I have found that I love of lot of the programming in the anime genre. But anyone who's only been watching for a few years has the advantage that they get to basically distill the best shows from the last 50 years and avoid a lot of the crap. Currently, Japan broadcasts over 50 new episodes of anime a week, and let me tell you, the talent pool is pretty dilute now. And a lot of the crap doesn't make it over to the states (or elsewhere.)
It is a wonderful media (not as much a genre,) but you have to weigh in the long drawn-out plots with american analogs. Law and Order, ER, Dallas, Buffy. Buffy doesn't really seem to fit with those other three, right? Well, that's one thing that sends a lot of tech people to anime - they have a great liberty in using fantasy and sci-fi themes that the major tv studios don't believe in here (even star trek is stuck on UPN these days.)
One final comment about the article which seems to be missed by the majority of these posts. One of the reasons she points to anime storylines is that she feels that the characters better represent the archetypes of people in the tech industry than those found in western culture. You Joseph Campbell types out there know what I'm saying. Where in classical western culture is the idea of the general nice guy who works hard represented? And no quoting modern screenplays that don't get shown on cable tv. On the other hand, there are character like Tenchi, who slaves away in the garden or school all day and always seems tired (of course, being adored by women and a Jurain prince is the fantasy part of the show.)
I don't mean to say that the tenchi genre of anime is highly representative of what tech types watch. But consider Serial Experiments Lain - not a lot of america that's willing to propose such ideas in such a provoking way. You can't nail all of anime (or all of american tv) in one post, and this one is already too long. Hope that I got my $.02 in.
m
Why is anime interesting to me? Two quick reasons, that have nothing to do with the animation: 1) an extended plot, that allows development from episode to episode, and 2) that plot is often character-driven. Things aren't as random as the many shows which seemed to have spun the wheel of plot for the day ("Ross is making out with Chandler's mom, no way!")
It's a great chance to really tell a story over 26 episodes, without as many morally highground arguments ("Sailor Moon says eat your veggies, and volunteer to help old people across the street") Things aren't really black or white.
Anyways, one piece of news. Vision of Escaflowne is supposedly coming to Fox Kids this fall. A truly excellent anime series, which is one of the few that you don't suspect the lead woman of doing adult films at night to pay the bills. Don't know how they'll change it, but a great story. Don't want to spoil it.
I don't know any high-level politicians, and I'm not crazy about how they do things, but I have to say something about the way that criticisms are made of their activities.
People complain that politicians should have all their views and detailed solutions listed on their websites (similar arguments are made by several posters and within the interview above). People complain that the politicians don't always have the answers at their fingertips. But these arguments presume that the politicians firmly grasp and are completely rigid about the issues, that they are some sort of omniscient supermen with masterly control of each subject. Each of these issues are complex and dynamic. At each turn, the reasoning politician (i.e., the politician that we want) is forced to reconsider their position. New evidence, or simply evidence that we haven't seen before should provoke this reconsideration.
It is certainly handy to have a preset group of opinions about all things, but to have properly examined the sides of the various issues often requires more information than they can properly digest within a given time frame. And to constantly change one's opinion on a website, when one is not certain where one's opinion lies, adds to the difficulty.
Few issues are simple, and to quickly decide on any of them is a behavior whose roots often lie in a predetermined set of rules such as religion, "common sense", or some other paradigm which has been handed down to us. Quickly testing an idea against these thought frameworks allow us to make snap judgements about situations for which they should not be applied (appropriate issues are "should I have jalapenos on an upset stomach".) It is more important to find out what sort of person your government representative is, and to base your decision on those values (not that this is an easy task either.)
Working more hours than 70s, less than 1900s
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Since most people feel that they work harder now than corresponding people in the past, it is not surprising that Gleick should bring up the statistic that the average work week is longer now than it was in the 1970s. But a more interesting statistic to me is that our average work week now is actually shorter (by 8-10 hours) than what it was in the 1900s. Sadly, I don't remember the reference on this, but it was something reputable.
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It is a wonderful media (not as much a genre,) but you have to weigh in the long drawn-out plots with american analogs. Law and Order, ER, Dallas, Buffy. Buffy doesn't really seem to fit with those other three, right? Well, that's one thing that sends a lot of tech people to anime - they have a great liberty in using fantasy and sci-fi themes that the major tv studios don't believe in here (even star trek is stuck on UPN these days.)
One final comment about the article which seems to be missed by the majority of these posts. One of the reasons she points to anime storylines is that she feels that the characters better represent the archetypes of people in the tech industry than those found in western culture. You Joseph Campbell types out there know what I'm saying. Where in classical western culture is the idea of the general nice guy who works hard represented? And no quoting modern screenplays that don't get shown on cable tv. On the other hand, there are character like Tenchi, who slaves away in the garden or school all day and always seems tired (of course, being adored by women and a Jurain prince is the fantasy part of the show.)
I don't mean to say that the tenchi genre of anime is highly representative of what tech types watch. But consider Serial Experiments Lain - not a lot of america that's willing to propose such ideas in such a provoking way. You can't nail all of anime (or all of american tv) in one post, and this one is already too long. Hope that I got my $.02 in. m
It's a great chance to really tell a story over 26 episodes, without as many morally highground arguments ("Sailor Moon says eat your veggies, and volunteer to help old people across the street") Things aren't really black or white.
Anyways, one piece of news. Vision of Escaflowne is supposedly coming to Fox Kids this fall. A truly excellent anime series, which is one of the few that you don't suspect the lead woman of doing adult films at night to pay the bills. Don't know how they'll change it, but a great story. Don't want to spoil it.
People complain that politicians should have all their views and detailed solutions listed on their websites (similar arguments are made by several posters and within the interview above). People complain that the politicians don't always have the answers at their fingertips. But these arguments presume that the politicians firmly grasp and are completely rigid about the issues, that they are some sort of omniscient supermen with masterly control of each subject. Each of these issues are complex and dynamic. At each turn, the reasoning politician (i.e., the politician that we want) is forced to reconsider their position. New evidence, or simply evidence that we haven't seen before should provoke this reconsideration.
It is certainly handy to have a preset group of opinions about all things, but to have properly examined the sides of the various issues often requires more information than they can properly digest within a given time frame. And to constantly change one's opinion on a website, when one is not certain where one's opinion lies, adds to the difficulty.
Few issues are simple, and to quickly decide on any of them is a behavior whose roots often lie in a predetermined set of rules such as religion, "common sense", or some other paradigm which has been handed down to us. Quickly testing an idea against these thought frameworks allow us to make snap judgements about situations for which they should not be applied (appropriate issues are "should I have jalapenos on an upset stomach".) It is more important to find out what sort of person your government representative is, and to base your decision on those values (not that this is an easy task either.)
Since most people feel that they work harder now than corresponding people in the past, it is not surprising that Gleick should bring up the statistic that the average work week is longer now than it was in the 1970s. But a more interesting statistic to me is that our average work week now is actually shorter (by 8-10 hours) than what it was in the 1900s. Sadly, I don't remember the reference on this, but it was something reputable.