Try and hunt down an old sci-fi story called "The Roads Must Roll," by Robert Heinlein.
Quick plot summary: In the future, American cities are interconnected by vast conveyor belts--called roads--which transports people and goods. A few political demagogues start convincing people that certain segments of society should be rewarded for doing "critical work." For example, the road mechanics realize that without them, society as a whole would be hosed.
So a faction within this group of mechanics decides to go on strike, shutting off the roads and committing vandalism. Sure enough, everything stops working as the factions battle it out for control over the roads.
The basic problem with their underlying thinking is this: There is no one ultimate locus of control. Our entire society is completely interdependent. If the network people quit doing what they do, things are hosed. The same goes for doctors, police, firefighters, manufacturers, and farmers.
Take another example: Miners. There's an old mining slogan that says, "If it isn't grown, it has to be mined." There's a great deal of truth to that. Without mining and miners, we're screwed. But does that mean that the mining industry deserves ultimate control over our society? It's like having your kidneys demand veto power over your brain because the brain cannot operate without them.
Management types think of themselves the same way you're asking computing types to think. According to their thinking, without a running business, you wouldn't have a job where you could ply your trade.
Every society strikes a balance between individualism and collectivism. We're all individuals, but we're also functional units within a larger system that keeps everyone alive. I think you've definitely drawn the line in a bad place. Whether computer gurus are under or overvalued is irrelevant; I strongly object to your basic premise: if we have the power to wreck everything, we have the right to do so if the system doesn't give us what we want. It's merely blackmail writ large.
Now ask yourself, do you want a patch submitted by someone at "one-eyed-alien.net" running on *your* production server? Can we really trust patches submitted by people using Hotmail accounts?
Go back to Windows, and rest assured that every developer will be using a trusted microsoft.com e-mail address. Don't you feel safer already?
The big disadvantage here is that I'm back on kernel 2.2.21. I'm still trying to grok the dpkg/apt-get system. Is it possible for me to upgrade? Will terrible, evil things happen if I do? Or will my computer suddenly get the shimmery glow of transcendence before disappearing entirely?
That would be cool, except afterwards I would have to go back to the P433.
When Wal-Mart decided to open their own online music service, I started getting skittish. Now I'm positive the whole thing will collapse when any of the following entities announce the creation of their own online music store:
* K-Mart * Home Depot * The Municipal Government of Topeka, Kansas * Richard Stallman * The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals * Satan * Hormel Foods * Gary Coleman * Rick and Linda's Bait Shop and Outboard Motor Repair (Jump of I-75 at exit 215B, then head north seven miles to the lake. Can't miss it.)
It's no surprise that "usability experts" would want everyone to spend all their time designing the GUI. But no amount of GUI makeup is going to cover up a program where the design itself is broken. It also seems likely that a GUI-agnostic design is going to have a much more flexible, extensible, and portable mindset.
Having said that, there are problems with only thinking about the end user after the heavy lifting has been done. Internationalization support, for example. But all in all, it seems that as long as you're writing with the knowledge that a GUI interface will be bolted onto your application, it's best not to have any preconceptions about what that interface will be like.
But I'm curious: what sort of HCI problems does this design mindset raise?
My twelve year old cousin came over last weekend, and I let her borrow my connection. I wandered away for a few minutes, and when I came back, she chewed me out for not having a popup blocker installed. It took a few seconds for me to figure out the source of the confusion.
I explained that Mozilla blocked popups for me, and she clicked on another link. Another popup. "See?"
"Funny," perhaps. But "insightful?" I've wiped more insightful commentary from the bottom of my shoe.
Now, if "How can I pirate TiVo's service to use on my non-TiVo box without paying for it, I could see where this comment would be appropriate. But just because TiVo is Linux-based, anyone who looks for another solution is somehow a hypocrite?
For shame, Mr. Coward, for shame. And you wonder why mom always liked me best?
The way I see it, TiVo has three components: The hardware, the software, and the subscriber information stream. The hardware is basically a small computer with a big hard drive, and its primary advantage over a beige box is a quality I like to call "Media center friendliness." Oh, and it comes with a remote rather than a cron daemon.
The software consists of the Linux kernel and some schnazzy proprietary interface software. The latter is what adds value to the product for most users.
The subscription information is the final piece of the whole TiVo experience, because it gives the box the ability to find stuff for you even when you didn't know it was on, and make recommendations.
