Not Soulless, It’s Life

I was having a conversation with a friend of friend the other day and he was asking me about my MBA. It was basically the question “so why an MBA?” As if the MBA is the height of disgust. (This was implied, not explicit.) My answer to him was simple. Because what you learn in business school are lessons that can be applied to the rest of your life. What is business but an institutionalized version of things that we do everyday? The give-and-take, the working together, the borrowing and saving. (i.e. economics, but in a more social context.)
Sure, b-school graduates get a bad rep because they go into finance and build a giant house of cards that collapses to destabilize the economy, then still take their big bonuses.  Yeah, I think we can all agree that those people aren’t heroes.
But understanding business helps you to gain perspective on the decisions you make and the decisions that get made for you. Although b-school trains you to think in dollars and cents about even human lives, more importantly, it teaches you to think about it.  It teaches you how to dissect and evaluate the problem and think about all the parts that go into it.
The analysis may be soulless, but its the person applying it to life that makes it interesting.

The Fog of War

Heard the news today that Robert McNamara has passed away.  By coincidence, Marc and I just saw The Fog of War two days ago. I would describe the movie as “chilling.” Robert McNamara is clearly a thoughtful, intelligent, reasonable person.  Yet in the movie he describes his involvement with fire-bombings in WWII – actions he admits would be “war crimes” if the U.S. had lost. He is the secretary of defense during the Vietnam war, and oversees the escalation there.

Overall, you get the picture of someone who is caught up in larger events and is unable to wrestle with them. The larger machinations of nations, and the prejudices and assumptions that go unchallenged, seem to carry him along with them.

I find it scary.  I may be naive, but I have always hoped that with small steps towards rationality, every generation will get better at peaceful conflict resolution.  Yet, the mistakes and thinking that he reveals are so simple.  “Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning” is one of his lessons.  Don’t we know this?  Shouldn’t people in power have checks and balances on how they make decisions?

It’s all very scary.  I hope that McNamara’s legacy is for future leaders to learn from his mistakes, but I don’t know how likely that is.

Auf Wiedersehen Fjordian

As a thank you for my time at Fjord, I’ve put together a collection of my special “moves” that have been the secret to my success.

A shout out to ze frank for the inspiration.

Women, Men, Power, Priviledge

Cynthia Nixon, who’s character “Miranda” is an
archetype of female empowerment

So I was thinking recently about what it means to be a strong woman, or a woman with power.  In my own experience, I’ve seen that the styles of the male project managers I work with are very direct.  When they ask for something, they expect it to be done, and don’t fuss about trying to convince people to do it. I’ve tried this and it doesn’t work.  From me, people want to be “asked.” They want me to subordinate myself to them in order for them to feel ok doing what I asked.

The (still prevalent) biases between races, genders, etc are well documented.  We know that they continue and will for a while, because in the grand scheme of things, equality is a very recent idea. Women also (on average) appear to be better communicators and social facilitators.

This got me thinking backward.  I wonder if the long standing power inequalities of men and women have groomed modern women to compensate for their lack of overt power by making us better at complex manipulation and social navigation.  We can’t just come out and ask for what we want and expect to get it, so women have been selected for who can still get what they need by more…creative means.

This lead me to think that all those guys (my guy included) who complain that women aren’t clear, that we are always trying to make things more complicated, or worse, that we’re evil manipulators, well, maybe you have your own ancestors to blame.

(p.s. my use of maybe in that last sentence was strategic.  Apparently, people are more likely to not challenge what a woman says if she plays down it’s forcefulness with a “maybe” or a “I’m not sure, but”)

Thought of the Day

When faced with any problem, the most important thing you have to do is ask the right question(s).  How you frame a problem will dictate it’s solution.

So make the effort to ask good questions people.  Challenge your perceptions and try thinking about it like it were a different problem all together, maybe a strategy that works in another context could be applied to this context.

