How do we know for sure that our notion of truth is, well, true? I was talking to some people last night and was thinking about that. Here’s something that came back to mind:
Animal, Vegetable, or Minister? By Charles Seife.
Note: x^2 means x to the second power or “squared”.
Let a and b each be equal to 1. Since a and b are equal,
b^2 = ab (eq. 1)
Since a equals itself, it is obvious that
a^2 = a^2 (eq. 2)
Subtract equation 1 from equation 2. This yields
a^2 – b^2 = a^2 – ab (eq. 3)
We can factor both sides of the equation; a^2 – ab equals a(a – b). Likewise, a^2 – b^2 equals (a + b)(a – b). Substituting into equation 3 we get
(a + b)(a – b) = a(a – b) (eq. 4)
So far, so good. Now divide both sides of the equation by (a – b) and we get
a + b = a (eq. 5)
Subtract a from both sides and we get
b = 0 (eq. 6)
But we set b to 1 at the very beginning of this proof, so this means that
1 = 0 (eq. 7)
Going further, we know that Winston Churchill has one head. But one equals zero by equation 7, so that means that Winston has no head. Likewise, Churchill has zero leafy tops, therefore he has one leafy top. Multiplying both sides of equation 7 by 2, we see that
2 = 0 (eq.
Churchill has two legs, therefore he has no legs. Churchill has two arms, therefore he has no arms. Now multiply equation 7 by Churchill’s waist size in inches. This mans that
(Winston’s waist size) = 0 (eq. 9)
This means that Winston Churchill tapers to a point. Now what color is Winston Churchill? Take any beam of light that comes from him and select a photon. Multiply equation 7 by the wavelength, and we see that
(Winston’s photon’s wavelength) = 0 (eq. 10)
But multiplying equation 7 by 640 nanometers, we see that
640 = 0 (eq. 11)
Combining equations 10 and 11, we see that
(Winston’s photon’s wavelength) = 640 nanometers
This means that this photon – or any other photon that comes from Mr. Churchill – is orange. Therefore Winston Churchill is a bright shade of orange.
I was reading through some news and found dimdim, which is basically an opensource “webex” like solution that is supported by ads, and if you want to use it professionally you can pay to have more features and the ads taken away, from what I understand. I think I’ll probably use it for fun to get all my groomsmen on the same page since we are scattered all over the country.
So I’ve recently been thinking about reproof when in leadership. As a leader, sometimes there are things that you see going on that you don’t like that need to be handled. The question is how, as a leader, do you handle the situation? Some will “put them in their place” with some verbal lashings. Others will do nothing. Is there a middle ground?
Growing up, my parents often did spank me, for very serious things, but most things were worth correcting but weren’t serious enough for a spanking. There is a place for strong verbal reprimand, but I was raised through reason, so I think that drips through to who I am and how I lead today.
I remember as a kid, there was a time when I really wanted to get an earring. My Dad thought that was a ridiculous idea. He could have yelled at me and told me that was the dumbest thing I ever heard. He could have made sure I was never able to physically get to the mall to do it. Or he could have done what he did, and just talked me through it. He asked, “so why do you want one?” and the conversation went like this:
Dad: So why do you want one?
me age 9: because its cool. Sean has one and look at how cool he looks. Vanilla ice has one too, and he’s super cool.
Dad: ok, I can see why you think they are cool. Well, so you think computers are cool right?
me: yeah, I love them. obviously. you know that.
Dad: yeah. well, are you going to get a job someday working with computers?
me: yeah, that would be awesome.
Dad: Do you think they will like your earing at the interview?
me: hmm. I can take it off.
Dad: Can you take away the hole that it is going to make in your ear too?
me: hmmm. no.
Dad: Well, if you don’t want that earring then, why should you want it now? Once you do this, you can’t go back to not having a hole in your ear.
me: ok Dad. I see what you mean.
It’s funny for me to think back to that. I currently still don’t have an earing in either ear. I can’t believe I thought vanilla ice was that cool. My dad chose to believe that I was smart enough to figure it out. I’ve tried to live that way too, believing that with some talking through things, most people that we work with in our lives are smart enough to see things for what we believe they are, and if they aren’t that way, perhaps we will learn from them on how things really are.
Am I against really coming down on something if it warrants it? No, I do believe there are times when being extremely stern, especially if we are talking about safety issues, may be necessary. But I think what my father has taught me about leadership is that we need to take care to teach without breaking the person. Just like Steven Covey talks about the story of the Goose with the Golden Eggs, we need to treat people that we work with carefully, and find ways to keep things working without killing them off to try to get more out of them. I try to make it a rule of mine to talk to someone about an issue in private at least once, and normally after things have cooled down, before ever having to confront them publicly. Life has a lot of lessons to learn. Good leaders and good friends should be there to help us learn them. At least that’s what I think my Dad has always tried to instill in me. Here’s a few things from proverbs that came to mind when I was thinking about all of this.