So let's get this straight: TiVo provides a certain experience, but not everyone wants precisely that experience. There are plenty of reasons someone might want to build a computer with some of the capabilities of a TiVo. For example, they might want the PVR capabilities but not the features that rely on the subscription stream. Or they may want to be able to back up shows onto DVD, or rip DVDs to the box, or use the box as an all-in-one PVR/DVD player/router/firewall/webserver/gaming platform, just so that they can turn the whole thing into a flaming pile of silicon by getting it Slashdotted while it's trying to record "The Simpsons."
You may be overlooking an important point: Not everyone has the same definition of "fun," or "rewarding." For example, I have trouble seeing compilers as a sexy field of study, but GCC still seems to get a lot of support.
Originally, Open Source was being practiced primarily by the pure computer science folks, but the idea is slowly percolating down to the more mainstream developers. If it gains mindshare, it means more support for a lot of different interests, such as business management or--as you mentioned--desktop publishing.
"OSS is 1% gem, 99% crap. I mean honestly, how many hangman scripts does the world need?"
Obviously, you've never taken an introductory programming class, or you would know that the answer to that question is, "About fifty more, due next Thursday. And would you twerps please stop using one letter variable names?"
It's interesting that, in my opinion at least, the ratio you cite is about the ratio I've noticed in the closed-source community. I don't think that open/closed source has much to do with it.
Two advantages to this method. First, it helps to energize part of the community. It's not just about the bounty itself, but the fact that someone obviously cares about getting this feature working. The second advantage is that the work is likely being done by someone who already knows the codebase. A private contractor might require more time just to get familiar with how it needs to be done.
Also, you will likely end up getting more work for less money, but I can see how the trolls would take that idea.
But if you have a feature that you want implemented on a timeline and in a specific way, I would agree that hiring a contractor might be the best way to go. Of course, you can get the best of both worlds by hiring one of the Mozilla developers directly.
If you remember the book, it pointed out that Vega was a giant star, with a lifetime of only a few million years. If the Vegans are going to avoid getting supernova'ed to death, they'll have to evolve like hell.
Technically, it's more correct to view the "circle" as an ever-thinning cloud. There is no point in the universe where the probability of the electron being there is exactly zero. Just really really close. Still, it's a useful visualization.
Well, Anonymous Coward has spoken. The Revolution is over, Comrades. We have failed. Now it is time for us to move to Argentina, pirate some copies of Windows XP Professional, fire up Microsoft Word, and start writing our memoirs.
I for one am planning on taking my own life in shame. I fear that
You appear to be writing a suicide note. Would you like to:
Search MSN.com for psychiatric help in your area?
Use a suicide note template?
Browse quotes by Emily Dickenson?
Find great deals on sleeping pills and handguns?
Gaaah! No! It's too horrible! We must never give up! Never surrender! Viva la Revolucion! Viva la Tux!
Man, and people wasted two karma points on my comment. They should have been modding this up instead.
I have to say, if the schools in my area were using your outline as a basis for their computer curriculum, I don't think I could find anything to complain about.
As it is, they're teaching kids to make words fly across the screen using PowerPoint Jr. I think that the misuse of computers is just a symptom of a very real problem with the teaching profession as a whole, but that's a rant for another day.
The thing about computers is, you can sit down in front of one and pretty much create your own environment. Name any subject, and I can almost guarantee that you're only a google away from a ton of information.
I imagine that there are some schools so fundamentally broken that putting the kids in front of the computer could only give them a better learning environment.
The downside is, most students who are given a choice will create an even less hospitable environment for themselves than the classroom normally provides. Pointless websites, vapid e-mails between peers who care nothing for spelling nor punctuation, and Yahoo games, to name a few examples. Given the choice, most people will gravitate towards the least challenging, most immediately gratifying activity.
Which, in my case, would be Slashdot. I really should be studying for finals. Peace, OUT!
How, precisely, is learning computer skills like learning a language?
Frankly, it isn't. Language is one of those fundamental skills that your brain is hardwired to pick up during the initial boot (0-5 years). Basic motor skills might be comparable, but computer skills are not. If you deny a child exposure to language for the first ten years of life, it is physiologically impossible for them to ever become as proficient as someone who was exposed to it.
