Exceptionalism

Sunday is here. What meme sticks to the craw today? (craw NOT claw; Get Smart)

It was something Putin said. Did he actually say that it is dangerous to tell people that they are exceptional. Was this right? Did I hear him right? Do I really understand what is he trying to say?!
This is in the context of the Syrian conflict and I kinda of know exactly what he is trying to do. I don't really want to talk about Syria. There are already too many voices in that choir. Or is it a Greek choral? A classic tragedy. Focus. Stay on target. Stay on target. Wait to be blown up by Vadar or was it Vater, mein Vater, Das Leader oder Leder. OK. Focus.

What Putin warns against is what America is! We believe that we, all of us are exceptional. I know that statistically this is not possible because if we were to actually choose a set of metrics that predicts an exceptional person, it would fail. The metrics would not be able to predict anything.

There is a story of a very successful man, but he wanted a tutor. He was determined to brush up on his smarts and take all those tests that he skipped while on the way to success. Being a successful man, he is surrounded by quants and their statistics. They keep telling him it is random but he knows, KNOWS that his success was not random. So he plans on taking the SAT, and any other metrics that will prove to himself and them that his success was not a fluke, not a random nucleation.

For the record, I am a randomist acolyte. I have not been given an official title within the Order. I am more in the style of old western preacher, maybe like Pale Rider or High Plains Drifter. I don't really understand the Random Book, but I understand enough to preach the locals. 

Do you see, at least the non-Math part, the psychology part? If you become successful like Putin, you've had to scratch and craw your way to the top against all those other people. They MUST be inferior if I am to be superior. But no one thinks like this. Right?

Americans at least in public preach that we are all superior, and we should all take on as much risk as possible so that we can be... superior? Superior to whom? (all this risk taking of course benefits the System) There is no way before hand to identify who will become successful. The system will ALWAYS be more complex than the players. Do we understand this? If we could become an alien Watcher race with all the technology and maturity of an older race, who is not directly perturbing the system, but is only watching passively, then perhaps we could identify at one moment's time, who will probably become the leader of the tribe of hominids. Maybe. Even then it would be difficult. And maybe this physics work in strange ways and the act of even observing, changes the state of the system and that is why we have not had any alien contact. They know this principle. Perhaps by observing, just observing radio waves leaking from our solar system, they would risk perturbing the our systems enough to end it before it could become mature. OK. Stay on topic. Focus.

What I'm trying to get at is that Putin's advice is sound. Does that surprise you after what I just said? His advice is good advice for himself and all those who are in "leadership" and "successful" position. They must really guard themselves against the idea that they are truly exceptional people. (Trump card; Hitler believed he was exceptional, and he was. Look at all that he accomplished). And we must constantly remind ourselves that we are exceptional people.

In reality, statistically, we are just ordinary, plain, God's people, or earth people. Each one of us living in Xanth with some bit of magic. Or are we all like Magic (The Gathering TM) cards? Yes. In a way. There are no forbidden cards though, because the system doesn't allow for really power cards. Those would terminate that game too fast. Instead we each try to make decks with ourselves. Trying desperately to find the archetype, the pattern of individual that when put together will be an unbeatable deck. Focus.

Please listen to Putin, but immediately forget what he says. Also immediately forget what I write here. OK? Let the information wash over you. Use your own magic in the way that is best for you. Keep trying to form your band of adventurers with that odd mixture of magic user, fighter, and thief. Just remember that I am also out here playing and to be careful not to really hurt anyone in our games.

Syria is an opportunity meme. Putin is not exceptional. Assad is not exceptional. Obama is not exceptional. They are just channeling cards. But Putin is right. Wildcards spurting magic does a lot of damage.  The traditional deck used to control these wildcards are not working.  We need new decks, novel archetypes. We have so many different players for our Magic game. We have so many different quest and adventures to go on. Just remember to be careful and don't really hurt anyone.


(Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
最高执行权力来自群众的授权，而不是从一些闹剧水产仪式
العليا السلطة التنفيذية تستمد من ولاية من الجماهير، وليس من بعض مراسم المائية هزلية.)

Idle Ideal ideas

It's Saturday Morning. I know that the blog will date the post automatically, but I still write it because I want it in the routine. In essences, this is a log mashed with a... what? Bulletin? Is that where blogs came from? Never mind. Back to the topic. Focus. If we can't focus at the task at hand then the information river will swamp us away in its glacial bog flow.

I woke up thinking creatively. HA. As a recent NPR show reminded me, the intervals between the Spaces are when these thoughts come. They'd be too disruptive if they came with each new chunk of information. Is that how some form of autism disrupts? Never mind. Back to the topic. Focus.

I woke up with geometry in my head. I've been trying to earn some money on the side as a tutor and there are a lot of post wanting personalized teaching for math. I reply to all the subjects that I qualify for, but I've yet to get a single reply! They've either found someone better or didn't really know what they wanted and was wasting my time with their post. I'd like to think the former. It's the same with a job search. Are all these automated services, mostly through Taleo and Brassring, just wasting our time or do they truly find someone better than us for the company.com. It's probably random, but randomness doesn't motivate. OK. Focus.

I used to play Dungeons & Dragon (D&D). The primordial game for gamers. Do you remember too? If you are here or there playing, you're probably the type. In D&D we wanted different probabilities so we had different sided dices. Instead of the normal gambling dices that have six sides and a cube shape, we also had a four sided dice in a pyrimidal shape (there must be a geometry name for a pyrimid with another triangle as a base instead of a square, but I am trying to write without internet to force myself to stay focus, so I can't look it up).  The geometry of the dices went all the way up to a 20-side dice. What was that used for?  I remember that a magic user got to roll only a 4-side dice to determine her hit points! Only a max of 4?! And this was the same for physical attacks! Still, the appeal was at higher levels her abilities were not capped. If she became a powerful enough wizard she could destroy the entire Universe and there would be no more games to play. Focus.

The geometry of the dice associates with probability. Understanding probability allows us to manage risk and mitigate Black Swan events. I realized that the normal probability for a simple gambling dice does not include Black Swan event of the dice staying on its edge. Wouldn't be cool to see a dice land and stay on its edge?! We might never see it happen but it could happen. We would roll the dices and it should have been snake-eyes but one dice didn't flatten into a two dimensional readout. It stayed on its edge. The normal probability for a six sided dice would be 1:6 for any number. But in "three" dimension, without the strong effect of gravity, but instead a weak effect of gravity, the probability would begin to include the edges.  There are 12 edges to a 6-sided dice. In reality, the probability would be the major (1:6) + minor (1:12) depending upon how strong gravity is and how sharp the edges are.  If the edges are true lines then (1:12) never happens, but if the edges are in fact planes/surfaces then (1:12) happens with some frequency.  In a weaker gravitational field (do these exist?! Not the example here, where falling dice and falling table are still under the same strength gravity) the falling dice might have a better chance at stabilizing on an edge surface. Where does all this take me? No where. It was how I spent a weekend morning. But maybe a real mathematician or physicist with ideal idle time during this extended restructuring might start doodling with it and come up with something interesting. Or not.

We all know that a lot of Americans spend the weekends watching Football and a lot of the World spends the weekend watching Football, and the New.Brit.Indi.Australiapus hominids watch crickets chirp. And some like to do random mob flashes on the weekend for TED talks. I like to eat breakfast and share the not so random memes that percolates through the heat of the week to finally spurts out in bold flavors during interspersed weekend Space s.


空閒理想的想法
Idle Идеальный идеи

مبتعد أفكار مثالية

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