2008 October | The Innovationist

When we are asked a question what do we do and how do we do it? What happens if are giving an answer with out context what do we do then? This is insight into time and narrative fallacy.

So let’s first determine what both are. A question is something that results in an answer, a search for knowledge. An answer is a fact or result of the question. These two ideas are simply that but together they result in knowledge and perceived knowledge that’s incorrect?

What is the result of question? You might be saying, “That’s pretty easy, it’s an answer numb nuts.” I would agree with you. How do we come to the answer of a question and you would ask, “What kind of question?” Does the context of the question matter, not really if I gave it to you, you would most likely be able do give me an answer. How do we come up with an answer? We use what we have observed and memorized as a way to determine answers. We take all the information we have come into contact with and used it to determine the best answer to use.

Now, what if I gave you an answer with out any context you would probably be confused, eventually you would come up with a question. Would your question be right in respect to what I wanted, probably not. You’d probably question your question itself, probing for why it was wrong. Say I gave you the number 42, what’s the question to 42? There’s an infinite number of questions in which you could come up with the number 42 as an answer, your’s most likely would be wrong. Now, you question your question once again becoming more frustrated you continually question the question that came before.

Since, the way we generally think we will always ask the question before we get the answer. The answer therefore should always lie in the future in regards to the question. So when we get an answer without context we can only derive the question from our past experiences. We seek the question that would lead to such a solution, one that we use our prior observations to find. When we find that our question is wrong; we continue our way into the past to determine the question that created the new question, and so on and so forth. We seek so hard, yet every new question is ultimately wrong because it could not have been the only possible question that derives the one we seek to the answer.

Yet, this is how we choose to narrate the past. We start from the answer and continually question it and what created that answer. Eventually, we have decided upon a path that is ultimately wrong and is only a single set of questions that lead to such and answer, out of an infinitesimal amount of questionable sets.

Oh, the question to the number 42 is, “What is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?”

Oddly, this post should have already been on here unfortunately somehow it didnt’ make it into the database when I transfered my blog. I hope this gives everyone something to think upon. The question for 42 comes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for anyone who is confused.

Zenpundit picked up my idea of quantum libraries and it is now starting to spread through his readers. I added my top ten as of this point in my life in a comment and would like to share them here, with the reasons why I chose them as quantum texts.

The Quantum-Library is the layer that co-exists as a member of both the Library and the Anti-Library. It is something you may have read, but when read again with a different perspective it exists in another form. These type’s of books are the ultimate for a bibliophile. It is the layer described above and contains the texts that you re-read.

My List

Think on These Things ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti A very interesting book that delves into multiple philisophical and spiritual topics. It is an insight into different aspects of one’s life that one should think about as one progresses through them. It is the most perfect example of a “quantum text” I have found, thus far.

Moby Dick ~ Herman Melville I can’t come up with anything better than the way Glenn described it another great example:

“You should read Moby Dick when you are 20, 40, and 60 because you take a different perspective of all three major characters from the story because of your own position in life.”

The Richest Man in Babylon ~ George S. Clason This is a book that is filled with multiple parables that not only deal with money but also humility. It is a remarkable reminder on how to live one’s richest life, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I think this should be a mandatory read, it is filled with so much wisdom that still rings true after three quarters of a century.

The Last Lecture ~ Randy Pausch This book is about Randy Pausch and his attempt to leave a legacy for his children. If you ask me, he did a pretty damn good job describing aspects that we should all try and attain. Humility. Respect. Earnestness. Passion. Understanding. Lightheartedness.

The 48 Laws of Power ~ Robert Greene This is something I will be reading the rest of my life, though not in it’s entirety, once is enough for that. This book is filled with so much knowledge it took me 2 months to finish, I just couldn’t sustain reading it constantly day in and day out. This is one of the single greatest texts to learn the basic underlying of social-engineering.

The Silmarillion ~ J.R.R. Tolkien The Bible of Middle Earth, is the text that describes the origins of the world, evil, and the division between men, elves, and dwarfs that occur in the first and second age of the world. Anyone who has read the Lord of The Rings would be doing themselves a great service in reading this text. I find this much more enthralling than the Trilogy.

The Analects of Confucius ~ Lun Yu(Confucius) This filled with a lifetime of wisdom that will require a lifetime of thought and introspection. If you can bust one of these kernels apart so that you can understand it, you can come to some amazing ideas of life. I try to read and understand one a day, though i haven’t purchased the book, yet.

The Art of War ~ Sun Tsu Another I don’t actually own this one either and, merely read the kernels of strategic influence online. Since, I haven’t finished I’m not going to post a review of it. If some else would like to feel free in the comments. I just find the tactics and strategy of what I’ve read extremely deep.

Tribes ~ Seth Godin (I can’t discuss this one, yet. Pre-order the book it’s well worth it.) Brief idea of it’s text: It’s about leading a community on any level of a network.

Fight Club ~ Chuck Palahniuk This story has so many levels it I’ve read it a dozen times and interpreted differently every time. You have the chaos aspect, non-conformity, anti-consumerism, and the list goes on and on. This one of the few books that remind me of a movie as I read it, with symbolism that entrenches the mind.

Another person who has already made a list is ubiwar. Hope you enjoyed reading about my quantum library and feel free to share your own, I’d love to find some more books to add to my library.