Computer skills, however, are a whole 'nuther ball of wax. The specifics of any given computer task will be obsolete within a decade, and most end user software goes well out of its way to keep the user from having to deal with the system internals. Exhibit A: Every secretary who manages to work productively on a computer, even while thinking of it as a magic box.
Nobody is suggesting eliminating computers from the classroom entirely. All we're asking is for a sense of perspective about what computers are capable of, what students really need to know about computers, and how the rush to pump taxpayer dollars into sophisticated computer systems is harming other aspects of education.
The 'zealots' are still sort of scratching their heads. I hate to be a RTFM'er, but you must have been doing something wrong.
I've installed both the distros you mention, and both of them tell you exactly how much disk space the selected packages require before install begins, so you should have been able to continue deselecting packages until you got it right. As a double check, I went over to Mandrake's web page, and it claims that 9.2 can be successfully installed on a 100 meg drive (1GB recommended).
The last time I tried to set up a Mandrake box with no window manager, it came in around 400 megs. If you want to take another stab at it, window managers like FVWM make KDE look like a sumo wrestler in comparison. Or try a microscopic distro like Damn Small Linux.
Finally, you could start working on convincing yourself that, with storage prices hovering around $0.75/gig, keeping a 1000 meg drive in service isn't worth the hassle.
RSB will be the actual 2.6.0 release. From there, incremental 2.6.x releases will be named as follows
2.6.1 - Serene Beaver 2.6.2 - Perturbed Beaver. 2.6.3 - Infuriated Beaver 2.6.4 - Flip Out and Kill Everyone Beaver 2.6.5 - Beavergeddon 2.6.6 - Beavercide 2.6.7 - Beaver of the Apocalypse 2.6.8 - Nuke the Beaver from Orbit. It's the Only Way to be Sure
I think the ethical issues are more complex than either side would care to admit. My simplistic view: if a person is able to create twenty pairs of jeans in a day, and they are going to retail for $35 a pair, they've created $700 in wealth[*]. I'm not an expert on supply chains, but if they're being paid $5 a day, it's not because they're doing less than 1% of the total work necessary to get those jeans in the hands of consumers.
It's not a trivial thing to calculate the value of a person's labor. Capitalism is meant to serve as a good approximation, but I don't think it works when you factor in radically different standards of living, or the huge and self-perpetuating disparities in power and wealth that modern economics has created. So what we are left with is a huge gap between the value of the work third world manufacturing employees do and the compensation they're given.
I don't have access to Norbert's documentary. Did he have full access to any and all of Nike's plants and workers? Or was he given interviews with select "model workers," with only strictly controlled access to the working areas? Did he look for opinions from disgruntled former employees? Like I said, I haven't seen it, so I can't draw any conclusions one way or the other.
What bothers me about stories like that is the overall lack of corporate accountability. These countries are so desperate for new jobs, the manufacturers get pretty much a blank check to create whatever working conditions they see fit.
The other concern I have is, what if this transition never fully happens? What if these workers are used only until they start demanding more equitable compensation? At that point, the manufacturers will simply close up shop and start over in another, less demanding third-world nation. I also worry that, at some point three or four countries down the line, America will be that nation.
America has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs for decades. Now we've been hemmorhaging IT jobs. You know, the sort of white-collar jobs that everyone said that the American economy was transitioning towards. I'm thinking lower-level management jobs will be next. I wouldn't be so worried about this if it looked like it was a trend towards general equality. Instead, it looks like the world is slowly being divided into the rich who own companies, and the poor who serve them.
* The figures in the preceding example were calculated via the anal extraction method.
Here, educate yourself. Then quit wearing your amorality as a badge of honor. Just because you've gotten too lazy, cynical, and/or greedy to care about the larger consequences of your actions, don't expect me to join you.
Sure, the world is a complex place, far more so than you or I could ever hope to sort out. But that complexity requires constant interrogation, and a willingness to change in the face of new information. Instead, I get the impression that you've pared the problem down to "How can I get the most for me and mine." It certainly becomes more manageable to see the world in those terms.
I'm sorry. I know you're mostly being facetious with me, and you probably think I'm taking this way too seriously. But it's a bit of a sore spot with me. I just cannot accept that the world is "good enough," nor do I believe that we are powerless to change it, because we were the ones who created it.
Slashdot Mirror
No.
Try and hunt down an old sci-fi story called "The Roads Must Roll," by Robert Heinlein.
