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I don't give two licks about the Middle East or the Arab world, but this leapt out at me: "...our hubris to not simply record things and focus on problems. We k

by nihonde 11y ago

I don't give two licks about the Middle East or the Arab world, but this leapt out at me: "...our hubris to not simply record things and focus on problems. We keep reinventing based on impression, not on result, with new people and a rapid turnover rate." When I moved to Japan, I saw right away that people here tend to measure problems first, then formulate a response, and keep assessing that response as they go. The net effect is a society that has conquered a lot of the annoying problems that get underfoot, and is liberated to focus on higher-order issues. When I go to the 7-11 down the street from me, I noticed that the cash register has two columns of buttons for age demographics. Sure enough, after every transaction, the clerk hits the 'male' button for my age group—and they're always correct about my age. I saw on television the other week that 7-11 store managers in Japan use a sophisticated software tool to plan inventory shipments based on a huge number of factors, including weather forecasts, holidays, recent sales trends, supply chain, etc. These store managers are often twenty-something year old 'kids', and they have more responsibility and accountability for the bottom line than a lot of middle managers at Fortune 50 companies. They perform this function on a little proprietary PC running some very purposeful proprietary software in the tidy back room of every 7-11 store. There's something so damn satisfying about seeing a well-oiled machine in action, and once you've seen it—you're both encouraged that it can be done, and dismayed at how utterly behind the curve others have fallen behind. Emotional factors have a tremendously important role in our lives, but we can't allow emotional responses (or manipulation of emotions) to unwind the great human trait of complex long-term, problem solving and progress.

CapitalistCartr 11y ago
When I was in the military, we were a bunch of 18-22 year olds doing all the work, including direct supervision. What work was that? Building and maintaining nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and all the related support. When my father was 19, he had 40 marines under his command as a Marine Staff sergeant. The Navy sent him to an island called Betio in the Tarawa Atoll. One of the worst disasters in USMC history. But what it wasn't was a defeat. In three days, those "kids" overcame the idiotic Navy planning and took that island. He was 21 when they sailed into Nagasaki harbor, three weeks after it was nuked. Being young doesn't have to mean immature and incompetent. Also, 18 isn't that young unless we make it that way.
- nihonde 11y ago
  Great point, and apt that you refer to a strict hierarchy like the military. In Japan, young people are expected to carry heavy responsibilities and older people have fairly cushy managerial roles. (My friend is a CEO of a fairly large company here and he thinks Google is black magic.)
javajosh 11y ago
To the powerful in the west, the Middle East is important because of it's oil. It is also important because of Israel (as an expression of cultural superiority and collective remorse for the past). It is not important because of the people, who the west bundled up into hastily crafted nations under powerful, oil-producing dictators. If I was a big energy CEO, I would have to invent terrorism if it didn't already exist, because I need something to stimulate public emotion to justify US military action, which to me is like Christmas: free security for my oil extraction operation. (Of course it's not free, but the externalities surely don't bother me or my friends personally!) Luckily the Wahhabists save me the trouble and risk of inventing terrorism! The Saudis really are a great ally not despite their support of terrorism, but because of it. The root problems are these: oil is too valuable. If it was less valuable, the people of the region could be freed of these interventions. The west (Americans in particular) are too easy to manipulate with money. Our culture needs the mental equivalent of an ad-blocker, installed as early and upgraded as often as possible. Last but not least, our justice system (and social system in general) is woefully inadequate to deal with corporate malefactors. There are no meaningful punishments to business leadership. Even worst-case scenarios consist of fines that are <1% of one year's profit, and perhaps the loss of a job. The only corporate crime that comes with real repercussions is straight-up embezzlement, a despicable crime against the profits of other powerful people. So all we need are a) alternative energy sources, b) improved education at home and at school stressing critical thinking and skeptical thinking, and c) give the people surveillance power over corporate behavior and eliminate the corporate veil. This three things will morph our oil powered remorseless profit making cyborgs into solar powered socially responsible profit making cyborgs. EDIT: I posted this, immediately refreshed to see a downvote. There is no way someone read 4 paragraphs of (rather dense) text in those ~5 seconds well enough to justify the downvote. @dang please consider adding a brief pause to the up/down vote anti-abuse algorithms.
- morgante 11y ago
  Keep in mind that the Middle East is increasingly less important to global oil supplies, particularly the US.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  I wonder, are there bots trawling HN that up or downvote based on keywords or sentiment analysis? Or maybe people acting as such? The other explanation for a five second response time could be that your comment just happened to have its downvote button right where a reader on a phone likes to swipe to scroll. --- As to the comment itself, I would like to see more discussion of the "really real" motives for ongoing non-war armed invasions, because all the stated motivations are clearly inane.

