Criticism and truth

We've become a generation of critics. Actually, the modern ploy has made it worse. People rise up to a point of no action (beyond working the talking head and pointing finger) from which they apply infinite wisdom and choice impacting the rest of us.

As said before, there are doers and lookers. Fortunately, there are sufficient numbers of the former that we see progress. Yet, the glorified goals of careerism is to rise; again, there are sufficient numbers of non-risers who keep doing.

We ought to recognize more those who can do something. ... (the antithesis might be a type of business [doesn't need to be named] that exalts at .4B profit, then has the bottom fall out to the tune of 8.2B+ --- the net effect is that pockets of the many were picked by the few [this ought to be considered in depth], fruits enjoyed by the few [in many cases, there is no retribution -- like, turn back in your bonus, guy/gal], then reality struck --- fortunately, other companies actually built products that can do things).

'I'm a critic' a modern worker realized. One role is going around evaluating and rating those who produce. It's an important role; yet, without actually having hands-on [to be defined], what is the basis for the analytics.

So, that leads to farming out advanced work and how some problems may actually be inherent. That this is so has partly to do with how truth is not a mental exercise, at least not totally so, rather it has to tie to effect, hopefully, in the more complex situations of life.

Remarks:

05/09/2011 -- Doers, reconsidered.

07/29/2009 -- At Oskosh, the air show, the Airbus 380 landed in a cross-wind. Evidently, some critical comments lead to a discussion which relates to the theme of this post. So, that brings up the overall issue of doers versus lookers, including farming out what ought to be one's core business.

01/27/2009 -- Now a new day and way to consider these matters.

01/01/2008 -- Related to this topic is that what the world may need is better critics, witness the rise of critical thinking awareness. One argument, related to practice, is that criticizing may be more effective when done from a viewpoint of experience, not academics.

There is always the issue that improvements through time puts binders on us from several angles though we do enjoy the benefits of most of these.

Modified: 05/09/2011

Intelligence, value, and truth

Intelligence can be associated with playing games and winning. We have plenty of examples, including those who excel in a particular type of society. Nowadays, in the materialistic gaming that rewards greed and accumulation, the smarter have more, in terms measured in manipulating for wealth and associated goods, though many of the related world views might be considered suspect.

We can talk about several types of traits that depict intelligence. Gardner's view is an example. One notion for determining intelligence might be to define who can (or ought to) lead in a manner of meritocracy. We have those academically related tests, to boot, such as those that terrorize the teens, in that they can set the stage for their lives.

Though we use intelligence and figure ways to assess the ability of those with whom we relate, all those theoretic notions can reduce to matters of gaming. Yet, from the viewpoint concerning all, how does it sit for the future if what we want people to do is strive for those successes that go away from 'real' accomplishment? That is, piling up money does not provide for the table nor health -yet, it can support those who do. Neither does generating a pit of critics make for progress.

Of course, it is to be expected that some roles are for entertainment or gaming purposes which may be highly rewarded.

So a world-view dealing with truth from a more complete framework just might attempt to demonstrate that touch labor brings much more value to the proposition than the guy/gal sitting at the top and many of those in-between. Somehow, things are screwy, almost topsy-turvy. That is, those who want to make something actual, such as a new plane, really need more respect from their managers and from the financial 'fakirs'.

At the top, some managers act like pirates (recent article in Business Week). In this regard, there are many non-sustainable attributes that we, as intelligent adults, need to analyze perhaps to consider traits that might lead to better conditions in general.

For instance, would we prefer the Dalai Lama to some crass deal maker? How about a good, intellectual priest as a leader? (see Remarks)

Somehow, mathematics, with its deep appeal, has been usurped being misused as a magic bullet that many modern techniques and processes. Thankfully, software provides a good example from which to extract items for discourse (including the web, drivers of flown systems, and more) in this regard, where we need to consider why we expect effectiveness.

Of course, truth engineering, neither silver nor a bullet, looks to help guide our exploration of the problems and definition of possible solutions.

Remarks:

03/17/2015 -- Still appropriate.

06/12/2014 -- One way to look at this: cognitive elitism.

09/19/2013 -- To some, evidently, grabbing oodles of money, without due consideration of ramifications to others or to the common weal, is the smartest thing; but, we do know that virtue is smart, to boot. Even the secularists are trying hard to show how their worldview can lead to right living (as in, they do not need God to have a conscience). And, what virtue might be prime important to this discussion? Prudence (see Remarks, this day).

05/03/2012 -- We'll start a 'meme' discussion, Either / Or. 

09/03/2009 -- Computational foci raise miraculous need. Yes, we need to talk NP and more.

05/27/2009 -- That we have topsy-turvy needs to be addressed more fully in both an epistemologic and an operational sense.

01/26/2009 -- Now a new day and way to consider these matters.

07/31/2008 -- It's not enough to rant and spout off. So, let's start something constructive by looking at money and what it is.

mm/dd/2007 (earlier note) -- The notion of the 'priest' as leader is not to argue for the integration of the church and state; part of the western heritage is rendering, as necessary, to Caesar. Rather, it pertains to the possible benefit of suppressed self-interest from those at the top; that is, is it inevitable that those in power succumb to the idea that they hold what might be considered a 'divinely-given right'?

