What’s Next

Today’s post is half-baked or less.  I may finish baking later, but for now I leave it open-ended on purpose, if only to stimulate the kind of thought and discussion that will help me finish baking. 

Over the past couple of days, I have read three articles from three of the most esteemed publications in the world.  They speak to big global themes that will likely define the next decade and beyond:

From the New York Times, a column by David Brooks on the increasing ethnic diversity of America, and its implications for race, politics, and alliances.  My takeaway: entrenched power dynamics will eventually give way to a more fluid and tolerant social structure, but how long will that transition take and how smooth will it be?

From the Financial Times [log-in needed], a story about how rising wages in developing countries are pushing multinational companies to further automate their production processes.  My takeaway: we always lost more jobs to the machines than to lower-wage countries, but that is going to accelerate even more, so how will we adjust our educational and vocational infrastructure in response?

From the Wall Street Journal, a story about how a growing global middle class, informed by social media and emboldened by their resulting connectivity to others like them in other countries, are no longer accepting the status quo as their lifelong fate.  My takeaway: how much blood will freedom cost, and what will the newly free do with their hard-fought prize?

As time permits, I would like to think on this more, on at least three planes.  First, as a Christian: what does this mean for representing Jesus in 2013 and for broadcasting His message to more and more people?  Second, as a parent: how can I best prepare my children to be happy, prosperous, and influential in the world they will grow up into?  Third, as an urbanist: what will thriving cities look like, and what can be done by a range of actors to get to that?

That’s all I have for now: questions, no answers.  I welcome your reactions.

Writing (Block) to Congress

For a while, I have tried to write to my congressmen every six months or so.  I've written on innovation, immigration, health care, world hunger, and mental health, among other topics.  I'm due for another letter.  And I have nothing to say.

Why is this?  I obviously don't have a problem generating dreck to write.  Maybe it's because I feel too busy to think about something to engage my elected officials about.  Maybe it's because I feel less attuned to what's going on in Capitol Hill.  Or, maybe I am feeling jaded about how Congress behaves now, such that my letter really doesn't matter because there is no real discourse anymore. 

I remember when I first got into this habit.  I used to actually write and send physical letters.  Relatively often and relatively quickly, I would get responses.  I never harbored any pretense that my elected officials were actually reading and responding, but I did appreciate that their offices did.  And while their correspondence had a cut-and-paste feel to them, neither were they completely formulaic; someone took the time to actually read my stuff and put together some thoughtful responses based on what their office was working on.  Sure, their thoughts on whatever issue I was writing about were probably pretty far along, but there was a possibility that a staffer might note to their boss, if asked, that his or her constituencies were saying X or Y on a particular issue.  My voice might actually matter!

I hope it still does.  But I am feeling some serious writer's block, and am wondering if it's because in my heart of hearts I wonder if it still does.

America, We Have a Sin Problem

This article at CNN.com, about how monogamy is unnatural and rare in the animal kingdom and that therefore asking it of people is too high a bar, is symptomatic of a problematic attitude towards what Christians call "sin." 

If you don't believe in a God who sets the moral rules, then "because God said you shouldn't" doesn't hold much weight with you, and I get that.  But then if the only other way that you evaluate whether you should or shouldn't do something is if it's natural, that's a problem.  It speaks of a prototypical American mindset that says that if something feels good, you must be given the freedom to do it, and far be it from anyone to impose upon you any sense of higher authority or absolute standard that forces you into something unnatural.  (I say "American" not because other cultures don't also think this, but rather because it seems even more pronounced in this country, and at any rate I don't know other cultures nearly as well so don't want to presume.)

Hopefully, most Americans, regardless of their religious persuasions and the extent to which they are willing to stick up for them, realize that doing whatever you feel like is no way to live life.  Cheating, of course, may be biologically "natural," but it is also relationally damaging and emotionally scarring.  It is the height of arrogance and sociopathy to elevate one's own hedonistic whims over the damage wrought by giving into them.

