Skip to main content

Random Thoughts - 12

President Trump is trying to push through tax cuts or reforms to help build the economy. Building the economy is good.  We need this.  The matter is of methods.  His preferred method to berate or deprecate his own party to action.  He needs to exercise leadership with the entire Congress.  Leadership is an ephemeral quality only a very few understand and even fewer know.  The Congress is rather leaderless, and has been for many years. Both parties share this guilt. Congress can obstruct, and it is masterful at delay and inaction.  Briefly, doing stuff is not their forte.  Leadership!! The President can command and he can direct, but can he work with? This is needed right now. 

 When was the last time we had such a leader, able to build bridges, to communicate, and to achieve?

-------------------

Independent people don’t like masked riders, or masked demonstrators, or masked anarchists.  These make them nervous.  They don’t like freedom of speech denied; they don’t like alternative opinions denied; they don’t like disruption of honest and legal process.

So, these groups promoting the denial of traditional values (e.g. bill of rights) should be on alert.  Every time we see a group, dressed in black or white, masked, and using clubs to promote a point of view, or just rioting in the streets, they are at risk.  They definitely lose votes in the next cycle.

----------------

When you do something stupid, you just live with it.  When you make a colossal stupidity, you and your family live with it.  But when a small town does something unbelievably stupid, the entire nation knows about it.  Case in point:  Katy, TX with a population of about 15,000 has just dedicated its new football stadium for the local high school team. Cost?  $70,300,000, the most expensive in the nation.  (NBC News)  That clocks in at $4687/person.  BTW, Katy has experienced extensive flooding from Hurricane Harvey. A $70m stadium, a public embarrassment at the least, will not help band them together.


-------------------

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Behavioral Science and Problem-Solving

I.                                       I.                 Introduction.                Concerning our general behavior, it’s high about time we all had some understanding of how we operate on ourselves, and it is just as important how we are operated on by others. This is the wheelhouse of behavioral sciences. It is a vast subject. It touches our lives constantly. It’s influence is pervasive and can be so subtle we never notice it. Behavioral sciences profoundly affect our ability and success at problem-solving, from the elementary level to highly complex wicked problems. This is discussed in Section IV. We begin with the basics of behavioral sciences, Section II, and then through the lens of multiple categories and examples, Section III. II.     ...

Where is AI (Artificial Intelligence) Going?

  How to view Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Imagine you go to the store to buy a TV, but all they have are 1950s models, black and white, circular screens, picture rolls, and picture imperfect, no remote. You’d say no thanks. Back in the day, they sold wildly. The TV was a must-have for everyone with $250 to spend* (about $3000 today). Compared to where AI is today, this is more or less where TVs were 70 years ago. In only a few decades AI will be advanced beyond comprehension, just like TVs today are from the 50s viewpoint. Just like we could not imagine where the video concept was going back then, we cannot really imagine where AI is going. Buckle up. But it will be spectacular.    *Back then minimum wage was $0.75/hr. Thus, a TV cost more than eight weeks' wages. ------------------------- 

Principles of Insufficiency and Sufficiency

   The principles we use but don't know it.  1.      Introduction . Every field, scientific or otherwise, rests on foundational principles—think buoyancy, behavior, or democracy. Here, we explore a unique subset: principles modified by "insufficiency" and "sufficiency." While you may never have heard of them, you use them often. These terms frame principles that blend theory, practicality, and aspiration, by offering distinct perspectives. Insufficiency often implies inaction unless justified, while sufficiency suggests something exists or must be done. We’ll examine key examples and introduce a new principle with potential significance. As a principle of principles of these is that something or some action is not done enough while others may be done too much. The first six (§2-6) of our principles are in the literature, and you can easily search them online. The others are relatively new, but fit the concepts in the real world. At times, these pri...