enhance pleasure; the relationship between sexual repressive cultures and the amount of pornography (in place of normal sexual expressions); the relationship between sexually repressive cultures and incidents of rape; the inverse relationship between corporate business structures and family closeness; that it's best not to let babies cry themselves to sleep but see to their needs in order to build a relationship based on trust; and much more. It doesn't go into much detail about the above, but much conventional wisdom—wisdom still "true" today—is called into question. It is a remarkable article.
Wikipedia links to a dicussion of the article between Erik and Josh at Kuro5hin. It's worth checking out in full, as Josh ultimately uses Python to show that a key relationship Prescott tries to flesh out is not statistically significant.
Douglas Adams: “I sang in the school choir and knew how to listen for harmony and counterpoint, and it was clear to me that the Beatles were something extraordinarily clever. It bewildered me that no one else could hear it: impossible harmonies and part playing you had never heard in pop songs before. The Beatles were obviously just putting all this stuff in for some secret fun of their own, and it seemed exciting to me that people could have fun in that way.”
John Seabrook points out why I ride public transit: for about a thousand dollars a year, I get to and from destinations without having to worry what traffic is going to be like because a) I'm not the one driving and b) if the traffic's bad, at least I have a book to read. Of course, I'm at the mercy of the transit schedule, and a fickle beast it can sometimes be. But for the price I pay—in terms of time and smelliness of other passengers—I get to where I need to be cheaply—in money terms—while finishing off a chapter.
David on I, Curmudgeon director Alan Zweig: “Motivation and confidence restored, he sets out to get a better understanding of his (and others') mental state. He interviews 20 or so fellow travelers. The results are amusing and sad, readily recognizable, and yet foreign because nobody really believes himself to be like that.”
See also my post at Urban Vancouver.