"Don't sin because you might hurt someone" is not as far as I like going when it comes to moral wrongs, of course.  I believe in a God who has the ultimate say-so on our behavior, and who made us in such a way that He knows best what is best for us and instructs us accordingly - the Bible says things like "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" for this reason - and not because He likes to say "because I said so."  

But even if you don't want to go that far - and I realize most of my readers don't share this belief of mine and so don't have it govern the way they live - you have to think twice about a worldview that follows whatever seems natural.  Modern society is modern society for the very reason that we reign in our fleshly impulses and selfish desires within a broader structure that respects the interconnectedness of our actions on others.  Far from being primitive, not being governed solely by what comes naturally is the defining characteristic of our evolved condition.  You don't even have to be a Christian to buy that.  Sad that so many share the CNN.com author's position that we should never restrict ourselves in ways that feel unnatural.

Get Involved

As I shared last month, joining our community association is free for the first year, for a limited time.  It's a great way (and, obviously, a great price point) to get involved.  (Tonight, some of us on the board will be calling around to encourage folks to join, so if your phone rings and you hear a pleasant voice on the other end, it might be me!)

Speaking of which, the association president asked me to help get a business attraction committee off the ground.  We're still figuring out what exactly such a group will do, but at the least it will be a way to systematically, strategically, and proactively think about what makes sense in our neighborhood (particularly but not necessarily exclusively in terms of retail), and to have a mechanism by which neighbors, merchants, developers, and community groups can interface on the subject.

If you care about this and want to get involved, leave me a note in the comments and I'll invite you to our first meeting later this summer.  

Lazy Linking, 92nd in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

92.1 Penn, big investors in Jada’s schl, now bet big on Aaron’s schl http://bit.ly/186FWly @citypaper

92.2 Not only are online dating sites not weird, they yield happier marriages http://bit.ly/19qWpi9 @freakonomics

92.3 Could socially responsible businesses be worse for society than purely profit seeking ones? http://atfp.co/186FKTh @foreignpolicy

92.4 Maximizing your ocean view is good design and good business…unless you’re a casino http://bit.ly/15tNisV @atlanticcities

92.5 Oops! Mayor Nutter, seeking to crack down on tax delinquents, was late on his gas bill http://bit.ly/15tNpVu @phillynews

Finders, Minders, and Grinders

A recent conversation I had with a friend reintroduced me a favorite phrase I'd heard before: finders, minders, and grinders.  His context was in a law firm but it applies to my firm as well, in which there are folks who find the work (business development), mind the work (project management), and grind the work (research and analysis). 

The good news for me at my current station in life is that I do a little bit of finding, minding, and grinding.  The bad news for me at my current station in life is that I do a little bit of finding, minding, and grinding. In other words, I enjoy all three kinds of work, so it's good I'm not stuck doing just one or two of them, because I'd miss getting to do it all.  On the other hand, it can be hard to toggle between the three - they each take different skills and temperaments - and it's not hard to wish aloud that you could skip having to do one or more of the three.

At any rate, even if you do just one and like it, I hope you'll walk a mile in the shoes of the others.  Finders who don't get what Minders and Grinders do often become bad Finders, and so it is true for Minders and Grinders.

Regardless of our interests and predilections, many of us often are naturally promoted from being Grinders to Minders to Finders, even if it doesn't play to our preferences or skills.  Maybe this is good, maybe this is bad.  Regardless, I believe you can be good at and enjoy any of the three, if you understand all three and how they work together.  Most definitely that's important at an organization-wide level.  Something to think about. 

Musings on School Funding

The hubbub over our school district's financial woes has gone national.  Earlier this week, the New York Times ran the article, "Budget Cuts Reach Bone for Philadelphia Schools."  At this juncture, we're looking at schools opening in the fall with a principal, teachers, classroom instruction...and hardly any other staff or programming.  An unpalatable prospect for a parent of two public school kids, to say the least.