We all know that the economy is collapsing shouldn’t be any surprise to any person paying even the faintest bit of attention. Lately, there have been quite a few people instilling fearing with headlines, e.g.(NYT and Robert Scoble). I’m getting sick of all the fear mongering so I’m going to post some positive and inspirational links.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. ” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address is still one of the most inspirational speeches to have been given by a president. I beg you to listen to his words or read them as they bear wisdom that may help us turn this situation around. Just look at that jewel above and how the media channels are spouting fear to the masses.

A Responsible bank CEO speaks out about the bailout, the CEO of BB&T discusses 14 points that don’t make sense about the bailout. This may be tinged with a bit of fear but, atleast there are some banks that didn’t deal in the illogical financing, that got us into this mess. We need to find more banks with this kind of respectable handling of their customers’ money.

Today, the seeds of the next big thing are being planted, this is provision for inspiration. It is providing the knowledge of what has happened in the recent recessions and their outcomes. We all have the ability to build the next big thing, don’t quite your day job but, most definitely don’t stop trying to redefine the world of tomorrow.

Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation, will help you if you decide that you want to redefine the future. “Your life is ending one minute at a time,” so you better go do what you want before your time runs out. This interpretation of some of most notable quotes from the book and movie are remarkable.

I hope that they people have read this find this at least a small distraction from the turmoil around us. We need to have solidarity in our lives not instability. Surround yourself with people who can speak honestly about the current environment but still provide us with the strong front that we need.

The United States is growing ever closer towards bankruptcy and we just keep piling on more and more debt. People don’t blame Bush it’s the law of compounding interest and providing too many services. One of the more pronounced services that is out there is Social Security. I find that it is quite possibly the largest disservice for the future of the country.

Social Security is the funds that are taken automatically from workers pay for retirement funding, unemployment, disability, spousal and children, and widow benefits. All of these, except for the retirement, unemployment, and widow benefits, were not part of the original bill and the widow benefits have changed from lump-sum to the continued monthly payments of the deceased spouse. The original bill proposal was highly controversial in and was opposed because it would result in the loss of jobs. However, some said that this was an advantage as it encouraged the elderly to retire, opening positions for the youth.

The problem is that now the elderly are working longer and are less encouraged to leave, resulting in harder positioning for the younger generations. The fact that this pay comes from the workers who should be the younger generation means that this is impacting their future coverage. The average age of workers is also beginning to go up and at ~15% per worker and at a 5.8:1 worker/retired we are slowly sliding into a Social Security deficit; projections show that the ratio will drop to 3.1:1 meaning that we won’t even be providing half the coverage that’s promised.

While researching this, I discovered that the Social Security spending for the ’07 Fiscal Year was $580 billion, this is annualized process that increases every year. Honestly, we’re worried about the government spending $900 billion just once, sure it was on bad loans, but it’s actually going to help stabilize the country while we prepare for the long run. Social Security is ripping off the future generations to pay for it’s promises.

I propose that we introduce a retro-active grandfather clause that will reduce the rates of which people are accustomed will be receiving. You reduce funding to anyone who was born since January 1, 1963(45 years old as of 1/1/09) to 70% of what they where promised once they reach 67, regressing the rate by 5% for every subsequent year until age 35. Anyone between the ages of 35 and 30 shall receive 25% and anyone below 30 will recieve nothing. We have this bill continue until the year 2100 and direct excess funding towards the federal deficit. I would not have a problem having the tax remain in my wages so long as it is going to help sustain the state of the country in the future. This isn’t even as drastic as what we need but, it is an initial idea to help us get it started.

This is just my two cents on my subject, and in fact this would actually be excluding myself(19 years old). Though it wouldn’t matter there is nothing left for my generation or future generations, either way. Please leave some comments on what you think of this subject.

ComputerWorld posted an article that greatly disturbs me. In the article, it shows the growth of CS courses after a steady decline from the ’03-’04 school year to ’07 and how many are switching majors from business. It also mentions that students were making a similar swap back in the late 90′s towards tech.

Bryant said he expects that the troubles on Wall Street will likely influence some students to switch majors in the coming months from business to other fields, including computer science. He also urges caution to those students.

These students are obviously in it for the green, they followed it to business and now that it collapsed they’re following it to the next big thing. What we need are people passionate about what they do, not people that are only passionate about money, key examples abound in the Financial Sector right now. I think we should find people who actually want to do these jobs, and not just for the money.

With the economy as weak as it is, if your a small company it’s going to be even more important for you to find passionate people, just read Jason Calacanis’ latest post (recommend signing up to his mailing list), excerpt below.

3. Firing the average people: Again, it’s totally politically
incorrect, but I highly recommend firing anyone who is good or
average. Startups are an Olympic sport and every slot on your team is
critical. You wouldn’t put a “good” swimmer in a relay, would you?
Don’t have one in your startup. Fire the good and replace them with
the great. ~ Jason Calacanis

You know who are probably not going to be average, the people who are passionate about what they are doing. The passionate employee may spend more of their personal time on learning more about they’re area, and be willing to take a pay cut to keep they’re position.

So we need to find a way to deter people from following the money, in the next few years we will see a large rise in un-passionate employees in the Tech Industry. This will hurt companies that invest in people that only got into the area for the cash. What happens when the cashflow slows, or another bubble happens, and how can we stop them now?