Archive for the ‘Questions’ Category

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

We Are Confronted With Insurmountable Opportunities

 Facebook and Twitter have brought down tyrannical governments.

They have also ruined lives.

We are learning to harness the power of renewable energy – the wind, the sea, the sun.

Yet we are still hostage to the terrible and often destructive forces of nature.

We believe in the potential for technology to make the world a better place for all.

But it’s a two-edged sword, and those who would destroy it believe in the same technology.

And we link the demise of Osama bin Laden to lofty values and virtues.

While former Governors and current Ministers flaunt their shaming lack of ethics and morals.

The human dichotomy, I guess…the old Giveth and Taketh that we know so well from the Western religious tradition.

Seems to me that we are at a crossroad – once again – that is familiar to humankind.

The intersection of what is and what can be. The place where we look to the future through the eyes of the present with the thoughts of the past – and debate with ourselves if in fact we can actually change the status quo.

I don’t mean can we use Facebook better or find a new way to monetize 4Squared or decide which screen is really the most important or which tablet will win out.

I mean – can we actually end the inequality; can we really do without oil and coal; can we finally feed the multitudes; can we stop killing each other?

Now – lest you think I am a total flake – I too am consumed with how to use Facebook better and I’m nuts to find ways to monetize new applications; I give speeches all about my view of screen focus and I’m a bleeding-edge beta user of every new toy I can get my hands on.

But here is the thing – I see it as all connected.

The way I see it – that crossroad has a huge wall in front of one of the choices. Huge. A wall of possibilities so big and tall that the open road, the easy-choice road seems more enticing – after all, you still crave that great 3D screen, a new handset and who knows what kind of tablet – not to mention you’re fully linked, to a myriad of social apps, including Facebook.

 Listen:

“We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.” – Walt Kelly

I love this thought. Insurmountable opportunities….

Not obstacles, not barriers, not barricades – just a wall of opportunities so big and tall that just climbing it – or maybe looking for its door – would open up vistas we can’t even dream of.

So do we dismiss the truly great opportunities as being insurmountable?

Or do we climb…?

Who knows…

And we can still take that killer tablet with the killer apps on the journey – no one said we can’t have fun on the way…!!!!

What do you say?

Posted by David on 05/23 at 03:30 PM
Monday, May 9th, 2011

Ding Dong The Witch is Dead

DING DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD…

Who doesn’t know that song and lyric made famous by Judy Garland and the Munchkins in the classic (and my single favorite movie ever) The Wizard of Oz.

WHICH OLD WITCH?

THE WICKED WITCH!

DING DONG! THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD…

In thinking about the death of Osama Bin Laden – all week – and watching the spontaneous celebrations that sprang up celebrating his demise, I must admit that this lyric kept running through my mind as I cheered alongside.

When I Binged the song, looking for the original clip (audio tracks disabled for copyright issues), I wasn’t surprised to see that the tune and its general meaning had already been co-opted into popular parody around Osama – Ding Dong Osama’s Dead…

I also watched the gatherings protesting the raid or celebrating his “martyrdom” and must admit the tune intensified in my mind.

However, to be truthful – I was uncomfortable with my own reactions. Didn’t I look like the crowds we watched way back when “celebrating” the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and joyously rejoicing for the deaths?

I started thinking of my friend Andrew (read his story here), who could have saved himself in the Tower but ran back and died saving lives, and I felt hollow. Not sad, not elated that revenge had finally come…just hollow.

An Op-Ed piece in The New York Times (read here) caught my eye that suggested that the celebrations were actually OK – a natural outpouring – maybe even an important part of our human DNA – but I was still uncomfortable…although I got the revenge part.

And I was comforted by the respectful decision not to show any pictures. – “We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.”

In trying to better articulate my feelings, I looked to Elie Wiesel – Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate, called by the Norwegian Nobel Committee a “Messenger to Mankind,” to see what he might have said that could guide me.

Listen:

“Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.”
Elie Wiesel

And there you have it.

The lesson – the meaning – it seems to me is not in his death, but rather in what we do as Human Beings to eradicate Wicked Witches wherever they may be.

I again turned to Elie. Listen:

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel

I am only human – I’m still humming that tune as I write this – but I don’t want to mistake the feel good of revenge for the power of speaking out – for taking sides like Andrew did….

One last word from Elie, quoting from Ecclesiastes that, in my mind, sums up the human spontaneity and need for emotional outlet with his deeper and more difficult to achieve thinking on the long term state of Humankind (read his article here):

“There is a time to mourn and a time to rejoice…let us rejoice and hope that this will be a time of rededication to the ideals of peace, cooperation, and mutual response among all nations, all concepts that bin Laden sought vainly to destroy.”
Elie Wiesel

What do you think?

Posted by David on 05/09 at 02:54 PM
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  • Good ayisza! I had similar thoughts of celebration and even thought of the wicked witch too. Funny! But then, I felt a little ashamed for the way I felt. As much as he was a bad man, a rusha, we should not minimize death no matter what. He got what he deserved, but it is no cause for celebration.
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Monday, April 18th, 2011

Follow up to last week

Follow up to last week…the notion of “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” E. W. Dijkstra

While we can lose the forest for the trees – meaning that the big picture can get subsumed by its small components…sometimes we miss the point of the picture because we have completely overlooked its component parts.

Often we try too hard to be big picture – think GMOOT – you remember – “Give Me One Of Those” – I have to do what others are doing – I have to be “innovative,” cool, leading edge…I need an all-up strategy…you get the point…

The challenge, then, as I see it is – what details do I need to know? – What components must I be versed in? – What information is critical for me to know versus what minutiae are just too much?

Seems to me that starting with need, outcome, expectation versus starting with I have to do this or that is a fundamental place to begin.

If we begin anything by trying to boil the Ocean… while we wait for the bubbles and the simmer, those who were merely making tea will be hosting parties and we will be stuck with checking the pot and then the flame and then the pot again…and on and on…all by our lonesome selves.

Listen:

“I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”  Woody Allen

And there you have it.

Learn your neighborhood. Find its treasures…and there are many…know its resources – keep your eye on the Universe – but enjoy the company of active discovery along the way – rather than the loneliness of esoteric longing and empty posturing of trying to encompass it all at one time.

What do you think?

Posted by David on 04/18 at 03:05 PM