Here are a few posts from the past, if you're wondering what my take is on all this.  Clearly, we've been having these conversations for a while now, and likely we'll continue to.

February 5, 2006 - What the Oakland A’s Can Teach Us About Improving Education in Our Cities

March 23, 2009 - The Idolatry of Education

May 8, 2009 - Education

July 21, 2009 - I Now Have a Real Stake in the Current Budget Impasse in Harrisburg 

June 2, 2011 - School Debate

July 12, 2011 - Super Cuts 

August 11, 2011 - School Choice

June 13, 2012 - Trusting God with My Son's Education

Can All-Knowing Be Good News

Like most people, I reacted with horror to the news of NSA's snooping into our everyday lives.  The thought of government surveilling our conversations is unsettling and ominous for a lot of reasons.  One can hardly think of any good that can come from that level of reach into the nooks and crannies of our lives.

What if it was worse?  What if there was a record of your every word and deed?  What if even your plans and ideas were viewable?  What if your inner-most thoughts could be accessed?  If you were shifting nervously before, you might be climbing the ways at the very thought of this.

And yet, what if I told you that this is unbelievably good news?  I am speaking of course of God.

It can be hard to conceive of a government benevolent enough to use the information about the seemingly private aspects of our lives.  For some, it can be even harder to conceive of God in this way.  Maybe we'd like to keep Him away from parts of our lives we're ashamed to have exposed.  Or maybe we've become disillusioned of His goodness, and have given up on the notion of a God who is for us.

If we have been sinned against, we can take comfort in a God who was neither distant nor uncaring.  The way the psalmist describes God thundering down to defend His wounded child in Psalm 50 has been a powerful word for a dear brother of mine who was sexually abused by a relative, and who often wondered in those heinous acts where God was.  Psalm 50 is God's reminder to my friend that God knows all, and it is an incredible comfort to him.

If we have sinned, still we can take comfort in God's all-knowing nature.  How often have we worried that someone would not love us if only they knew everything about us?  And so we hide from each other the things we think will offend them or push them away.  And yet it is not so with our God.  He knows all, and yet still He loves us with an everlasting love and has made sufficient His forgiveness and mercy for every wrong we've committed. What a relief!

It is a testament to my commitment to my sinful parts and to my prideful desire to hide weakness that I struggle so to believe in and embrace God's all-knowing nature, to accept that God knows all about me as a good and wonderful and comforting thing.  As with NSA's Prism program, I am reluctant to welcome such a knowledge of the deepest recesses of my psyche.  I am the lesser for it.  May I embrace the reality that God sees all, and live in the freedom, peace, and relief that comes from that wonderful truth.

Lazy Linking, 91st in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:


91.1 China, long shaped by farm life, to move 250M people into cities http://nyti.ms/15ahedz @nytimes

91.2 kids are resilient: study says babies adopted from Chinese orphanages in '60s have suffered no adverse effects http://bit.ly/18OAB3d

91.3 forget the ferocious dunks and nimble post moves…LeBron James’ most impressive trait is his intelligence http://ti.me/1aiK1Cj @time

91.4 does accounting for the true cost of resource extraction help save or sully nature? http://bit.ly/12Ph7JR @irishenviro

91.5 Patrick Kerkstra says Philly schools’ budget issues have to do w/poverty, not mismanagement http://bit.ly/11raIxV @nextcity

Spiritual Fathers

My dad is not a believer, and at any rate I'm preparing a post just for him later this summer.  Today's words are about spiritual fathers who've had a positive influence on me,  that is to say older men who have taken the time to show me the way and given me a standard to follow in my own attempt to be a physical and spiritual father.

