Time and Money and Leisure: An insight from Candy Crush

Note - this is going to sound narrow minded and oversimplified. That is intentional, to make a point. Take it for what it is worth.


I decided to try out Candy Crush a while back, as I know so many people who play it. I must admit I have found playing it.... conflicting.

The fact is it is a mind numbing, time killer. There is really almost no room for thought or strategy in most plays. It is mainly luck. Yes you have a few power-ups you can choose from, but for the most part, they really aren't that effective except in a few very unique occasions, if they happen to be in the right location.

And I find myself annoyed by the psychological tactics they use to keep people hooked, and to "encourage" in-game purchases. Every so often you get some sort of side quest, with a timer. Completing the request gives you rewards. If you don't make it in time, the quest goes away. Actually it doesn't really go away, it shows up again a bit further down the path. But psychologically that timer makes people feel a sense of urgency - a need to buy power-ups in order to finish it in time.

And quite frequently you find yourself out of moves, and so close to completing the level!... Very tempting to spend a few dollars just to get an extra few moves, or a booster of some sort to get you the last little bit (Actually the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the program doesn't fudge the randomness on occasion just to create that scenario... " No honey, I don't know what happened to all the tinfoil....").

Yet even though I loathe it, I have continued to play it. Why? In animal training, I have heard it referred to as "playing the lottery". It is a training technique for reinforcing a desired behavior by rewarding that behavior at random intervals, it is the key addictive quality of slot machines, and most other games of chance. Throwing money into a slot machine and pulling a lever is both boring, and dumb. But every now and again, lights flash, alarms sound, and money falls out. So people keep putting money in and pulling the lever.

Every now and again a move in Candy Crush will reward you with a chain of matches, explosions, massive progress toward completing the level. It gives you that "casino rush".

They also appeal to my curiosity. I'm the kind of person who can't hike half of a trail I have never been on. I always have to go see what is around the next corner, over the next hill, behind that next tree...  Candy crush throws some new little monstrosity at you every dozen or so levels, appealing to that innate curiosity. What will they dream up next?

And of course, with thousands of levels, my natural OCD desire to finish holds me hostage as well.


It is an absolute time and money waster.


And you know what, that is okay.

That is one of the tributes to human progress. Leisure time. We have become so good, so efficient at meeting our basic human needs (food, shelter,...) That we don't have to spend our every waking hour meeting those basic needs. The average american farmer feeds 155 people today. For every one farmer, 155 people don't have to spend their days foraging, hunting, gathering... Their time is freed up to make music, write poetry, build bridges, invent new technology, dance, play professional sports, make movies, watch movies, watch people play sports... or play candy crush.

And leisure time doesn't necessarily interfere with the laws of Conservation. Properly applied and in appropriate doses, that leisure time can reinvigorate us. It can spark new ideas, new innovations, new efficiencies, new improvements to the human experience. Religiously speaking, "Men are that they might have joy."

So by all means candy crush away.

But...

Keep this in mind...

If you are an avid movie goer/sports watcher/candy crusher/.../all of the above...

And if you feel the need to complain to the world about the economic unfairness of it....

Don't.

Anecdotally, a friend of mine shared a conversation he had with his in-laws, who were giving him a hard time for not been a sports-fan; for not watching football, baseball, basketball, etc..

"What do you do with your time?" They asked.

"Well," he responded, "I work on my Four wheeler. Which is why every hunting season, mine runs and I am able to bail you out when yours breaks down."


I also remember a story of a man, after a piano concert, going up to the pianist and congratulating him for his magnificent performance.

"I would give my life to play like that!" The  man said.

The pianist replied, "I did."

If you feel the urge to complain about all those evil, greedy millionaire's, who were working while you were recreating. Do yourself a favor and don't. You made your choice, they made theirs. Once you've made the choice, the consequences naturally follow. Accept them. If you don't like the consequences, then perhaps instead of spending your energy complaining and demanding 'fairness', you might consider changing the way you spend your time.

"Right Privilege"

A few days ago a left-handed colleague of mine was complaining about writing on white boards, noting that he erased everything he wrote as he went. A right-handed colleague looked puzzled, then started laughing.

"I'd never considered that!" he said. I assured him that it was common for lefties in middle school to deal with smudged homework and a perpetual graphite grey smudge on the edge of the left hand, opposite the thumbs. and then of course you added spiral-bound notebooks into the mix - those wires constantly gouging the side of your hand.

