On NPR there is a program called the 'I Believe' series. Anyone is given the opportunity to write in a 500 word essay that best explains what they believe in. I took that opportunity a few months ago, but I assume, due to the overwhelming responses they've been getting, that my entry is still waiting in the pile to be reviewed. So I have yet to know if mine will make it to the air. However, I am realist enough to know that even if mine was a very well written essay, there are still only a very few that make it to the air. Still, it would be great to have that published on the air for millions of listeners to hear, but until that moment, I think I'll publish it here.
I Believe Essay
I believe in the value of practice. I believe the most important lesson that any parent can know is that their children are capable of anything given the proper environment of love and instruction.
My older brother Andy was considered the best soccer player among us three boys. He was good enough that he could have played professionally had he wanted to do so. I thought he had been born with the ‘gift’ and that I, while a decent player, was never meant to be great. While I loved to play the game, I didn’t dare throw away my time developing my skills, because I could never become ‘great’.
It wasn’t until a few years later, when I would attend a camp run by a local soccer legend, Pat McBride, who had represented the U.S. both in the Olympics and World Cup, that my view on potential was challenged. His message on how to become a great soccer player was simple – you must touch the ball a million times and when you’ve reached that goal, do it again. This lesson reverberates within the stories of the world’s greatest athletes. Peter Gzowski, famed hockey writer, asked Wayne Gretzky if his greatness came from practice, he replied, “Absolutely. That’s one-hundred percent right. It’s all practice.”
I also believe parents that think that their children are forever defined by the genetics they were born with could not be further from the truth. We humans have a limitless potential that even the most starry-eyed dreamers have yet to conceive, and I believe that through the hard work of practice we can begin to ascend to the heavens of our potential.
I have two children now which we are trying to raise to enjoy practice. My wife and I hope we are bringing them up in an loving environment that allows failure, as a way to learn, rewards hard work and provides examples in our own behavior. So far, this has been a challenging experience. Occasionally, we’re rewarded with a kindly comment from a teacher who tells us that they enjoyed our children in their class, but most days we’re chasing them back to the piano, to the soccer field, or to do their homework.
There is so much we don’t know about parenting: how to motivate a three year old, when to be firm and when to let them go their way, how to keep it fun and interesting, and deciding if we’re pushing too hard. There is no guide book to tell us how to do these things, and some days we’re acting only on parental instinct, but in the end, I think we’ll get better, if we keep practicing.
Signed,
Brother Murrow
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Economics of Happiness
I got the Economist for x-mas this year. This might be a strange gift to some of you, and even to myself, it feels rather strange to be excited about an economics magazine (well its more than that, think of a slightly conservative intellectual Time magazine with no fluff stuff). I slept my way through economics in college, yet here I am, twelve years later, reading books about it and subscribing to magazines about it.
The cover story subject deals with the measure of economics. There are some, well most economists, that believe economics should be measured purely by monetary values (things that increase the overall wealth of society are better and should be encouraged). There are others that believe we should measure in terms of happiness. There is some merit to it. Some of the economic progress we've made in the last thirty years has been at the expense of our lives away from work. Women now work leaving kids at home or at the daycare, we all work longer hours, vacations are sometimes spent working via Blackberry, etc.
The happiness viewpoint measures things like experiences or hedonimetrics (measure of happiness). Being happy might involve taking a less strenuous job with a smaller commute but living in a smaller house with less amenities. Overall, happiness quotient might be higher but economically, that person is contributing less to the overall society.
This simplistic view pits one theory against the other. You can either have happiness or money, but generally not both. My view point is that these aren't either/or propositions. Our goal should be to have both. Society and self should work towards finding roles that improve both monetary economics and happiness. That is best accomplished by finding a profession that balances that which we are best at, that society needs and what we are happiest doing. The reality is a happy person is a very production person.
The challenge is finding that profession that balances those three things. Then, one has to commit themselves to the job and lose themselves in their work. While some days can be frustrating, finding the right job means being excited about going to work and accomplishing meaningful things. This is also a challenge for employers. Within companies, finding the right job for the right people that makes them happy can mean a lot for overall productivity.