My very first such spiritual father was my very first pastor, Samuel Lo from Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church.  I first started going to church as a teenager, at the invitation of a close friend of mine.  I liked being with my friend and making new friends - especially the cute girls!  God, of course, was doing deeper things, and he used Pastor Lo to do those things.  As someone who didn't grow up in the church, practically every teaching was new to me.  It was Pastor Lo who would sit me down and explain everything.  It was Pastor Lo who sat down with my parents and me when I had decided I wanted to be baptized.  And it was Pastor Lo who baptized me and encouraged me to speak from my heart when I asked to say a few words at the ceremony.  It's been a long time since, but I'm still grateful for Pastor Lo's quiet and strong presence in my earliest days as a believer.

My other three spiritual fathers aren't much older than me, but they are much wiser and better:

Dave Lamb was a staff worker for Penn InterVarsity Christian Fellowship when I was a student at Penn; he took me under his wing, challenged me, taught me, and most of all served as an example of someone who loves and lives God's words. 

George Haugen has been my pastor twice, first in my twenties and second more recently, and both times he has counseled me through hard stuff and been a prayerful and gentle presence in my life. 

David Brown has become a go-to guy for me, because he is wise on both spiritual (he's a pastor) and professional matters (he's a business owner), and because he is always so insightful and encouraging in his advice to me.

I am thankful for the presence of these men in my life and want to honor them in this way on Father's Day.  I am enriched and encouraged by the example of their lives and hope to have a similar influence on others.

The Father's Discipline, the Father's Comfort

Weekday mornings in the Huang household are pretty chaotic.  Between eating breakfast, packing lunches, doing dishes, tidying up, and getting out the door on time, it's a lot going on.  So we have a rule with the kids, which is that mornings are not when you spring some important piece of information about what you need to bring or wear to school that day.  In other words, tell us the night before.

Jada knows this rule.  And yet, earlier this week, she told me the morning of that her school was having Game Day, in which you could bring a board game to school and play it with friends.  (Yes, even though the school year hasn't ended, the instruction has.)

When I said no because she hadn't told us the night before, she begged and cajoled.  I didn't budge.  She pouted all the way to Aaron's school and then to her school, before breaking down in tears.  I had to pick her up, hold her close, and give her time to finish her cry.  Even after several minutes, she was still disconsolate, and moped her way to school as I headed in the opposite direction to work.

This is what dads do.  We discipline.  And we comfort.  I am not naturally good at either.  I second-guessed whether I was being too harsh or too easy in the manner in which I reacted to Jada's request to bring a board game to school.  And I wondered if I had been able to provide her with the comfort that she needed in her time of discouragement and pain.

Of course, as she gets older, I will continue to need to be a discipliner and a comforter.  And the stakes will get higher.  And I am gulping hard thinking about it.

This is a tiny window into the greatness of our God.  He is described as a Father, of course.  And He also disciplines and comforts.  And He is far better than I at both, far purer in intentions and execution.

No matter how old and polished we get, we will ever have need to be disciplined at times.  And no matter how old and strong we get, we will ever have need to be comforted at times.  It is hard, as a dad to Jada and Aaron, to be either, let alone both.  And, sometimes, it is hard, as a child of God, to receive either, let alone both.  But I need both.  I need my Heavenly Father.  I need His discipline.  And I need His comfort.  Thank God for both. 

Let Me In

Last month, I got a chance to catch up with a dear friend of mine who started and pastors a church in a middle-class suburb pretty far away from its core city.  He told me he struggles to really connect with the men in his congregation and community, because they are not wont to let down their guard.  While some of this is specific to his situation - people who live there like their privacy and social distance - some is endemic of us men.  It seems we're much more out of touch with our feelings and much less open to revealing those feelings to others, even trusted pastors.

It reminds me of a question a Penn student asked me once, when I returned to campus many moons after being a student myself to give a talk to an on-campus Christian group.  When I was in college, relationships were everything, and college was all about forming and cherishing them.  Conversations were deep and meaningful, often lasting into the wee hours, and highs and lows were shared with people we'd only known for a few weeks, but because of the dorm setting we felt like we were lifelong confidantes.