Quick plot summary: In the future, American cities are interconnected by vast conveyor belts--called roads--which transports people and goods. A few political demagogues start convincing people that certain segments of society should be rewarded for doing "critical work." For example, the road mechanics realize that without them, society as a whole would be hosed.
So a faction within this group of mechanics decides to go on strike, shutting off the roads and committing vandalism. Sure enough, everything stops working as the factions battle it out for control over the roads.
The basic problem with their underlying thinking is this: There is no one ultimate locus of control. Our entire society is completely interdependent. If the network people quit doing what they do, things are hosed. The same goes for doctors, police, firefighters, manufacturers, and farmers.
Take another example: Miners. There's an old mining slogan that says, "If it isn't grown, it has to be mined." There's a great deal of truth to that. Without mining and miners, we're screwed. But does that mean that the mining industry deserves ultimate control over our society? It's like having your kidneys demand veto power over your brain because the brain cannot operate without them.
Management types think of themselves the same way you're asking computing types to think. According to their thinking, without a running business, you wouldn't have a job where you could ply your trade.
Every society strikes a balance between individualism and collectivism. We're all individuals, but we're also functional units within a larger system that keeps everyone alive. I think you've definitely drawn the line in a bad place. Whether computer gurus are under or overvalued is irrelevant; I strongly object to your basic premise: if we have the power to wreck everything, we have the right to do so if the system doesn't give us what we want. It's merely blackmail writ large.
Look at the evidence from the Changelog:
s hing.orgh otmail.com
mdharm-usb@one-eyed-alien.net
trini@kernel.cra
jes@trained-monkey.org
James_McMechan@
Now ask yourself, do you want a patch submitted by someone at "one-eyed-alien.net" running on *your* production server? Can we really trust patches submitted by people using Hotmail accounts?
Go back to Windows, and rest assured that every developer will be using a trusted microsoft.com e-mail address. Don't you feel safer already?
The big disadvantage here is that I'm back on kernel 2.2.21. I'm still trying to grok the dpkg/apt-get system. Is it possible for me to upgrade? Will terrible, evil things happen if I do? Or will my computer suddenly get the shimmery glow of transcendence before disappearing entirely?
That would be cool, except afterwards I would have to go back to the P433.
When Wal-Mart decided to open their own online music service, I started getting skittish. Now I'm positive the whole thing will collapse when any of the following entities announce the creation of their own online music store:
* K-Mart
* Home Depot
* The Municipal Government of Topeka, Kansas
* Richard Stallman
* The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
* Satan
* Hormel Foods
* Gary Coleman
* Rick and Linda's Bait Shop and Outboard Motor Repair (Jump of I-75 at exit 215B, then head north seven miles to the lake. Can't miss it.)
If you see any of these, it's time to sell short.
It's no surprise that "usability experts" would want everyone to spend all their time designing the GUI. But no amount of GUI makeup is going to cover up a program where the design itself is broken. It also seems likely that a GUI-agnostic design is going to have a much more flexible, extensible, and portable mindset.
Having said that, there are problems with only thinking about the end user after the heavy lifting has been done. Internationalization support, for example. But all in all, it seems that as long as you're writing with the knowledge that a GUI interface will be bolted onto your application, it's best not to have any preconceptions about what that interface will be like.
But I'm curious: what sort of HCI problems does this design mindset raise?
My twelve year old cousin came over last weekend, and I let her borrow my connection. I wandered away for a few minutes, and when I came back, she chewed me out for not having a popup blocker installed. It took a few seconds for me to figure out the source of the confusion.
I explained that Mozilla blocked popups for me, and she clicked on another link. Another popup. "See?"
I was amused. Poor IE peoples.
"Funny," perhaps. But "insightful?" I've wiped more insightful commentary from the bottom of my shoe.
Now, if "How can I pirate TiVo's service to use on my non-TiVo box without paying for it, I could see where this comment would be appropriate. But just because TiVo is Linux-based, anyone who looks for another solution is somehow a hypocrite?
For shame, Mr. Coward, for shame. And you wonder why mom always liked me best?
The way I see it, TiVo has three components: The hardware, the software, and the subscriber information stream. The hardware is basically a small computer with a big hard drive, and its primary advantage over a beige box is a quality I like to call "Media center friendliness." Oh, and it comes with a remote rather than a cron daemon.
The software consists of the Linux kernel and some schnazzy proprietary interface software. The latter is what adds value to the product for most users.
