Lazy Linking, 166th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

166.1 Has the term "woke" jumped the shark? fus.in/21owvKy @thisisfusion

166.2 An economist reasons his way to a saving relationship w/Jesus bit.ly/24tKUEf ht: @margrev

166.3 New trend in email mktg: artisinal spam bit.ly/1oNOJ6Y @consumerist

166.4 Animating Van Gogh @ 12 oil paintings per second bit.ly/1XQy1zB @thisiscolossal

166.5 Everything wrong w/the practice of tipping in restaurants wapo.st/1Wu9aA9 @washingtonpost

Recommended Reads, 23rd in a Quarterly Series

So many books, so little time.  These past three months included two trips (California, Orlando) plus a foray into some African-American classics.

* The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Skloot).  You can't make this stuff up.

* 41: A Portrait of My Father (Bush).  Loved W's love and admiration for his dad.

* Twelve Years a Slave (Northup).  A difficult read on many levels.

* The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Pollan).  Far-ranging and thoughtful without being barfy.

* I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou).  Beautifully written; I was transported.

* Invisible Man (Ellison).  A searing account of the black male experience in America.

* First Family: Abigail and John Adams (Ellis).  Loved seeing this period of American history through the lens of a couple's relationship.

What Am I Working On

As has become my custom every three months, here's what I'm working on now at work. I won't repeat anything from last time that I happen to still be working on, and for confidentiality's sake I have to blur some of the details for some of these studies.

* Assessment of how a particular tax incentive works and what it has produced so far.

* Impact on individual attractions and on an overall regional economy from investing in tourism infrastructure.

* Economic and fiscal impact studies for three regional institutions of higher learning.

* Economic impact of tourism on a region's economy.

* Helping a new not-for-profit organization to form, including moderating and resourcing board meetings and helping develop internal processes.

* Convening developers and municipal staff to identify and implement reforms to the development review process.

A Diversity of Perspectives

In honor of Black History Month, I've tried to include in my readings some classics by African-American authors.  My wish list is obviously longer than can be addressed in one month, so I look forward to continuing on beyond this month.  But I'm glad that I was able to get through or am currently reading Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," and "Minnie's Sacrifice" by Frances Harper.

All three are not just books that happen to be written by black authors but books that speak to the black experience at different times in American history.  These are perspectives that are new to me. both in the sense that they are not my own personal history nor are they material that I have previously digested.

Absorbing a diversity of perspectives takes intentional effort.  Consciously and sub-consciously, we filter the world through our own lens, or seek out lenses like ours.  Reading Angelou, Ellison, Harper and others has made me richer.  Not just because I understand their perspectives a little better now.  But also because I am reminded that there are other perspectives out there besides mine and those similar to mine.

It may seem obvious, but I venture to say that much of our misunderstandings today stem from the fact we view other people's words/actions/positions from our own frame of reference rather than from theirs.  I daresay that sometimes we can get so stuck on our own viewpoint that we forget that other people, having had different life experiences than we have had, can have different viewpoints.

By reading authors whose life perspective is different than ours, we are brought into that life perspective.  We absorb their interpretations, their responses, their emotions.  We do not become them, to be sure; we remain ourselves.  We may even leave their books unchanged in how we view the world.  But at the very least, we have been reminded that there are other perspectives out there beyond our own.  And, if it's a good book, we will have been refreshed, challenged, and inspired by those perspectives.

I read for pleasure, and what I find pleasurable is based on my likes, which are different from others'.  But I also read to be richer, in wisdom and in the awareness of a wider range of human experiences.  Good African-American literature like what I've had the pleasure of digesting this month so far has been both pleasurable and enriching.

Are You In Your Own Echo Chamber?

"If you disagree with me on this, consider yourself unfriended."  

How many times have you read or said this?  Let's deconstruct the sentence, because it has a lot of parts to it.  First, I feel really strong about this.  Second, if you are on the other side of this argument, that makes you so abhorrent that I don't want to have anything to do with you.  Third, I will take action to follow through on that desire, by cutting you off from my social network.

I support the first statement.  The second statement, I get the sentiment behind it, and I can even applaud it a little.  Except that if it then leads to the third statement, then we have a problem.


And what is the problem?  You've just entered your own echo chamber.  You already feel strongly about an issue.  You've now put out there that anyone who feels otherwise is no longer inside your tent.  What results is that those you disagree with are pushed further away, and you are even further surrounded by data points that strengthen what you already believe.

Maybe this is right, because what you believe is right and that you believe it with all your heart is right.  But maybe this is dangerous to your ability to be an informed and open-minded participant in history's most pluralistic society, which is modern-day America.