One reads about the head of Notre Dame, the University, living simply. Somehow, the zen master's little, sparse room appeals to the imagination more than does the mansion motivated by extreme ostentation.

Of course, big 'T' issues may be argued here; but, to be brief, how do we recognize and manage hubris before the effects? Why? The 'effects' affect plenty of hapless souls whose only crime was to get in the way or to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Modified: 03/17/2015

Remarks and truth

As an extension to the method, remarks will be added to posts when necessary to provide additional information, and these will be collected by index for easy review.

Two early examples are recent events and improved awareness (we're all learning all the time).

Effort and truth

From a cynical view (and in many situations today), we get our information fed from some PR machine which we are to take passively. Opinions differ about the amount of believability we can assign to such phenomena. Though, there are laws that attempt to maintain that information is not too problematic.

In more analytic terms, we always have a disparity between substance and surface; we just expect that the mappings that project from interior information to the exterior are not manipulated beyond some reasonable extent (that which is necessary).

Whether we put forth effort to go beyond the message depends upon several things, such as whether there is money involved (we want to control book cooking), whether there is personal interest (an extreme example would be the airplane), and more.

Actually, any effort requires resources, getting back eventually to money. Regular assessments of 'truth' will be costly, hence we would want them to be effective.

Opinions, without any backup, are easily captured using blogs and comments. Would one weight more heavily a signed comment as opposed to that one provided anonymously?

Would a technique, like bet2give, has a better way to weight than would the poll (7oops7)? The former is a permutation on the idea that the market can be used as a measure.

Remarks:

01/20/2013 -- Changed link for bet2give.

09/02/2009 -- Let's face it, folks, undecidability needs to be discussed and adopted in any complex situational setting, especially if computers are involved. Only hubris pushes us to make loud exclamations about what we're going to do in the future.

01/27/2009 -- At the time of this post, engineering was the main focus. Then, other areas become of interest due to overlaps in the problems: map-territory, computation and being, and much more. There will be more integrating posts to bring some cohesion, such as leveraging and fiction.

10/18/2007 -- This post was timestamped early am. Later the same day, there was an announcement of a delay in the case of a particular program that is of interest. With the announcement was a disclaimer (Forward-Looking Information is Subject to Risk and Uncertainty) that is encouraging in that it recognizes the forward-looking problems.

Sometimes, one wonders if reporting wants to be based upon a static view that can be impossible to attain. It's even more difficult assessing how well risk was defined and managed.

Further discussion will pull together earlier posts dealing with earned-value and status checking.

Modified: 01/20/2013

Territory, map, truth

As we deal with Territory and map issues (or confusion), assessing truth (via various truth engines) will require methods and tools, some of which are provided by nature (or otherwise), many we will need to develop.

Short of constant readings from sensors (to be defined, for now consider the nose) embedded in the evaluator's body, we need (and do have now) mechanisms, of which using the web for polling, technical analysis of a market, or political polls are examples.

That some techniques, such as bet2give, remove the aspect of greed may be of interest.

Of course, some types of registers (like we see with weather [temperature]) will be founded upon our knowledge obtained through science and applied through engineering. Others will be more of a 'map' flavor, yet tied to human-based assessment.

That could bring up a question of how what's suggested may differ from the operational processes of mathematics, with its long history of continuous improvements and observed effectiveness.

But, it is still unsettled how all this ability to handle and to use abstractions came to fore, works, seems persistent, and such. Using the nose metaphor might provide a starting point.

You see, the emphasis on elegance and beauty doesn't account for something that may very well have a value to be considered, the skunk (metaphorically, of course).

Let me just put out two slogans, there will be more.

• Slogan 1: 'truth' is not known at the limits of abstraction; rather, 'truth' is found in reality. Thanks to Joel Orr.
• Slogan 2: Why differentiate when you can integrate? JMS

Perhaps, further discussion ought to pause while we consider these two.

Remarks:

01/20/2013 -- Change link for bet2give. 

12/13/2011 -- Nitty gritty truth.

05/28/2011 -- Later concepts: Turing space, map/territory, and avatars.

04/19/2011 -- We have to get back to the basics.

11/21/2010 -- Three years ago, it was said: Computational foci raise miraculous need. Still applies.

09/09/2009 -- We'll need to look at UUUN, as a framework.

08/18/2009 -- Applies for both macro and micro views.

07/05/2009 -- It's taken awhile, but this message is becoming more apropos all the time.

12/18/2008 -- Well, things really fell apart in the 3rd Quarter of 2008. Factors include the players and the games. Now, games include using mathematics erroneously, as in getting an aura from the use of derivatives (to be discussed further). So, we'll have to re-address this map/territory issue.

08/01/2008 -- Actually, we have the perfect domain for discussing this issue which covers a gamut in its roles and is of phenomenal importance, namely money and what it can represent, as well as how it ought to do its representation. Especially is this so in that the modern financial realm has been engineered to the max with outcomes that are obviously apparent in their undesirability.

Modified: 01/20/2013