Righty asked if there were other things like that. So we discussed scissors.
Scissors are made so that when you operate them you push with your thumb and pull with your fingers, causing the two blades to pinch together. When you operate them in your left hand, that same actions pulls the blade apart ever so slightly. More delicate pieces of paper will simply flop between the blades rather than being cut.

Also, when held in your right hand, on the right side of your body, you have a clear view of the cutting edge. In the left hand, your view of the cutting edge is blocked by the top of the blade, making precision cutting more difficult.

Most hand guns eject the bullet to the right, directly across the line of sight of a left handed shooter. And Bolt actions - you have to engage in a weird form of yoga after every shot in order to work the bolt to chamber the next round.

Remember those old school desks? The one with the desk attached to the chair? On the right side? The desk reaching about 2/3 of the way across the chair? Yeah, those are awkward for a lefty.

Can-openers? Awkward, Tape measures? upside-down. Playing cards are all just a white spot when held left-handedly.

Righty chuckled. "I never even thought about it!"

"Of course not." I said,  "It's Right privilege." Then I proceeded to tell him about the suffering of my people in olden days; being whipped for using their left hand in school, having their left hand tied behind their back to force them to use their right hand....

Of course nowadays there are left-handed scissors and can-openers and such, but most of the time, us lefties just learn how to adapt.

Right privilege.


And at that moment I had an epiphany. That is the point the "White privilege" people are trying to make isn't it? That I lack understanding of the black man's experience?

Let me make a suggest to the white privilege crowd. It doesn't come out the way you mean it to.

"White"
You are lumping an enormous group of people - past, present and future into one big collective.  There have been rich and poor, free and slave, good and bad, fortunate and unfortunate in that mass of white. such an enormous characterization is impractical, even... racist?

(Besides, where are you drawing the line in the skin color continuum? Actually, the folks in the middle often get it the worst; Too black for white people, too white for black people.)

"Privilege"

noun. special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

The term brings to mind stuffy kings and their courtiers, or arrogant city dwellers a la hunger games.


"White privilege" - it just comes out of the mouth sounding vulgar, dirty, hateful. And at the risk of being offensive. When white people throw the term around, it sounds more like they are degrading black people. That black people are somehow an inferior species who can't make it on their own and so, like "save the whales", "protect the seals" etc... they need to be sheltered and coddled. Again... racisim?

Might I suggest you instead move to conversations of increasing empathy? From and for both ends? attempt to understand the challenges each faces, and consider solutions for the problems, rather than assign blame?

The 4th Industrial Revolution vs Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Work...

I've been pondering the burgeoning fourth industrial revolution again recently...
It is very exciting to consider the possibilities.

One thought which crossed my mind is that of economics and politics.

First consider some of the possibilitie.

Consider FarmBot:

This thing is very nearly a fully automated garden. It is also opensource, and much of it can be manufactured using additive printing and relatively cheap and open source parts. Give it the ability to save/recover seeds and it becomes almost entirely autonomous. In theory any household could grow their own produce.

Consider self driving vehicles:

Uber is planning to launch a fleet of self driving taxis,  several companies are working on self driving vehicles for consumers, self-driving semi-trucks for freight transportation.

Consider Surgery Bots:

And they are learning to perform operations autonomously.

And that's not all.

Amazon is working on drones to autonomously deliver your stuff to your door.
They are also working on robots to handle the warehouse work of picking, packing, and shipping product.
There are printers which can construct any 3D part or object in plastic, or metal.
There are projects to build printers which can print fabric, and not just fabric as sheets of fabric, but fabric as clothes.
Food printers.
Even printers to create human organs.

So, if food production is automated, transportation is automated, manufacturing is automated, medicine is automated. what happens to humans? Notice that none of the above technology requires approaching anywhere near the threshold of the singularity (a self aware machine, which might decide humans are a pest which needs to be erradicated).

What does human work look like in this new world? And if much/most of these machines can be replicated by machines - If I can print my own printers using my friends' printers and a few hundred dollars of metal and resin... Well, that was the primary stated goal of communism - the means of production in every individual's hands.