And maybe this is what I fear about modern-day America, is that we are not only becoming more divisive (which, all else equal, is fine, because pluralism by definition means lots of different opinions, and sometimes those differences of opinions lead to disagreement and strife) but we are holing ourselves up into stronger and stronger echo chambers, further reinforcing our own beliefs and vilifying the very opponents whose arguments might sharpen us.  (Recall that this is how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg felt about her fellow jurist Antonin Scalia.)

This is one of the conclusions arrived at by Wael Ghonim, who launched the Tahrir Square revolution in Egypt in 2011 using social media but is now more skeptical of the Internet's ability to foster real change, at least in his current form.  Here are some snippets from a recent article profiling him: "We tend to only communicate with people that we agree with, and thanks to social media, we can mute, un-follow and block everybody else...our social media experiences are designed in a way that favors broadcasting over engagements, posts over discussions, shallow comments over deep conversations. … It’s as if we agreed that we are here to talk at each other instead of talking with each other."

This cannot be, if we want to be the America that I think is unique in the world and in history, which is a place of incredible diversity of perspectives and opinions, bound together by a mutual respect for one another and for freedom of thought/speech/expression.  Do you want the same America?  Think about this the next time you're tempted to threaten to cut off someone from your social network for not believing what you believe.  You might just find that in cutting them off, you are cutting off your own ability to be an open-minded participant in the world's greatest experiment in pluralism.

What is Blessed

This is a powerful, sobering, and searingly challenging article: "Death, the Prosperity Gospel, and Me."   The author recently wrote a book on the "prosperity gospel" in America and its pernicious effects on what we considered to be "blessed."  She is now living the reality that God's ways for our lives sometimes veer awfully from what we hope for ourselves.  I have no commentary to offer because I am rendered speechless by the depth of her wisdom and by the power of her example.  I am convicted to dig deeper in my faith until I reach that sacred place of truly knowing what it means to be "blessed."

Friends and Enemies

I love this article about Ruth Bader Ginsburg's affection for her SCOTUS polar opposite, the late Antonin Scalia. 

The two judicial powerhouses clearly do not see eye to eye on the issues.  And, while they are professionals, they are human beings, which mean "the issues" are not just some abstract thing to argue about as an intellectual exercise but literally the nation's primary human concerns, their decisions on which will affect the lives of millions for generations to come.  So when they see differently on a case, it matters, to their heads and their hearts and the future of the America they are seeking to shape.

And yet, despite their fundamental differences and specific clashes, they had a great relationship.  Justice Ginsburg eloquently expresses what she gained from Justice Scalia's thinkings and writings.  They cultivated social interests outside of work.  They genuinely seemed to like each other's company. 

It reminds me of a lawyer colleague of mine who I respect.  I asked him how he was able to cultivate such a large and diverse professional network.  He told me he put in the work, especially with those he would not normally have socialized with.  He told me that, fairly early on in his career, he approached his opponent in the courtroom after hours and said, "hey, you and I will be beating each other's brains out during the day tomorrow; what say we grab a beer afterwards?"  Thus, they struck up a conversation about families and aspirations and hobbies and sports, and thus began a long-standing friendship. 

There is room to make issues personal; in many cases, to not do so is to not give them their just attention.  We can feel strongly about what we believe, even to devote our lives to upholding it and broadcasting it.  But we need not consider those on the other side so evil and so ignorant that we can't treat them as human beings.  We might find they sharpen us.  We might even find we like their company and cherish them as dear friends.

Lazy Linking, 165th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

165.1 Whoa...are we one big step closer to a game-changing universal translator? read.bi/1Lo2jlV @businessinsider

165.2 Would ppl still support universal pre-K if it was shown it didn’t really work? wapo.st/1QfdaGr @washingtonpost

165.3 Ankle injuries + sports science + epic work ethic = a Steph Curry that's better than anyone could've imagined es.pn/20oBepN @espn

165.4 Sharing economy, open source, green energy: Ben Franklin was the original disruptive innovator whr.tn/1Lo2gXo @whartonmagazine

165.5 White privilege is like wondering why bikers feel so vulnerable in a system designed for cars bit.ly/1lSdYSM

165.6 The science & the stats say 82 NBA games in 160 days is bad for player health es.pn/1PpP2gK @espn

165.7 Networks maven Duncan Watts: despite Facebook, we're not actually that more connected in the world bit.ly/1RC9gGI @medium

165.8 Shout-out to The Enterprise Center for helping food entrepreneurs bit.ly/1U0JNqU @citylab

165.9 OK Go w/another awesome video…this one’s in zero G bit.ly/1WkZec5 @youtube

165.10 Richard Florida on the economics of food truck location bit.ly/1O00MlK @nextcityorg

1st Blog Post at Work Blog

Proud to launch a blog at work called "Present Value." 

Prouder to author the first post, called "Neighborhood Matters." 