So for individuals, companies and society, the most imporant thing we can do for economics, both monetary and happiness, is to find the right jobs for the right people that are meanful to our overall benefit and make us happy. Not too hard is it? Thankfully, I think that the advent of the Web 2.0 with its empowering tools is allowing that on a much greater scale. Thomas Friedman certainly said it best when he said that the "world had flattened". In this flat world it will be possible to do that on a worldwide scale. Certainly not tomorow, and maybe not in the next few decades, but overall we are moving in that direction and that certainly gives me hope.
Signed,
Integral of Happiness from x to infinity
The cover story subject deals with the measure of economics. There are some, well most economists, that believe economics should be measured purely by monetary values (things that increase the overall wealth of society are better and should be encouraged). There are others that believe we should measure in terms of happiness. There is some merit to it. Some of the economic progress we've made in the last thirty years has been at the expense of our lives away from work. Women now work leaving kids at home or at the daycare, we all work longer hours, vacations are sometimes spent working via Blackberry, etc.
The happiness viewpoint measures things like experiences or hedonimetrics (measure of happiness). Being happy might involve taking a less strenuous job with a smaller commute but living in a smaller house with less amenities. Overall, happiness quotient might be higher but economically, that person is contributing less to the overall society.
This simplistic view pits one theory against the other. You can either have happiness or money, but generally not both. My view point is that these aren't either/or propositions. Our goal should be to have both. Society and self should work towards finding roles that improve both monetary economics and happiness. That is best accomplished by finding a profession that balances that which we are best at, that society needs and what we are happiest doing. The reality is a happy person is a very production person.
The challenge is finding that profession that balances those three things. Then, one has to commit themselves to the job and lose themselves in their work. While some days can be frustrating, finding the right job means being excited about going to work and accomplishing meaningful things. This is also a challenge for employers. Within companies, finding the right job for the right people that makes them happy can mean a lot for overall productivity.
So for individuals, companies and society, the most imporant thing we can do for economics, both monetary and happiness, is to find the right jobs for the right people that are meanful to our overall benefit and make us happy. Not too hard is it? Thankfully, I think that the advent of the Web 2.0 with its empowering tools is allowing that on a much greater scale. Thomas Friedman certainly said it best when he said that the "world had flattened". In this flat world it will be possible to do that on a worldwide scale. Certainly not tomorow, and maybe not in the next few decades, but overall we are moving in that direction and that certainly gives me hope.
Signed,
Integral of Happiness from x to infinity
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
A Beginning
It's rather suprising I haven't done this yet. I've spent my life being curious about the universe and writing down my thoughts. I'm also fluent with technology and no stranger to the Internet. Yet, I just never got around to getting my stick out and etching out my thoughts in the sand. I need to do this.
Time is no excuse. There is always "something else" that comes along. I'm just going to make time for writing as I once did. Maybe I'll even transcribe my old notes from thoughts long past. Only to understand myself ten or twenty years ago. There is something to be said for writing, the process of sitting down to spew out your thoughts, let it hit the page, then wonder what it was you've been thinking. Now instead of taking that notebook and hiding it away under the mattress, I'll throw it out to a lost corner of the Internet. Maybe someone will wander absent-mindedly to that little lost corner and see a page fluttering in the wind, waving from under the rubbage and pick it up.
Or maybe they won't. Meh. Either way, I'm happy.
Signed,
Alpha
Time is no excuse. There is always "something else" that comes along. I'm just going to make time for writing as I once did. Maybe I'll even transcribe my old notes from thoughts long past. Only to understand myself ten or twenty years ago. There is something to be said for writing, the process of sitting down to spew out your thoughts, let it hit the page, then wonder what it was you've been thinking. Now instead of taking that notebook and hiding it away under the mattress, I'll throw it out to a lost corner of the Internet. Maybe someone will wander absent-mindedly to that little lost corner and see a page fluttering in the wind, waving from under the rubbage and pick it up.
Or maybe they won't. Meh. Either way, I'm happy.
Signed,
Alpha
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