If anyone can print their own food, their own clothing, their own shelter, so long as they have access to the base materials, and if the base materials are all autonomously extracted/manufactured/recycled, transported... Apart from clinging desperately to archaic intellectual property laws, will any large corporate entity be able to remain relevant? Will the idea of a company as we currently know it become inconsequential? Will the debate over capitalism vs. socialism vs communism still be relevant in an economic sense? And if individuals or small collectives are no longer dependent upon substantial governmental bodies to construct, maintain, protect or interfere in daily operations, will Those terms be politically relevant as well? Will national borders as we now know them matter?

If you no longer work to subsist. What will you do?

2016: My Political Endgame

I have been trying to coalesce my thoughts on the current election I have found it difficult to do in discussion - There is just too much emotion, FUD (an old geek term. Stands for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Refers especially to rhetoric or propaganda designed to instill those feeling in people in order to control their choices by keeping them off-balance, in fight-or-flight mode, unable to employ critical thinking.)

So, I am going to try here.


In 1971, Philip Zimbardo performed a human behavior experiment now famously known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. The purpose was to study the psychological effects of prison on prisoners. A group of volunteer students were separated into two groups- prisoners and guards. The experiment was terminated early, when things got out of hand.

The Dr. Zimbardo later published a book, chronicling the events, and drawing comparisons to some of the most heinous acts of human mistreatment by other humans at Darfur, Abu Ghraib,  The byline for the book is "Understanding how good people turn evil". And it shares frightening examples of American soldiers with excellent records - good, decent people - engaging in dehumanization and torture.

You see, there are some characteristics we humans have.
1) We organize and classify. We place things into buckets. Black, White, Male, Female, Old, Young, Spanish, German, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Atheist...
2) We inherently seek our own personal self-interest. "People don't do things to others, they do thing for themselves".
3) We form groups. We associate with others, we are essential herd/pack animals (yes, even us social anxiety suffering introverts have an innate need for human connection).
4) We build filters through which we evaluate all information. Those filters are constructed from personal experience, from information provided by peers and parent figures, and from repetition (which is why advertisers pay so much to keep their brand in front of your face).

Because of these characteristics, it is incredibly hard for us to avoid classifying one or more groups as us vs. them. good vs. evil. (And yes, as a christian, I do believe in evil, and "them:.To me evil is the absence of good, just as dark is the absence of light. And them are those who chose to fight against God and became The devil and his angels, who seek to  lead humanity away from Love, peace, and joy).

But the simple reality is this world is imperfect, we are imperfect, we make mistakes we try our best. Most people are just trying to do the right thing, to the best of their knowledge - That is why we were given the planet and placed here. To learn, to experience to improve...

Okay, enough back story. To the current election:

Disclosure: I am  not a Democrat. I am Not a Republican. I am not a Libertarian. I don't like political parties. I believe they are a natural outgrowth of the aforementioned human characteristics. I believe they put us at risk of creating the precise conditions which lead to "The Lucifer Effect".

The two main parties are becoming increasingly polarized. Continuing on this path will inevitably lead to violence in the name of "the greater good". History is replete with examples of this.

Liberals - Conservatives are not evil incarnate. I know many good conservatives who are just trying to make sure our governmental system is fair for everyone, corruption is prevented.

Conservatives - Liberal are not evil incarnate. I know many good Liberals who are just trying to make sure our governmental system is fair for everyone, corruption is prevented.

Yes, there are differences of opinion, but they are not nearly so enormous as you have been lead to believe. You have been misled by FUD, by propaganda. You have been led to believe that "They" are inferior, selfish, self-serving, greedy, lazy, manipulative.... evil. "They" - mostly - aren't.

The world won't end if the other side wins. Every thing they can do can be undone.  Laws can be revoked. Supreme Court Justices can be impeached (not easy, not impossible). Any political leader can be removed from office by the united will of the people, should the united people find said leaders behavior not in accordance with the ideals for which we strive.

The real threat to America is continuing on this path of divisiveness. of allowing the relatively few, angry outliers to dictate our policy, our mores.

So, my endgame for this election - my hope is that enough people will vote for neither party. In doing so, a clear message will be sent that we the people don't approve of their behavior. That we the people will no longer continue to live the current status quo. That we the people want to come together, to understand one another, and find compromise - a choice which respects everyone, to the extent possible.