Prouder still that I was able to co-author with some of my very favorite people in all of Philadelphia, all of whom run important institutions in our region:

* Michael Banks from African-American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania Delaware and New Jersey

* Nick Shenoy from Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia
 
* Jennifer Rodriguez from the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

* Jamie Gauthier from Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia

* Peter Gonzales from Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians
"Present Value" will have fresh posts at least once a week, and we'll rotate through all kinds of topics, authors, and formats.  Keep an eye out!

How Does a Part-Owner of a Professional Services Firm Allocate His Work Hours

I'm in my fourth year as part-owner of our professional services firm, so while we're still a work in progress I'm getting a sense of at least how I'd like to spend my time (even if reality doesn't always sync up with what's ideal).  Here's what I'm striving for for the 50-60 or so hours a week I spend grinding away at my job:

* 50% on the work itself.  Currently I'm probably way over this pretty much every week.  There's a lot of work to do, I like the work, and I like my clients.  But the firm needs me to spend more time getting business.  And, my clients benefit when I'm out there in the world making contacts, because it makes the time I do spend on client work more relevant and more connected to reality.

* 30% on business development.  Networking, sitting on boards, pitching for work, responding to proposals, and doing the behind-the-scenes intel needed to make all of that go.  This number is supposed to be higher but many weeks it's much lower.

* 10% on running the business.  Tending to the finances and to the many inner workings of the firm.  I dig this stuff so it's good for me that it's part of what owners have to sweat.

* 10% on taking care of our people.  Checking in with folks, helping them to grow, finding new talent.  In professional services, all you have is brains, so it's important to find good ones and take care of them. 

Too Long for a Tweet, Too Short for a Blog Post XXIX

Here's an excerpt from a book I recently finished, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou:


“Miss Kirwin was that rare educator who was in love with information. I will always believe that her love of teaching came not so much from her liking for students but from her desire to make sure that some of the things she knew would find repositories so that they could be shared again.” 

Lazy Linking, 164th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

164.1 Cleaning out retired cells: anti-aging game-changer? theatln.tc/20rorYK @theatlantic


164.2 Best use of AI so far: fool telemarketers into thinking they're talking to a human bit.ly/20C5GhY  @gizmodo

164.3 My friend Matt Bergheiser says BIDs 3.0 = jobs for the poor bit.ly/1SKTxoq @nextcityorg

164.4 Talk about squaring the circle! Sculpture is square from one side, circle from another  bit.ly/1nVgQRa @moillusions

164.5 Why it's good your Twitter feed is better as algorithmic vs. time-ordered bit.ly/1oguFcZ @margrev

The Future of Health Care

I know very little about health care economics but I know that we need to get this right and we need to do it now.  Health is all we have on this side of glory, and yet I am almost daily astounded at how much inefficiency and inequity remains in the systems that deliver services necessary to our wellness.  How is something so fundamentally important and yet so frequently butchered?

I have no solutions.  But, I can present some reasons why solutions are hard to come by.  Here are three, in no particular order:

First, much of good health has to do with having good habits, and as we all know good habits are hard to learn.  Eating right, exercising regularly, and avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol will get you pretty much all the way to a long life, and none of them require doctors, pills, or surgeries.  Ah, but these are behaviors that are hard to do on a regular basis, and even harder to use top-down approaches to get people to do.

Second, much of good health care has to do with coordination across multiple appointments, caregivers, and institutions, and that kind of coordination is hard to come by.  Patients fall through the cracks and incompatible treatments are prescribed all the time.  No one touch-point in the health care system is in charge of our care, and we lack the knowledge to be in charge of our own care.  So structural inefficiencies and systemic failures remain.

Third, much of the future of health care will have to do with personalized forms of medicine.  I'm convinced that I will live to see the day that our diets, pills, and treatments will be uniquely catered to our individual make-ups, such that we will view our current lack of customized interventions in the same way that we currently look back at doctors who practiced blood-letting or who didn't understand how germs work.  When this day arrives, we will have incredible improvements in quality and quantity of life.  The big question, though, is whether we will have a health care system that allows those improvements to be enjoyed by all, because another scenario is that they are only accessible to those who can afford them.  And that would be the crowning inequity of them all, that not only do the have-not's lack what the have's have, but they will also be doomed to be on the outside of revolutionary advances in the way we fundamentally take care of our bodies. 

Lazy Linking, 163rd in An Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

163.1 Didn't think I would see this in my lifetime: a computer has mastered Go bit.ly/1VrYamg

163.2 Cards Against Humanity + Urbanism = Cards Against Urbanity bit.ly/1IWR746 @governing

163.3 What's that Sprint logo doing in an impressionist painting?  Oh wait this is Snowstorm Jonas bit.ly/1UqTBbH @thisiscolossal

163.4 The cultural & musical significance of Whitney Houston's '92 Star Spangled Banner bit.ly/23t1O5m @newyorker 

163.5 Study: merit-based pay does what it's ultimately supposed to, which is improve student outcomes bit.ly/20yRPJq @margrev