Fast forward to the present, and this Penn student asked me how it was possible for Christians to build such genuine friendships and exert such a strong influence when the contemporary culture left little room for actual human engagement.  It seems that in the 15+ years since I left campus, things had accelerated, and (at least at Penn, which is very pre-professional) everything was about cramming as many classes and activities into the day.  Human engagement, even and especially of the romantic kind, was relegated to shallow one-off encounters, and yet no one was tipped off that the resulting dissatisfaction signaled that this wasn't how people work.

My pastor friend's community and the Penn campus are vastly different places.  And yet both need Jesus, and both need Jesus followers to live out their faith, with all the attendant grace and love that should come with it  And yet, in both places, how to do that when no one seems to have the time or willingness to let anyone in?

My answer to the Penn student's question was similar to my pastor friend's solution: be available.  In the case of the Penn campus, I thought that if you could prove yourself faithful and available, invariably in four years life would happen and people would remember that you were someone they could confide in when they truly needed it.  And in the case of my pastor friend's community, he is going way out of his comfort zone to be where men let down their guard - on the golf course (he doesn't play golf) or at the bar (he doesn't drink).

All of that said and done, still sometimes we men won't open up.  But may we Christians continue to be available and patient.  For our God chased us down once with compassion and mercy, and we are forever changed for it.

Shift in the City

I first arrived in West Philadelphia almost 22 years ago as a fresh-faced teenager from suburban San Jose, and the experience was bewildering.  My neighborhood, of course, has always had an influx of young educated folks from all over the globe, since we boast world-class universities, hospitals, and research facilities; but, not many of us stuck around 22 years ago. 

That's changed a lot, and of course it seems obvious that a big part of that is that West Philadelphia has improved dramatically in the last 22 years.  And while that is true, the neighborhood improving is only one half of the story. 

The other half is related to the young'uns themselves.  This generation doesn't necessarily think cities are just where you study and then you boogie out to the burbs when you're ready to really grow up.  Ever since "Friends" and "Sex and the City" made it trendy to be young and urban, cities have become a preferred destination for an increasing number of young folks. 

Philly has particularly seen an arrival of these young folks.  Again, Philly has changed a lot, mostly for the better.  But, on the other hand, Philly hasn't changed a lot, at least many of the places that didn't use to attract young educated folks but now do.  What's changed?  An increasing comfort level with things that young'uns in the previous generation didn't tend to gravitate to as easily: ethnically mixed residential enclaves, more physically rugged settings, and a transit and pedestrian oriented existence.

That last piece is a big one, at least around here.  One colleague of mine, in his sixties, put it to me this way.  After interviewing a young woman in his West Philadelphia office, he offered to call a cab for her return to her Center City apartment.  She replied that she had taken the subway and "why wouldn't I just hop back on at 56th Street Station a couple of blocks away?" 

Suffice to say that the young women and men he was interviewing 20 years ago weren't so at ease walking to 56th and Market and riding the Market Frankford Line back into downtown.  And while some of that is because neighborhoods like the one near my colleague's office are doing better, some of that is because young'uns are much more positive about using mass transit. 

This is a much more complex subject than how I'm describing it.  But I have to think that this shift is a positive for cities and for young'uns. 

X, Y, and Z

A friend of mine (and fellow Gen X'er) posted on her Facebook page a hilarious video about Gen Y in the workplace.  The satire exaggerates Y's need for constant affirmation, extra vacation, and a start time no earlier than 10:30am for comedic effect.  But is there a grain (or boulder) of truth to the stereotype?

I'll pass on making sweeping generalizations or on commenting on the Gen Y'ers I work with.  But I will note some fundamental differences between these two waves of people, which hold meaningful implications for the choices I make as a parent.  (Gross oversimplications to follow for dramatic effect.)

Gen X'ers as a bloc were influenced by the first big wave of divorces and working moms, forging a need for independence and self-reliance.  Far from being the "slacker generation" once predicted of it,  Gen X has excelled in entrepreneurship and self-initiation.