I believe most people are good. I believe most people want peace, I believe most people want their neighbor to live in peace. I believe we just need to find a way to overcome those human characteristics. I believe this is true of  Americans, Chinese, Russians, Syrians.... I believe we, the people of the world, can be better then this. I don't think it will happen until we can set aside the artificial gangs we create. I believe it can happen.

My endgame looks beyond the next year, the next 4 years, the next 30 years...


"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
- John 13:34-35

The dangerous power of PC

So a while ago - maybe two months - I was involved in a discussion around the term white privilege. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned the potential role epigenetics and genetic memory might play in some of the issues we see between races, particularly relating to violent interactions.

I was immediately told to "tread carefully".

Well, my anxiety kicked in then, as it tends to do whenever I am afraid I might have hurt someones feelings, and I started rambling and trying to be clever and witty with my response (and as usual was probably neither). Then I got labeled as ignorant and immature, which more or less confirmed my anxieties, and that is pretty much where the conversation ended.

But of course, as is always the case for me. I continued to play the event over and over in my mind, torturing myself with every word. How could I have worded it differently?

This afternoon I was going through another round of that for an hour as me and puppy went for a long walk (an aside, that was also an interesting adventure. Rogue has never been fond of cars, I thought I would try taking her in the car with the windows rolled down, to someplace new and fun - see if that wold help. For her the walk was great fun, the car, pure torture both ways)

But today I had a moment of clarity as I was torturing myself. Political Correctness has the potential to be very dangerous to intellectual progress.

A brief anecdote: A few years ago, I was at a training conference for a week. While there, a group of attendees, including myself became acquainted, and at one point several in this group started making plans to go for drinks one evening. The roughest, toughest looking of the group (Keeping in mind this was a technology training, not a biker rally) quickly declined, saying he doesn't drink.

Later I asked him if he was Mormon. He informed me he was not even particularly religious - agnostic. As a youth he had observed and learned of members of his heritage who had experienced considerable unpleasantness related to alcoholism. He concluded that there must be a genetic predisposition to  alcoholism in has ancestry, so he made the choice, as a pre-teen, to never use alcohol. "Why take the chance?" he said. He observed a potential genetic pitfall and made the choice to avoid any circumstance which might trigger alcoholism.

Now, in this previous conversation, I wasn't talking about genetics - inherited traits. I was referring to epigenetics - trait variations caused by environmental factors (one proposed theory is that violence in many inner city areas may be due to mild lead poisoning, due to old lead pipes in old plumbing), and genetic memory - a newer theory that some memories are subtly transferred genetically - think of the behaviors we call instinct as an example of this). But now I am including genetics generally in this thought.

I understand that in the past there were people who proclaimed the notion that some races were genetically inferior and others were genetically superior. I am aware of eugenics and some of the horrible atrocities which sprang from it (mentioned them in a prior post, in fact).

But, when you avoid ideas or theories, or general science, based on the fact that previous misuse might lead to uncomfortable feelings, you may very well prevent people from obtaining valuable knowledge which may improve - even save lives.

Let me throw a what-if. out. Talking of blacks and police violence as a specific example. I have read of several studies showing police of any race are more likely to use force and/or shoot a black person. I have also read an analysis concluding that Black police officers are more likely to use force. Now it is fairly obvious why someone would wish to avoid talking about this. Some would choose to imply that black people are more violent (genetically inferior/savages/...). Others would fear someone might think they are implying this.

But what if, for some genetic (less likely), epigenetic or genetic memory reason, Black Americans are genetically more aggressive? To be clear aggressiveness is NOT a negative trait. Aggressiveness is a key trait for success in any extroverted fields of endeavor. Acting, performing, sports, business, sales, politics,... Aggressiveness - reaching for the stars significantly aids in success. Yes, there can be negative consequences  depending on when, where and how aggressiveness is applied. That is true of almost every good thing.

Now, what if, knowing this is a common trait, people (especially law enforcement in this case) are trained with specific techniques allowing for the avoidance of triggers - just like my acquaintance avoiding alcohol? What if?

But, we don't know 'what if'. We are afraid of offending someone, or of giving some idiot ammunition to support his racist rhetoric. In essence we choose to remain ignorant and suffer the resulting consequences because of the stupid, or because of a fear of being labeled as not PC, or ignorant, or immature.