The subscription information is the final piece of the whole TiVo experience, because it gives the box the ability to find stuff for you even when you didn't know it was on, and make recommendations.
So let's get this straight: TiVo provides a certain experience, but not everyone wants precisely that experience. There are plenty of reasons someone might want to build a computer with some of the capabilities of a TiVo. For example, they might want the PVR capabilities but not the features that rely on the subscription stream. Or they may want to be able to back up shows onto DVD, or rip DVDs to the box, or use the box as an all-in-one PVR/DVD player/router/firewall/webserver/gaming platform, just so that they can turn the whole thing into a flaming pile of silicon by getting it Slashdotted while it's trying to record "The Simpsons."
That's what I'd do, anyways.
Emacs, of course.
It has a vi mode.
What other text editor can make such a claim?
Actually, it's worse than that. You don't have to test every number between 1 and sqrt, just the primes.
I recall reading somewhere that it takes about ten bits to double the security of a public key, rather than one. I don't know if that's actually true.
You may be overlooking an important point: Not everyone has the same definition of "fun," or "rewarding." For example, I have trouble seeing compilers as a sexy field of study, but GCC still seems to get a lot of support.
Originally, Open Source was being practiced primarily by the pure computer science folks, but the idea is slowly percolating down to the more mainstream developers. If it gains mindshare, it means more support for a lot of different interests, such as business management or--as you mentioned--desktop publishing.
It's interesting that, in my opinion at least, the ratio you cite is about the ratio I've noticed in the closed-source community. I don't think that open/closed source has much to do with it.
Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Yep, time to start rewriting SpamAssassin as a kernel patch.
Two advantages to this method. First, it helps to energize part of the community. It's not just about the bounty itself, but the fact that someone obviously cares about getting this feature working. The second advantage is that the work is likely being done by someone who already knows the codebase. A private contractor might require more time just to get familiar with how it needs to be done.
Also, you will likely end up getting more work for less money, but I can see how the trolls would take that idea.
But if you have a feature that you want implemented on a timeline and in a specific way, I would agree that hiring a contractor might be the best way to go. Of course, you can get the best of both worlds by hiring one of the Mozilla developers directly.
If you remember the book, it pointed out that Vega was a giant star, with a lifetime of only a few million years. If the Vegans are going to avoid getting supernova'ed to death, they'll have to evolve like hell.
Hear me, Vega? The clock is ticking.
Why wait?
Technically, it's more correct to view the "circle" as an ever-thinning cloud. There is no point in the universe where the probability of the electron being there is exactly zero. Just really really close. Still, it's a useful visualization.
I for one am planning on taking my own life in shame. I fear that
You appear to be writing a suicide note. Would you like to:
- Search MSN.com for psychiatric help in your area?
- Use a suicide note template?
- Browse quotes by Emily Dickenson?
- Find great deals on sleeping pills and handguns?
Gaaah! No! It's too horrible! We must never give up! Never surrender! Viva la Revolucion! Viva la Tux!Man, and people wasted two karma points on my comment. They should have been modding this up instead.
I have to say, if the schools in my area were using your outline as a basis for their computer curriculum, I don't think I could find anything to complain about.
As it is, they're teaching kids to make words fly across the screen using PowerPoint Jr. I think that the misuse of computers is just a symptom of a very real problem with the teaching profession as a whole, but that's a rant for another day.
The thing about computers is, you can sit down in front of one and pretty much create your own environment. Name any subject, and I can almost guarantee that you're only a google away from a ton of information.
I imagine that there are some schools so fundamentally broken that putting the kids in front of the computer could only give them a better learning environment.
The downside is, most students who are given a choice will create an even less hospitable environment for themselves than the classroom normally provides. Pointless websites, vapid e-mails between peers who care nothing for spelling nor punctuation, and Yahoo games, to name a few examples. Given the choice, most people will gravitate towards the least challenging, most immediately gratifying activity.
Which, in my case, would be Slashdot. I really should be studying for finals. Peace, OUT!
How, precisely, is learning computer skills like learning a language?
Frankly, it isn't. Language is one of those fundamental skills that your brain is hardwired to pick up during the initial boot (0-5 years). Basic motor skills might be comparable, but computer skills are not. If you deny a child exposure to language for the first ten years of life, it is physiologically impossible for them to ever become as proficient as someone who was exposed to it.
