Self-preventing prophecies

Nice explanation by David Brin of the role science fiction can play in preventing dystopia:

[More good “Previsions” episodes here](https://www.facebook.com/pg/FuturismSciFi/videos/).

Progressive conservatives

Political conservatives usually battle with political progressives. But there are a few interesting ways that conservative ideas could be used to accomplish progressive goals:

* [A carbon tax that directly pays to individual citizens, and allows regulatory rollbacks due to the new financial incentives](https://www.clcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/TheConservativeCaseforCarbonDividends.pdf)
* [Allowing states to customize how they provide for health care (already written into Obamacare, within some bounds)](https://newsatjama.jama.com/2015/04/28/jama-forum-why-section-1332-could-solve-the-obamacare-impasse/)
* Giving welfare based on willingness to train and learn (something [Paul Ryan previously championed](https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottwinship/2014/07/24/paul-ryans-upward-mobility-plan/#a7b4b386d5fe))

The parties are ideological enemies at this point, but continuing to refine what really matters to each–and being willing to work together–could lead to some surprising and mutually attractive solutions.

Bourgeois Bias

As economic inequality grows, cultural differences are making the gap even harder to bridge, argues David Brooks:

> American upper-middle-class culture (where the opportunities are) is now laced with cultural signifiers that are completely illegible unless you happen to have grown up in this class. They play on the normal human fear of humiliation and exclusion. Their chief message is, “You are not welcome here.”

Brooks, of course, wrote one of the defining books on what it means to be upper-middle class in America, with Bobos in Paradise back in 2000.

That said, it’s ridiculous to say that “structural barriers…are less important than the informal social barriers.” The financial, political, and racial disadvantages built into our society are far more difficult to overcome than challenges in choosing the right sandwich at the deli. But all of them are important.

No more rock stars

[This is a wonderful takedown of “rock stars” and stopping abuse](https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/21/no-more-rock-stars/)–in the tech industry, but applicable to any field–by Leigh Honeywell. Some of my favorite points:

* Have explicit rules for conduct and enforce them for everyone (of course, you say! But you still have to do it)
* Insist on building a “deep bench” of talent at every level of your organization
* Flatten the organizational hierarchy as much as possible
* Avoid organizations becoming too central to people’s lives (when the job is all they have, people get crazy)

“Rockstar” in tech has become synonymous with narcissist. I avoid any contact with companies or teams who are looking for them.

> A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, “We did this ourselves.” – [Laozi, _Tao Te Ching_](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laozi)

Like human-powered flight

[My sentiments exactly](https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/jra-angry-asian-beauty-cycling/):

> Riding bikes is the closest any of us can come to human-powered flight, and the fact that we just happen to still be connected to the ground doesn’t diminish from the sensation.

Ways to stop climate change, ranked

[A fascinating list of ways to reduce global warming](http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank), ranked by effectiveness and cost, with some surprising findings.

Refrigerant management–basically what happens when you discard an air conditioner–is the top opportunity, above anything energy-related. After that comes onshore wind farms, then two food-related items: reducing waste and eating more plants.

Pragmatic and encouraging! The authors have edited [a book around all of the opportunities, Drawdown](https://smile.amazon.com/Drawdown-Comprehensive-Proposed-Reverse-Warming-ebook/dp/B01KGZVNT0/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=).

Get a grip on it

Innovation in packaging:

I love how the handles swing out to let you feel what it’s like to ride with them.

Identity politics is breaking elections but might be able to fix government

[An interesting discussion about our inability to choose the right candidates](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/1/15515820/donald-trump-democracy-brexit-2016-election-europe) to make our lives better:

> How do choices get framed? How do opinions get formed? A lot of it is people simply taking cues from political figures, from public figures, that they’ve identified themselves with one way or the other, whether they’re party leaders or the leaders of social groups or interest groups that they feel some attachment to…This idea that people have fixed or informed views about central issues doesn’t square with most of the data we have.

From the authors’ book “[Democracy for Realists](https://smile.amazon.com/Democracy-Realists-Elections-Responsive-Government/dp/0691169446?sa-no-redirect=1)”, [some data supporting the argument that “it’s the economy, stupid”](https://books.google.com/books?id=CHuLCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=short+term+income+growth+tenure+and+presidential+election+outcomes&source=bl&ots=kt-3MDCiQV&sig=o6ZjJbWrn77qHpcgWPHOphItTuM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQrKaT7aXUAhUM02MKHVUsDbIQ6AEIMjAB#v=onepage&q=short%20term%20income%20growth%20tenure%20and%20presidential%20election%20outcomes&f=false):

> “It is possible to account for recent presidential election outcomes with a fair degree of precision solely on the basis of how long the incumbent party had been in power and [how much real income growth voters experienced](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wage-growth) in the six months leading up to Election Day.”

The authors attribute 2016’s strange elections to the inability of political “elites” to connect with voters, hence the rise of “outsiders”:

> The biggest limitation at the moment is that we don’t know how to incorporate the role of political elites in a constructive way into the governing process or to somehow make it possible to ensure that they’re working on behalf of the interests of ordinary people.

But they propose that instead of breaking down “identity politics”, we need to acknowledge its importance and make it work better:

> These group attachments are not some bad thing we do instead of being rational, well-informed creatures. They constitute who we are…We construct an interpretation of our lives, and we’re loyal to that and we find other people with similar views. That’s what human beings are like, and recognizing that seems to us a big step forward from the way we tend to think about politics now…

To do that, we need to better connect people’s identities and actions to the policymaking (e.g. what happens in Congress every day) rather than the elections (e.g. who you elect to Congress once every few years):

> A lot of the actual ways in which people of ordinary education or ordinary means or just not much power, the ways in which they are disadvantaged are often occurring at the level of policymaking rather than at the level of elections themselves. The financial sector, for instance, is having a lot of policy success in Washington, in ways that ordinary people, if they really understood what was happening, would not approve. But they don’t follow it closely enough, they don’t understand, and the policy process is tilted toward moneyed interests that ordinary people have no chance.

So embrace your identities, but don’t stop with the voting booth–find ways to connect daily to the actual decisions that impact your life.

Teach courage, not caution

> As far as the education of children is concerned, I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but a love of one’s neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.

– [Natalia Ginzburg](https://smile.amazon.com/Little-Virtues-Natalia-Ginzburg-ebook/dp/B01LY5HBCQ)

Jonathon Keats on Google Glass design

It’s not often one of [my design heroes](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=4150) comments on something I worked on, so [Jonathon Keats’ comments on how to redesign Google Glass](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2015/08/14/this-insider-look-at-google-glass-shows-how-google-should-and-should-not-design-glass-2-0/#316843461386) were interesting to read.

> To navigate this uncanny valley in time, the designer must either create something so futuristic in appearance that it arrives from beyond our collective vision of the future, or something that looks and feels like a natural extension of the present.

It mirrors one of my own new product design lessons learned from Glass (which admittedly [wasn’t meant to be a huge consumer product](https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8235277/sxsw-astro-teller-google-x))–either create something completely new to the world, or replace something that people already use. Simply being faster or better isn’t enough if people still need their existing solution.