Gen Y's as a bloc were raised by boomer parents who were afforded the luxury of resources and time to devote to their children.  Self-esteem was paramount, and was interpreted as requiring constant praise, hyper-vigilance, and the ever-popular "everyone gets a trophy."  Gen Y's in the workplace may therefore react negatively to situations in which their work isn't praise, their every whim isn't satisfied, and their every every good deed not rewarded. 


On the other hand, Gen Y is a more pluralistic and therefore more accepting group.  And, combined with their digital nativity, they are more connected and more socially fluid, and thus fantastically equipped for a technology-driven world which rewards these traits.

So what will Gen Z be like?  As the generation still being born, there's still time to forge its identity.  And current parents of small children are doing the forging.  What will we forge?

For starters, I hope we fall somewhere between being absent (and thus forcing self-reliance at an early age) and being a helicopter (and thus stunting any growth in self-reliance).  I also hope we value self-esteem but don't confuse it with self-aggrandizement.  Finally, I hope we foster both a respect for the past and for one's elders (both of which you can learn a lot from), as well as an openness to future possibilities and to one's ability to make them possible. 

As for my kids' kids?  I'll likely be in some retirement community, ranting about them in my blog. 

How to Be Really Generous

Last week, I wrote about the pleasure you get from sharing something you love with others and having them love it too.  It occurred to me after I wrote this that all the things I shared were things that could be enjoyed by others without there being less of it for me to enjoy: fancy donuts at Federal Donuts, a new running route, and the board game Life. 

There's a different kind of sharing, in which the more you share with others, the less you have for yourself, like with time or money or resources.  I won't speak for others, but this kind of sharing is very, very hard for me.  I freely share that which can be enjoyed without reducing my enjoyment of it; I am very stingy when my sharing means less for me.

To give you a sense of where I'm coming from: when my mom and aunt used to take us kids to McDonald's and order each of us a burger and all of us one thing of fries to share, I quickly realized that my food-maximizing strategy was to eat all the fries first.  This was because every bite of my own burger meant time for others to eat the fries, which would mean less fries for me; whereas if I ate the fries first and saved the burger for later, I'd get all the fries and all my burger.  I was five when I figured this out.  So, yeah, I've been a selfish bastard for many, many years.

We all know generosity is a good thing.  As a Christian, you're taught to be generous because God is generous.  So how can someone like me, who is not naturally generous, become more generous? 

For one, you can think about all the good that comes from being generous.  It feels good to give, studies have shown.  If you document your giving, you get a nice tax write-off.  (And the smug feeling that the $100 donation you made to a non-profit you believe in made them $100 richer but me only $75 poorer, with the federal government chipping in the rest.)  And it makes you look good, which is worth something in reputation and/or in getting the favor returned at some point in the future when you need it.

But, for trying to be generous, this all seems awfully selfish and self-centered.  And it still doesn't always make up for the fact that you now have less time, money, and resources than you might have otherwise had if you weren't so generous.  So, this doesn't seem to work.

On the other hand, you could realize that the root problem is that you actually care about these scarce things, and that if you didn't, then losing them wouldn't be as painful.  In other words, it hurts to give up an afternoon or a thousand bucks or a second car because you value these things; if only you'd stop valuing these things and other things, you'd be free from your possessions possessing you and therefore free to be free with your possessions.

This is in fact the posture of many a saint (official or not), who have died to a possessions-driven life and are now alive to a service-driven life.  It is a lofty and inspirational ideal, and a hard standard to live up to.  Not in the least because it is tempting to, in the midst of our conversion to a sacrificial and streamlined lifestyle, yet still be possessed by possessions.  In this case, not the possessions we have, but rather the possessions we have forsaken, whose absence grips us just as much as their presence once did. 

There must be a way to be truly emptied of our stinginess reflex without feeling empty and incomplete.  It is likely not an easy way; even the most ascetic among us, in this country, are still so soaked by the materialism of this age that it will take a while to be free enough from possessions and possessing to be free with what we have that is scarce so that we can share with those around us.