I’m kinda frustrated with the destructive patterns that get formed when things don’t change and problems are always tackled the same way.  Downward spiral, here we go.

This Guy is Smart (and also a good talker)

This guy talks about what I guess I knew intuitively when I was younger.  You can’t have a great job and a great career (and marry the person of your dreams) just anywhere.  You have to go to the right place where the right opportunities are available.

I left Hamilton and went to Toronto and didn’t look back. I knew that I was more likely to meet people I would like and have career opportunities I would excel in in a big city.  Steel town was never going to do it for me.

I think of my friends who are still in Hamilton and I know, to some extent, their lives and careers are shaped by being there.

Immigration has been driven by this forever, but for some reason moving and “leaving home” still has a stigma for many.  Sometimes you get called opportunistic or ungrateful.  I think that every person is different and has to go where they will get to be the person they want to be.

Global Village

I heard about this website called Kiva.org that allows you to make really small loans ($25) to help businesses in the developing world get going. I love this website because one the the biggest problems in the developing world that maintains the cycle of poverty is that no one can get a loan. Can you imagine having nothing and having to scrimp and save to grow your business? If you’re fighting for food, you’d never be able to do it.

The other good thing about this website is that it’s personal. You pick a business and through journal updates, you learn all about how that business is doing.

The other day, I was checking out the journals and saw this entry.

They dragged Onunga out of the bed and begun hitting him with the iron bars. He pleaded with them but instead they hit him with a sword right on forehead inflicting a deep cut. Onunga fell down in pain as blood gashed from his forehead. Two gang members then tuned to Maurine and begun tearing her clothes down. When they started undressing Onunga knew that they wanted to rape her!

I had heard about the unrest in Kenya, but hearing a personal story nearly brought me to tears. The best part is the reaction from all the people on the site offering to lend to him as soon the situation ends.

This is totally the future of international aid.

Productivity Killer

The TED conference in California every year brings together tons of innovators, thinkers, scientists, artists. (Think IdeaCity, but older and better.) Anyway, it has recently come to my attention that they’re posting videos of speakers who have been there over the years. It’s like a goldmine of recent trends in thinking.

Check out this talk from Malcom Gladwell just to wet your appetite. I’ve been watching these in the background on my computer all day.

Humanity: Good or Evil?

Today while sticking my foot in my mouth (I can’t believe I don’t shut up!), Kyle asked me if I thought humanity was inherently evil. You can imagine the quagmire of complexity I had walked into if Kyle was asking me this in the middle of the work day. Anyway, here’s what I told him.

I think the only inherent trait of humans is selfishness. We do what is best for us (or what we perceive as an extension of us, etc). In general, it is better for all of us collectively if we work together and are moral. But there is always an advantage for an individual who betrays the group and acts selfishly/immorally, essentially taking advantage of everyone else’s morality. (An example of this is the Tragedy of the Commons)
The flip side of this is the classic philosophy example of a dilemma. You and your friend are arrested for a crime. If neither of you talk, then both of you get off, you both win. If you talk, you’ll get a lighter sentance, not a complete win for you but a total loss for your friend. However, if you don’t talk and your friend does, you’ll get the harsher sentance, way bad for you. Obviously it’s better if you both stay mum, but given the choice do you risk your friend betraying you?

It’s a toughie. It’s almost like the universe is mathematically stacked against us. Kinda makes you think that not only is this whole intelligent life thing a miracle, but so are the moments of peace.

Random

I was thinking today about the role randomness plays in our day to day lives. You can have a plan or strategy in mind. You can have predicted the likelihoods. But still, BAM, something can still catch you off guard.

Normally, it’s just small stuff. Most things we can move past, but the way random stuff can still happen I find sobering. Control is a big deal for me, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t possibly plan for everything.

So, in that spirit, I’m embracing randomness. I’m going to make no plans all weekend and not bother to take charge of anything. Margaret vs. Pauline The dark side of random, I’m just glad I’m not Margaret, I don’t care if I’m not Pauline.