Our company brought in some personality expert to do a personality interaction training. Based on our answers two a battery of questions, a color wheel was filled out which to a certain degree identified our personality - how we would likely behave in certain conditions. Many people have kept their result on their desk. One of the HR guys commented to me how much he likes that. When he goes to talk to someone, he can glance at their color wheel and tailor his conversation to them. His specific example was that one pattern favors small talk, so he initiates conversations with them by asking about family, friends, etc... (that is his pattern by the way).  Another pattern hates small talk, and prefers quick concise information, so for them he get right down to business. The result for him are his interactions are almost always perceived positively.

Political Correctness - Word policing, thought policing can be very detrimental to this.Fear of words, of ideas, because they have a checkered past, or because they are vaguely related to some bad event... very.... counterproductive.

Health adventures: Just when you thought it was over...

So after years of dealing with abdominal pain, thinking it was Crohn's, dealing with side effects of Crohn's medication, and not really getting significant relief from symptoms. We finally chased my problem down to a physical manifestation of anxiety disorder. I was put on  Lexapro and voila! symptoms gone! I was feeling better, I was starting to regain physical fitness. My wife noted that I was less wound up... all was good, well minor side effects; a little more insomnia than normal for me (which was hardly a blip, since I was always pretty bad there), and an unpleasant cotton-headedness - just a kind of dull ringing sound in the background, and a sort of... fuzzy brain... Not pleasant, but livable.

Then, months later, another side-effect popped up. They call it SSRI induced apathy. I started reading up on it, after I became suspicious of a behavior change which started several months ago. First, I found myself really struggling to do... stuff. Anything really from work around the house to work at work. Even if it was something I wanted to do... I'd find myself sitting there and hour or two later, still not doing it. The real shocker, which got me to start doing research is when in the course of two months I ran up an absurd credit card debt. I mean BAD debt! Just a snap of the fingers.

I have always been very cautions about credit card debt. Since about 2000, when I recovered from the debt which resulted from illness (probably also anxiety induce, in retrospect). I have adamantly refused to carry a credit card balance. Then, as if overnight, boom!

Now, it isn't the end of thew world. It won't require bankruptcy or selling our house or children to resolve, but it will require some belt tightening.

Next week I go to talk to the Dr. about alternatives - Several professional journals recommond 3 options; 1) Lower the dose of the SSRI (already onthe lowest dose). 2) Augment with Buproprion (a little nervous about adding a drug to remedy the effects of a drug. Also the recommendation is based on anecdotal evidence rather then a full study.). 3) Switch to an SNRI (a whole new world of side effects to discover. hooray! :) ) Related to the last alternate were several anecdotals of successful treatment with a very low, regular dose of Tramadol, which is an opioid that appears to have some SNRI behavior. That is an interesting alternative to consider, lower side effect risk etc, but concerns about addiction. Not sure if it would be permitted as a treatment in the US either.

At any rate, it continues to be an adventure. But a goo lesson learned as well. Don't be too quick to judge people for the choices they make. In some cases, they may not have had full, conscious control of those choices. It also makes think a bit differently about the concept of possession in scriptural stories, and medieval history.

Let Me Tell You About a Most Amazing Woman.

Let me tell you about a most amazing woman. There is this woman I know, who decided to marry this guy, even though it meant she would have to move almost a thousand miles from her friends, her family her burgeoning career (which undoubtedly would have been wildly successful, and lucrative), to a culture very different from the one she was accustomed to.

Then mere weeks before they were to marry, she drove through the night to be with him, after he was involved in a life threatening accident. She began preparing herself to marry a potential invalid, with all the sacrifices that would entail. Fortunately he recovered, but not before the wedding, so she sacrificed much of what she had dreamed her wedding to be.

Then she sacrificed again by taking on greater home burdens as, late in life, he returned to school to finish a degree, the result of which was no change in position or compensation (she did not complain).

And now she sacrifices clothes for her, make-up for her, fun for her... to instead by food and snacks for her kids, and for all their friends. She sacrifices her time every week to participate in PTA, to go to school and help out in her children's classrooms, and sometimes in classrooms where none of her children are present, because nobody else has volunteered.

She loves the children in the neighborhood, and is a second mom to many, always ready to be a friend, adviser, and confidant.

This woman, my wife. is truly amazing. Happy Anniversary my love.