It will take a fundamental shift.  From time and money and resources being for us to maximize our own narrow pleasure, to expanding our pleasure to include that of those around us.  And from a life that is about ourselves and our happiness and our aims, to a life that is about something more than ourselves and that seeks a bigger happiness and loftier aims.

I am not very far along in this shift.  But I have seen and experienced enough to know that when I make it, I will not feel poorer or more embittered, but rather richer and freer.  In fact, that's when I'll know I've made the shift.

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - from the letter of the apostle Paul to the church in Philippi

Psst...Interesting Link, Pass It On

I know I've written about this before, but I have to repeat the announcement: you really have to follow my class on social media.  My students, who came into the class already knowing far more than I about most everything, are getting the hang of seeing the quantitative tools that we are studying in class in the news stories they read every day.  As a result, they are finding (and tweeting) a gold mine of interesting articles and reports that you should be aware of, if you're into the same kinds of things I am. Check.  It.  Out.

Make Money, Save the World

I was intrigued by this article in WashPo about a young man who chose Wall Street in order to make as much money as possible . . . in order to give away as much money as possible.  [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]  Some quick reactions:

(1) If you want to maximize the good you can do in the world, it does matter how you actually make the money you're making.  If what you do causes just as much harm as the good you'll do with the money you're giving away, that's a wash.

(2) There's nothing inherently evil about Wall Street, so kudos to this young man for wanting to do good and deciding that Wall Street was the best vehicle for him to do it.  Too often we quickly label careers as either virtuous or soul-sucking, instead of knowing that it's largely in our power to make them one or the other.

(3) If you're smart and good-hearted, you should think about how you can leverage your job itself to do the most good in the world as possible (e.g. be a doctor, work on policy).  But that doesn't preclude that some of you conclude that the best way to  leverage your job is, like this young man, to extract as much money as possible and then deploy it to charities that save and improve lives.

(4) It is absolutely possible to give much more of a percentage of our salaries than we currently do.  And it is awful how little we do actually give. 

(5) It is also awful how much of that little giving that we do give goes to high-leverage charitable situations that can literally save thousands of lives.  You would think that we would be smarter about making sure our dollars have maximum impact, and yet we are shockingly lazy when it comes to picking who to write a check to.

(6) See also "Why Activists Should Consider Making Lots of Money."  The premise is that instead of taking a lowly non-profit job, you should let someone else have that job and you should get the highest-paying job possible and then fund such non-profits.  This I have a quibble with, because while it is efficient to think this way, sometimes I believe that (for a season or for a lifetime) we can be called to a downwardly mobile line of work, at which you can be maximally deployed for the greatest good.  That said, it seems a deeply personal decision, and there is nothing universally better or worse about making money and giving it away, so long as you can hang in there and not give in to the usual trappings (financial, ego, lifestyle) that come with those jobs and those salaries.

You Didn't Ask, But I'll Answer

1. No, I haven't watched any of Season 4 of Arrested Development.  Since it's so multi-layered, I'm waiting for a big block of time (either during Fourth of July weekend or after my class is over) to binge-watch the entire season.

2. Which do you think has more sugar per serving: Dannon vanilla yogurt or Reese's Puffs?  Would you believe the former, by more than three times (33g vs. 10g)?  The yogurt companies know we all think yogurt is healthy so we'll ignore the fact that a single six-ounce serving contains more sugar than I'm supposed to eat all day, while the cereal companies have quietly upped the grain content and lowered the sugar content of cereals I used to think my teeth'd fall out as I was eating them when I was a kid.

3. I don't use Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Foursquare, Flickr, Digg, or Vine.  Should I?

4. I'm reading a book right now called "Cod."  It is about the fish.  And it is so freaking interesting. 

5. I'm on a break from The Economist for a minute, so I'm a little out of touch on non-US news.  But, even with limited info, I still think that, between Russia, Italy, Cyprus, and the EU/euro, Europe seems a hot mess.  Please tell me I shouldn't be this worried.