facts, opinions

Isn't it funny how the same facts can cause different opinions, but the same opinions can come from very different facts. Funny...eh!

The Black Swan by Taleb

After reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's latest book "The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable" I believe I'd like to read it again, at least parts of it. (large parts) At this point all I've gotten from it is that certain events happen, not necessarily for no reason, but the they are generally unpredictable. That leads into the whole Extremistan/Mediocristan thing, which is an interesting description of our worldly situation.

Anyway I'll be giving it another read. If you haven't read of it or heard of it even, I suggest checking it out.

Why are so many things crap?

Have you ever worked on a project, gotten to a point where there are several different methods or ways to get a smaller part of the overall project done, and due to some time constraint or social-tick just half-assed it. Keep in mind it's just a minor detail...or is it. Minor detail...needn't worry about it?! I wonder if that crossed the minds of the O-ring designers, or the installers, that helped blow up the Challenger shuttle, or countless other half-asseries in design. I may be out of line on the Challenger reference, but not too far out. Still it could possibly offend someone, or it could be misconstrued on my part. But at this time I don't care. Not even a little.

Is the world we live in now really the product and summation of our best design? Really, like my '06 1/4 ton truck that only gets 25 mpg when you drive it NOT like most drivers. Bunch of crap, rubbish. I can't stand poor design. Worse yet is good or decent design that gets halted and then gains on the crap-o-meter as time advances.

Not that the internal combustion engine (especially the one in my truck) is junk, or that "in and of itself" is a poor design. It's actually a terrific design, marvelous for what it is. But to power my transportation, nope. I'm calling that poor at best...nowadays anyway. I didn't live 80-90 years ago, but for what I've been told, the whole world was affected by the producing of 1000s of vehicles in just a few months (or so). And when the railroad unions opened the doors to over-the-road trucking, the whole thing exploded to what it is today. But is it really that way? I don't know and other than entertaining thoughts I don't care, as long as we can do better.

note: I loved Homer Simpson's line in an episode where he tells Bart "...you don't quit. You just go in everyday and do it really half-assed. It's the American way." I smile big when I think about that, mostly because it should be a parody, and hopefully it stays that.

What a bugger

I'd like to start giving this blog some direction and regularity soon. It's an odd thing, I never really wanted to start a weblog/personal website. I wanted to have had one going for a while. Maybe just a few months, or even several years would've been neat to. That's a good indication where I've been in my life lately. I find a tremendous amount of difficulty with starting almost anything at all, after the honeymoon of the announcement that is. I've been all too good at announcing what I'm going to do and what I should've been doing that, even though I've been keenly aware of it, I'd trained myself to "give-up" before actually trying. What a bugger that's been.

And all of that is not some announcement that "from this time forth...blagga blagga bleh...blagga blagga." I may still be though-infected by it and may go on in spite of it's processes. Oh well.