by nihonde 11y ago

CapitalistCartr 11y ago

When I was in the military, we were a bunch of 18-22 year olds doing all the work, including direct supervision. What work was that? Building and maintaining nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and all the related support. When my father was 19, he had 40 marines under his command as a Marine Staff sergeant. The Navy sent him to an island called Betio in the Tarawa Atoll. One of the worst disasters in USMC history. But what it wasn't was a defeat. In three days, those "kids" overcame the idiotic Navy planning and took that island. He was 21 when they sailed into Nagasaki harbor, three weeks after it was nuked. Being young doesn't have to mean immature and incompetent. Also, 18 isn't that young unless we make it that way.

nihonde 11y ago
Great point, and apt that you refer to a strict hierarchy like the military. In Japan, young people are expected to carry heavy responsibilities and older people have fairly cushy managerial roles. (My friend is a CEO of a fairly large company here and he thinks Google is black magic.)

javajosh 11y ago

To the powerful in the west, the Middle East is important because of it's oil. It is also important because of Israel (as an expression of cultural superiority and collective remorse for the past). It is not important because of the people, who the west bundled up into hastily crafted nations under powerful, oil-producing dictators. If I was a big energy CEO, I would have to invent terrorism if it didn't already exist, because I need something to stimulate public emotion to justify US military action, which to me is like Christmas: free security for my oil extraction operation. (Of course it's not free, but the externalities surely don't bother me or my friends personally!) Luckily the Wahhabists save me the trouble and risk of inventing terrorism! The Saudis really are a great ally not despite their support of terrorism, but because of it. The root problems are these: oil is too valuable. If it was less valuable, the people of the region could be freed of these interventions. The west (Americans in particular) are too easy to manipulate with money. Our culture needs the mental equivalent of an ad-blocker, installed as early and upgraded as often as possible. Last but not least, our justice system (and social system in general) is woefully inadequate to deal with corporate malefactors. There are no meaningful punishments to business leadership. Even worst-case scenarios consist of fines that are <1% of one year's profit, and perhaps the loss of a job. The only corporate crime that comes with real repercussions is straight-up embezzlement, a despicable crime against the profits of other powerful people. So all we need are a) alternative energy sources, b) improved education at home and at school stressing critical thinking and skeptical thinking, and c) give the people surveillance power over corporate behavior and eliminate the corporate veil. This three things will morph our oil powered remorseless profit making cyborgs into solar powered socially responsible profit making cyborgs. EDIT: I posted this, immediately refreshed to see a downvote. There is no way someone read 4 paragraphs of (rather dense) text in those ~5 seconds well enough to justify the downvote. @dang please consider adding a brief pause to the up/down vote anti-abuse algorithms.

morgante 11y ago
Keep in mind that the Middle East is increasingly less important to global oil supplies, particularly the US.
nitrogen 11y ago
I wonder, are there bots trawling HN that up or downvote based on keywords or sentiment analysis? Or maybe people acting as such? The other explanation for a five second response time could be that your comment just happened to have its downvote button right where a reader on a phone likes to swipe to scroll. --- As to the comment itself, I would like to see more discussion of the "really real" motives for ongoing non-war armed invasions, because all the stated motivations are clearly inane.