Computer skills, however, are a whole 'nuther ball of wax. The specifics of any given computer task will be obsolete within a decade, and most end user software goes well out of its way to keep the user from having to deal with the system internals. Exhibit A: Every secretary who manages to work productively on a computer, even while thinking of it as a magic box.
Nobody is suggesting eliminating computers from the classroom entirely. All we're asking is for a sense of perspective about what computers are capable of, what students really need to know about computers, and how the rush to pump taxpayer dollars into sophisticated computer systems is harming other aspects of education.
The 'zealots' are still sort of scratching their heads. I hate to be a RTFM'er, but you must have been doing something wrong.
I've installed both the distros you mention, and both of them tell you exactly how much disk space the selected packages require before install begins, so you should have been able to continue deselecting packages until you got it right. As a double check, I went over to Mandrake's web page, and it claims that 9.2 can be successfully installed on a 100 meg drive (1GB recommended).
The last time I tried to set up a Mandrake box with no window manager, it came in around 400 megs. If you want to take another stab at it, window managers like FVWM make KDE look like a sumo wrestler in comparison. Or try a microscopic distro like Damn Small Linux.
Finally, you could start working on convincing yourself that, with storage prices hovering around $0.75/gig, keeping a 1000 meg drive in service isn't worth the hassle.
RSB will be the actual 2.6.0 release. From there, incremental 2.6.x releases will be named as follows
2.6.1 - Serene Beaver
2.6.2 - Perturbed Beaver.
2.6.3 - Infuriated Beaver
2.6.4 - Flip Out and Kill Everyone Beaver
2.6.5 - Beavergeddon
2.6.6 - Beavercide
2.6.7 - Beaver of the Apocalypse
2.6.8 - Nuke the Beaver from Orbit. It's the Only Way to be Sure
I appreciate your response, and sorry about linking you to a 300K text file.
I think the ethical issues are more complex than either side would care to admit. My simplistic view: if a person is able to create twenty pairs of jeans in a day, and they are going to retail for $35 a pair, they've created $700 in wealth[*]. I'm not an expert on supply chains, but if they're being paid $5 a day, it's not because they're doing less than 1% of the total work necessary to get those jeans in the hands of consumers.
It's not a trivial thing to calculate the value of a person's labor. Capitalism is meant to serve as a good approximation, but I don't think it works when you factor in radically different standards of living, or the huge and self-perpetuating disparities in power and wealth that modern economics has created. So what we are left with is a huge gap between the value of the work third world manufacturing employees do and the compensation they're given.
I don't have access to Norbert's documentary. Did he have full access to any and all of Nike's plants and workers? Or was he given interviews with select "model workers," with only strictly controlled access to the working areas? Did he look for opinions from disgruntled former employees? Like I said, I haven't seen it, so I can't draw any conclusions one way or the other.
What bothers me about stories like that is the overall lack of corporate accountability. These countries are so desperate for new jobs, the manufacturers get pretty much a blank check to create whatever working conditions they see fit.
The other concern I have is, what if this transition never fully happens? What if these workers are used only until they start demanding more equitable compensation? At that point, the manufacturers will simply close up shop and start over in another, less demanding third-world nation. I also worry that, at some point three or four countries down the line, America will be that nation.
America has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs for decades. Now we've been hemmorhaging IT jobs. You know, the sort of white-collar jobs that everyone said that the American economy was transitioning towards. I'm thinking lower-level management jobs will be next. I wouldn't be so worried about this if it looked like it was a trend towards general equality. Instead, it looks like the world is slowly being divided into the rich who own companies, and the poor who serve them.
* The figures in the preceding example were calculated via the anal extraction method.
Here, educate yourself. Then quit wearing your amorality as a badge of honor. Just because you've gotten too lazy, cynical, and/or greedy to care about the larger consequences of your actions, don't expect me to join you.
Sure, the world is a complex place, far more so than you or I could ever hope to sort out. But that complexity requires constant interrogation, and a willingness to change in the face of new information. Instead, I get the impression that you've pared the problem down to "How can I get the most for me and mine." It certainly becomes more manageable to see the world in those terms.
I'm sorry. I know you're mostly being facetious with me, and you probably think I'm taking this way too seriously. But it's a bit of a sore spot with me. I just cannot accept that the world is "good enough," nor do I believe that we are powerless to change it, because we were the ones who created it.