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Tape Noise Diary

Tape Noise Diary

Tag Archives: Class

Food for Thought Links

14 Sunday Jun 2009

Posted by jaycruz in Food for Thought Links

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Books, Class, Communication, Economy, Jobs, Programming, Psychology, Sociology, Work

food-for-thoughtThe Case for Working with Your Hands

NyTimes piece by Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soul Craft. Like in his book, the essay deals with how modern America has devalued the manual trades like plumbing, carpentry, and mechanics. He argues that since the switch to “knowledge work”, there’s a mistaken assumption that working with things and working with your hands is for “stupid” people, but it’s far more satisfying intellectually than people are aware of.

The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid. This is not my experience. I have a small business as a motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Va., which I started in 2002. I work on Japanese and European motorcycles, mostly older bikes with some “vintage” cachet that makes people willing to spend money on them. I have found the satisfactions of the work to be very much bound up with the intellectual challenges it presents. And yet my decision to go into this line of work is a choice that seems to perplex many people.

Be sure to also check out the excellent book review. 

Sometimes, The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate

Really funny and interesting article about how the minds of programmers work. The more clear and rational you are the better you can communicate. That’s true, up to a point. Some programmers take this to heart. To do their work effectively they have to communicate clearly, sequentially, and logical. But with humans you have to do the complete opposite.

The golden rule of programming is D.R.Y. — don’t repeat yourself. This is the heart of effective programming. But this is the opposite of effective communication.

Let me say that again:

The golden rule of programming, DRY, is the opposite of effective communication. 

Say everything once and only once — go ahead — then be amazed as everyone misses your point!

Humans are not machines. Memories made of this gooey, spongy stuff called a brain are nothing like memories made of silicon.

With Humans, nothing sinks in the first time. And furthermore, you may be surprised to hear that NOTHING sinks in the first time.

The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed is Good

Newsweek’s International chief editor Fareed Zakaria on the Recession. His take?:

The global financial system has been crashing more frequently over the past 30 years than in any comparable period in history. On the face of it, this suggests that we’re screwing up, when in fact what is happening is more complex. The problems that have developed over the past decades are not simply the products of failures. They could as easily be described as the products of success.

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Survival of the Schemers

23 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by jaycruz in Uncategorized

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Capitalism, Class, Economy, Matt Miller, Politics, The Daily Beast, Wealth

You Don’t Deserve to be Rich

Capitalism, Socialism, Communism… they’re all political and economic theories. Yeah, they have been thrown under the umbrella of political science, but they aren’t a pure science. The keyword here is theory and like all theories, they have flaws. And the flaw of these economical systems is that they are based on the assumed predictability of human behavior, but history has taught us that human behavior is anything but unpredictable.

For a long time, capitalism has been the system that we most trust. We believe in it because it’s the best system that “gives a shot” to everyone. It gives everyone an opportunity on wealth and how much of it you can acquire depends only on you. “How much effort you put in, is how much reward you’ll receive” goes the saying. But this principle is crumbling.

Matt Miller over at The Daily Beast explains:

Wealth in America increasingly comes not as the proverbial reward of the “free market,” but from rigged compensation systems that reward mediocrity or outright failure. This is causing a brain burp among many professionals — a group I call the Lower Upper Class – because it’s an affront to an idea they’ve cherished since they first started bringing home A’s from school and acing their SATs.

American capitalism is a meritocracy, they’ve always been told, a place where people basically end up economically where they deserve to. Yet you can’t open the paper nowadays without seeing screaming evidence that this notion is a fraud. Does former CEO Kerry Killinger deserve to retire to an island with $100 million after destroying Washington Mutual? Did Bob Rubin deserve his $115 million for making Citigroup a ward of the state? And what about the several thousand less-prominent geniuses across Wall Street who made off with less loot (but tens of millions nonetheless) peddling mortgage-related securities that produced illusory profits?

I still believe that capitalism gives everyone an opportunity at wealth, but it definitely doesn’t give everyone what they deserve.

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