Proverbs 15:31 - The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
Proverbs 15:5 - A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
Proverbs 17:10 - A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.
how great is this! Remember the milk now has a firefox plugin that lets you have it integrated with your gmail. This is great because it adds outlook like functionality by letting you manage your information better. This really helps both apps out a lot in my opinion. Will this be making Google apps a little closer to becoming an outlook killer? Maybe just for consumers, but not for corporate I’m guessing, unless Google buys out Remember the Milk and just integrates it into Google Apps. Hmm, . . .
Well, either way, check out the screenshot and if you think it’s cool, take a hop from this link to do it as well.
I just got a blackberry curve from T-mobile. I previously had a Treo 680 on AT&T.
The question might be why the switch. Here is the answer:
1) I love the Favorite 5’s program.
2) Internet access and unlimited email is much much cheaper with T-mobile.
3) It’s an incredible looking phone with a great keypad and I really like the pearl wheel.
4) I’m finding that tons of people have blackberries now, so it’s great being able to find and share applications with everyone.
5) Things are incredibly well integrated together. I’ve really come to like it.
Treo 680, I do miss your touchscreen a little, but hey, no hard feelings. I still have much respect for you. I just had more internet needs and connectivity requirements that you were too high maintenence to meet. I don’t blame you, I blame the carrier family that you were a part of.
me: Valentines day
worst holiday ever
you don’t even get it off
Brandon: i know
it’s weak.
me: seriously, I sent Jessica flowers
but does she feel special
she might say she does
but does she really
no I’m sure she doesn’t, because I’m sure everyone else working with her or around her probably got flowers as well. Then it simply becomes this flower comparing contest.
Did I mean it when I sent those flowers. Sure, but does it matter. No.
the only people effected
are those who don’t get something
and those people go home
alone
and want to kill themselves
why?
all in the name of love
which is spelled
c o m m e r c i a l i s m
“oh what did you get?”
“I got flowers”
“oh I did too, how unoriginal of our boyfriends”
“oh what did you get?”
“I think my boyfriend forgot”
“oh well, he’s a jerk, you should dump him”
“oh, how about you, cindy?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend . . . ”
Brandon: HAHAHAHAHA
dude…BLOG this!
me: “wow that must really stink to be you, being such a lonely loser with no one wasting money on you for the sake of keeping with societal conventions”
if society were a person
I would fiercely maim him/her/whatever
Brandon: lol
me: for all of mankind
Brandon: i agree
i’d help
Sent at 3:10 PM on Thursday
I hope you are happy, FTD, 1800flowers, and all the rest of you thieves of joy and societal peace. Don’t worry, I’ll resume happier posts tomorrow. Till then I’ll be frustrated with the concept of Valentines day and the forcing of affectionate gestures diluting the value of genuine gestures once a year.
Stephen Covey brings up a really interesting point in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. He talks about how he studied over the 200 or so years of our US history and found that there was a pattern in the literature written about the topic of success. Over the last 50 years or so, there has been a pattern of books that have been written which he categorizes as books on “Personality Ethic”. Basically, books that help you manage your relationships better, but are somewhat superficial and just social band aids. This makes sense based on our microwave and drive through culture. His thoughts are that they appear to temporarily solve some problems but do not address underlying issues, which when not dealt with, only tend to fester and resurface.
He compares this to the literature found in the other 150 years of our US history. He classifies this as “Character Ethic”. The focus of those books tend to be on and I quote, “things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty and the Golden Rule.” Basically, it is centered around the understanding that there are bed rock foundations to success which are deep in who you are and not what you do. I think he says in it that “Who you are screams so much louder than what you say”.
This shift seemed to happen after World War I. Alright, lunch is about to end, so its time to hit the phones again, but I definitely wanted to get to share this before I forgot. Would love to hear people’s thoughts on this.
Last night I pulled out a question book I have and asked Jessica (my fiance) who she would visit in history if she could visit anyone and why. It was hard to narrow it down, so I said top 3 or top 5. Mine would be King David, because I’ve always been curious as to what he looked like, Paul the Apostle, because he was insanely intelligent, but probably still a lot of fun to talk to, Ghengis Khan, because that’s just been a childhood dream of horses and furs and swords and stuff, Benjamin Franklin, just because he was such a smart guy, yet very controversial, and hmmm, number 5, not sure. What about all of you? I’d love to hear your Top names of people. Let me know!
Here’s a few pictures from our engagement session. Sam Hassas was our photographer and I would recommend him to anyone. Here’s a link to his blog for some more pictures beyond these below.
