The key to change

The key to why things change, is the key to everything: How easy is it for knowledge to spread?
And that, in the past, the people who made change happen, were the people who had that knowledge, whether they were craftsmen or kings. Today, the people who make things change are the scientists and the technologists who are the true driving force of humanity and before you say "What about the Beethovens and the Michaelangelos?", let me suggest something with which you may disagree violently, that at best the products of human emotion: art, philosophy, politics, music, literature are interpretations of the world. They tell you more about the guy who's talking, than the world he is talking about. Second hand views of the world, made third hand by your interpretation of them.

- Connections, James Burke

Burke's seminal 70's series "Connections" certainly looks dated but his central lessons are more relevant than ever:
- History is not linear,
- technology is the trigger for change and the real force behind world history.
- Everyone has an ability inside them to understand everything, if it is explained properly.

But that's not how we are taught. We are taught the opposite of all these things.

We are taught that history comes from the actions of key people, Hitler, Stalin, Reagan, Mao. We are taught that inventors are hard working individuals, Thomas Edison, Jethro Tull, James Watt.
We are taught that there are no wrong answers and that interpretations are more important than facts.

It should be no surprise that Ireland has fallen to the bottom of the PISA league tables of Mathematics and Science. Children are allowed to think that some things are too hard for them.
Worse, we put a premium on arts, law, finance. Engineering and Science are a long way down the list. In education, inclusivity is in vogue, competition is a dirty word. Artists are given tax exemption.

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind

We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action not by contemplation, the hand is more important than the eye. We are not one of those contemplative civilisations of the far east or the middle ages that believed that the world has only to be seen and thought about and who practised no science. [...]

Civilisation is not a collection of finished artifacts. It is an elaboration of processes - in the end, the march of man is the refinement of the hand in action.

The Grain in the Stone, The Ascent of Man - J. Bronowski

"No" is, generally speaking, a better answer than "Yes".

(Dead Phil Mathers) "When I was a young man I led an unsatisfactory life and devoted most of my time to excesses of one kind or another, my prinicipal weakness being Number One. I was also party to the formation of an artificial manure-ring"

(Joe, the soul) No need to ask him what Number One is, we do not want lurid descriptions of vice or anything at all in that line. Use your imagination. Ask him what this has to do with Yes and No.

(I)"What has this got to do with Yes and No?"

"After a time, I mercifully perceived the error of my ways and the unhappy destination I would reach unless I mended them. I retired from the world in order to comprehend it [...] When I was medititating, I all my sins out and put them on the table, so to speak. I gave them all strict examination, weighed them and viewed them from all angles of the compass. I asked myself how I came to commit them where I was and whom I was with when I came to do them. I discovered, that everything you do is in response to a suggestion made to you by some other party either inside you or outside. Some of these suggestions are good and praiseworthy and some are undoubtedly delightful. But the majority are definitely bad and pretty considerable as sins go. Do you understand me?"

"Perfectly"

"I would say the bad ones outnumber the good ones three to one"

Six to one, if you ask me

"I therefore decided to say No henceforth to every suggestion, request or inquiry whether inward or outward. It was the only simple formula which was sure and safe..."

- The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien


This excellent dialogue or trialogue, if you include Joe, the narrators immortal soul is, in his own words, "Every syllable a sermon in itself".

Does this mean you should go about life, like an unreconstructed Ulster Unionist, rejecting, refusing, reneging, disagreeing and denying every that comes my way - well No. But in this world of constant proposition, sales pitches, elevator pitches, clothing for third world flyers, a negative answer should always carry a bit more weight.

Consider: you want to buy an item, a car, a house, should you ask some happy customers and find out what they think? No, you should seek out the unhappy, dissatisfied ones, because they will always be more honest. They will tell you whats not in the brochures. Consider the last blockbuster film you went to see that you thought was good based on the glowing reviews you read and then, you find that two irreplaceable hours of your life have elapsed, along with probably another hour you spent in wage slavery to pay for the travesty together with some over-priced, reheated popcorn. Now go back and read the negative reviews and ask yourself do they sound true?

Negative error is also possible, but its easier to spot.
Yes unhappy customers may be angry or have a grievance, perhaps they are stupid or unlucky, but you can usually tell. You can do the same review trick with a movie you liked, and when you read the negative reviews you can see that these are people who would never have liked the movie in the first place.

If you read all the negative reviews and your are still convinced in your determination to buy the car, the house, watch the movie, then go ahead. You can then consider that your decision has been corroborated.

If you are a business person, always study the people who don't buy your product, your non-customers. (This is from Drucker).

If you are a scientist, find the reports of experiments that failed. (Very hard to find such papers, but each one is worth many times the value of positive ones, e.g. Rosenhan experiment)

Look, when Moses came back from his chat with the creator (allegedly) he came back with a ten point memo. Ten things you should NOT do.

You could call it the Power of Negative Thinking

The Working Hypothesis

"What we see in the world depends on what we think of it."

This we are asked to take on faith, for now.